Unpop Culture

Film critic James Berardinelli recently performed a non-scientific survey of nudity in film and television, comparing various factors involving R-rated films and TV fare. What he found was this: since the year 2000, onscreen nudity in films has dropped significantly, while television (including cable, Netflix, and Amazon.com) has experienced an “explosion of adult-oriented content.” Says Berardinelli , …because the FCC lacks dominion over cable and Internet, there are no content restrictions. [For example,] Game of Thrones can have an exposition dump while naked characters are engaged in an orgy in the background. . . . The Internet essentially ruined the value of gratuitous nudity [in movies] because now anything in a theater seemed tame compared to what could be seen at home on a computer screen. Wise and winsome Christian commentary is essential in helping believers appropriately engage with our culture on this topic. Toward that end, I submit a recently-posted YouTube vi...

Yes, I am still on a Greatest Showman kick. Cut me some slack, though. My wife and I only saw it for the first time just under three weeks ago. The soundtrack still plays almost daily in our home, providing near endless opportunities for our toddlers to daintily prance and spin as they sing along with “The Circus Man” (as they gleefully call him). Besides, for someone who’s as unhip as myself , it makes sense that I would be taken in by such an uncool ( according to critics ), and yet wildly popular ( according to general audiences ), movie. So, what is my point in writing another post about this particular film? To gush like a fanboy who has staked a personal claim to gold-encrusted, front-row seats on the Greatest Showman bandwagon? Not exactly. (That’s just a happy side effect.) The point of this blog post is to…well, point out a unique aspect of the song “A Million Dreams.” After listening to this song a bajillion times (give or take a few), I’ve noticed something extraor...

I am posting this review five months to the day after the movie’s initial theatrical release. The DVD has been out in stores for almost a month. Most everyone else in the world is now discussing a current, record-breaking theatrical release (something about “to infinity and beyond,” or close to it). Why am I drawing attention to The Greatest Showman when most everyone else has moved on? There are a couple reasons. First, I only just now saw the movie—at the behest of my wife (for previously disclosed reasons ), without whom I would never have given this film the time of day, let alone my undivided attention. And second, timing is not one of my strong suits. As a reminder, I rate movies based on three criteria: objectionable content (C), artistic merit (A), and my personal opinions (P). CONTENT (C): 9.5 out of 10 In a recent Forbes interview , actor Hugh Jackman and songwriters Justin Paul and Benj Pasek reveal that they had a specific demographic in mind. Says Jac...

Full disclosure: I am not a fan of horror films. There’s a place for the horror genre, as author Mike Duran recently explained , but it’s not a genre I typically enjoy. A large part of the reason is that I hate jump scenes; they unnerve me to an excruciatingly unpleasant degree. (Think of a fainting goat, but preceded by a Ringwraith-like scream of fear.) So when I saw ads for A Quiet Place , I had no plans to see it. Why would I? The last movie I’d seen in theaters that had any real horror elements was Cloverfield —and that was ten years ago. It would take a unique set of circumstances to lure me into a darkened movie theater for a terror-stricken stroll down Horror Movie Lane. But then the reviews started coming in, and the more I heard from people I follow and trust, the more intrigued I became. Evidently, A Quiet Place wasn’t your typical horror film, for several reasons—reasons that made me think I might actually want to see it. Over the last couple weeks, my excitement...

With the amount of time I have taken to write about Jennifer Lawrence, one might assume either that I am obsessed with her or that I have something against her. Neither is true. It just so happens that my desire to write about loving our entertainers as we love ourselves keeps intersecting with news developments related to Jennifer Lawrence. And so I keep writing about her. #SorryNotSorry In a recent blog entry , I examined Lawrence’s starring role in the sexually violent film Red Sparrow , and how she claimed in an interview that the movie helped her feel empowered. After being the victim of a photo hack that released nude pictures of Lawrence onto the internet, her choice to go nude (and much more) for Red Sparrow allowed her to reclaim what the photo hack had stolen: her autonomy. To a degree, I get where Lawrence is coming from. The sexual offenses committed against her in real life took place without her consent, so she turned the tables (so to speak) by willingly particip...