By Michelle Sinclair Love and Friendship holds a singular achievement among Jane Austen film adaptations: it is laugh-out-loud funny. Unlike most Austen movies, there’s nothing remotely romantic about the script or story, but neither did romance have much place in marriage during Austen’s day. In college, I remember trying to read Lady Susan, the short novella on which the film is based, but I didn’t get very far because the format (written entirely in letters) means the reader’s knowledge is entirely based on what characters say is true, rather than showing their actual behavior. The film adaptation is a colorful improvement […]

Editor’s note: Second of a three-part series: On Growing Older. The rustle of a single hamburger wrapper sounded like the crackle of one hundred papers. The keyboard at my computer started clacking very loudly! I heard myself sighing vociferously. (Do I really sigh that loudly?) I heard ice rattling in the office kitchen—never noticed that before—and when our office janitor was putting away dishes in the kitchen, it sounded as if she was banging stuff like she was mad. But of course she wasn’t. As I walked up the office stairs, I heard my shoes scuffing the carpet. And birds—why […]

    By Charles Kwuelum In March, I met with Hannatu Anthony* one of the beneficiaries of free medications, treatments and socio-economic empowerment programs made possible by Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) support for the Faith Alive Clinic in Jos, Nigeria. Hannatu Anthony was pregnant and receiving free prenatal services and medical care at the Faith Alive Clinic. The clinic offers free health care services (prevention, treatment and control) to people with HIV and AIDS, making health care accessible to the most vulnerable, especially youth, infants, pregnant women and mothers. More than 250 patients are diagnosed daily by the doctors and […]

Editor’s note: First in a three-part series: On Growing Older. A guy I worked with in the past, award-winning photographer and videographer Jim Bowman, wrote a poignant post while sharing an evocative photo on Facebook the other week. The photo showed his wife’s hand pressing a goodbye onto an Amtrak window as she commuted to a nearby city—an arrangement they had followed weekly during the school year for family reasons. This was their last week of the commuting separation. He noted, “Lin and I will need to negotiate living together again.” Our true personalities are revealed again in new ways […]

I was introduced to the impressive work of filmmaker Terence Davies while I was living in London (UK). I have met very few people in North America who have seen any of Davies’s films or know anything about the writer/director of brilliant films like Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988), The House of Mirth (2000), and The Deep Blue Sea (2011). The well-acted and impeccably shot Sunset Song is profound and moving in ways that few films today come close to. Davies is often compared to filmmaker Terrence Malick because of how infrequently he makes his arthouse masterpieces and because of […]

Money Monster is a thriller that takes on current issues and offers some surprising twists, which only adds to its interest and appeal. The film confronts us with our own complicity in the way CEOs run their companies. The film opens with Lee Gates (George Clooney), who hosts a cable show, Money Monster. He’s full of himself and resists taking direction from his longtime director, Patty Fenn (Julia Roberts), who cues him when to say what. During the show, a deliveryman, Kyle Budwell (Jack O’Connell), sneaks onto the set with a gun, and takes Lee hostage. Angry, Kyle says he […]

Editor’s note: Lauree Purcell is a freelance writer and mother of two teenage daughters in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Last month, my mother and I were happy to be a part of an intricate web of community support lifting up those who are facing much greater challenges. Getting a home ready to sell, we had quite a bit of furniture that we no longer wanted. With leadership from Celia and Becky, whom I know from my church, we decided to help a mother we’ll call “Jane” and her two elementary school–aged children. When I arrived at Jane’s apartment, her belongings were in […]

Ninety-nine Homes has a rare mix in a film: It’s suspenseful, yet deals with complex ethical issues. The drama centers on the lives of people in central Florida a few years after the 2008-09 financial crisis. Rick Carver, a real estate broker, partners with banks to evict people and sell their foreclosed homes at a profit. Our true homes do not belong to us. They are where each of us truly belongs, at any time and in any place. Without spoiling the plot of the 2014 movie—which contains some violence but mainly the threat of it—it’s sufficient to say that […]