R | 3h | Drama, Biopic, Thriller | July 21, 2023 Who would have thought a three-hour biopic (with thriller intent) about atomic physics would turn out to be 2023’s summer blockbuster? A blockbuster for adults. You’ll be on the edge of your seat the entire time because here, finally, is pithy, challenging, exciting, mind-expanding, engrossing, quality educational…

1973 | R | 1h 44m | Comedy, Drama As a military veteran, I have been around my fair share of crude banter and surreal situations. So when I watch military-themed films, I tend to be overly critical of how realistic both the verbal and physical exchanges are between troops. If it doesn’t ring true…

With each passing year, another collection of works about World War II is produced. From economic analyses to military histories to biographies to historical fiction, there seems to be an endless supply. The war was a moment, lasting less than a decade, in which the world attempted to destroy itself. It is a moment that…

“So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war.” Whether Abraham Lincoln greeted Harriet Beecher Stowe with those words during her 1862 visit to the White House is uncertain, but if so, they were accurate. Stowe was little—she stood less than five feet tall—and the novel she had written 10…

NR | 1h 25 min | Drama | 1948 Novelist Ruth Moore often wrote of families whose fates were tied to Maine’s shores: its waters, its boats, its horizons, distant yet beckoning. Fittingly, Henry King’s screen adaptation of Moore’s novel “Spoonhandle” opens with text that reassures audiences that all outdoor shots were filmed in Maine….

The Rev. Philip Lindsley came to Nashville in 1824 to rescue the struggling Cumberland College (now University of Nashville). What he brought with him was a great vision: to create “a center of learning and civilization in the midst of the Old Southwest.” He pictured a group of academics, similar to those depicted in Raphael’s…

Many people have reported having profound near-death experiences (NDEs) where they seem to leave the body and experience a state of bliss—but David and Scarlet Schwartz report the unusual experience of a joint NDE. David was on his deathbed. His mother had made funeral arrangements. When Scarlet first laid eyes on David, he was in…

When Ulysses S. Grant entered the president’s office in 1869, echoes of the Civil War tensions that he helped to resolve still reverberated in his mind—and in the nation at large. In response, he commissioned a set of paintings to represent the Union’s indivisibility and to symbolize the nation’s post-war recovery. “Liberty” by Constantino Brumidi is mounted…

A museum’s interest in historic boxes does not depend on whether they still contain their original contents or are now emptied. Scholarly unpacking of these boxes shows the breadth and depth of their materiality, form, function, and beauty. Their exteriors stand on their own, continuing to delight viewers today. A highly prized material in medieval…

“White flight” is one of those terms that drips with resentment and feeds on self-hatred. As a label for the mass movement of white Americans out of cities during the 20th century, it’s no friendlier than “gentrification,” used to define the reverse movement over recent decades. But many white people, such as “White Fragility” author…