Cinematic Doctrine: A Movie Review Podcast Hosted by Christians

MOVIE DISCUSSION: 

Don't see Morbius. It's pretty boring. Tune into our episode instead! Did we mention its shorter than the runtime? 

Topics:

• Melvin explains his theory about why the trailers contain a plethora of Spider-Man easter eggs that aren't in the movie.
• Daniel explains some history behind the making of Morbius, and how the character has been trying to get off the ground for years.
• Daniel, "Is this the worst comic book film you've ever seen?"
• Morbius may be a vampire, but this movie really doesn't have a lot of "vampire things" in it.
• Talking about the end credit scenes, and how they're bafflingly ridiculous.
• After some solid reflection... there's no reason to ever watch Morbius.
• Melvin tells you about other movies in theaters worth watching instead of Morbius.
• Melvin also checks out other Sony productions to see if there have been any good releases since Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood that aren't also Marvel films.

Recommendations:

• NKJV Wiersbe Study Bible
• The Transfiguration (Movie)
• Comic Tropes (YouTube Channel)

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PATREON MOVIE DISCUSSION:

This movie was selected by our Patreon Supporters over at the Cinematic Doctrine Patreon. Support as little as $3 a month and have your voice heard!

Typically, January offers us the worst of the year, but Netflix came in clutch with an inquisitive stop-motion feature called The House. Melvin & Dan chew on each segment with curiosity, tackling how the project made them feel as a whole.

Topics: 

• As movie people, Melvin & Dan are used to being asked by others, "Hey, have you seen this weird, obscure film?" and it just turns out to be a film that most people haven't seen a trailer for.
• Melvin asks Daniel how he feels and interprets the first segment in The House.
• Melvin: "I think art is most interesting when it's not factual. When it's more interpretive."
• Detailing Segment 2 and experiencing how the house itself refuses to cooperate.
• Daniel: "One thing that all three of these do wonderfully well is you really sympathies with the characters. Where their problems are so mundane and relatable."
• Melvin shares some observations his wife, Kathryn, had regarding Segment 2, which lends credence to the intense tragedy of this particular short story.
• Also, Melvin typically isn't all for nihilistic depictions of humanity (that humans are inherently bad, or worthless, or posture goodness despite their badness). He makes a case for this. But sometimes a story like Segment 2 captures the grotesque sadness of the human condition.
• For Daniel, each story gave a sense of "none of you belong here" and "trying to pretend that this will work out when it's doomed from the start."
• Segment 3 is a much softer, much kinder short film in this otherwise strange and disturbing project.
• When we get so focused on our hopes, dreams, or whatever gives us identity, we often miss what's most important: the freedom to enjoy one another.
• We can't decide for someone else to let go of attractive delusions, but we can help clear the path for them so that their decisions are easier to make.
• When we embrace an identity in Christ (how he's paid for our sins, how he loves us despite our sin, how he renews us from our sin), we are no longer enslaved to passions and lifestyles that give us a counterfeit self-worth or value because we become what we were always meant to be: loved by and loving God. We, then, can be loved by and we can love God doing countless things.
• Diversity in friendships helps in cultivating healthier perspectives on the self and others, as it proposes alternative ways of thinking through problems and solutions.
• Daniel, on Segment 3: "I thought it was a great way to illustrate the way you're not tied down to hereditary suffering."

Recommendations: 

• Does God Care How We Worship? (Book)
• The Signal (2007) (Movie)
• Here (Graphic Novel)

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MOVIE DISCUSSION: 

Before Dune, Daniel saw a trailer for Redeeming Love. After the trailer played, he leaned over to his friend and said, "I think that's supposed to be a sexy Christian movie.". So, here we are talking about that "sexy Christian movie". Boy, there sure is a lot to talk about here.

Topics: 

• Melvin compares Redeeming Love to an awkward interaction he witnessed at work. 
• Redeeming Love contains some rather extreme and transgressive content despite having a serious lack of context. 
• Daniel details some background for Redeeming Love, author/screenwriter Francine Rivers, and director D.J. Caruso. 
• Redeeming Love is loosely based on the Minor Prophet book Hosea from the Bible. 
• Each character feels devoid of personality which may work in both a shorter and more artistic film than Redeeming Love ends up being. 
• Where Redeeming Love works is where it leans heavily into its "inspiration", but even then, that's not success from talent, that's success from... copying Scripture. 
• Discussing the comparatively excessive conveniently censored nudity in Redeeming Love. 
• Additionally, discussing all the other crazy content that borders on "Christian misery porn." 
• As we continue our discussion, the 2+hour runtime of the film continues to be a recurring issue. 
• At least the sets and outfits are fun! 
• Questioning why the film didn't display the complicated dynamics of sexuality (gentle self-sacrifice vs aggressive selfishness) in a way that can be both edifying to its performers and beneficial to the narrative structure. 
• One glaring issue throughout the film is each character's severe lack of agency. 
• Observations from other reviews and responses to Redeeming Love. 
• Is this a Christian exploitation film in the traditional sense of an exploitation film? 

