Review: Once I Was A Beehive (B)
Once I Was A Beehive is an oddity. In an age where females characters in mainstream movies are absent from their own DVD covers (or just literally absent), here we have a new LDS film where the cast...
View ArticleReview: The Cokeville Miracle (B+/D)
In 1986, David Young, a deranged former cop, brought a homemade bomb into an elementary school in Cokeville, Wyoming. Accompanied by his wife, Young took 154 children and teachers hostage in a...
View ArticleReview: Posterized (Documentary Short)
Shawn Bradley’s NBA career is largely judged as a “failure”, although anyone who persists at the highest professional level of basketball for 12 years (and still ranks 16th all-time in blocked shots)...
View ArticleLDS Film Festival 2014: Feature Film Report (Part 2)
Notes from other feature films from the 2014 LDS Film Festival Cripta Written / Directed by Marco Lui Visionary Italian director Marco Lui (The Book of Life, Dr Smith & The Fantastic Castle)...
View ArticleReview: Catching Up (Melted Hearts 2) (B)
Love is like war: easy to begin, but very hard to stop. — H.L.Mencken David is a bright and mature high school student in Mexico City with a talent for music. When he develops a crush on Monique, a...
View ArticleReview: Freetown (B+)
In 1989, the country of Liberia was plunged into a brutal civil war between the oppressive government and violent rebels. Missionary work had only begun in Liberia two years earlier but early...
View ArticleLDS Film Festival 2015 — Day 3-4 Report
Romance in the Outfield (dir. Randy & Rebecca Sternberg) Heather is a competitive softball player. Tyler is a minor league prospect hoping to hit the majors someday. When they Meet Cute on a...
View ArticleReview: The Last Straw (B-)
The phrase “the last straw” or “the straw that broke the camel’s back” is of uncertain origin, but typically has a negative connotation — some final personal indignity that leads to fireworks....
View ArticleReview: Liahona (Documentary)
Religion and personal spiritual journeys can be enlightening and beautiful, messy and confusing — often all at once. Mormon (with-an-asterisk1Sanders has written her official request for record removal...
View ArticleReview: Meet The Mormons
There’s no mystery to what Meet The Mormons is: “I’m A Mormon – The Movie”. The six 10-12 minute segments of this LDS Church-produced documentary focus on six Latter-Day Saint individuals from...
View ArticleReview: 16 Stones (C)
Faith, according to Alma 32, is “a hope for things that are not seen, but are true”. Does that mean faith only exists where direct evidence does not? Can faith exist in the face of contrary evidence?...
View ArticleReview: An Ordinary Hero
“My mother never told me the stories…all I knew were the pictures.” So says director Loki Mulholland (Believe!) at the beginning of An Ordinary Hero, a tribute to his mother Joan Trumpauer Mulholland....
View ArticleReview: Mitt
“Who is Mitt Romney?” This question was asked after a “Today” show appearance early in the 2008 primary season after the largely unknown Mitt Romney had thrown his hat into the presidential race. Many...
View ArticleReview: Inspired Guns (B-)
Two LDS missionaries get caught up in mob activity after a case of mistaken identity in Inspired Guns, a new film releasing in theaters January 24th, 2014. Inspired Guns (IMDB, official site) is the...
View ArticleReview: The Saratov Approach (B+)
In March of 1998, Elders Andrew Propst and Travis Tuttle arrived at a supposed teaching appointment in Saratov, Russia. Instead of investigators, they were attacked, bound, and gagged by two gunmen,...
View ArticleReview: Us And Them — Religious Rivalry in America
Bryan Hall describes himself as “just an ordinary Mormon” who grew up in Utah surrounded by Mormon neighbors. Visiting Temple Square for LDS General Conference, he saw street preachers and...
View ArticleReview: Posterized (Documentary Short)
Shawn Bradley’s NBA career is largely judged as a “failure”, although anyone who persists at the highest professional level of basketball for 12 years (and still ranks 16th all-time in blocked shots)...
View ArticleLDS Film Festival 2014: Feature Film Report (Part 2)
Notes from other feature films from the 2014 LDS Film Festival Cripta Written / Directed by Marco Lui Visionary Italian director Marco Lui (The Book of Life, Dr Smith & The Fantastic Castle)...
View ArticleLDS Film Festival 2014: LGBT Short Film Report
As noted in the festival preview, this year’s film festival featured a session devoted to Gay/Lesbian/Transgender issues. Kudos for Christian Vuissa and other LDSFF leaders for allowing this type of...
View ArticleLDS Film Festival 2014 Feature Film Report (Part 1)
Some notes from Day 1 and 2 at the 2014 LDS Film Festival: Wayward: The Prodigal Son Robert McMillan has a loving family and a successful business, although he’s secretly dying of leukemia. After a...
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