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Joel Mayward @jmayward.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Friends, if you've read my latest book, "Religious Cinema for Non-Believers: Film Criticism as Spiritual Practice," please leave a (hopefully positive) review on Amazon and Goodreads. And if you haven't read it yet, please do! amzn.to/4AB88fI

Book cover of "Religious Cinema for Non-Believers: Film Criticism as Spiritual Practice" by Joel Mayward. Features a film reel and celluloid on a red, black, and beige cover.

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Joel Mayward @jmayward.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

My Best TV of the 21st Century: Twin Peaks: The Return Over the Garden Wall Bluey Mad Men Gravity Falls Fleabag Arrested Development Parks and Recreation The Blue Planet/Planet Earth The Underground Railroad

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Reposted by Joel Mayward

LarsenOnFilm @larsenonfilm.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

New to the bookshelf. Congrats @jmayward.bsky.social!

Book cover of Religious Cinema for Non-Believers, by Joel Mayward

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Joel Mayward @jmayward.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Wendell Berry and Annie Dillard dying within two weeks of one another is just so sad. RIP to two of our greatest appreciators of the natural world.

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Joel Mayward @jmayward.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

What are non-Bible films featuring the themes of "exodus" and/or a search for a "promised land"?

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Joel Mayward @jmayward.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Submitted my portfolio in application for tenure. 🤓

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Joel Mayward @jmayward.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Celebrate the opening day of TIFF and my birthday by ordering "Religious Cinema for Non-Believers: Film Criticism as Spiritual Practice" amzn.to/4cAOfv7

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Joel Mayward @jmayward.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Look what arrived for my birthday: my author copies of "Religious Cinema for Non-Believers"

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Joel Mayward @jmayward.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Happy birthday to me, and to everyone else celebrating the most common birthdate in the US.

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Joel Mayward @jmayward.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

My "most similar" cities are Seattle, WA and Portland, OR, so, yeah, it's pretty accurate

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Joel Mayward @jmayward.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

This is quite the merger in Christian academic & ministry publishing.

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Joel Mayward @jmayward.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

As I've shared with students in my college classes that I'm asking them to not use AI tools to complete assignments in the course, I've also shared that I have never and will never use AI for any element in the course (grading, teaching, slideshows, etc.)—it's all me. I kid you not, they applauded

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Joel Mayward @jmayward.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

The first third of THE RIVALS OF AMZIAH KING—a neo-Western musical heist film—is quite possibly my favorite movie of the year so far.

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Reposted by Joel Mayward

Joel Mayward @jmayward.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

My latest book, "Religious Cinema for Non-Believers: Film Criticism as Spiritual Practice," is now available to purchase at Amazon. Please buy it, read it, review it, share it—I hope this book finds a good home in the cinephile world amzn.to/4qGNgPE

amzn.to

Religious Cinema for Non-Believers: Film Criticism as Spiritual Practice

Religious Cinema for Non-Believers: Film Criticism as Spiritual Practice [Mayward, Joel] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Religious Cinema for Non-Believers: Film Criticism as Spiritual Practice

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Joel Mayward @jmayward.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Adam Scott's visit to the Criterion Closet ends with a surprise Dardenne brothers pick youtu.be/uzH9Fjb2x4w?...

youtu.be

Adam Scott’s Closet Picks

YouTube video by CRITERION

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Joel Mayward @jmayward.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Share a horror movie title that begins with the letter “P” I'll share three

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Joel Mayward @jmayward.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

amzn.to

Religious Cinema for Non-Believers: Film Criticism as Spiritual Practice

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Reposted by Joel Mayward

Abby Olcese @abbyolcese.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Happy book birthday, @jmayward.bsky.social! Go get Religious Cinema for Non-Believers! I liked it so much I blurbed it!

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Reposted by Joel Mayward

LarsenOnFilm @larsenonfilm.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Congrats Joel! My official plug: "If you’re unfamiliar with the film criticism of Joel Mayward, Religious Cinema for Non-Believers is a handy way to correct that grievous error. He’s one of those rare critics who almost, almost makes it unnecessary to watch a movie once he’s written about it."

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Joel Mayward @jmayward.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Just noticed an aesthetic pattern with recent faith-and-film book covers: my book, "Religious Cinema for Non-Believers" @abbyolcese.bsky.social "Films for All Seasons" @ginadalfonzo.bsky.social "The Screen and the Mirror" ...and then @overstreet.bsky.social "Lost and Found" breaks the mold!

