Streaming Picks
Turbo, the animated family-friendly tale of a speed-obsessed snail, is now available to stream on Netflix (read our review here). The wildly popular Frozen is also finally available on demand and on Amazon Instant Video (here's our review). The documentary Linsanity, about the star basketball player and Christian Jeremy Lin, is streaming on Netflix. Another documentary is newly available on Netflix, Michael Jackson: The Life of an Icon. Last, but not least, Saving Mr. Banks was released this week on demand and Amazon Instant Video (our review).
Critics Roundup
God's Not Dead hits theaters today. While we have yet to hear from many critics, PluggedIn reports that the film makes viewers consider what they would say if someone questioned their faith. In the face of the antagonist, Professor Radisson, Josh Wheaton's "stalwart commitment to not letting God down" is inspiring, says PluggedIn. And several scenes include "theological and philosophical expositions explaining the reasonableness of faith." But, PluggedIn says, God's Not Dead is often melodramatic and "moments of implausibility . . . emerge as the list of non-Christians behaving badly lengthens."
One of our own critics, Kenneth Morefield, reviewed God's Not Dead as well. He writes on 1MoreFilmBlog that while he is a "big fan of standing up for your beliefs," the depiction of college and the professors that teach there is "ridiculous." Morefield says the film enforces his feeling that "American Christians sometimes mistake losing long held positions of power and special privileges with being persecuted." This is a shame, because "there are places where the film gets out of argument mode long enough to recognize that Christians are generally judged by their friends and colleagues less by their arguments than their attitudes." That being said, it seems that in God's Not Dead the atheist Professor Radisson must not just be answered, but annihilated. So viewers must decide whether the film actually does "the cultural work of promoting tribalism [or] bolstering the faith."
Movie News
This week, the cinema is concerned with, to put it bluntly, sexual awakening. It Felt Like Love (review) and Lars von Trier's Nymphomaniac: Volume I (review) both premiere in theaters today.
With another YA novel adaptation, Divergent, releasing to theaters today (here's our review), Variety recalls a history of YA novels at the box office, including the most successful and the not-so-memorable ones.
Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin talks about ending the series with a film, or two, or three.
Heather Cate is a spring intern with Christianity Today Movies and a student at The King's College in New York City.
