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Longlegs

FBI Agent Lee Harker investigates a series of gruesome deaths connected to a mysterious figure known as Longlegs. As the case unfolds, unearthing evidence of the occult, Harker discovers a personal connection to the merciless killer and must race against time to stop him before he claims the lives of another innocent family.

Longlegs Review

Since their earliest days, horror movies have relied on a handful of essential ingredients to deliver their thrills and chills. From jump scares to disturbing imagery, the only thing that has changed is each film’s specific usage and the degree to which it relies on those ingredients. Over the last two decades, it seems as though the art of eliciting fear from audiences with subtlety and creativity has been largely lost, replaced by the current crop of genre filmmakers’ race to see who can be grosser and more explicit. Enter Longlegs.

With its minuscule budget and cast of unknowns, Nicolas Cage and Blair Underwood notwithstanding, Longlegs harkens back to the days when the cinematographer and score were more essential than gallons of dyed corn syrup and an FX budget to rival a small nation’s GDP. Despite the fact that the film is a little underdeveloped, with far too little Cage, and loses a bit of focus in the third act, by going back to the basics, Longlegs delivers a delicious ever-present tension as the audience sits on the edge of their seats waiting for the shoe to drop.

Its quintessential 70s horror chic cinematography, with long lingering shots framed ever-so-slightly off-center, and director Oz Perkins’s (son of Anthony Perkins – aka Norman Bates in Psycho) keen sense of timing are the film’s true stars. However, its classically understated vintage score and some surprising performances shine nearly as brightly.

Obviously, seeing Nicholas Cage as a demonic serial killer is Longleg’s big draw, and the only disappointing thing about his disturbing performance is its abbreviated nature. He’s one part creepy, three parts demonically terrifying, and all Nicolas Cage. That said, despite having a relatively underwhelming resume of which her turn as President Whitmore’s daughter in the critically panned Independence Day sequel,  Maika Monroe surprises as Agent Harker. With Cage only appearing briefly, the bulk of the film lies on Monroe’s shoulders, and she is more than up to the task.

Even though the outward trappings of her role as an FBI agent combined with the time period in which Longlegs is set, not to mention the film’s tone, understandably invokes parallels to Clarice Sterling and Silence of the Lambs, Monroe’s Harker is wholly its own creature. The actress beautifully portrays the socially awkward agent with a grounded sincerity and realism that precludes what could have easily been a caricature. As such, she is the perfect straight man to the film’s bizarre goings-on.

Unfortunately, Longlegs flounders a bit under the weight of its concept and what appears to have been very limited access to Nicolas Cage. As a result, everyone’s character development is fairly rushed, with Cage’s character suffering the most. It also suffers from a botched reveal of its twist in an unnecessary and redundant montage that’s overlong, overly expository, and completely robs the film’s final minutes of virtually all of its momentum.

In spite of this and a rushed two-dimensional relationship between Harker and a catalyst character, Longlegs dishes out a quick and fun fright night worth seeing.

WOKE ELEMENTS

Lady Cops

• Nitpickers might take umbrage with yet another “strong female” cop-like character leading a film. However, not only have there been female FBI field agents since the 70s, but Lee Harker is a socially awkward mess and not some unstoppable bad@$$ who was clearly written to be a man until studio interference. Her feminity actually adds a nice layer of vulnerability to the story.

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Thelma

When 93-year-old Thelma discovers that she’s been the victim of a phone phishing scam, she decides to take the law into her own wrinkled hands.

Thelma Review

Thelma’s first-time writer/director, Josh Margolin, weaves a tale grounded in the delicious and often ridiculous reality of the human condition. Superficially a parody of the modern action flick, with panache, heart, and humor, Margolin and company deconstruct the genre’s tropes to spin a tale that, at its core, is about the importance of feeling self-sufficient and how the slow deterioration of age can rob us of this. More importantly, Thelma is about embracing the reality of you and adapting to overcome our frailties rather than wallowing in them.

June Squibb, who also voiced Nostalgia in this year’s Inside Out 2, is superb as the titular Thelma. Her first leading role in a career spanning decades, her deceptively deep performance perfectly embodies the very ontology of “grandma.” She is sweet and loving, confused but not senile, feisty but not cartoonish. Her character is the perfect blend of excellent, sincere storytelling and an actress who is the embodiment of the character she is playing.

