The Gospel Coalition
The Gospel Coalition is not a Tomatometer-approved publication. Reviews from this
publication only count toward the Tomatometer when written by the following
Tomatometer-approved critic(s):
Brett McCracken
Rating
Title/Year
Author
1
The Courier (2020)
Celebrates a bygone era when it wasn't abnormal to sacrifice one's personal interests for the sake of a larger community or cause.
Posted Jan 26, 2022
2
CODA (2021)
A tender celebration of the resilience of a family unit and the beauty of mutually sacrificial, self-giving love.
Posted Jan 26, 2022
3
The Killing of Two Lovers (2021)
[Displays] both the dangers of trifling with a sacred covenant, and the valor of fighting to restore it.
Posted Jan 26, 2022
4
C'mon C'mon (2021)
I don't think I've seen a film that captures so well the unique terror, confusion, exhaustion, and joy of 21st-century parenting.
Posted Jan 26, 2022
5
Pig (2021)
A film about how we respond to tragedy and injustice, Pig is both timely and timeless.
Posted Jan 26, 2022
6
Dune (2021)
More than any movie this year, Dune gave me hope that big screen, big movies, with big ideas, have a future.
Posted Jan 26, 2022
7
Belfast (2021)
I love how Belfast captures the sehnsucht longing that another Northern Irish Protestant-C. S. Lewis-once described.
Posted Jan 26, 2022
8
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
For all its entertaining merits, Spider-Man: No Way Home felt to me more like a low-stakes trifle than a thrilling epic.
Posted Jan 18, 2022
9
The Lost Daughter (2021)
When mothers, fathers, husbands, and wives ditch commitments in search of the true self, it's a move that fails to satisfy. It's an escape but not a solution.
Posted Jan 18, 2022
10
The Matrix Resurrections (2021)
It's an amorphous blob of a movie, full of sleepy action scenes and scatterbrained philosophical one-liners.
Posted Jan 18, 2022
11
Mass (2021)
Mass explores the messy tension between righteous rage and demands for justice, on one hand, and forgiveness and grace on the other.
Posted Oct 8, 2021
12
The Card Counter (2021)
It strikes me as perhaps Schrader's most interesting engagement with theological themes.
Posted Oct 8, 2021
13
The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021)
[The film] doesn't have eyes to see that while its heroine may be sweet and spunky and fearless, she is just as much a peddler of gospel distortions as her husband.
Posted Sep 17, 2021
14
Stillwater (2021)
For a film exploring moral authority, Stillwater cedes its own-unnecessarily-by recklessly blurring fact and fiction.
Posted Aug 21, 2021
15
Nine Days (2021)
The last two words in Nine Days are really the only ones that can make sense of the mystery of being: 'Thank you.'
Posted Jul 30, 2021
16
A Quiet Place Part II (2021)
Having been raised by a dad who modeled self-sacrificial love and courage, Regan [and Marcus] both demonstrate these characteristics in the film.
Posted Jun 16, 2021
17
Cruella (2021)
Does Satan himself have an origin story that makes his evil understandable, even excusable? The ending of Cruella suggests as much.
Posted Jun 16, 2021
18
Final Account (2021)
Accurate knowledge about the Holocaust is disturbingly low among Millennials and Gen Z Americans ... I hope this film is shown in high schools across America.
Posted Jun 4, 2021
19
The Father (2021)
As we watch, we become painfully aware: this will happen to our parents one day. It will happen to us. Every human life is a progression of seasons.
Posted May 27, 2021
20
My Octopus Teacher (2020)
My Octopus Teacher represents at least two ways we can turn nature into a false teacher.
Posted Apr 8, 2021
21
Nomadland (2021)
Cuts to the heart of existence, resonating in tone and texture with the aches we all feel-even if the specific story it tells is far from our particular context.
Posted Feb 19, 2021
22
Our Friend (2020)
A beautiful portrait of embodied, relational love in action. It's a film about being there for each other in the most literal, incarnate sense. No screens, no filters.
Posted Jan 29, 2021
23
Hillbilly Elegy (2020)
Hillbilly Elegy feels unintentionally condescending and uninterested in the very culture it seeks to humanize.
