Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery and Conclave depict faith at work in a world that’s dark and growing darker. Both films hold faith up to the light and ask: In times like these, what are the faithful to do?
We tell ourselves we’re individuals, beholden to no one, even as we’re shaped by our circumstances. We think of ourselves as the main character. We print the legend. Both Josey Wales and Keoma embody that sense of individualism—and, intentionally or not, their respective movies bear the weight of the contradiction at the heart of being an American.
The Last of the Mohicans (1992) and The Insider (1999) bookend the history of the United States from Michael Mann’s perspective. Though their circumstances are worlds apart, their stories expose the history of America.
Both Eephus and Everybody Wants Some!!! explore groups of men who are devoted to baseball, but have yet to figure out the rest of their own lives.
Babette’s Feast (1987) and First Cow (2019) anchor themselves in locations dotted with small cooking fires, smoke rising in the cold. Both movies dream of human life as more than simple subsistence; both present simple stories in which the act of preparing a good meal threatens to tear a community apart.
Both Road House (1989) and Magic Mike (2012) are about learning how to be a person in society. It’s possible to pick some of it up in passing, but it’s much easier to learn when there’s a teacher involved.