Contributor: Paul Asay

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

A young girl and her pet pilot a spaceship to the moon.

Over the Moon

Over the Moon isn’t a film to rocket to without consideration. Still, in this reviewer’s eye, this Moon looks more than half full.

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30 Coins

30 Coins a difficult sell indeed, no matter how you dole out the silver. And the demons here are just one problem.

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Mama, Don’t Let Your Teens Grow Up to Be Pirates

It’s not like the Bible says, “Thou shalt not steal, unless it feels like it’s not hurting anybody too much and you’ve got a snappy broadband connection.”

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Last Man Standing

Last Man Standing tells us that, sometimes, we can all be a little silly. And that goes for the show itself, too.

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The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

This witchy reboot’s many problems are devilish indeed.

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The Plugged In Show, Episode 58: Soul and Spirituality Onscreen

While Soul certainly has issues that families should consider, it also gives viewers plenty of fertile ground for discussion. Only fitting that Plugged In discusses it.

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Vikings

Life is not sacred here. It’s not even particularly important.

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Wonder Woman 1984 Sets New COVID Record (For What That’s Worth)

But Wonder Woman 1984 left some families in a quandary: Is the movie worth a subscription to HBO Max?

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Promising Young Woman

Promising Young Woman is tragedy masked as comedy, a movie where an itch for justice is scratched by a twisted knife.

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The Stand

The latest adaptation of Stephen King’s apocalyptic battle between good and evil still has a lot of problems of its own.

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What’s the Heart of Soul? A Conversation with Director Pete Docter

You can’t fault Pixar for its ambition. Soul director Pete Docter talks about what might be the studio’s most ambitious film yet.

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The War With Grandpa

The War With Grandpa is filled with all the slapstick pratfalls you’d expect and with some other elements you might not:

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Blues legend Ma Rainey performs at a jazz club in 1927.

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

This is a difficult movie, but not a gratuitous one. It, like the blues, gets down in the muck. But it also makes its own sort of music.

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The Plugged In Show, Episode 56: Franchises, Fans and Families

Star Wars. The Avengers. Harry Potter. Many of us don’t have a “favorite movie” anymore as much as we have a favorite franchise.

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Nurses

Nurses is the Quarter Pounder of television medical drama: You don’t need to taste it to know what you’re going to get.

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