Film and TV Reviews

Black Panther’s Flawed and Outmoded Monarchy
Black Panther’s Flawed and Outmoded Monarchy

For all Black Panther’s futurism, its formal kingship is rather archaic in modern Africa.

Entebbe & Hedy Lamarr

“Seven Days at Entebbe” spiritually fails because it doesn’t fully acknowledge the necessity and justice of Entebbe, instead seeking moral equivalence amid banalities about peacemaking. “Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story” is more inspirational.

Obama’s Internationalist Moment: Review of HBO’s The Final Year
Obama’s Internationalist Moment: Review of HBO’s The Final Year

HBO’s The Final Year traverses the globe, from Africa to the Arctic, Havana to Hanoi, but it is in Syria where the cockfight personified by Samantha Power and Ben Rhodes climaxes. Indeed, President Obama claims that “on no other issue was there such a split” between them.

15:17 to Paris
15:17 to Paris: A Bad Review of an Incredible Story

Clint Eastwood’s film about the incredible acts of heroism performed by Spencer Stone, Anthony Sadler, and Alek Skarlatos largely fails as a cinematic experience. But the story he tells remains an extraordinary tale about courage and God’s leading.

What You Should Know About Wakanda
What You Should Know About Wakanda

Next week marks the release of a new documentary about King T’Challa, ruler of Wakanda. Here is what you should know about the mysterious African nation.

Americans as Killers

National Review‘s critique of the new Western film Hostiles, with Christian Bale in the lead role as a cavalry officer,…

First to Fight Back: A Review of 12 Strong

They were the first boots on the ground in the War on Terror. Their footprints were horse hooves.

Never Surrender: Movie Review of Dunkirk
Never Surrender: Review of Dunkirk

The historic event grounding Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk involved a military crisis that was, in its beginning, as dark, desperate, and seemingly hopeless as it was extraordinary, full of heroism, and even miraculous in its conclusion. Whether his film captures any of that sufficiently is an open question.

Hue
A Failure to Discern: Burns & Novick’s “The Vietnam War” is Bad History

The PBS documentary fails to distinguish moral differences between belligerents, to account for the post-1968 strategy, and to learn the right lessons.

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