Fr. Brian and Fr. Matt explore the treatment of time and place in Here, a 2024 drama film depicting the events of a single spot of land over time. They discuss how this unique perspective, and the non-chronological order in which events are shown, mirrors the omniscience of God, who is similarly outside time. They also consider the passage of time in real life, and the significance of nostalgia and memory in the Christian life.

(0:28) Fr. Brian and Fr. Matt open the episode by discussing some of the movies they’ve seen recently, including Whiplash (2014), Harold and the Purple Crayon (2024), and Didi (2024). Then, they introduce the movie being covered in this episode: Here, a 2024 drama film depicting the events of a single spot of land over time.

(6:48) Our hosts discuss the unique format of Here, which is shot from a single, fixed camera angle to show a single spot throughout time, from when dinosaurs roamed the area to the present day. The stories are shown in non-chronological order, allowing the viewer to identify parallels between different experiences in this spot over time. Fr. Brian provides the example of the film’s depiction of the Spanish flu alongside the COVID-19 pandemic.

(13:42) Fr. Brian talks about one of the main storylines in the film, the lives of a couple played by Tom Hanks and Robin Wright. The hosts also discuss how the plot’s focus on time echoes the way time contributes to conflict in classical Greek tragedies. Fr. Brian and Fr. Matt then discuss the significance of sacred time and sacred places.

(19:02) Fr. Matt talks about the idea of time passing and changes taking place at his parish, Our Lady of the Rosary on Woodward Avenue in Detroit near Wayne State University. While the parish’s ministry today is mostly focused on campus ministry, around 100 years ago the pastor was known to ride his white horse to parishioners’ homes for sick calls. Similarly, while Old St. Mary Church is located in a neighborhood called Greektown, its stained glass windows feature the names of German donors who lived there when it was predominately a German neighborhood. Our hosts then talk about how the perspective of the movie—a single camera angle viewing events over time—mirrors the omniscience of God, who is outside time.

(25:02) Fr. Brian mentions that the director of Here, Robert Zemeckis, has notably worked on a number of other movies that deal with the passage of time, including Back to the Future, Forrest Gump, and Cast Away. The hosts then turn to the topic of nostalgia and memory in the Christian life, and how the climax of the film shows us that it's in the ability to remember that we see things from different perspectives.

(33:40) Fr. Matt and Fr. Brian share some of their critiques of the movie, most notably the aging and “de-aging” technology used to alter the actors’ appearances. They then rank the film using their “seeds of the word” rating, based on how clearly they saw goodness, truth, and beauty reflected in the story. Before concluding the episode, Fr. Matt invites listeners to send in their feedback—including which movies they’d like to see covered next—to cinema@aod.org.

“Here” and the sacredness of time and place