The story is straightforward and artfully simple, but Margolin’s direction and Squibb’s sweet demeanor and wonderful performance make it impossible not to fall in love with Thelma immediately. Subsequently, her vigilante quest for justice quickly feels as though it is your own. As the audience quickly latches onto Thelma, the electric current between the material, direction, and performance grounds viewers in such a way that they experience the same heart-stopping sensations as Thelma navigates seemingly mundane obstacles, as they would watching James Bond maneuver through a deadly laser maze, with the added benefit of being able to laugh at yourself for your investment in such absurdity.

Unlike in last year’s 80 for Brady, in which a group of elderly women shared one last adventure that relied heavily on convenience and unrealistic happenstance, Thelma is almost completely believable and all the better for it.

With a simple story made gripping thanks to a great mix of characters, perfect pacing, and great performances, Thelma is a delightful way to spend an hour and a half at the theater. It is absolutely Worth it.

WOKE ELEMENTS

Nothing

• Nada.

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Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot

Inspired by a powerful true story, Sound of Hope tells the tale of a small-town pastor’s wife igniting a fire in the hearts of their rural church community in Possum Trot, East Texas. Theirs is a mission to embrace the unwanted children in the foster system, the damaged young souls who have been thrown away. Against all odds, this modest village in the middle of nowhere adopts 77 of the most broken children and proves that with God’s love and a lot of prayer, the battle for America’s most vulnerable can be won.

Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot – Review

Some people in this world have harrowing tales of courage and bravery, and some whose selflessness and trust in Christ glorify the Lord so profoundly that their stories inspire generations. Possum Trot’s people are truly God’s children, and their good works surely please Him greatly.

After the disappointment that was the mishandled Sight, Angel Studios has redeemed itself with another powerful movie about the soaring heights of human compassion. Sound of Hope succeeds not only in subject matter but on all cinematic fronts. Every actor gives a present and natural performance while delivering economic and organic dialogue filtered through the relatable experiences of the character’s extraordinary times.

The result is that Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot is a grounded story that stays out of its own way. The filmmakers clearly understood the inherent power of this real-life drama, and they let it unfold like beautiful music, allowing it to envelope the listener with rousing peaks of optimism and the desperate isolation of fear and doubt only to soothe audience’s wounds with the depth of God’s love and the power of giving over to his will.

While it’s not without its flaws, for instance, the early narration is largely unneeded and a little heavy-handed, the flaws are nothing in comparison to what the filmmakers get right.

Sound of Hope will reaffirm your faith and move you to tears of sorrow and joy. More importantly, it will move some to action. Whereas Sound of Freedom taught us that God’s children are not for sale, Sound of Hope teaches that God’s love can change the world.

WOKE ELEMENTS

Zilch

• Woke free, and it feels so good.

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Jesus: A Deaf Missions Film

The greatest story ever told has returned to the silver screen, but this time with a unique distinction. A Deaf Missions Film presents Jesus’s Ministry and Passion entirely in American Sign Language (ASL), making it the only religious film—and the only film of any kind—to do so. Created by deaf people for deaf people, it is truly a film of a mission with a mission.

Jesus: A Deaf Missions Film Review

Making a quality movie with quality people on both sides of the camera is already a daunting enough task. One need only look at the sad state of American cinema to see how shallow the talent pool has become. Combine that with finding an entire cast that is fluent in American Sign Language, and you would need a miracle to demonstrate even base-level competence. Fortunately, this film surpasses that lowly metric, and Jesus: A Deaf Missions Film exceeds expectations.

Bolstered by chronicling the most important event in human history since the creation of the universe, the cast and crew’s obvious love for the source material, and their clear devotion to the cause of bringing the Word to the hearing impaired, Jesus brings its own special beauty to Christ’s story, despite any weaknesses that it might have.

The performances range from a handful of not-so-greats to a majority of not-too-bads, with Ryan Schlecht playing Caiaphas arguably giving the film’s best performance. Schlecht’s focus is fairly strong throughout, and the role of Caiaphas naturally lends itself to film-friendly theatrics. Playing Jesus, Gideon Firl infuses our savior with a refreshing sweetness not generally portrayed in other big-screen adaptations of our Savior, the one exception perhaps being the chair scene in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of The Christ.

