Hello (again)!
It's been a while! Here's what I've been up to.
This newsletter has been dormant for a while, but given that there’s an uptick in subscribers recently (welcome, by the way!), the time seemed right for an update.
For the new folks: Hi! I’m Abby. I write about faith, film and popular culture from a progressive Christian perspective. Last year, I had a book come out, Films for all Seasons, which is a collection of essays on movies themed to the Christian liturgical calendar (for non-church nerds, that’s holidays like Christmas and Easter, but also the multi-week seasons leading up to those days and beyond. You can learn all of this in the book!).
We’re in Lent right now, which means it’s a great time to check out Films for all Seasons and get some movie recommendations to thematically explore the final week of this season, as well as Holy Week and Easter, which are coming right up. If you want to know how Groundhog Day, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and The Iron Giant reflect some of the ideas behind Jesus’ ministry, death and resurrection — and how those ideas apply to our lives today — I hope you’ll give it a read.
For a sample of some of the movies I discuss in the book, check out my discussion with Jason Bailey and Michael Hull on their podcast A Very Good Year (ep. 95), or my discussion with my friend Philip Marinello on The Substance podcast (ep. 161). I also talked about the book with Josh Larsen and Claude Atcho on the Think Christian podcast.
Other recent developments
As I mentioned in a recent note, I’m part of a writing collective exploring the seven deadly sins over Lent. I wrote about cinematic depictions of envy, and was really pleased with how it came together!
March for me was bracketed with Missouri film fest coverage! I covered the True/False film festival and Panic Fest (alongside Adrian Torres) for The Pitch. It was a standout year for movies at both.
At Panic Fest, I was really impressed by Marshmallow, a micro-budget movie with an incredible cast of child actors. Keep an eye out for it as it continues on the fest circuit.
Right now I’m considering ways to keep this newsletter fresh and relevant, so stay tuned for further updates there. In the meantime, if you’d like to hear from me on a more regular basis, I’m most active on Bluesky and Instagram.
What I’m reading/watching/listening to:
I finally started watching The Studio, and it’s as good as everyone says. Sorry I was late to the party. I want to watch that Martin Scorsese Jonestown movie for real.
One of my favorite podcasts, Eye of the Duck, is currently going through every Batman movie, which led to me finally watching Batman: Mask of the Phantasm for (a long-time blindspot) for the first time. I now consider Mark Hamill the only Joker.
Audio book: Dan Stevens’ reading of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express is a real treat, complete with distinct voices and wry narration. Snag it on Hoopla or Libby for a road trip, you won’t be sorry.
Book books: Virginia Feito’s Victorian Psycho, Alissa Wilkinson’s new book on Joan Didion and Hollywood We Tell Ourselves Stories, and LOTS of plays that I picked up at The Drama Book Shop on a recent trip to New York. All of them are great!
Some cats for the road:
