Placing a spotlight on the complex role between church and state during a time of murderous tyranny, Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin is an incredibly inspiring true story of faith, resistance, and the cost of discipleship.

Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin stars Jonas Dassler as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German theologian and pastor whose active resistance against the Nazis led to a vital protestant movement during the 1930s through the establishment of The Confessing Church. The result was a legacy of Christian resistance that still resonates to this day.

With his second feature film as director, Todd Komarnicki delivers a handsomely made biopic that focuses on the subjects of religion and nationalism and the challenges that befall Christians when the two intertwine to destructive results.

 

Directed by Arkasha Stevenson, The First Omen is a visually arresting and exciting addition to an underachieving franchise that ups the stakes in this saga of evil rising in an increasingly secularised world.

Set in 1970s Rome, The First Omen stars Nell Tiger Free as Margaret, a novice nun from Massachusetts who is transferred to Rome where she is to take her final vows. Working in an orphanage, Margaret is drawn to Carlita (Nicole Sorace) a disturbed child whose mysterious past reveals a sinister plot to bring forth the birth of the antichrist.

Stevenson leans into the weirder aspects of the Omen story to create a religious horror mystery in which nightmare inducing imagery and body horror gore combine with rich period detail and stellar photography by Aaron Morton. Nell Tiger Free, meanwhile, delivers an astonishingly good performance as a fragile soul who undergoes a physical, spiritual, and psychological journey through hell.

The father-daughter tandem of Ethan and Maya Hawke deliver a fascinating film in Wildcat, a biopic of celebrated writer and Catholic, Flannery O’Connor.

Set in the 1950s during O’Connor’s last years before her death at the age of 39, Wildcat portrays not only O’Connor’s battle with the lupus disease that would claim her life and her struggle to finish her first novel “Wiseblood” but also features dramatic recreations of O’Connor’s short stories in which Maya Hawke portrays the main characters.

Hawke is excellent in the film, especially during those moments when the steadfast O’Connor defends her writing and her Catholic film with uncompromising, illuminating vigour. 

Politics and religion literally clash in Godless, the latest film from director/writer Michael Ricigliano who delivers an intelligent and profound work that handles its controversial subjects with impressive sophistication.

Godless stars Ana Ortiz as Angela Porra, the governor of New York and practicing Catholic whose decision to allow gay marriage in the state draws the ire of the newly appointed Bishop Reginald Rolland (Harry Lennix) who decides to excommunicate the governor, leading to a battle between church and state.

Ortiz and Lennix are terrific as adversaries who despite having opposing views regarding the influence the Church has over the state still find a middle-ground in their share humanity.

An inspiring true story of faith and community during extreme hardship, Ordinary Angels portrays Christ’s command to “Do to others what you want them to do to you.”

Set during 1994 in the blue-collar city of Louisville, Kentucky, Ordinary Angels stars Alan Ritchson as Ed Schmitt, a widowed roofer struggling to raise his daughters, with his youngest daughter in dire need of a liver transplant.  Offering to help is Sharon Stevens (Hilary Swank) a small business owner whose heavy drinking lands her in Alcoholics Anonymous, where she is encouraged to find a purpose for her life.

Ritchson and Swank portray their characters with the right kind of dramatic flair needed to make an inspirational story like Ordinary Angels work. Director Jon Gunn, meanwhile, deftly covers a wide range of subjects (grief, addiction, financial distress) as well as themes of purpose, pride, and charity.

Faith-based production house Angel Studios have a knack for finding true-life stories that make great cinematic fodder. The inspirational Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot is the latest example of that.

Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot tells the story of Donna and Reverend WC Martin (Nika King and Demetrius Grosse) who decide to open their hearts and home to sibling orphans left wallowing in the foster care system. This act of charity would lead to a remarkable movement of hope and love within their East Texas community who would adopt 77 children deemed too hard to foster.

Director Joshua Weigel delivers a stirring true-life drama that represents the Christian driven ethos of love and charity towards those in dire straits and does so without sugarcoating the hardships and sacrifices of such a tremendous undertaking, as well as the rewards in helping the forgotten and vulnerable.   

Directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods deliver an intelligent and crafty psychological religious horror in Heretic that takes its themes of faith, disbelief, and anti-religious bigotry seriously, while also playing their audience like marionettes as we are led from one scenario to the next with hand-over-face anticipation.

Heretic stars Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East as Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton (respectively), missionaries for the Church of Latter-Day Saints who find themselves at the front door of Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant).

With a snowstorm brewing outside, Barnes and Paxton agree to enter Reed’s house and gab about God. It doesn’t take long for Mr. Reed’s façade to slip, leading to a twisted battle of survival as Reed tests the spiritual mettle of these Mormon women through his increasingly violent attempts to convince them that their belief in God is based on a lie.

As Mr. Reed, Grant delivers his scariest and strangely his most compelling performance yet. Grant has played villains before, yet his performance in Heretic is a special breed of scary, a combination of charming gentlemanly politeness, smug know-it-all ego, and cold savagery.

World War II has provided many true-stories of hope and horror for the silver-screen, and Irena’s Vow is one of the best recent examples of faith-driven heroism from that turbulent time.

Directed by Louise Archambault, Irena’s Vow tells the true story of Irena Gut, a young Polish Catholic woman who during the Nazi-Soviet invasion of 1939 was conscripted by a Nazi German officer to work as a housekeeper in his requisitioned villa. Witnessing firsthand the brutality of the Nazi’s upon the Jewish people, Irena bravely decides to hide 12 Polish-Jews in the cellar of her Nazi boss’ home until she can arrange for their escape into allied territory.

A heart wrenching and thrilling biopic filled with sky-high stakes and an excellent lead performance from Sophie Nelisse, Irena’s Vow also reminds how the courageous act of this young Catholic woman to stand for good against evil is one that should never be forgotten.

A true story in which a family of musicians from Australia start a new life in the US, Unsung Hero succeeds as an incredibly profound and inspirational story that portrays the struggles endured and rewards earned in the pursuit of a dream.

Unsung Hero begins in Sydney, Australia during the late 1980s, where successful concert promoter David Smallbone (Joel David Smallbone) files for bankruptcy after a business decision gone wrong. After moving his wife Helen (Daisy Betts) and their brood of seven to Nashville, USA where a new job is promised but not delivered, David and his family must start again from the bottom to reach their dream of success in the music industry.

An underdog story in which opportunity is found in devastation and faith kept alive during crisis, Unsung Hero is just as impactful as an immigrant story, with this family of Aussie’s dealing with culture clash while establishing themselves in the heartland of the Christian music scene.   

An underdog story of faith and ambition told with impeccable craft and commanding performances, Cabrini does justice to the legacy of a saint who stood up for the downtrodden against those in power.

Cabrini stars Christiana Dell’Anna as Saint Francis Xavier Cabrini, a Catholic sister who in the late 19th century established a mission in New York City where a growing number of Italian immigrants endured persecution and poverty, resulting in a high number of homeless orphans. As Mother Cabrini tries to establish her mission, she is met with danger both in the streets and the corridors of power, where the (fictional) Mayor Gould (John Lithgow) uses the power of his office to try and run Mother Cabrini out of town.

Director Alejandro Monteverde stages Cabrini as a David vs. Goliath battle, yet one that is won through faith, ambition, and the good mother’s embrace of the purely American attitude that “we are bold, or we die!” Dell’Anna portrays this little-saint-that-could with frail physicality, strong spirit, and keen intelligence that encapsulates the character of this Patron Saint of All Immigrants.