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Joel Mayward @jmayward.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

My latest book, "Religious Cinema for Non-Believers: Film Criticism as Spiritual Practice" is now available! It's a collection of my longform film criticism essays written over the span of the past decade. wipfandstock.com/979838524740...

wipfandstock.com

Religious Cinema for Non-Believers- Wipf and Stock Publishers

Religious Cinema for Non-Believers is a collection of longform film criticism essays written over the span of a decade by theologian and film critic Joel May...

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Joel Mayward @jmayward.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Sent off three chapter drafts of my "Theocinematics" book to the editor. Only nine more to go. 🫠

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Joel Mayward @jmayward.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

It's been a full movie-watching year

Letterboxd 2026 so far:
Films – 307 this year
Diary – 315 this year

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Joel Mayward @jmayward.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Out of the many criticisms levied at the film, the claim that the Trojan beach in Nolan's ODYSSEY was too "pristine" is really reaching.

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Joel Mayward @jmayward.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Empire of the Sun Matewan The Heartbreak Kid My Darling Clementine Come and See Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom The Piano Teacher sex, lies, and videotape Blue Heron The Odyssey

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Joel Mayward @jmayward.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

This. I'd write this. amzn.to/4yIUyGi

Book cover for 33 1/3 book, "Carrie & Lowell," by Joel Mayward

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Joel Mayward @jmayward.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Terribly sad news. Seeing The Swell Season in one of their first performances after winning the Oscar for "Falling Slowly" remains one of the best concerts I've ever experienced.

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Joel Mayward @jmayward.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

The LRB review opens by claiming an undisclosed number of Nolan's films are "boring" and THE ODYSSEY is "family-friendly," and frankly, it's hard to take the rest of it very seriously.

The opening paragraph from the LRB review of "The Odyssey," with the following highlighted text: "Unlike some of Nolan’s other films, The Odyssey is not boring, thanks to the source material, which is impossible to mess up entirely. It’s a family-friendly audiovisual spectacle, like an elaborate Fourth of July fireworks display – and with about the same level of narrative and emotional depth."

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Joel Mayward @jmayward.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

If you appreciated how certain scenes in THE ODYSSEY delve into the horror genre, seek out Nolan's first short film, TARANTELLA, which is purely horror and features a young Christopher Nolan in front of the camera.

Christopher Nolan in his short film "Tarantella"

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Joel Mayward @jmayward.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Update: my prediction was right.

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Joel Mayward @jmayward.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

"[The Odyssey] will be an epic blockbuster film featuring crosscutting, a fragmented narrative structure which leaps about in time, an immersive musical score, massive awe-inspiring visuals shot on IMAX film, and a central character, Odysseus, wrestling with questions of identity and selfhood."

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Joel Mayward @jmayward.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Happy 51st birthday to Sufjan Stevens!

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Joel Mayward @jmayward.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Apropos of recent national news, I have found Hanna Reichel's "For Such a Time as This: An Emergency Devotional" to be genuinely hopeful and encouraging (as in, generating courage) amidst the ongoing quasi-dystopian reality in this country. www.eerdmans.com/978146747057...

eerdmans.com

For Such a Time as This

A guide for ordinary Christians seeking to live faithfully in extraordinary times“This is not the first end of the world. Many worlds have ended.”In an e...

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Joel Mayward @jmayward.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Oh dear, Marty. "DeMille would have his production designers do oil paintings. This is that, in a sense." It is not that, in a sense.

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Joel Mayward @jmayward.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

Today, May 30, is both the feast day of St. Joan of Arc and the birthday of filmmaker Agnès Varda. TIL Varda made a film featuring Joan of Arc: "Jane B. for Agnès V."

Jane Birkin as Joan of Arc in the film "Jane B. for Agnès V."

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Joel Mayward @jmayward.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

I wrote a review of Jonathan A. Anderson's excellent "The Invisibility of Religion in Contemporary Art" for @readingreligion.bsky.social just in time before RR ceases operations. Essential book for theology and the arts folks. readingreligion.org/978026820918...

readingreligion.org

Invisibility of Religion in Contemporary Art - Reading Religion

The Invisibility of Religion in Contemporary Art offers a critical guide for rereading and rethinking religion in the histories of modern and contempora...

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