Jesus’ production value outstrips what was no doubt a very modest budget. Costumes seem appropriate, if maybe a little too new-looking, and locations and sets are perfectly adequate.  The filmmakers took advantage of some computer-enhanced establishing shots that do a fine job conveying the land’s scope and its important locales, even if their artificial nature is apparent.

Unlike The Greatest Story Ever Told or King of Kings, which tells of Jesus’ life from beginning to end to beginning, or The Passion, which focuses on Jesus’ final days on Earth, Jesus: A Deaf Missions Film focuses mainly on Jesus’ ministry, playing all of the hits from healing the sick to raising the dead. It’s an understandable choice given the filmmakers’ goal of spreading the Word to a niche market that hasn’t been exposed to it. Still, it lacks an emotional throughline that a more focused story would have conveyed and subsequently feels like a series of short plays rather than one long narrative. That said, those well-versed in the source material will appreciate the various tales, and each one is so significant to the rest of history, Western civilization, and our own personal stories that I have no doubt many and more deaf viewers will be moved to partner with Christ while hearing believers like myself will find themselves moved by the love and sacrifice made on our unworthy behalfs.

WOKE ELEMENTS

Prove To Me That You’re No Fool, Walk Across My Swimming Pool

• No

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Mr. Birchum (Season 1)

Mr. Birchum is a no-nonsense remedial high school Woodshop teacher from a saner time. With no patience for woke BS and no filter, he lets you, his students, and anyone else in earshot know exactly what he thinks about pronouns and what you can do with them.

Mr. Birchum Review (E1: Welcome Back, Birchum!)

The single most important question about any comedy is, is it funny? If so, virtually, all a show’s weaknesses can be forgiven. Thankfully, Mr. Burchum is, and its weaknesses are few.

Sure, the pilot episode hasn’t quite found the series’ rhythm, resulting in some uneven pacing, and some secondary characters don’t yet smoothly fit into place, but this is pretty standard for programs such as this. Besides, the show offers more than enough laugh-out-loud moments to make up for these early growing pains.

Adam Carolla voices the titular character, and while there’s a reason The Aceman never graduated to Hollywood A-lister, his comfort with the material mellows his usual presentation-style performance, as Birchum basically espouses shortened versions of Carolla’s signature rants. Further aided by his always excellent comedic timing and, most importantly, his hilarious lampooning of the world around us, his minor warts as a performer can be easily forgiven.

The rest of the star-studded voice cast is perfectly adequate, and with talents like Rosanne Barr and Jay Mohr (just to name a few) on board, they will almost certainly continue to gel as the season fully finds its voice. However, there is one among the cast who shines like a rainbow sun in unicorn heaven. Stand-up comedian Tyler Fischer plays Mr. Karponzi, an avatar for every radical progressive nutbar idea floating around the current cultural toilet bowl.

Fischer, who I’m almost ashamed to say didn’t appear on my radar until I reviewed another Daily Wire original—Lady Ballers—is a superstar waiting in the wings. His pitch-perfect delivery of the archetypal man bun-wearing gender catchphrase Libs of TikTok-horror show of an educator is the very definition of side-splitting, and his is hands-down the best performance on the show.

Overall, the inaugural episode of Mr. Birchum is generally well done. While not groundbreaking, its animation is simple and clean, stylistically falling somewhere between Big City Greens and The Simpsons with hints of King of The Hill. This first episode’s writing is a little uneven, with many situations feeling forced around Carolla’s irritated soliloquies rather than occurring organically throughout, but the groundwork for something special has clearly been laid. When all is said and done, Adam Carolla and The Daily Wire have a clear path ahead for growing Mr. Birchum into a classic adult cartoon series.

WOKE ELEMENTS

How ‘Bout No?

• What’s more no than no? Double no? Dr. No?

Mr. Birchum (E2: Thank You for Your Meal Service)

On Veteran’s Day, Mr. Birchum and his ex-Navy pals bar/restaurant hop, taking advantage of the free food and booze being served to those who served, only to be ambushed by a group of retired Army grunts on the same mission.

Unfortunately, episode two of Mr. Birchum was a bit of a disappointment. Many of the jokes landed with a thud, being inartfully telegraphed and feeling artificially set up and gracelessly knocked down.

