Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast
1) Triumph of the Heart is a film worthy of its subject, St. Maximilian Kolbe
James and Thomas review an outstanding and very intense new film about St. Maximilian Kolbe, directed and written by Anthony D'Ambrosio. Triumph of the Heart is set mostly in the starvation cell in Au...Show More
2) A hard world for little things: The Night of the Hunter (1955)
James and Thomas discuss one of their favorite films, The Night of the Hunter, directed by Charles Laughton. It’s about the sacred innocence of children, and discerning true vs. false prophets. A uniq...Show More
3) Hitchcock's I Confess and the world's failure to understand priesthood
In Alfred Hitchcock’s 1953 film I Confess, a young priest in Quebec City is suspected of murder because of his unwillingness to break the seal of confession. A major theme of the film is the incompreh...Show More
4) The Ritual portrays exorcism accurately, but is stuck in genre cliches
The new exorcism film The Ritual, starring Al Pacino and Dan Stevens, is based on the famous 1928 exorcism of Emma Schmidt, which also partially inspired The Exorcist. The Ritual is touted as more rea...Show More
5) Fragmented sexuality in Malick's To the Wonder, Knight of Cups, & Song to Song
00:00 Introduction 12:44 Form 1:04:15 Themes 1:28:17 Moral problems 1:52:00 Favorite sequences After the artistic triumph of his magnum opus The Tree of Life, Terrence Malick had an unwontedly pro...Show More
6) Crucifixion darkness: Barabbas (1961)
Barabbas is an unusual specimen of the midcentury Hollywood Biblical epic, more spiritually searching (and edgier) than its peers. Starring Anthony Quinn as the criminal released by Pilate in place of...Show More
7) A holy fool: The Island (2006)
James and Thomas discuss a minor classic of religious cinema, the spiritually edifying (and humorous!) Russian film The Island, about a fictional Orthodox monk and “holy fool” who has special spiritua...Show More
8) Terrence Malick and the Knights of Columbus: Voyage of Time (2016)
The Criteria crew continues its series on the films of Terrence Malick, jumping ahead to the experimental documentary Voyage of Time, which was co-produced by the Knights of Columbus! Voyage of Time p...Show More
9) The Marx Brothers w/ James Matthew Wilson
Poet and philosopher James Matthew Wilson joins the podcast to discuss two films by the Marx Brothers (Duck Soup, A Night at the Opera). Wilson also reads one of his poems featuring allusions to the M...Show More
10) "I am a human being": The Elephant Man (1980), w/ Andrew Petiprin
On the latest episode of Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast, Andrew Petiprin joins James and Thomas to discuss the late David Lynch's most uplifting film, The Elephant Man. The film is based on the r...Show More