Author Archives | Marc T. Newman, Ph.D.

Marc T. Newman, Ph.D. - who has written 39 posts on Catholic Exchange.


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God as a Convenient Falsehood in The Invention of Lying

Posted on 10 October 2009

No one watching the trailers for Ricky Gervais’ The Invention of Lying would have any idea that the film is largely a thinly-veiled attack on the truth claims of monotheistic religion — one that mirrors Gervais’ personal beliefs (search YouTube for…

Telling Half the Story in The Informant!

Posted on 21 September 2009

Hollywood likes to traffic in the seedy. Redemption stories only seem to appear when “redemption” means pulling oneself up by one’s bootstraps. Studios have had a couple of great chances to talk about real redemption through biographies lately, but they…

Harry Potter and the Terrifying Order to Obey

Posted on 24 July 2009

Critics of the Harry Potter films have noted that Harry and his friends are often rewarded for lying and breaking the rules. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince should put such fears to rest. The Harry Potter books and films are not sequels…

Finding Strong Fathers in Film

Posted on 20 June 2009

Once you get past [those of the] Ten Commandments that deal with humans’ relationship to God, the first “horizontal” commandment is that people honor their fathers and mothers (Exodus 20:12). Last month we honored mothers. If you went to church,…

Losing Your Life to Gain It: Guidelines for Growing Old in Up

Posted on 06 June 2009

Up is an animated film for grown-ups. Sure, it has a main character who is a child, funny talking dogs (sort of), and a fantasy element that requires a substantial suspension of disbelief – so don’t be surprised that families are drawn…

Questioning Faith in Angels and Demons

Posted on 23 May 2009

When Ron Howard’s screen adaptation of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code premiered in the spring of 2006, Sony Pictures delivered the Church an unexpected gift. People who never would have attended a week-long evening series on Church History were flocking…

Healing Comes to the Broken-Hearted in Sunshine Cleaning

Posted on 17 April 2009

If Henry David Thoreau was right when he said, “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them,” then Sunshine Cleaning is a film about some exceptional, desperate people who learn to…

Life, Death, and Salvation in Knowing

Posted on 27 March 2009

Are we a great cosmic accident, or is there a purpose to life on this planet? This question informs debate in college philosophy classrooms, school board schisms over evolution, deathbed discussions, and is the central controversy in the latest film…

MovieMinistry’s Films to Look For in 2009

Posted on 24 January 2009

The first few weeks of any new year are peppered with top-ten lists. Critics re-hash last year’s reviews and place them in a hierarchy — kind of like their own personal awards show. At MovieMinistry we do things differently. Instead…

The Romantic Allure of Total Commitment in It’s a Wonderful Life

Posted on 12 December 2008

Marriage is the number one killer of romance. Don’t believe me? Take this simple quiz. Try to think of ten movies, made in the last ten years, that depict a married couple who have a sizzling love life — with…

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