Christmas for Cinephiles! | CT Entertainment

[Also: The Big Sick] Also: The Big Sick | [View online]( [ChristianityToday.org]( [Donate]( [Christianity Today Entertainment Newsletter]( Friday, July 28, 2017 Christmas for cinephiles! Each week CT's critics offer suggestions for art and entertainment they found encouraging, valuable, or reflective of the good, the true, and the beautiful in God's world. Not every suggestion is suitable for everyone, and each reader is encouraged to investigate the ratings and accompanying content warnings of each suggestion. Have suggestions of your own? Let us know. Maybe we'll pass them on. rclark@christianitytoday.com. —Richard Clark, Online Managing Editor L'Argent | Film July is summer's Christmas for cinephiles; the Criterion Collection typically holds the first of its biannual half-off sales. This July's sale included, at long last, a Criterion treatment of Robert Bresson's final film, L'Argent. Based on a Tolstoy novella, the film follows the rippling effects of sin. A forged bank note passes from character to character. At first the audience may be seduced into thinking that a little thievery is not so great an offense as murder or larceny, but the film understands that there are no victimless crimes. The critique of modernity and its systems is also illustrated through the imbalance between who is punished and who steals and punishes with impunity. L'Argent may not be the best introduction for those new to Bresson's work—that would be A Man Escaped. Both films are available to stream at Filmstruck.com. L'Argent now also comes on Blu-ray. The disc includes an interview with the normally reticent director, a video essay from Bresson scholar James Quandt, and excerpts from the film's press conference at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival. — [Kenneth R. Morefield]( [DVD and Filmstruck] Love Thy Neighborhood | Podcast What may seem at first like a This American Life clone (complete with an uncanny Ira Glass impression by host, Jesse Eubanks, which—it turns out—is just his normal voice) eventually demonstrates itself to be something a lot more unique. Produced by a non-profit by the same name situated in Louisville, Kentucky, this podcast offers a series of narrative-based deep dives into familiar social justice topics. But by grounding the podcast in a location, the podcast manages to offer up surprising takes on otherwise done-to-death subjects like abortion, homelessness, and racial reconciliation. By situating the narrative around the concrete and specific, [Love Thy Neighborhood]( proves to be an engrossing and inspiring listen that lingers on, rather than papers over, the complexity and messiness that accompanies social justice work. — Richard Clark [Available via Podcast Apps] The Big Sick | Film The Big Sick is the romantic comedy I have been waiting for my entire life. Real-life married couple Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon wrote a version of their own true story that is clear-eyed about the realities of love, even as the premise takes some sharp turns into stakes that are higher than average for most rom-coms. The "big sick" refers to Emily, played in the film by Zoe Kazan, being placed in a medically induced coma for a week to save her life. It is also incredibly funny. For a film with the central premise of a medical emergency, it was a lovely surprise to find myself laughing harder—and longer—than I have in perhaps the past year. — [D. L. Mayfield for CT]( [In theaters] ['A Ghost Story' Is a Haunting Ode to the Privilege of Witness]( David Lowery's superb supernatural drama offers a God's-eye perspective on the intimate and the infinite. Kevin McLenithan ['To the Bone' Is Big on Anorexia and Lean on Healing]( The new Netflix film seems more aspirational than instructional. Rachel Marie Stone [In 'Spider-Man: Homecoming,' Greatness Starts with Becoming a Servant]( Peter Parker has finally entered the Marvel Cinematic Universe—but he can't join the Avengers until he practices the heroic discipline of humility. E. Stephen Burnett ['The Beguiled' Reveals the Cracks in Our Imagined Selves]( Sofia Coppola's latest film is all about the inevitable gap between who we are and who we claim to be. Laura Kenna Follow Us [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Google+]( [RSS]( [Subscribe to this newsletter]( IN THE MAGAZINE [Current Issue]( [How to Find Hope in the Humanless Economy]( [Immigrants Are Reshaping American Missions]( [How God Sent His Word to An Iraqi Interpreter]( [View Full Issue]( [Subscribe Now]( More from Christianity Today [Trump Picks Sam Brownback as Religious Freedom Ambassador]( President makes his nomination much faster than President Obama. [David Fitch Turned His Daily McDonald's Run into His Ministry]( Planting a church takes time—but it all starts with just being present. [Politics, Elections, and Christians: Reconciling the Church after the Great Divide of 2016]( Have you allowed election speech to replace the speech of the 'elect'? Related CT Newsletters [The Galli Report]( Weekly must-reads from the editor of CT. [Sign Up Now]( [CT Connection]( The official newsletter of the global media ministry. 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