Joseph Holmes is a New York–based culture critic and co-host of the podcast The Overthinkers.
Posts by Joseph Holmes
June 12, 2025
Although Americans disagree on almost everything, most of us still really love Jesus. According to a 2023 Barna study, 71% of Americans have a positive view of Jesus. This includes 84% of Christians (which raises questions about the other 26%), 58% of adherents of other faiths, and 40% of those with no faith.
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February 28, 2025
“Why are men moving to the right?” is a question that seems to be on everyone’s lips. With men and women diverging so much on politics in much-publicized polls, the question makes sense.
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January 16, 2025
It’s hard to look at the culture and not conclude that intellectual secularism is in decline. When I was a teenager, the biggest books about faith were New Atheist titles like Richard Dawkins’
The God Delusion and Christopher Hitchens’
God Is Not Great.
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December 19, 2024
It’s getting harder and harder to have a movie that isn’t caught up in the culture wars. Franchises like the MCU,
Lord of the Rings,
Star Wars sagas, and Disney’s Pixar animations, which once united a broad spectrum of viewers, now get yelled at by both sides, either for not being progressive enough on the one hand or being too “woke” on the other.
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November 14, 2024
It’s commonly noted that the Western world is showing signs of decline. With historically high rates of depression and anxiety, low trust in institutions, and rapid population decline, many fear the consequences if nothing changes.
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October 24, 2024
The intersection of religion and politics has always fascinated Hollywood filmmakers, from
Becket and
A Man for All Seasons to
The West Wing. And no wonder. Both religion and politics are two of the biggest commanders of loyalty in their followers, and therefore they wield an enormous amount of power.
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September 25, 2024
Hollywood’s new wave of movies satirizing the wealthy and powerful are garnering plenty of money and critical acclaim. But they’re also perpetuating destructive myths about wealth and inequality that will harm the very marginalized class the industry claims to be defending.
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August 27, 2024
Dark political comedy is an underrated genre, as it enables us to see both the horror and the humor in a given political situation. Politicians often behave in ridiculous ways, but because of their incredible power, their actions have serious real-world consequences.
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July 02, 2024
Kevin Costner returns to the genre that won him his Best Director and Best Picture Oscars (1991
, Dances with Wolves) with an insanely ambitious passion project in which he directs, produces, and stars—and into which he poured $50 million of his own money.
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April 30, 2024
Based on the 1975 novel of the same name (adapted before in 1980),
Shogun is a 10-episode miniseries set in 1600s Japan and follows multiple characters from multiple points of view as they vie for power and pursue their personal agendas.
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