Thank You for Your Meal Service also shows some unfortunate cracks that may need more than spackled to fix. Many are aware of the recent controversy surrounding Candace Owens‘ less-than-amicable split from The Daily Wire. Owens, once a rising conservative star for the network, was originally slated to lend her vocal talents to Mr. Birchum, only to be replaced at the bottom of the 9th by former ESPN anchor Sage Steele. Unfortunately, the scenes between Megyn Kelley’s Mrs. Birchum and Steele’s Deena were as poorly performed as they were written. With woodenly exposited dialogue that reads like recycled Twitter/X talking points, the two shared no chemistry and exhibited less range. Moreover, their B-plot didn’t enhance the episode’s primary arc and felt tacked on.

Kelly’s Birchum continues to not quite gel with the program. She’s an Obama-voting universal healthcare proponent with all of the “white guilt” in which liberal suburbanite women love to wallow, but she’s neither Mr. Birchum’s enemy nor ally and instead seems nearly completely independent from the main action, as though a competing program has been inter-spliced into this one.

It’s still early in the show’s run, and there’s more than enough talent behind the program to carry the season and series, but hopefully, they quickly figure out the winning formula.

WOKE ELEMENTS

In The Navy

• This episode introduces Mr. Birchum’s gay ex-Navy buddy. It’s mostly for laughs, as Mr. Birchum jokes about him being the “kind of “gay that is okay” because he served during the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” era.

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The Wingfeather Saga (Season 2)

The Wingfeather children—Janner, Kalmar, and Leeli—once believed they were ordinary kids. Little did they know, they carried a regal lineage: they were the Jewels of Anniera, heirs to a distant and fallen kingdom. Now, their lives are in peril as the evil Fangs seek to capture them. They must flee their familiar home, navigating treacherous Fingap Falls, twisting Strander Burrows, and the Fang-infested Dugtown. Their destination? The Ice Prairies, where the lizard-like Fangs cannot pursue. The fate of their family, and perhaps the entire realm, rests upon their young shoulders. As the second season unfolds, the world of Wingfeather expands, introducing new dangers, uncharted lands, and friendships forged in hope.

The Wingfeather Saga (S2:E1&2)

With subtle improvements to the animation, the second season of The Wingfeather Saga remains one of the most beautifully rendered animated series of the last 20+ years, with only 2001’s Samurai Jack’s unique aesthetic as serious competition. Unlike Disney’s lazy and sometimes jarring attempt to do the same with the disappointing Wish, the TWS animators have seamlessly integrated the timeless elegance and fluid motion of classic 2D animation into the more immersive and textured environments of 3D CGI.

One of our early expressed concerns with season 1 was that the voice talent, specifically that of the children, had room to grow. That fear has been allayed as the child actors exhibit vastly more confident and nuanced performances, elevating the show’s overall quality.

Unfortunately, these initial episodes sometimes suffer from the same uneven pacing and tendency to say rather than do that hampered a handful of last season’s entries. The writers certainly manage to include some particularly heavy and narratively important events. Still, they are regrettably interspersed with what feels like time-filler side adventures that are wrapped up as quickly and conveniently as they were initiated. The result is a lack of urgency in some key moments that will temporarily take older viewers out of the action.

That said, the strong family dynamic, traditional gender roles, intriguing characters, and overarching adventure are interesting enough to keep children engrossed and parents sufficiently entertained. Furthermore, season 1 should have garnered enough goodwill to keep families coming back for when this series inevitably finds its footing once again.

INAPPROPRIATE ELEMENTS FOR CHILDREN

Consequences

• One of the great things about The Wingfeather Saga series is that it doesn’t shy away from consequences. The other side of this is that it makes for some intense moments that may be too much for the very young.
• Numerous villains are felled, some on screen and some off. However, all are serious and intense, though not graphic.
  • There is one scene in which one of the Wingfeathers celebrates as the youngest boy kills multiple attackers with his bow and arrows, and we even see some of them taking arrows to the heart and falling to their deaths.

WOKE ELEMENTS

Eurocentric Middle Age-Inspired Story

• Obviously, we are dealing with a completely fictional story set in a fantasy realm that is full of things that don’t exist in the real world. However, there is no denying that it is almost exclusively based on the Tolkien model of fantasy in which Eurocentric communities are isolated by geography and the incredible dangers and effort involved with adventurous treks across the land. As such, it makes very little sense for black characters to live in the same village in which the show starts. It’s not a huge deal but it is distracting to those audience members who appreciate continuity and verisimilitude (even in fantasy).
  • On a side note, every other human is drawn wearing something anachronistically relevant to the setting except for the male black character. For some reason, he’s dressed in slacks and a cardigan sweater, making it look like Mr. Rogers dressed him.

