A couple of years ago, Washington Post religion writer Michelle Boorstein wondered, “Is Jim Gaffigan technically employed by the Roman Catholic Church?” Her...
TV and film
The Wolfpack Directed by Crystal Moselle (Kotva Films, 2015) After watching Star Wars as kids, no wrapping paper roll in my house was safe; my brothers and I...
This summer, comedy fans were promised that Amy Schumer plus Judd Apatow would equal comedy gold. Schumer’s Comedy Central sketch show Inside Amy Schumer has...
The premise of Pixar’s latest film Inside Out is fascinating: Eleven-year-old Riley moves from ice hockey-loving Minnesota to broccoli pizza-loving San...
Recently, my family and closest friends gathered for my son’s baptism. We were joined by our larger church community, people we’re connected to in varying...
Love and Mercy Directed by Bill Pohlad (River Road Entertainment/Battle Mountain Films, 2015) Brian Wilson was a gifted yet troubled songwriter. In Love and...
In 1996, David Lipsky wanted what David Foster Wallace had, what any serious writer would want. Lipsky says as much, both in the pages of the book on which The...
“Politics is a noble activity. We should revalue it, practice it with vocation and a dedication that requires testimony, martyrdom, that is to die for...
For fans of The Shawshank Redemption, Morgan Freeman’s narration of 5 Flights Up is disconcerting. In both films, Freeman reflects on the past 40 years while...
In his 1988 Harper’s magazine essay, “The Reason for Stories,” novelist Robert Stone argued that fiction does for the collective unconscious of a culture what...
