Category Archives: Movies

“Tangerines” is beautiful

Posted on May 25, 2015 by hessd

Ida, the Polish movie that won the Oscar for the best foreign film in 2014, is a more complicated movie, certainly. But Tangerines, nominated in the same year, is every bit as powerful.  Just to give you a sense of … Continue reading →

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Draft Day

Posted on March 31, 2015 by hessd

I’d like to tell you about the movie Draft Day.  I liked it a lot.  I don’t think anyone else did.  The critics didn’t, for sure.  Rotten Tomatoes said, “It’s a … dull-witted movie.”  Roger Ebert’s site says, “Both too … Continue reading →

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Spoiler Alert!

Posted on March 25, 2015 by hessd

Every word we use has an infrastructure of meaning. That’s why it “means” something. It takes the word’s history and its current uses and the present context all for granted and then it just “means something.”When we accept the word, … Continue reading →

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Cypher’s Sex Life

Posted on March 25, 2015 by hessd

One of the commonest and most satisfying events of my life is the sudden realization that X is really a lot like Y if you look at it in just the right way.  That happened to me (again) last week … Continue reading →

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There must be 50 ways to beat your lover

Posted on March 20, 2015 by hessd

It took me a long time to get interested in 50 Shades of Gray. I have not yet made it so far as to be interested in reading the books or seeing the movie, but the responses to the movie … Continue reading →

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Selma

Posted on January 20, 2015 by hessd

Selma has been nominated for an Academy Award as the best film of the year. One of the things that means is that it is going to get talked about a lot. Since it is about race relations in the … Continue reading →

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The Gospel of Matthew in Pleasantville

Posted on November 20, 2014 by hessd

Halloween fell on November 1 this year.  Costumes, candy, trick or treaters—the whole thing.  On the morning of November 2, Starbucks started using their red “holiday” cups and offering the egg nog latté.  Ho ho ho. I’ve always been unhappy … Continue reading →

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Truly Sorry

Posted on August 11, 2014 by hessd

We are all familiar, by now, with the “non-apology apology.”  I certainly want to apologize if anyone misunderstood what I was trying to say.  The guy stands up at the microphone and says all the words.  We try, of course, … Continue reading →

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Christian Movie Reviews

Posted on August 9, 2014 by hessd

English is a hard language.  Word order, in the absence of agreement by tense, person, and number, is just really important.  Too important.  So the title might ask us to find a bunch of Christian movies and review them.  Then … Continue reading →

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The Perils of Personhood

Posted on July 22, 2014 by hessd

Through our long and largely successful run as a species, we  have had to ask and answer a lot of questions.  We have not been asked to formulate and answer some questions that are coming to seem fundamental.  Obviously, I … Continue reading →

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