Recommendations:

• The Boice Commentary Series: The Minor Prophets, Volume 1 // The Preacher's Commentary Vol 22 & Vol 23 
• Derry Girls (Show) 
• Before the Coffee Gets Cold: A Novel by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (Book)

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MOVIE DISCUSSION: 

Melvin & Dan talk about Pixar's latest feature film Turning Red, a film too criminally fun to be streaming only! What a shame!

Topics:  

• Turning Red is very much a family/kid's movie, with a more direct demographic target of preteens and young teens. 
• Some of the narrative choices frustrated Melvin, in particular the mother's lack of social awareness (in particular, the journal scene). 
• Media produced for young girls is often overly derided for being lame. With Turning Red, it's fun to see that culture celebrated as valuable and exciting through music, puppy love, music, and dance. 
• The Panda works on multiple levels as a metaphor. For Melvin, he connected with the Panda as a metaphor for self-identification and self-discovery. For Daniel, the metaphor he connected with was an "assimilation cultural heritage" angle. 
• It's great to watch a kid's movie where the kids act like actual kids, and not movie kids (i.e., little adults). 
• Turning Red has seen some strange criticism online from a few critics and Animation Twitter. Melvin & Dan parse through the mire. 
• A brief history of what Daniel calls "Pixar Pushback". 
• Turning Red has an effective depiction of self-talk; what we envision in our minds when talking-up or talking-down to ourselves.  Often times, they manifest as individuals who have been important in our lives, for better or for worse. 
• In response to the reconciliation that takes place at the end of the movie, Daniel shares his thoughts on how having a child can naturally develop and mature a person as they learn self-sacrifice. 

Recommendations: 

• The New Interpreter's Study Bible (NRSV with Apocrypha) (w/ qualifiers) 
• Watch chick flicks: Legally Blonde, Princess Diaries, Mamma Mia! 
• Get a good unwind-after-work video game like Horizon: Zero Dawn 

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MOVIE DISCUSSION:

Melvin and Daniel return to the world of superheroes! In this episode they discuss the newest adaption in the long-running cinematic Batman canon.

Topics: 

• Are there too many Batmen in 2022?
• Production history leading up to the release of The Batman.
• For Melvin, there's a lot to like about The Batman in terms of adapting the noir, mystery nature of DC's greatest detective.
• ...but, there was a point when Melvin thought, "This movie is just okay." while watching it in theaters.
• Melvin, "But the problem is in a movie that's gonna be 3 hours, I really hope everything's worthwhile."
• When Melvin would see the trailer for The Batman, he kept thinking, "This movie's biggest fault will be it's overt self-seriousness."
• Daniel really liked the movie, and felt Gotham felt more alive than ever.
• Also, for Daniel the strength of the movie is based upon its "theming and understand of the Batman as a thing that exists."
• Daniel, "I love that this is an actual deconstruction that has something meaningful to say about deconstructing Batman."
• Discussing Robert Pattinson's performance.
• Getting into spoiler talk and getting into Paul Dano's Riddler.
• Surmising Batman's narrative arc in potential sequels.
• We have got to talk about the worst scene in the entire movie, bar none.

Recommendations: 

• The Parallel Study Bible: NKJV / NCV / MSG / Comprehensive Study Notes
• The Trojan Horse Affair (Podcast)
• Various Batman Content including Batman: The Animated Series, The Arkham Video Games, and Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's projects together (The Long Halloween and Dark Victory) 

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Support on Patreon for Unique Perks! 

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LET'S TALK:  

Melvin usually sees a ton of movies from each year, but 2021 was a bit scant. Despite this, Melvin shares with Daniel his 10 favorite and least favorite movies of 2021, which looks and sounds a lot more 'normie' than 'cinephile'. All of which are subject to change as Melvin watches more movies from that year. But first they talk about the 2021 Oscars.

Here's to hoping Melvin's 2022 Ranked list is more substantial. 

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MOVIE DISCUSSION:

No better way for content creators to return than to complain about things they don't like! Join Melvin and Daniel as they tear into the latest entry in the Texas Chainsaw franchise!

Topics: 

• Melvin and Daniel are not massive fans of the Texas Chainsaw franchise, but for different reasons. However, they both like the 1974 film, with it being one of Melvin's top 4 films (as of recording).
• Discussing the production behind the Texas Chainsaw franchise, as well as Fede Alvarez who produced Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
• How Fede Alvarez in particular produces visually transgressive/squeamish horror films that have just enough heart and soul to make their wild, extreme content bearable. And, how something must have gone wrong in the process of making Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
• Before even getting into the episode proper, we both don't recommend Texas Chainsaw Massacre. 
• Texas Chainsaw Massacre doesn't hold a candle to the violence and gore within a few other movies Melvin has watched this year (and really enjoyed!), but the violence and gore within Texas Chainsaw Massacre is so nasty and mean-spirited that it made him physically upset.
• Melvin shares the few, limited things he enjoyed about Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
• Daniel explains the outright bizarre storyline and "mixed mess of things" within Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
• The whole movie is so strange that we went 50 minutes without talking about a massive plot point.
• Pitching pizza commercials featuring Bubba.
• We definitely don't recommend Texas Chainsaw Massacre. But we definitely do recommend The Texas Chain Saw Massacre for a myriad of reasons.

