Past the Popcorn Launches

Our new film review site launched last Friday. Here's a blurb from our official press release:

Does God care about filmmakers? Christian film critic Greg Wright thinks so. But he also thinks that the Church tends to be more concerned about how films affect families than it is about the people who make movies. To help address the problem, Wright and his wife Jenn, both long-time editors with Hollywood Jesus, have partnered with Gospelcom.net to launch a new website devoted to analysis of films—and to listening to “the artists who make the films.”

Case is point is the new film Conversations with God. While the theology of the film (and the series of books on which it is based) clearly reflects an unorthodox, new-age universalist spirituality, Wright’s review addresses the film as art, not primarily as polemic. The new website, “Past the Popcorn,” also features a lengthy interview with Conversations author Neale Donald Walsch, a talk during which Wright makes no bones about his personal beliefs while still listening closely to what Walsch and film director Stephen Simon have to say, finding common metaphysical ground where possible along the way.

“The idea behind Past the Popcorn,” says Wright, “is that there’s more to popular entertainment than meets the eye. So first, we’re after a serious, educational examination of filmmaking technique, of looking at how filmmakers go about saying what they do; and second, we’re interested in understanding film as communication—specific ideas being presented by real people with real passions and real souls.” The effect, Wright believes, can be a renewed interest in vital discussions about art. “Seriously,” Jenn Wright continues, “why should the Church be listened to—why should the Gospel get a legitimate hearing—if all we want to do is talk? We need to listen, too. Communication is a two-way street.”

On the listening end of the score, Past the Popcorn’s debut offerings today also include a review of the documentary Deliver Us from Evil, and an interview with the film’s director, former CNN staffer Amy Berg. The movie is an unflinching critique of clergy sexual abuse and pedophilia, and the Church’s failure to deal with such sinful (and criminal) behavior proactively. The film may not offer solutions that the Church finds workable or theologically sound, but prophetic voices often reform from the outside—if they are heard.