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Fallout (season 1)

Two hundred years after a nuclear war that ravaged the planet, a young woman who has lived a sheltered life of relative ease beneath the ground in a special Vault must brave the alien dangers of the post-apocalyptic surface if she hopes to rescue her kidnapped father from mysterious raiders.

Review

DISCLAIMER: I’ve never played a minute of the games. This review is based solely on the series.

Season one of Fallout on Amazon Prime is a rip-roaring good time. It’s overflowing with well-thought-out and interesting characters with believable and relatable motivations who experience nuanced character growth that belies the trappings of its over-the-top post-apocalyptic Atompunk aesthetic. For every giant salamander monster, there is a jaded loaner bent on revenge.

The world of  Fallout is one of the best examples of world-building since the first three seasons of Game of Thrones. The showrunners’ attention to detail and their masterful intertwining of people, places, and things gives the viewer a fully immersive experience in which to get lost and helps to make the otherwise unbelievable scenarios and characters feel like a completely integrated universe of which the viewer is only getting the smallest of glimpses.

While the series is overflowing with characters ranging from interesting to excellent, two stand out as both the best in the series and two of the best characters on TV right now.  Ella Purnell’s Lucy MacLean is chipper and well-meaning at heart. Yet, when she is tasked with an impossible mission for which she is grossly unprepared and begins to experience the horrors of the Wasteland, a journey that would break lesser women, she rallies and soldiers on. She never loses the core of her identity.

It’s through Lucy’s fish-out-of-water eyes and 1950s America can-do spirit that the nightmarish reality of the show is filtered, and it’s this spark that makes it survivable for both her character and the audience. She’s spunky. She’s fun. Best of all, despite the fantastic circumstances, she’s a relatively grounded character who only bests those who would stop her with sunshine grit, a lot of luck, and knowing the value of humility.

However, as needed as Lucy’s optimism might be for the show, there is no show without Walton Goggins’ Cooper Howard/aka The Ghoul. Goggins is a character actor many will recognize from his over 30 years in the business. However, for all of his time spent on camera, his is a name that most don’t know. If there is any justice in the world, Fallout will be his breakout.

Goggins infuses his ducentigenarian (had to look that one up) nuclear-zombie (atombie?) bounty hunter with all of the cool stereotypical stoic badassery that anyone who knows the difference between High Plains Drifter and A Fistful of Dollars could want, but he doesn’t stop there. Aided by an excellently conceived and executed backstory strategically scattered throughout the season, his character is given a pathos that resonates with every red-blooded man in the audience. It’s not that it’s never been done before; it’s that it hasn’t been done well in a long time.

Concurrently, Fallout’s story isn’t wholly original, but it’s done with enough original style and peppered with sufficiently charismatic characters with sympathetic arcs to overlook just about any wart, including the complete failure of the “twist” ending and ultimate villains’ unbelievably stupid plan.

If you can handle the following Woke Elements, season 1 of Fallout is totally Worth it.

WOKE ELEMENTS

The Good

• In any other show of this type, run by anyone else, Lucy MacLean would be an unstoppable girl boss taking down three-ton mutants with nothing but spit and a bad attitude while putting down her beta cuck bestie. But not in Fallout. Instead, despite the fact that the show establishes in its opening montage that she’s been in fight training for the entirety of her life, she realistically gets her butt handed to her in nearly every confrontation. She only manages to come out on top thanks to a mixture of luck and situational awareness.

The Non-Binary Elephant In The Room

• This is the big one. There is a mentally ill character that appears briefly in one episode and a little more in a second, played by a mentally ill woman, both of whom believe that she’s a make-believe gender. As bad as that is, the show also goes out of its way to manufacture a scene that provides the opportunity to refer to this series’ original character as “they.”
  • The show doesn’t preach or get sanctimonious about gender ideology, and this is the only instance of it in the show. Still, in a post-apocalyptic world in which only the strongest and cruelest survive, and even then only barely, one of the most unbelievable things is the inclusion of a spindly armed trash-stache-having mental case sharing a barracks with a bunch of testosterone-filled alpha zealot soldiers who beat the crap out of one another to pass the time, yet accept her as one of the boys.
  • Her character could have literally been anyone or just as easily completely omitted.