Posted Nov 10, 2020
24
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)
By interchangeably telling the story with various 'performed' versions of it ... Sorkin observes the surreality of our 'infotainment' age.
Posted Oct 23, 2020
25
Cuties (Mignonnes) (2020)
[Everyone] should be able to say it is wrong for a film-any film, however well-intentioned-to depict close-up, lingering shots of scantily clad 11-year-olds twerking.
Posted Sep 17, 2020
26
Tenet (2020)
The real "inversion" of Tenet-and ultimately, all of Nolan's films-is that its stretching upward toward the heavens boomerangs back to this world.
Posted Sep 11, 2020
27
Boys State (2020)
28
Young Ahmed (Le jeune Ahmed) (2020)
Ahmed poses many difficult questions-about the nature of evil, rehabilitation, and the limits of empathy-that it leaves the audience to answer.
Posted Jul 10, 2020
29
First Cow (2020)
Like many of Reichardt's films, First Cow explores the elusive beauty of relational connection in a world that can feel isolating and cruel.
Posted Jul 10, 2020
30
Driveways (2020)
In times of cultural crisis, narratives like this remind us that change often happens locally, through the people we get to know, and learn to love, right next door.
Posted Jul 10, 2020
31
Da 5 Bloods (2020)
If it's messy at times and hard to watch at others ... it is mostly because the characters and history Lee explores are anything but neat and tidy.
Posted Jul 10, 2020
32
Athlete A (2020)
Among other things, the film ... is an inspiring reminder of the power of good journalism to expose corruption, advocate for the vulnerable, and bring truth to light.
Posted Jul 10, 2020
33
The Assistant (2020)
For Christians-who of all people should seek to dismantle rather than perpetuate cultures of abuse-this is an important film to watch.
Posted Jul 10, 2020
34
Emma. (2020)
Anya Taylor-Joy perfectly captures the iconic snobbery of the titular character, while also imbuing her with moral complexity and an openness to correction.
Posted Jul 10, 2020
35
Thy Kingdom Come (2018)
A gorgeous and empathetic offshoot from Terrence Malick's 2013 film To the Wonder.
Posted Jul 10, 2020
36
The Way Back (2020)
A story about second chances, redemption, and renewal; the path back to life after descending to the depths.
Posted Mar 6, 2020
37
Ford v Ferrari (2019)
38
Just Mercy (2020)
Just Mercy powerfully captures the maddening anguish of innocent people who spend years of their lives behind bars-years they can never get back.
Posted Jan 21, 2020
39
Dark Waters (2019)
Captures the 'long pursuit' aspect of justice especially well ... Justice-seeking is often a lonely pursuit. It doesn't win profits or popularity. It's costly more than lucrative.
Posted Jan 21, 2020
40
1917 (2020)
The action is propulsive and unrelenting, greatly enhanced by the 'time running out' motif of real-time plot.
Posted Jan 6, 2020
41
A Hidden Life (2019)
42
The Irishman (2019)
Sort of like the Forrest Gump of gangster movies. It tells a specific man's story but against the backdrop of a half-century of American history.
Posted Nov 20, 2019
43
Jojo Rabbit (2019)
Ultimately Jojo is a film about change: the possibility and process of it; how it happens; why it's compelling to watch.
Posted Nov 9, 2019
44
Joker (2019)
Joker is the perfect bogeyman for our age, embodying the toxic, corrosive power of an entertainment-obsessed, hyper-mediated society of spectacle.
Posted Oct 5, 2019
45
Ad Astra (2019)
One of the most theologically interesting [films] of the year.
Posted Sep 27, 2019
46
The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019)
This is a rare movie that is sincere, joyous, and un-cynical, but also artfully made ... In dark and anxious times, we need more films like this.
Posted Sep 7, 2019
47
First Man (2018)
For all its technical merits, narrative intrigue, and fine acting, something feels hollow.
Posted Aug 19, 2019
48
Smallfoot (2018)
[The film's] simplistic binary between faith and science dangerously obscures the more nuanced reality.
Posted Aug 19, 2019
49
Operation Finale (2018)
[Operation Finale] reminds us that ultimate justice, true 'finale' judgment, is not up to us or even possible in this life.
Posted Aug 19, 2019
50
Christopher Robin (2018)