Category Archives: Christianity

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: Testing Goodness and the American Family

Posted on 31/10/2018 by fesmontemaggi

The Netflix series comes from the 1990s programme Sabrina The Teenage Witch. It is slightly tainted by Hollywood obsessive market segmentation which dictates specific styles and motifs to appeal to specific demographics; yet this Sabrina is really not for young … Continue reading →

Posted in Christianity, family, fantasy/supernatural, gender, good & evil, Halloween, horror, magic, morality, myth, religion, ritual, Sabrina, Satanism, TV, witchcraft | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Spotlight – The Catholic Church child abuse, an organisational disaster

Posted on 16/01/2016 by fesmontemaggi

Spotlight tells the story of the investigative journalism team of the Boston Globe, which uncovered the extent of the Catholic Church child abuse and cover up in Boston. The team, instigated by the newly arrived editor from out-of-town Marty Baron … Continue reading →

Posted in Catholic Church, child abuse, Christianity, institutions, journalism, religion, sexuality, Spotlight, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Calvary – Justice and Compassion

Posted on 10/09/2015 by fesmontemaggi

A good priest is threatened to be killed by someone who has suffered abuse from priests when he was a child. Father James (Brendan Gleeson) sees through the shit of people with irony and the occasional confrontation; yet he is … Continue reading →

Posted in Calvary, Catholic Church, Christianity, compassion, emotions, Enlightenment, faith, good & evil, institutions, justice, love, morality, personhood, power, reason/rationality, religion, sexuality, society | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ida – the aesthetics of fake religion

Posted on 06/06/2015 by fesmontemaggi

The cinematography is truly beautiful, the film is not. It’s an emotionally deprived intellectual exercise. The characters are barely sketched and not allowed to emerge. Nothing really happens and nothing is really said. The photography quickly becomes pretentious to the … Continue reading →

Posted in Christianity, faith, good & evil, Ida, monasticism, obedience, religion | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Breaking Bad – The Puritan American Dream & the Family

Posted on 25/04/2015 by fesmontemaggi

Breaking Bad is one of those rare series that understands character development. The series is about Walter White (Bryan Cranston), a chemistry teacher, who discovers he has cancer and starts making top-notch meth. This is initially to cover his health … Continue reading →

Posted in America, American dream, authenticity, Breaking Bad, capitalism, Christianity, entertainment, family, good & evil, individualism, morality, Protestantism, Uncategorized, western | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

West Wing’s Religion – Modern Rationalism and Fundamentalism

Posted on 24/04/2015 by fesmontemaggi

In movies, religion is often assumed to be a person’s belief in a supernatural God and that the Bible is the word of God to be taken literally. Religion thus gets neatly divided into ‘good’ (progressive/liberal) and ‘bad’ (conservative) President … Continue reading →

Posted in belief, Christianity, Enlightenment, evangelical, faith, knowledge/epistemology, magic, politics, Protestantism, reason/rationality, religion, science, West Wing | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Dracula (1992) – Sex, Misogyny, and Christianity

Posted on 14/04/2015 by fesmontemaggi

Dracula begins with an overload of cheap special effects, where images are superimposed, one fades into the other, and a battle is represented through Chinese shadows. One can’t help wonder whether the director is some overenthusiastic film school’s graduate who’s … Continue reading →

Posted in body, Christianity, Dracula (1992), fantasy/supernatural, femininity, gender, love, myth, purity, religion, romanticism, sexuality, society, vampires | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment