At face value, The Mission may seem accurate in its expression of the Jesuit missionaries and the Guaraní. A deeper look into the film and the history surrounding its events, however, reveals an underlying flaw that undercuts the “Catholic authority” portrayed within the missions themselves, and draws the rather “overly-pious” nature of the film into…

“Fail to see the tragic, turn it into magic!” -Marylin Manson These words appear across a black screen in ornate, biblical-looking font as the film Little Sister begins. The words fade into the image of an email header and we watch an overly-enthusiastic subject line appear across a computer screen, the persistent clicking of a…

Trigger Warning: Reference of Self-Starvation Novitiate follows seventeen year old Cathleen’s time as a postulant in the novitiate of the Sisters of the Blessed Rose convent.  While the film does a phenomenal job of detailing the trials, tribulations, and varied reasonings for becoming a nun, it also incorporates the outside pressure of being set in…

The Exorcist has been the last cinematographic success of William Friedkin. Produced in 1973, it is the cinematographic adaptation of the book of the same name of William Peter wrote in 1971. Wiliam Friedkin has always been passioned by the eternal fight between the Good and the Evil and that’s exactly the theme of The…

By: Reyna Rodriguez The film Novitiate (2017) takes place in the crucial years of the Second Vatican Council reforms led by Pope John XXIII. These reforms were meant to connect the Catholic church to the modern world, though as highlighted in this film, it affected the lives of many religious figures throughout the world. The…

Christen “Lady Bird” McPherson is a high schooler from Sacramento whose family is struggling economically while she is struggling how to navigate life. Lady Bird is not your typical Catholic film. The film does not revolve around catholicism; it is a coming of age film about family, home, and growing up. Catholicism is usually in…

Nacho Libre is a funny family movie that many kids will enjoy. It has a bright tone as Nickelodeon Movies is the producing company. In part, it can be considered as a kids movie but can also help destress teenagers and adults. The humor throughout the movie personally helped destress myself and provided laughter in…

Catholic themes and ideas are present throughout many Hollywood films, especially in films that contain Italian culture. Catholicism has strong roots in the long traditions of Italian culture, and Italians are also extremely important to the Catholic faith, housing the father of the Church in the Vatican in the center of Rome. The Godfather is…

By: Delores Shackelford In Hollywood films, there have been many stereotypes, motifs, and a lack of universal representation within Catholic films. In Sister Act 2: Back in The Habit, the 1993 film displays new and old stereotypes in Catholic churches across America, starring actor Whoopi Goldberg, and young singer, Lauryn Hill. The urban twist of…

by Gwen Flatland From The Godfather, to The Punisher to the children’s game Mafia, the Italian Mafia has survived in the American imagination for many decades. There exists this fascination of character in Hollywood with the idea of the benevolent criminal: an Italian American man, who kills to protect his family and to make his…