Playing God (2021 Film)
''Playing God'' is a 2021 American film written and directed by Scott Brignac and starring Luke Benward, Michael McKean, Alan Tudyk, and Hannah Kasulka. It was released in theaters and on-demand on August 6, 2021. Premise ''Playing God'' follows "Rachel and Micah, a brother and sister con-artist duo who find themselves scamming a grieving billionaire, Ben, by convincing him they can introduce him to God, face-to-face. They recruit their longtime mentor, Frank, to 'play' God as the three of them attempt the biggest con of their lives." Cast * Luke Benward as Micah * Michael McKean as Frank * Alan Tudyk as Ben * Hannah Kasulka as Rachel * Jude Demorest as June * Marc Menchaca as Vaughan * Raoul Canoli as Jesus Production On May 14, 2018, it was announced that Scott Brignac was writing and directing a new film entitled ''Playing God'' to be produced by Aaron Benward and Russell Grove. Alongside the film's initial announcement, it was confirmed that Luke Benward, Michael McKean, Alan ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Aaron Benward
Aaron Jeoffrey Benward (born September 13, 1973) is an American singer-songwriter, actor, film/TV producer and music supervisor. Life and career Benward is the son of Candice and Jeoffrey Benward and has two siblings, Sareece and Colin. In high school, he left his mark as an All-State football, basketball and soccer player and was named the U.S. Army Scholar/Athlete of the Year. After graduating, he decided to pursue a college degree before getting involved in music on a professional level. He attended college on a soccer scholarship studying music business at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1991, he surprised his father Jeoffrey when he told his dad that he wanted to follow his steps in the music business. They went on to form a unique son/father duo called Aaron Jeoffrey that achieved great success in the CCM scene. They garnered 10 #1 Billboard CCM singles and sold over 1,000,000 copies on all three of their EMI released albums combined. Aaron met his wife ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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RogerEbert
''RogerEbert.com'' is an American film review website that archives reviews written by film critic Roger Ebert for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' and also shares other critics' reviews and essays. The website, underwritten by the ''Chicago Sun-Times'', was launched in 2002. Ebert handpicked writers from around the world to contribute to the website. After Ebert died in 2013, the website was relaunched under Ebert Digital, a partnership founded between Ebert, his wife Chaz, and friend Josh Golden. Background Two months after Ebert's death, Chaz Ebert hired film and television critic Matt Zoller Seitz as editor-in-chief for the website because his IndieWire blog PressPlay shared multiple contributors with RogerEbert.com, and because both websites promoted each other's content. ''The Dissolve''s Noel Murray described the website's collection of Ebert reviews as "an invaluable resource, both for getting some front-line perspective on older movies, and for getting a better sense of who ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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American Comedy-drama Films
American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, people who self-identify their ancestry as "American" ** American English, the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States ** Native Americans in the United States, indigenous peoples of the United States * American, something of, from, or related to the Americas, also known as "America" ** Indigenous peoples of the Americas * American (word), for analysis and history of the meanings in various contexts Organizations * American Airlines, U.S.-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas * American Athletic Conference, an American college athletic conference * American Recordings (record label), a record label previously known as Def American * American University, in Washington, D.C. Sports teams Soccer * ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2020s English-language Films
S, or s, is the nineteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ess'' (pronounced ), plural ''esses''. History Origin Northwest Semitic šîn represented a voiceless postalveolar fricative (as in 'ip'). It originated most likely as a pictogram of a tooth () and represented the phoneme via the acrophonic principle. Ancient Greek did not have a phoneme, so the derived Greek letter sigma () came to represent the voiceless alveolar sibilant . While the letter shape Σ continues Phoenician ''šîn'', its name ''sigma'' is taken from the letter '' samekh'', while the shape and position of ''samekh'' but name of ''šîn'' is continued in the '' xi''. Within Greek, the name of ''sigma'' was influenced by its association with the Greek word (earlier ) "to hiss". The original name of the letter "sigma" may have been ''san'', but due to the compli ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2021 Films
2021 in film is an overview of events, including award ceremonies, film festivals, a list of country-specific lists of films released, and movie programming. Evaluation of the year In his article highlighting the best movies of 2021, Richard Brody of ''The New Yorker'' said, "From an artistic perspective, 2021 has been an excellent cinematic vintage, yet the bounty is shadowed by an air of doom. The reopening of theatres has brought many great movies—some of which were postponed from last year—to the big screen, but fewer people to see them. The biggest successes, as usual, have been superhero and franchise films. ''The French Dispatch'' has done respectably in wide release, and ''Licorice Pizza'' is doing superbly on four screens in New York and Los Angeles, but few, if any, of the year’s best films are likely to reach high on the box-office charts. The shift toward streaming was already under way when the pandemic struck, and as the trend has accelerated it’s had a parad ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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God's Not Dead (film)
