Each year we see hundreds of movies and review those we can recommend to you as good companions for your spiritual journey. When we call a film "spiritually literate" we mean that it is a good illustration of one of the practices in the Alphabet of Spiritual Literacy. In the sidebar coding on our review, you'll see what we have identified as the film's strengths. We encourage you to see these movies in the theater or via DVD or a streaming service. Click on the links to read the full reviews.

20 Days in Mariupol
Directed by Mstyslav Chernov
Courageous reporting of the horrors of the Russian invasion of Ukraine by journalists on the ground as a city is destroyed.
(Documentary)

Air
Directed by Ben Affleck
An immensely entertaining drama based on true events that changed the game and the business of basketball.
(Feature)

American Fiction
Directed by Cord Jefferson
A satire with heart challenging the stereotypes and narrative tropes in Black fiction.
(Feature)

American Symphony
Directed by Matthew Heineman
A love story about how the creative process creates both music and healing.
(Documentary)

Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret
Directed by Kelly Fremon Craig
An enchanting dramady about an eleven-year-old girl dealing with her changing body and her curiosity about religion.
(Feature)

Asteroid City
Directed by Wes Anderson
A play within a film about learning to see the world and all its surprises with wide-awake eyes.
(Feature)

Barbie
Directed by Greta Gerwig
A sassy comedy that raises questions for people of all ages about what it means to frame your life as a quest.
(Feature)

Beyond Utopia
Directed by Madeleine Gavin
A documentary that embeds viewers with defectors from North Korea on their harrowing journey to freedom.
(Documentary)

The Boy and the Heron
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
A boy’s spiritual journey through grief to commitment, conveyed through wonder-inducing animation.
(Animated)

Chile '76
Directed by Manuela Martelli
A political and psychological thriller about the moral struggle of a bourgeois women living under a dictatorship.
(International)

Earth Mama
Directed by Savanah Leaf
Touching story of a single mother who is trying to reshape her life to regain custody of her small children.
(Feature)

Fallen Leaves
Directed by Aki Kaurismaki
A heartfelt romantic drama about two lonely people with the courage to fall in love.
(International)

The Holdovers
Directed by Alexander Payne
A dramedy about three people reframing sadness and loneliness during the holidays.
(Feature)

In Viaggio: The Travels of Pope Francis
Directed by Gianfranco Rosi
A pilgrimage with Pope Francis to visit the people and express his concerns for the world.
(Documentary)

Killers of the Flower Moon
Directed by Martin Scorsese
A love story set amidst a series of murders revealing how indigenous people have been victims of the shadow side of American society -- racism and white supremacy.
(Feature)

Maestro
Directed by Bradley Cooper
A biopicture about how the marriage of Leonard and Felicia Bernstein influenced his career.
(Feature)

The Monk and the Gun
Directed by Pawo Choyning Dorji
An insightful film about how Bhutanese villagers respond to changes coming through the influence of the West.
(International)

Nyad
Directed by Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelvi
The true story of Diana Nyad’s marathon swim and remarkable lifetime friendship.
(Feature)

Oppenheimer
Directed by Christopher Nolan
An intense, inventively filmed, and well-acted biopicture about the kinds of events that are hard on the heart.
(Feature)

Origin
Directed by Ava DuVernay
The origin story of how and why author Isabel Wilkinson researched her book Caste.
(Feature)

Past Lives
Directed by Celine Song
What happens when three spiritually mature adults make a love triangle?
(Feature)

Perfect Days
Directed by Wim Wenders
Two weeks in the life of a cleaner of public toilets in Tokyo with a luminous performance by Koji Yakusho as an exemplar of everyday spirituality.
(International)

Rose
Directed by Niels Arden Oplev
A road trip during which we meet a schizophrenic character and learn to see beyond stigma.
(International)

Rustin
Directed by George C. Wolfe
An inspiring biopicture of the civil rights leader who organized the 1963 March on Washington.
(Feature)

Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie
Directed by Davis Guggenheim
An extraordinarily intimate portrait of the actor who used a diagnosis of Parkinson’s to discover he is really was and what he could do for the world.
(Documentary)

The Taste of Things
Directed by Tran Anh Hung
A love story revolving around the awe cooks bring to the preparation of food.
(International)

The Teacher's Lounge
Directed by Ilker Catok
Portrait of a school in crisis that mirrors clashes in the larger society between authorities in power and those accused of wrongdoing.
(International)

Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer
Directed by Thomas von Steinacker
A creative portrait of a lover of Mystery.
(Documentary)

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
Directed by Wes Anderson
An adaptation of a Ronald Dahl story about changing your life and doing the impossible.
(Feature)

You Hurt My Feelings
Directed by Nicole Holofcener
An insightful comedy about the epidemic of lying and the lack of trust afoot on all levels of society.
(Feature)