Recommendations: 

• KJV Reformation Heritage Study Bible
• Till Death Do Us Blart (Podcast)
• Archive 81 (Show)

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LET'S TALK:

The hiatus is over! Thanks to some surprise computer issues, Melvin wasn't able to record or produce the podcast. Or do anything with his computer! Nice! However, that's all resolved so the podcast is back!

During our time away, the Lord had lots on our plate. In this Let's Talk episode, Daniel shares his most recent COVID-scare in which his father became dangerously ill with the virus. He shares the difficulty of caring for his family, preaching at his father's church, and enduring a patient period of prayer. We hope this episode can provide some comfort for those who've experienced similar difficulties.

We also hope you're as excited as we are for returning to the show! Keep your eyes peeled for new episodes soon! We're glad to be back, and we look forward to another year of podcasting!

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PATREON MOVIE DISCUSSION: 

This movie was selected by our Patreon Supporters over at the Cinematic Doctrine Patreon. Support as little as $3 a month and have your voice heard!

2021 is over! Well, almost! Tune into this last episode of Cinematic Doctrine for 2021 with the last Patreon Pick of the year! Patreon Supporters didn't disappoint with their votes, and we're happy to discuss the Summer Blockbuster Free Guy! 

Topics: 

• Melvin and Daniel's experience with video games, and how their gaming history impacted some of the comedy and atmosphere to Free Guy.
• Free Guy has a decent amount of clever, video-game themed jokes that are clearly written by people who actually play video games.
• It's great that Free Guy doesn't take itself too seriously while also flavoring in serious concepts of individuality, the value of the moment, experience, etc.
• Unfortunately, a lot of people reacted to Free Guy in exactly the way Melvin hates; talking about a ridiculous, non-serious film as a means to discuss theology.
• Talking about other alternate-world video game stories.
• The romance subplot was really effective for Melvin.
• ...except Daniel notices that the ending of the romance subplot is literally the ending of the short-film Paper Man.
• To Melvin's chagrin, there's some light biblical introspection: Does it matter if we're living in a fake world? Would that revelation change how we move or live through this world?
• For Daniel: Does Guy have value if he's an AI? Or are how a human treats an AI more indicative of the human's character than the AI's value?
• All of the Twitch culture stuff in the movie is really bad and really cringe.
• Where does Free Guy rank among video game movies?

Recommendations: 

• Steve Gregg - "Revelation: Four Views, Revised & Updated"
• Defunctland (YouTube Channel)
• Steven Hall - "The Raw Shark Texts" and "Maxwell's Demon"

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MOVIE DISCUSSION: 

2021's most anticipated feature has finally released, and it's destroying the box office! Critic ratings are through the roof, and audiences are exploding with joy! Melvin and Daniel briefly share their non-spoiler thoughts on No Way Home before expanding heavily with everything that comes with the Spider-Man territory!

Topics: 

• Melvin and Daniel answer three non-spoiler based questions to qualify their experience with Spider-Man: No Way Home.
• Getting into No Way Home's plotline demands explaining a few spoilers, because every 20 minutes is a new event that not only defines the movie, but also redefines the MCU.
• Melvin wishes there was at least one more Spider-Man movie that had released either before Far From Home or No Way Home to give more assistance in realizing these characters, as he felt both Homecoming and Far From Home felt somewhat unsatisfying.
• Daniel was happy to finally see Tom Holland's Spider-Man actually develop into his own Spider-Man rather than Baby Stark.
• As tradition demands, and to Amy Pascal's routine advice against it, Tom Holland and Zendaya's chemistry works so well not only because they're great performers, but also because they're dating in real life.
• It would have been nice if more fight sequences took place during the day so that things were clearer to see.
• So, are the villains flanderized, and are their character arcs ruined from the previous films? No! They're merely continued within a new canon. These are more than cameos, folks!
• Willem Dafoe steals the show, as usual.
• Spider-Man needs to suffer and grieve, and Tom Holland's Spider-Man hasn't really suffered until No Way Home.
• It's amazing how efficient and proficient No Way Home is to Eternals despite having a shorter runtime.
• Getting into the third act and talking about THAT scene!
• With the Multiverse in play, is it likely something like this happens again a future Spider-Man movie?
• No Way Home plays out as a sequel to all the other Spider-Man films.
• The ending? Totally great.
• Discussing Canon, because now the MCU canon is messier than ever!
• Also, asking Daniel if having the movie spoiled for him through leaks heavily impacted his experience with No Way Home.
• Discussing the post-credit scenes, and Morbius (kind of).

Recommendations:

• Leon Morris - Revelation: An Introduction and Commentary (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, Volume 20)
• Young Rock (TV-Show)
• Only Murders in the Building (TV-Show)

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