World magazine is praising a new Irish movie called Calvary, which depicts a Catholic priest whose life has been threatened by a parishioner who suffered abuse by another priest in the past. Writer and director John Michael McDonagh wanted to talk about serious issues in this film, not smirk like a hipster at anyone who claims to believe something.
“The film is not made for ironic hipsters who are slouching through life, never coming up with any emotional or intellectual response for anything. As if that’s too—‘Oh, I don’t want to get into all that, let’s just watch some TV show.’ To me, it’s a film made for those people, who I assume is all of us, who are striving for some kind of philosophical decision about why we’re here. Fox Searchlight probably won’t like me saying this, but it’s a film about death. There’s lots of references to death all the way through, and it’s coming to terms with what’s going to face us at the end of our lives.”
He goes on to describe his love for Flannery O’Connor.
That quote alone makes me want to see it. Well, that and all the positive impressions I’ve heard.
Looks like an interesting movie. The trailer shows it has some dark humor, too. Looks distinctly Catholic, which I guess is to be expected.
I’d say it is more about grace. And as we know grace often comes when death, or the threat of death, is upon us. I have a review of the film and an interview with the director at my site. I was really surprised at how often he himself mentioned grace.