Fr. Brian and Fr. Matt explore the treatment of death and the afterlife in both Beetlejuice (1988) and its sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024). They compare the films’ lighthearted approach to death to the Christian concept of “memento mori,” a sober recognition of mortality and living life in preparation for death. Regarding the afterlife, while the film’s depiction of an otherworldly bureaucratic waiting room can be compared to our understanding of purgatory, its descriptions of the “Great Beyond” lack the sense of eternal peace or eternal rest that we associate with heaven.

(0:28) Fr. Brian and Fr. Matt open the episode by discussing some of the movies they’ve seen recently, including Sing Sing, about the real-life theater program at Sing Sing Maximum Security Prison, and Trap, an M. Night Shyamalan film about a serial killer evading police while attending a concert with his daughter. Fr. Brian then challenges Fr. Matt to a game before announcing the movies being covered in this episode: Beetlejuice and its sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. After summarizing the plot of the films, our hosts zero in on the films’ depiction of death and the afterlife.

(14:12) In both films, the afterlife is depicted as a bureaucratic office through which souls are processed after death. Fr. Matt notes that there’s a purgatorial aspect to this “waiting room” or “in-between phase” for the characters. The second movie also includes references to the “Great Beyond,” a place one can go after the initial waiting period. While this idea slightly mirrors a soul’s transition from purgatory to heaven, our hosts note that the film’s depiction of the “Great Beyond” lacks the sense of eternal peace or eternal rest that we associate with heaven.

(19:06) Fr. Matt confesses that he isn’t typically a fan of Tim Burton’s films, as they often feature lighthearted depictions of death that aren’t aligned with the Christian practice of sober preparation and recognition of one’s mortality. Fr. Brian notes a few details Beetlejuice Beetlejuice gets right: The “Great Beyond” represents what comes after a soul’s period of waiting, and the character Dolores, who drains the souls of the dead, in some ways mirrors the idea of “second death” mentioned in the Book of Revelation.

(28:48) Fr. Brian talks about a plot device used in both movies wherein characters get married in the afterlife. He cites the Gospel of Mark, which happens to be Fr. Matt’s favorite, in which Jesus tells the Sadducees that there is no marriage in heaven. As these films are favorites to watch during the Halloween “season,” our hosts take time to discuss the difference between secular and religious holiday celebrations.

(35:49) Fr. Matt clarifies that a film being featured on Cinema Verbi does not mean it enjoys the full endorsement of either host. Instead, families are encouraged to review and judge movies based on their own needs. Both of our hosts then rank the Beetlejuice movies using their “seeds of the word” rating, based on how clearly they saw goodness, truth, and beauty reflected in the stories.

Fr. Brian and Fr. Matt dive into the Pixar universe to break down themes of anxiety and sense of self in this year’s Inside Out 2, the highest-grossing animated film of all time and sequel to the 2015 hit Inside Out. Our hosts draw parallels between the other emotions’ efforts to rein in Anxiety (the character) and the Christian understanding that anxiety (the emotion) is not from God. They also discuss the movie’s assertion that a person’s sense of self is rooted in core memories and beliefs, similar to the Christian perspective of our identity being rooted in our relationship with God.

(0:28) Our hosts greet each other and talk about some of the films they’ve seen recently. Fr. Brian playfully teases Fr. Matt for being “on the jumpy side” when watching scary movies. Then, they introduce today’s topic: Inside Out 2, the highest-grossing animated film of all time and sequel to the 2015 hit Inside Out.

(3:53) Fr. Matt provides a synopsis of Inside Out, the story of a young girl named Riley who is guided through life by five anthropomorphized emotions: Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust. Both Fr. Matt and Fr. Brian liked Inside Out better than its sequel, which adds a few more emotions to the mix: Anxiety, Envy, Embarrassment, Ennui, and–for just a moment–Nostalgia. They discuss how the existence of these new emotions, and the ways they interact with each other, impact the world building set by the original film.

(10:46) After a brief interlude to revisit Fr. Matt’s tendency toward jumpiness in the theater, our hosts discuss one of the new world building elements introduced in the film: Riley’s memories grow into her beliefs, which together form her sense of self. At the beginning of the movie, her sense of self is, “I am a good person.” With the arrival of Anxiety, this sense of self is lost and replaced with, “I am not good enough.”

