He’s Not The Hero You Think He Is

February 28, 2026.Reading time 5 minutes.

I’m gonna come right out and say it: no, Gaston is not the hero of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast and making him into one misunderstands the plot and cheapens true masculinity…
By Ian Wilson

The Greatest Kids Media- Undoing the Dopamine Hits

February 24, 2026.Reading time 10 minutes.

It’s a tall order to make a list of the greatest Kids TV. We’ve had kids-specific television since the 1950s, after all, and it’s hard to narrow such a large span of time down to a few paragraphs…
– By T.K. Wilson

It’s a Wonderful Gift

December 30, 2025.Reading time 21 minutes.

By Amanda Pizzolatto … It’s that time of year again. The time of year for wonder, traditions, family, friends, precious moments, heartache for the ones who have passed on, joy, tears, laughter, and quite possibly some of the worst takes this side of the galaxy has ever seen… thanks to these bad takes, I have successfully rewatched It’s a Wonderful Life and debunked every one of them…

When the Lilies Attempt to Toil

April 13, 2024.Reading time 5 minutes.

By Cordelia Fitzgerald … Lilies of the Field is a modest film with a comparatively small cast, simple plot, and a light load of English dialogue. Homer Smith, a traveling handyman, finds himself employed by some German nuns with a dubious revenue stream and consequently becomes invested in their (or rather, the Mother Superior’s) dream, which turns out to be the basis of the story. Again, it is a simple film – but it is a battle of wills.

A Little Child Shall Lead Them

December 23, 2023.Reading time 16 minutes.

By Ruth Amsden … Ebenezer Scrooge, a “tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner,” appears upon introduction to be beyond the reach of love, human or divine. Scrooge is an object lesson for St. Paul’s exhortation to St. Timot

Fellowship, Friendship, Brotherhood

September 9, 2023.Reading time 11 minutes.

By Amanda Pizzolatto … J. R. R. Tolkien has gone down in history as one of the greatest minds in literature. He single handedly created a brand new language, complete with the grammar and vocabulary rules. He then created a world for this language, followed by some myths and stories. But the one line that will forever be connected to him was “In a hole in the ground, there lived a Hobbit.” And the rest is, of course, history.

Destry Rides Yet Again

February 2, 2023.Reading time 9 minutes.

One of the satellite channels programmed a weekend of Audie Murphy cowboy movies. In my youth these were a Saturday afternoon staple down at the Palace Theatre, of happy memory, and I was pleased to revisit Destry (1954).

A Very Brief Review of When Books Went to War

January 26, 2023.Reading time 5 minutes.

…tyrants don’t want people thinking for themselves. Books are dangerous to bullies, whether they are Hitler, Stalin, Ho Chi Minh, Vlad the Bad Putin, Chairman Xi, or the Ms. Grundy down the street.

The Man Who Popularized the Modern Christmas

December 13, 2022.Reading time 4 minutes.

“The Man Who Popularized the Modern Christmas”, or something along the lines of “The Man Who Defined Christmas Traditions”, would have been better a better title than The Man Who Invented Christmas. I mean, it’s not a bad title, but there are implications that can be, shall we say, that becomes kinda problematic. But besides that and the fact that this is obviously a fictionalized account of Charles Dickens writing the book of A Christmas Carol, the movie was actually pretty well done.

The Poets of Rapallo, a Review

December 3, 2022.Reading time 7 minutes.

The Poets of Rapallo by Lauren Arrington (Oxford University Press) is a brilliant first draft; one looks forward to reading the completed work.

How Far Is Too Far?

December 1, 2022.Reading time 20 minutes.

One of the most difficult things about being a Christian film critic (and a Christian film fan for that matter) is determining how badly a movie has to stray away from a biblical view of philosophy or ethics before it cannot be commendable to the Christian.

Retro Game Review: Fantasy General

October 1, 2022.Reading time 7 minutes.

Fantasy General is one of the prolific titles that was produced by Strategic Simulations in the 1990s. Unlike their other games such as Panzer General or Pacific General, the game of is not meant to be a recreation for any historical period or particular type of warfare that actually occurred. Instead, Fantasy General offers a totally original setting and game system that allows for the playing out of large-scale warfare that involves fantastical beings, alternative technologies, and magic.

Review of Sailor Moon R: The Promise of the Rose

September 15, 2022.Reading time 7 minutes.

Sailor Moon R: The Promise of the Rose (currently free on YouTube) begins on a somber note. We see a young Mamoru Chiba ascend a staircase to the roof of a hospital carrying a rose in his hands. He offers it to a small alien boy, who promises to bring Mamoru flowers in return before disappearing.

Starship Troopers: Book Review

August 27, 2022.Reading time 4 minutes.

There are few novels that I have reread as many times as Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers. It is a masterpiece of science fiction and is as intellectually stimulating as it is imaginatively engaging. Each time I have revisited the Terran Federation, its advanced power-armored soldiers, and their fantastically alien enemies, I have come away with a new appreciation for this classic work.

Moses, Moses!

April 9, 2022.Reading time 8 minutes.

Growing up, I remember Palm Sunday being a particularly special event, mainly because the grand epic of The Ten Commandments came on TV. We always crowded around the TV to watch this grand masterpiece…

Magic, Children, and Harry Potter: A Discourse on the Pros and Cons of Fantasy Magic

March 17, 2022.Reading time 6 minutes.

But why are wizards and witches looked on with suspicion, anyway? Are we not simply prejudiced against them? I think not.

True Love: Classic Disney vs Studio Ghibli

September 30, 2021.Reading time 4 minutes.

I’m just going to come out and say it… I think that, on the whole, Ghibli Studios has a better understanding of true love than classic Disney.

Unplanned Movie Review

July 22, 2021.Reading time 6 minutes.

As you may already know, Unplanned is the true story of Abby Johnson. She worked at Planned Parenthood for years, rising in prominence until she became the youngest clinic director in the company’s history. She was honored as their Employee of the Year. She had a husband and a daughter and what probably seemed to others as the perfect life. But, as the promotions say, what she saw changed everything.

When I was on the Faculty at Notre Dame…

July 20, 2021.Reading time 10 minutes.

“The Oasis Within” can be read solely as a story, and it would be both diverting and useful, but the thinking reader will also consider the many questions about the meanings in one’s life and the nature of the good, the true, and the beautiful.

The Expanse: A Book Review

July 1, 2021.Reading time 3 minutes.

Welcome to the future, where humans have colonized the moon, Mars, and much more. Where people are categorized based on the planet they come from. Where living on a spaceship for more than a month at a time is normal. Where crew becomes family.