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Last year, a sketch character called Borat sang a song advising the world to throw the Jews down the well so his country could be free, and in the process he managed to convince the patrons in a country-western bar to sing along. The world’s response? Some Jewish organizations were predictably fearful–worrying about the possibility…

Laura Marshall (Laura Linney), an extreme religious fundamentalist, is the villain in “Driving Lessons,” a semi-autobiographical comedy written and directed by Jeremy Brock. But is Brock, who also incorporated spirituality into his adaptation of “The Last King of Scotland” (co-written with Peter Morgan), commenting on what he sees as the repressive nature of that type…

It’s a little surprising to me that not one, but two movies centered around magical illusion as an art form have made their ways into theaters in the last few months. Edward Norton’s “The Illusionist” came and went rather quickly last summer, but last weekend’s opening of director Christopher Nolan’s (“Memento”) “The Prestige” was considerably…

Hindu goddesses and saints dressed in tight-fitting leotards and modern clothes, walking the violent streets of modern cities, wielding fantastic weapons and fighting evil and wrongdoers: You’ll find all of this and more in the new Shakti line of comics from Virgin Comics. With names like “Devi,” “The Sadhu,” “Snake Woman,” and “Ramayan Reborn,” these…

A few weeks ago, toward the end of a festive holiday meal, the rabbi of my synagogue threw out a light-hearted challenge to us. This was back when both the Mets and the Yankees were still in the playoff hunt, and the rabbi’s question was straightforward: How is baseball like Judaism? A few people tried…

The documentary “Jesus Camp” directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady finally rolled around to my neck of the woods (Burlington, VT) this weekend. I was eager to see if the film was as “frightening” as so many journalists and reviewers have claimed, and if so, what exactly was so scary. (I would like to…

Full disclosure: I’ve never been much of an Audio Adrenaline fan. First of all the name. Adrenaline is a hormone, a glandular fluid that enters the bloodstream for a short-term or circumscribed effect. It didn’t promise much in the way of introspection, which I am a fan of, even in rock music; nor did it…

Less than a month from now, the video game version of the Left Behind series, “Left Behind: Eternal Forces,” will debut at big-box retailers, just in time for Christmas shopping season. The game, set in New York City, follows the basic M.O. of the bestselling Christian adventure novels. Tribulation Forces–those left behind to fight the…

The Learning Channel’s 10-part series “The Monastery” has a couple of advantages over your run-of-the-mill reality show. One is that it is shot at Christ in the Desert, a Roman Catholic monastery in northern New Mexico. TLC’s cameras capture the astounding beauty of the canyon setting’s piercing blue skies, hawks dawdling overhead and the lacework…

We like when things are neatly packaged and easily grasped, one character in Clint Eastwood’s “Flags of our Fathers” tells us: good and evil, heroes and villains. “Most of the time they aren’t. But we think they are.” The movie, opening today, shows us the complex and messy depiction of the Battle of Iwo Jima.…
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