(16:55) Fr. Matt shares his 7-year-old cousin’s take on the film’s message: “We can’t let anxiety have control.” This opens the door to a discussion about the Christian understanding that anxiety is not from God, a teaching that is reflected in the film as the other characters work to control Anxiety and prevent her from controlling Riley.

(25:10) Fr. Brian talks about the movie’s assertion that a person’s sense of self is rooted in core memories and beliefs, comparing it to the Christian perspective of our identity being rooted in our relationship with God. He and Fr. Matt highlight some of the more clever world building elements from the film, including the “Sarchasm,” a chasm inside Riley’s mind that transforms genuine speech into sarcastic taunts.

(29:36) Fr. Matt says the film is missing the idea of virtue driving our actions. Both hosts agree that they’d love to see a film similar to the Inside Out franchise featuring characters modeled after faith, hope, charity, prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude. Fr. Brian suggests the Prudence character would lead the way, like Joy does in the existing films.

(31:58) Our hosts rank Inside Out 2 using their “seeds of the word” rating, based on how clearly they saw goodness, truth, and beauty reflected in the story. They conclude the episode by sharing their all-time favorite Pixar movies.

[Editor's note: This podcast episode was recorded over the summer, before the recent hurricanes impacting areas in the southern U.S. The Archdiocese of Detroit offers its prayers for all those impacted and invites the faithful to visit catholiccharitiesusa.org to learn about ways to help.]

On this episode of Cinema Verbi, Fr. Brian and Fr. Matt talk about Twisters, a standalone sequel to the 1996 summer blockbuster, Twister. The duo discusses the film’s parallels to the Book of Job and the importance of looking for God in the “storms” of life and facing challenges with faith, humility, and charity. They close the episode with a game of Tempest of the Two Testaments, testing Fr. Matt’s knowledge of biblical plagues, earthquakes, and whirlwinds. Editor’s note: The conversation includes major spoilers from throughout the film.

(0:26) Fr. Matt and Fr. Brian greet each other and share the most recent movie they’ve seen. Both movies are sequels: Inside Out 2 (Fr. Matt) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Fr. Brian). They note the prevalence today of remakes and sequels, with fewer original stories being told. They segue into introducing the film for this episode: Twisters, fittingly a standalone sequel to the 1996 summer blockbuster, Twister.

(8:39) Fr. Brian recalls seeing the original Twister at a drive-in theater and being terrified by the scene in which a drive-in theater is destroyed by a tornado. They lay out the plot of the film, which follows a woman named Kate Cooper who is grieving the loss of her friends in a previous storm. Our hosts pause to discuss previous movies that have featured the stars of Twisters, including Clue, Home Alone 2, Titanic, and Top Gun: Maverick.

(16:31) Fr. Brian points out some thematic parallels between Twisters and the Old Testament’s Book of Job, with both stories raising the question of evil–or why bad things happen to good people. Fr. Brian also sees in Twisters a glimpse of the scriptural lesson to look for God even in the storms of life, learning from those experiences to help others.

(21:32) Our hosts talk about how the characters in the film try to tame the tornadoes and save lives–although some have additional motivations driving their research. Fr. Brian and Fr. Matt look at the “man vs. nature” theme of the film, in which the characters learn as much as they can about the tornadoes in order to harness and control their destructive power. Finally, Fr. Brian and Fr. Matt see in Kate’s reluctance to go home to Oklahoma a reflection of the theological idea of exitus et reditus, in which everything comes from God (exitus), turns away from God, and ultimately returns to God in some way (reditus).

(33:03) Fr. Brian challenges Fr. Matt to a game of Tempest of the Two Testaments, quizzing him on the biblical plagues, the story of Elijah, earthquakes in the Gospel of St. Matthew, Jesus calming the storm at sea, and the storm that shipwrecked St. Paul. They then close the episode by each giving the film a “seeds of the word” rating, based on how clearly they saw goodness, truth, and beauty reflected in the story.