CULTURE
FILMS by Sister Rose Pacatte, FSP
40 • May 2022 / StAnthonyMessenger.org
Stu begins to feel the call to the priesthood. He asks to meet with Carmen, who thinks he is going to propose. Instead, he tells her he is going to become a priest. She is angry and heartbroken. Stu applies to the seminary in a most unconventional way. The rector sends him a rejection letter, but Stu doesn’t take no for an answer. His conversion is an ongoing endeavor. Father Stu is based on the true story of Father Stuart Long of the Diocese of Helena, Montana. Wahlberg and Gibson give credible performances as a father and son at odds with one another. Writer-director Rosalind Ross, in her first feature film, combines humor and heart in a profanity-laced story about redemption. However, themes of family, grace, faith, forgiveness, and reconciliation prevail. Father Stu is in theaters now. Not yet rated, R • Pervasive language, sports violence, peril.
SISTER ROSE’S FAVORITE FILMS ABOUT ONLINE LIFE SCREENED OUT (2020) HER (2013) CODED BIAS (2020) THE SOCIAL DILEMMA (2020) 15 MINUTES OF SHAME (2021)
FATHER STU: SONY PICTURES
STUART LONG (MARK WAHLBERG), whom everyone calls “Stu,” grows up to be a boxer in his home state of Montana. As he’s aging, the wins are fewer, his body is showing signs of wear and tear, and so he tells his mom, Kathleen (Jacki Weaver), that he’s going to Hollywood to be an actor. His estranged dad, Bill (Mel Gibson), works construction there. But they only meet when Stu tries to “borrow” his father’s pickup truck to go to an audition. To cover expenses as he waits for his big break, Stu gets a job at the meat counter of a supermarket. There he flirts with Carmen (Teresa Ruiz) and tries to sweet-talk her into a date. She posts a flyer about St. Mary’s Church, and Stu finds her there. He has an annoying but endearing manner, but Carmen says her parents will not let her date a man who is not baptized. To everyone’s surprise, Stu begins the process of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). He becomes friends with Ham (Aaron Moten), who volunteers at the parish. After his Baptism, Stu and Carmen become close. She is falling in love with him, and he meets her parents. He goes to confession for the first time and then stops for a drink at a bar. A stranger tells him, “Life is going to give you a lot of reasons to be angry, but you only need one reason to be grateful.” After, he is in a terrible motorcycle crash. When he wakes from a coma, he believes Mary spoke to him at the crash.
THE ADAM PROJECT: NETFLIX FILMS; DRIVE MY CAR: HBO MAX/C&I ENTERTAINMENT/BITTERS END (JAPAN)
FATHER STU
