Religion & Liberty Online Archives

Reviews

September 15, 2022

The Manchurian Candidate Is a Neglected Masterpiece

In 1959, when Richard Condon published his political thriller The Manchurian Candidate, he took a topical idea and ran amok with it. The idea was that during the Korean War a platoon of GIs had been captured by the Chinese, brainwashed (“not just washed, but dry-cleaned”), and released back home to do the enemy’s bidding. Continue Reading...
August 12, 2022

The Sandman is a lesson in natural law

On August 5, The Sandman dropped on Netflix. For Neil Gaiman’s existing fanbase, this show was the fulfillment of decades of longing to see a beloved story brought to life. Rumors have circulated over the years that Gaiman’s 75-issue comic series (variously collected in 10 graphic novels and the three-volume Absolute Sandman) would come to the screen, but such projects never materialized. Continue Reading...
August 10, 2022

Father Stu shows us strength in weakness

This past spring, movie theatres saw the premier of Father Stu, a Sony Pictures film starring Mark Wahlberg as Father Stu and co-starring Mel Gibson as his father. The film is based on the true story of Stuart Long, an amateur boxer from Montana who found God after a near-death experience and eventually became a priest. Continue Reading...
July 20, 2022

The Survivor asks something of its audience

Barry Levinson is 80. The Oscar-winning writer-director has played a part in several of the best movies and TV shows of the past half century—and a few of the worst. That pattern of mixing abominable stinkers with memorable successes has continued into the past decade. Continue Reading...
July 12, 2022

We know what women are. They don’t. Now what?

“Nature always tells us the truth, even if we don’t want to hear it.” So begins the latest cinematic offering from the Daily Wire, What Is a Woman? The documentary is stirring up controversy with its sarcastic cultural analysis and skillful showcasing of extreme social absurdity. Continue Reading...