Seeing and Believing

With a slight lull coming between awards season and blockbuster season, Wade and Kevin pause for a retro review of a film regarded by many critics as the best directorial one-off in cinema history. Charles Laughton's The Night of the Hunter offers an iconic villain in Robert Mitchum's Harry Powell, a corrupt preacher in Depression-era West Virginia who sets his sights on a widow and her two children in the hope of claiming a $10,000 windfall that is hidden somewhere in their home. Part thriller, part American fairy tale, and part expressionist visual feast, the film gives the guys plenty to dig into, from its shadowy cinematography to its unique commentary on religion at its worst and its best. Special thanks to show supporter Eric Johnson for selecting this film for us to review!

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Wade and Kevin round out their Oscar coverage with a review of the final remaining Best Picture nominee: Emerald Fennell's scathing Promising Young Woman. Starring Carey Mulligan as a vigilante of unconventional methods, the film takes dead aim at sexual predators, their enablers, and the culture that empowers both groups. The guys also turn their attention to the upcoming ceremony and offer their picks for what will win, what should win, and the surprises of an unusual year for filmgoing.

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Oscar season may be long over, but the Oscars themselves are just peeking over the horizon. Wade and Kevin catch up with one of the Best Picture nominees that eluded them at the end of 2020: Florian Zeller's film adaptation of his own play The Father. Featuring Anthony Hopkins as an elderly man dealing with dementia and Olivia Colman as his long-suffering daughter, the film pairs its melodrama with slippery filmmaking that draws the audience into the protagonist's world, causing us to question our perceptions just as he does.

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With the coming of spring, there's a light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, which means two things: movie theaters are becoming an option once again, and blockbusters are being released to take advantage of them. One of the most anticipated of the season so far is Adam Wingard's follow-up to Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Kong: Skull Island, Godzilla vs. Kong, which pits the titular beasts against each other in a monster mash of epic proportions. Wade is back in the hosting chair to review the film with Kevin, as they examine whether the film delivers the giant-monster goods as well as whether it is successful in other areas. Break out the "Team Godzilla" and "Team Kong" t-shirts and get ready for a huge episode of Seeing & Believing!

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It's not every day that a franchise's fanbase is able to will a movie into existence, but that's exactly the rare occurrence that is under consideration on this week's episode. With Wade away from the hosting chair, Kevin is joined by Detroit critic Chris Williams to discuss Zack Snyder's Justice League (not to be confused with its predecessor, 2017's Justice League). After the 2017 film saw director Zack Snyder exit the project due to a family tragedy and Joss Whedon come on board to complete it, the finished product was greeted with tepid reviews from critics and widespread disappointment from fans. Rumors of a "Snyder cut" swirled, saying that Snyder's plans for the film were more ambitious and just plain better than the theatrical release. After numerous fan petitions, Zack Snyder and Warner Bros. reached an agreement where Snyder, working without a paycheck, could finish his cut of the film as he saw fit, premiering it on the brand-new HBO Max streaming service. That big day has arrived, and now Kevin and Chris face the question: Was the wait worth it?

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Disney+ keeps the big releases rolling with Raya and the Last Dragon, an animated adventure about a fantasy world teetering on the edge of apocalypse, with magical dragons holding the key to saving humanity from encroaching outside evil ... and also from itself. Featuring Kelly Marie Tran (The Last Jedi) and Awkwafina (The Farewell) as the two title characters, the film celebrates the virtue of trust; Wade and Kevin dig into it to see if the film is also worthy of celebration. Also, don't miss the announcement of a new book giveaway: Chris Hayes and Cody Benjamin's Why We Need the Movies, published just this year, takes a look at cinema culture in the era of streaming and COVID, and we're offering the chance to win free copies for all Patreon subscribers!

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On this week's special double-length episode, we offer something for lovers of blockbuster sci-fi/horror and indie sci-fi dramas. Wade and Kevin sit down with fellow critic Sarah Welch-Larson to talk about her brand-new book, Becoming Alien: The Beginning and End of Evil in Science Fiction's Most Idiosyncratic Film Franchise. In a fascinating conversation, they discuss the intersection of the Alien film franchise, Christian theology, and the philosophy of evil, as well as the role of Christians in film criticism. The guys then turn their attention to Little Fish, the new film from Chad Hartigan (This Is Martin Bonner). Olivia Cooke and Jack O'Connell star as a married couple trying to survive a pandemic (sound familiar?). The nature of this pandemic? A neural disorder that gradually erases the victim's memories of past experiences, special skills, and relationships with loved ones.

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Seeing & Believing closes out Black History Month with a look at the buzzed-about new film that is based on the true story of the death of Fred Hampton. Shaka King's Judas and the Black Messiah features two powerhouse performances from Get Out's Daniel Kaluuya as Hampton and LaKeith Stanfield as Bill O'Neal, the man who worked to bring down Hampton's revolutionary operation in Chicago from the inside. But do these powerhouse performances result in a good film overall, and does the film do justice to the life and political convictions of a man like Hampton? Listen to find out!

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Valentine's Day is just around the corner, but the only love affair that Seeing & Believing has time for is that between Ralph Fiennes and archaeological excavations. Netflix's The Dig tells the true story of how a widow (Carey Mulligan) teamed up with a working-class excavation expert (Fiennes) to make one of Great Britain's greatest archaeological discoveries on the eve of World War II. Wade and Kevin dig into the film (heh) to examine its themes of time, the fleeting nature of life, and the ways in which the past can give meaning to the present and even the future.

Todayís episode of Seeing and Believing is sponsored in part by The Good Book Company, publisher of Steve McAlpineís book Being the Bad Guys. The Good Book Company is giving away 5 copies of Being the Bad Guys to CAPC members! For a chance to win, become a member at ChristAndPopCulture.com by February 17.

Theme music by Alexander Osborn and Lindsey Mysse. Used under Creative Commons license 3.0.

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It's not every day that a new Denzel Washington-starring film gets released, especially when that film has been a quarter-century in the making. John Lee Hancock's screenplay for The Little Things has been floating around since the mid-1990s, and it's finally been released now, on HBO Max, with Hancock himself at the helm and a freshly minted Golden Globes nomination under its belt. Washington stars as an erstwhile detective whose haunting past mistakes have relegated him to an exile as a sheriff's deputy in a small California town. But when a spate of serial killings in Los Angeles intersect with his path, he teams up with Rami Malek's star investigator for a cat-and-mouse game with a man (Jared Leto) who may or may not have something to do with those killings.

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