''God's Not Dead'' is a 2014 American Christian drama film directed by Harold Cronk and starring Kevin Sorbo, Shane Harper, David A. R. White, and Dean Cain. The film was released theatrically on March 21, 2014, by Pure Flix Entertainment. Written by Cary Solomon and Chuck Konzelman, and based on Rice book ''God's Not Dead: Evidence for God in an Age of Uncertainty'', the film follows a Christian college student (Harper) whose faith is challenged by an atheist philosophy professor (Sorbo), who declares God a pre-scientific fiction. It was heavily panned by critics but grossed over $62 million on a $2 million budget. The film was criticized for its screenplay, Cronk's directing, performances, mean-spirited tone, characters, and use of straw man arguments and common stereotypes of atheists, instead of any actual debate. The film was followed by the films ''God's Not Dead 2'' (2016), '' God's Not Dead: A Light in Darkness'' (2018), and '' God's Not Dead: We The People'' (2021). P ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Nostalghia
''Nostalghia'' (UK: ''Nostalgia'') is a 1983 Soviet-Italian drama film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky and starring Oleg Yankovsky, Domiziana Giordano, and Erland Josephson. Tarkovsky co-wrote the screenplay with Tonino Guerra. The film depicts a Russian writer (Oleg Yankovsky) who visits Italy to carry out research about an 18th-century Russian composer, but is stricken by homesickness. The film utilizes autobiographical elements drawn from Tarkovsky's own experiences visiting Italy, and explores themes surrounding the untranslatability of art and culture. The film won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, the prize for Best Director and the FIPRESCI Prize at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival. It received generally positive reviews from critics. The film received nine total votes in the 2012 ''Sight & Sound'' polls of the greatest films ever made. Plot The Russian writer Andrei Gorchakov travels to Italy to research the life of 18th-century Russian composer Pavel Sosnovsky, who lived th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Winter Light
''Winter Light'' ( sv, Nattvardsgästerna, lit=The Communicants) is a 1963 Swedish drama film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman and starring his regulars, Gunnar Björnstrand, Ingrid Thulin and Max von Sydow. It follows Tomas Ericsson (Björnstrand), pastor of a small rural Swedish church, as he deals with an existential crisis and his Christianity. The film is the second in a series of thematically related films, following '' Through a Glass Darkly'' (1961) and followed by '' The Silence'' (1963); this is sometimes considered a trilogy. In it, Bergman reconsiders ''Through a Glass Darkly''s argument that God is love, and repeated the prior film's reference to God as a monstrous spider. Bergman formed the story after speaking to a clergyman whose parishioner committed suicide. It was shot in different locations in Sweden in 1962. Vilgot Sjöman's film '' Ingmar Bergman Makes a Movie'' was made simultaneously with ''Winter Light'' and documents its production. The feature re ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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A Serious Man
''A Serious Man'' is a 2009 American black comedy-drama film written, produced, edited and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. Set in 1967, the film stars Michael Stuhlbarg as a Minnesota Jewish man whose life crumbles both professionally and personally, leading him to questions about his faith. ''A Serious Man'' received widespread positive critical response, including a place on both the American Film Institute's and National Board of Review of Motion Pictures's Top 10 Film Lists of 2009. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, and Stuhlbarg was nominated for a Golden Globe Award. Plot A Jewish man in a 19th-century Eastern European shtetl tells his wife that he was helped on his way home by Reb Groshkover, whom he has invited in for soup. She says Groshkover is dead and the man he invited must be a dybbuk. Groshkover arrives and laughs off the accusation, but she plunges an ice pick into his chest. Bleeding, he exits their home into the snowy night. In 1967, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The American Conservative
''The American Conservative'' (''TAC'') is a magazine published by the American Ideas Institute which was founded in 2002. Originally published twice a month, it was reduced to monthly publication in August 2009, and since February 2013, it has been bi-monthly. The publication states that it exists to promote a conservatism that opposes unchecked power in government and business alike; promote the flourishing of families and communities through vibrant markets and free people; and embrace realism and restraint in foreign affairs based on America's national interests, otherwise known as paleoconservatism. History ''The American Conservative'' was founded by Pat Buchanan, Scott McConnell and Taki Theodoracopulos in 2002 in opposition to the Iraq War. McConnell served as the magazine's first editor, followed by managing editor Kara Hopkins. Before the 2006 midterm elections, ''The American Conservative'' urged its readers to vote for Democrats: "It should surprise few reader ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Glenn Kenny
Glenn Kenny (born August 8, 1959) is an American film critic and journalist. He writes for ''The New York Times'' and '' RogerEbert.com''. Biography Kenny attended William Paterson University, where he majored in English literature.Interview with Glenn Kenny " ''rockcriticsarchives.com'', accessed February 19, 2017. He joined the staff of the film magazine '' Premiere'' in June 1996, after having worked as a freelance film and music critic for several publications, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Luke Benward
Luke Aaron Benward (born May 12, 1995) is an American actor and singer. He is best known for his role as Will in the Disney film '' Cloud 9'' (2014). His first starring role was Billy Forrester in ''How to Eat Fried Worms'' (2006), and as Charlie Tuttle in '' Minutemen'' (2008). He played the role of Dillon in '' Ravenswood'' and Bo in the Netflix film '' Dumplin'''. He recurred as Teddy's boyfriend, Beau, on the final season of the Disney Channel series ''Good Luck Charlie''. Early life Benward was born in Franklin, Tennessee, the son of Kenda (née Wilkerson) and Aaron Benward. His father is in the country duo Blue County, his mother is a part-time actress, model, and acting coach, and his grandfather is Contemporary Christian music artist Jeoffrey Benward. He has two younger sisters. Career Benward's acting career started when he landed a role in the film ''We Were Soldiers'' as David Moore in 2002. His success grew in 2006, when he played Billy Forrester in the movie ' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |