Culture
Movie review: The Disappointments Room
Mixing a psychological drama with the dependable haunted-house formula must have sounded appealing to the makers of "The Disappointments Room" (Rogue). Unfortunately, nothing in this morally bereft story works.
Authors offer tips for strengthening kids’ faith and knowing them better
One writer suggests four ways that parents are essential in handing on the faith -- influence, teaching through relationship, talking about faith and religious practices. Another book stresses a mother's perspective in raising teens.
In tale of heroic plane landing, ‘Sully’ soars high
Tom Hanks is in his element conveying the understated heroism of the aviator whose feat in landing his plane on the Hudson River ---saving all 155 souls on board -- gained him instant fame. The film adds suspense to a well-known story.
Film’s ‘synthetic human’ nothing more than an ’80s slasher
"Morgan" is both unoriginal and omits even an occasional reflection on what it means to have a human moral sense. Like all of cinema's man-made creatures, she's got anger issues. But she is loved by her creators.
A tear jerker with a deep secret: ‘The Light Between Oceans’
The beautifully shot melodrama looks toward the past and into the present, keeping viewers guessing as to whether the truth will win out and justice prevail. The film conveys powerful themes of forgiveness and conscience.
‘Don’t Breathe’ harkens to suspense thriller from another age
As in the 1967 Audrey Hepburn film, a new movie portrays a blind homeowner turning the tables on would-be thieves -- but this version is much more violent and disturbing for these times.
Come ‘Hell or High Water,’ an age-old ethical dilemma must be faced anew
Can good ends ever justify moral or criminal wrongdoing? That's the gist of this gritty, sober film that sets an issue treated by St. Paul in a modern West Texas community pitting good farmers against bad bankers.
‘War Dogs’ takes comedic swipe at profitable business of war
Who's to blame when two young Florida men make a killing by selling arms in the American-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Culpability gives way to men-behaving-badly humor in this true-to-life film.
What happens when the faith of ‘The Innocents’ is lost
A luminescent and unflinching film set in Poland at the end of World War II tells how the degradation to which an order of nuns has been subjected has crushed their faith or left them in fear. The ending is uplifting, if not happy.
Remade ‘Ben-Hur’ isn’t bad, but can’t live up to its epic pedigree
Considered on its own terms, this iteration of the classic 1880 story makes for a satisfying action picture, aside from the 1959 extravaganza. But the redemption of the title character is unpersuasive because it's unearned.