Just Enough Gay For Parties

• The showrunners managed to squeeze two lesbians dancing in the background during a wedding.

Objectification Is Bad… Unless it’s of men

• Two or three too many gratuitous naked dude butt scenes. Who do they think the audience for this is?

Capitalism Done It

• There’s no way to discuss this one without spoiling some things. You’ve been warned.
  • ***SPOILERS*** Money-hungry capitalists blew up 99% of the world’s population and irradiated the soil and water… to make money. Someone slept through their Economics 101 course. While scarcity of desired goods increases their value, scarcity of potential customers does not.
  • Literal communists are the good guys. ***END SPOILERS***

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The Gentlemen (season 1)

As Ritchie’s long-time friend Matthew Vaughn recently showed us with the abysmal Argylle, stylized slow-motion and quippy dialogue are not enough to propel a story forward on their own. Happily, The Gentlemen benefits from Ritchie’s signature style being judiciously metered out by the series’ four directors (including Ritchie, who helmed the first two episodes), giving audiences a delightful blend of often fun, sometimes tense, always engaging escapism.

Set in the world of high-stakes drug empires, Duke Horniman has died, and he’s left his son more than his title. Unbeknownst to him, the new duke’s inherited list of problems includes a declining estate that’s home to both his eccentric family and a secret drug empire run by an evil syndicate.

Theo James shines as the newly minted Duke of Halstead, the second eldest and more responsible brother of a family whose lineage descends directly from the storied British Kings of old. As the new duke finds himself committing ever-deeper acts of depravity in an attempt to divorce himself and his family from the seedy underworld that his father has tied them to, by sheer charisma, James extorts audience sympathies like an empathic loanshark collecting fandom vigs.

James is not alone by any means. Every performer was cast from a golden die and plated like a three-star Michelin meal, with each exuding equal parts magnetism and menace, buffoonery, or whatever their particular part called for.  However, if one must stand out amongst this pantheon of perfection, it is Daniel Ings who plays Freddy Horniman, the new duke’s eldest brother.

Freddy is a f#@<up. Unfortunately, no more diplomatic phrasing better captures Freddy’s full flavor. He’s a coke-addicted and pampered lordling who’s never known a minute’s responsibility. While that particular character has been done and done and done, much as a Glenfiddich Janet Sheed Roberts Reserve 1955 is more than just bourbon, thanks to Ings’ experience and talent, Freddy is more than a two-dimensional fool.

Rounding out the standouts is Kaya Scodelario, who plays Susie Glass, the manager of the billion-dollar weed farm concealed beneath the ducal estate’s dairy farm. Scodelario, probably best known for playing Carina Smyth in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, could have easily played Glass like an obnoxious teenage feminist’s interpretation of a man, like so many other strong female characters in modern cinema. Instead, her Glass is a strong, no-nonsense businesswoman who is neither unstoppable nor a caricature of masculinity.

As binge-worthy as season 1 may be, no program is without its faults. In many respects, The Gentlemen substitutes style for originality with a fairly predictable and routine plot and “twists.” There are also one or two noticeable plot-expediting decisions made by characters that run contrary to those characters’ established intelligence and savvy.

When the marijuana plants have dried, and the gypsies have been paid, season 1 of The Gentlemen is a fun and suspenseful 8-episode romp for viewers who like British cool mixed with dirty dealings.

WOKE ELEMENTS

A Little of This. A Little of That

• Meant to be quasi-humorous, the throwaway line, “they don’t leave a carbon footprint,” is said.
• UN Soldiers. – That’s it. They don’t have much relevance or screentime, but their existence in anything as more than a joke is worth derision and at least a fraction of a woke point.
• One of the characters calls a car full of priests who offer him a ride the priest pedophiles.
• One of the more dangerous criminals believes himself to be a deeply religious man who communes directly with God. However, his warped faith is never a recrimination of the Faith. Instead, the unholy juxtaposition is made because his bastardization of Christianity makes him that much more twisted and disturbed. I took no points off for this.
• A character is pregnant and unmarried, and the family’s celebration of it could be considered woke modern relationship dogma. However, the single pregnant woman does not express sanctimony. Furthermore, the delight at the pregnancy expressed by both the mother and her family was a refreshing affirmation of the life growing within her.

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