By Henry Ferreyra Trek (rent or buy it here) is another in a long line of LDS movies that have now been released to the masses. The movie features the tag line “a Mormon thing” which made me want to prepare myself for cheesy moments. Although the movie started out weak and a bit contrived, it had a strong finish that surprised me. LDS cinema started off with some great movies like God’s Army and T ...[Read More]
TREK Family Movie Review
LDS Film Festival Prepares to Inspire
By Jonathan Decker (Family therapist, film critic) For 16 years the LDS Film Festival has been a showcase for uplifting, powerful cinema from both Latter-day Saint filmmakers and others with shared values. There’s a truly phenomenal lineup for this year’s festival (March 1-4 at the Scera Theater in Orem) including a Studio C documentary, a film in which Donny Osmond plays a terrorist, a 24-hour fi ...[Read More]
Your New Favorite Christmas Album: “Merry” by NASHVILLE TRIBUTE BAND
By Jonathan Decker, Clinical Director, LMFT This past week my wife and I were fortunate to catch a Christmas concert by The Nashville Tribute Band, of whom I’d heard many good things but had never personally been exposed. I was so impressed that I bought their new Christmas album, Merry, upon exiting the show. Having listened to it all week, I give it my strongest recommendation for all who’re loo ...[Read More]
Album Review: Aussie Mormon Gives LDS Hymns a Soulful Spin
By Jonathan Decker (Family therapist, entertainment critic) I recently had the opportunity to attend a performance by one of the most unique talents of the LDS music scene. Paul “Cactus Jack” Le Mar is an Australian Mormon who performed live at an event I attended last month. I was stunned (and very moved) by his soulful, passionate takes on Latter-day hymns. I approached him and found him genuine ...[Read More]
BEHOLD THE GREAT REDEEMER is a Marvelous Album of Praise
By Jonathan Decker (Family therapist, media critic) On the heels of his albums How Beautiful Thy Temples and Sweet Hour of Prayer, pianist Garth Smith brings his soothing, melodic talent to your home once again with Behold the Great Redeemer (Sacred Hymns, Vol. III). With soft-yet-stirring arrangements of favorites such as “Lead, Kindly Light,” “I Need Thee Every Hour,” “I Wonder, When He Comes Ag ...[Read More]
Jamesthemormon: Not Your Parents’ “Mormon Rap”
By Jonathan Decker (Family therapist, entertainment critic) This article originally appeared in Meridian Magazine. In 1988 The Walter and Hays Band released the cheesily-quintessential “Mormon Rap.” The song was meant as a winking in-joke for Latter-day Saints, with lyrics like I’m a fine young man, I’m living clean, Don’t smoke, don’t drink, If you know what I mean. Don’t touch Soda Pop if It ha ...[Read More]
Lindsey Stirling’s Dad Wrote the Most Exciting LDS Thriller
By Jonathan Decker (Family therapist, entertainment critic) Many Latter-day Saint novels are painfully amateur. Good intentions don’t always equate good fiction. Steven J. Stirling, however, has more than enough talent with prose and storytelling to hang with the big dogs of mainstream espionage if he so chose, as evidenced by Persona Non Grata. That he uses his gifts to tell a story that is as fa ...[Read More]
Michael Flynn Talks MIDWAY TO HEAVEN, BEST TWO YEARS, LAMB OF GOD
By Jonathan Decker (family therapist, film critic) Note: This interview originally ran in Meridian Magazine in 2011 and is written from a Latter-day Saint perspective. President Spencer W. Kimball famously predicted that Mormon artists, including filmmakers, would tell the story of the Savior, the Restoration, and the Latter-day Saints with vigor, talent, and inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Though ...[Read More]