religion – Stream On Demand

Ethan Hawke in the film by Paul Schrader

Paul Schrader’s ‘First Reformed’ on HBO Max and free on Kanopy

!Featured, American Independent Cinema, Blu-ray, drama, DVD, Free, HBO Max, Kanopy, religion, Streaming Movies, SVOD 12/13/2022 Sean Axmaker 2 Comments

Ethan Hawke stars as a pastor whose search for spiritual meaning and redemption sends him into a spiral of despair and obsession in this late career masterpiece from Paul Schrader.

Anya Taylor-Joy in Robert Eggers' 'The Witch.'

‘The Witch’ – Puritan horrors on HBO Max and free on Kanopy

!Featured, American Independent Cinema, Blu-ray, DVD, Film Independent Spirit Awards, Free, Halloween, HBO Max, historical, horror, Kanopy, religion, Streaming Movies, Sundance Winner 10/29/2022 Sean Axmaker 1 Comment

The debut feature by Robert Eggers is a primal horror film rooted in the fear and superstition of early 17th century New England and introduced Anya Taylor-Joy.

James Caviezel is Jesus in Mel Gibson's 'The Passion of the Christ'

‘The Passion of the Christ’ on Amazon Prime and free on Kanopy and Hoopla

!Featured, Amazon Prime Video, Blu-ray, DVD, Easter, Free, historical, Hoopla, Kanopy, religion, Streaming Movies, SVOD 04/17/2022 Sean Axmaker

Mel Gibson’s passionate, personal, and visceral take on the final twelve hours of Christ’s life on Earth is a powerful and provocative take on the passion play.

Jeffrey Hunter is Jesus in Nicholas Ray's take on the story of Christ

‘King of Kings’ – the 1961 Biblical epic free on Hoopla

!Featured, Blu-ray, Classic Movie, DVD, Easter, Free, historical, Hollywood Classic, Hoopla, religion, SVOD 04/04/2021 Sean Axmaker

King of Kings (1961), Nicholas Ray’s epic drama of the story of Christ (and ostensible remake of Cecil B. DeMille’s 1927 silent classic), has less spectacle than the other epics of its era but it remains one of the most interesting and perceptive Biblical epics of its era. Narration (by Orson Welles) takes us back […]

Ewan McGregor stars as Jesus in Rodrigo García's 'Last Days in the Desert'

‘Last Days in the Desert’ free on Hoopla

!Featured, DVD, Easter, Free, Hoopla, religion, SVOD 04/04/2021 Sean Axmaker

I am not religious but I love stories of The Christ. I don’t mean Ben-Hur (though I do love both the original silent and Charlton Heston versions of the film) but films like Nicholas Ray’s King of Kings, Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ, and Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, all very […]

The original ‘The Wicker Man’ on Amazon Prime

!Featured, Amazon Prime Video, Blu-ray, Cult Movies, DVD, Halloween, Have You Seen...?, horror, Mystery, religion, suspense, SVOD 10/01/2020 Sean Axmaker

The original The Wicker Man (1973) begins as a murder mystery and turns into something else entirely. Edward Woodward stars as the stiff English police detective who is sent to a remote Scottish island to investigate the disappearance of a young girl and discovers a culture living a happy “heathen” lifestyle, lorded over (literally) by […]

Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman cast ‘Doubt’ on Netflix

!Featured, Academy Award nominee, Blu-ray, drama, DVD, Have You Seen...?, Netflix, religion, socially aware cinema, stage adaptation, Streaming Movies, SVOD 03/20/2019 Sean Axmaker

Take the title at face value: Doubt (2008), directed and adapted for the screen by playwright John Patrick Shanley, does not offer answers. Rather, it challenges us to understand our own instincts to believe in the absence of proof. Sunny, optimistic idealist Sister James (Amy Adams), a young nun teaching history to junior high boys […]