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Kenneth R. Morefield
Tomatometer-approved critic
Kenneth is an Associate Professor of English at Campbell University in Buies Creek, NC. He is the editor of and a contributor to Faith and Spirituality in Masters of World Cinema (2008, Cambridge Scholars Publishing). Other works of note include contributions to the anthologies Perceptions of Religious Faith in the Work of Graham Greene (2001, Peter Lang) and The Deep End of South Park: Critical Essays on Television's Shocking Cartoon Series (2009, McFarland). Morefield also maintains a collection of other film related writing at 1More Film Blog, and is married to the artist, Cynthia L. Morefield.
Movies reviews only
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The Way We Speak (2024) |
Speech, whether it is deceitful, harmful, or both, seems to me to be treated far more seriously in the Bible than we treat it when we hear our poets, priests, and politicians abuse it. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Apr 18, 2024
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Earth Protectors (2023) |
The cinematic equivalent of doom scrolling. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Mar 20, 2024
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Books & Drinks (2024) |
I would hardly be the first person to point out that the rom-com genre doesn’t treat its female characters well. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Feb 29, 2024
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Sense and Sensibility (2024) |
The new production stays faithful to the plot of Austen’s beloved novel while highlighting themes that are embedded in it. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Feb 26, 2024
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Bob Marley: One Love (2024) |
It is difficult to tell which elements of the protagonist’s life are significant and which are just easter eggs for sharp-eyed viewers in the know. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Feb 14, 2024
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God & Country (2024) |
While God & Country is relentless and emphatic in answering the question “Is Christian Nationalism actually Christian?” (spoiler alert: no), it is less interested in offering a response to it or an explanation for it. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Feb 06, 2024
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Interpreters Wanted (2023) |
Interpreters Wanted puts a human face on a political issue so seemingly one-sided that it is hard not to fault the film for refusing to be angrier and failing to clarify which individuals or groups bear the brunt of responsibility for it. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Feb 04, 2024
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Lead and Copper (2023) |
If Flint is representative of a bigger problem, shouldn't its responses to the crisis be as instructive as the causes of that crisis? - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Dec 31, 2023
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The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023) |
I’ve always found The Hunger Games to be more than passable entertainment for a franchise that I paradoxically thought did nothing particularly well. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Nov 20, 2023
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Wish (2023) |
More important than the gender divide here is the fact that good storytelling recognizes that there can be different kinds of antagonists besides just the evil-because-he-is-evil villain. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Nov 19, 2023
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The Marvels (2023) |
I enjoyed The Marvels more than I anticipated for a reason I didn’t expect: Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Nov 11, 2023
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A Binding Truth (2023) |
Director Louise Woehrle’s best achievement may be that she crafts a film that maintains most of its interest after its not-really-hiding-in-plain-sight twist is revealed. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Nov 06, 2023
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Nyad (2023) |
Nyad is a story so spectacularly unbelievable that were it not true, I would most likely be chiding the filmmakers for being irresponsible. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Oct 20, 2023
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Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) |
If similarities to The Godfather are many, the key difference is that Ernest is portrayed as more gullible and hence more pliable and easily corruptible than Michael. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Oct 19, 2023
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The Mission (2023) |
One needn’t be anti-mission or anti-Christian to see John as misguided or misled, but I suspect that being so makes it easier to see his fate as deliciously ironic rather than tragically sad. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Oct 09, 2023
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On the Line (2023) |
It's constructed as a radio drama and film is a visual medium. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Oct 09, 2023
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Silver Dollar Road (2023) |
Peck wants us to see the Reels family as people first and only second as symbolic representations of racial, social, and economic inequalities. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Oct 08, 2023
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A Haunting in Venice (2023) |
Since he too is an actor, it is not surprising that Branagh the director gets great performances from other actors. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Sep 14, 2023
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Freedom's Path (2022) |
Freedom’s Path is a relentlessly, oppressively well-intentioned movie that struggles mightily to live up to the importance of its subject matter. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Sep 04, 2023
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Madeleine Collins (2021) |
the delayed explanation for the protagonist’s situation did not materially alter my judgment about her decisions. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Aug 14, 2023
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Susie Searches (2022) |
Clemons has to carry the film. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Aug 01, 2023
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A Song for Imogene (2023) |
Erika Arlee does a good job of balancing a movie audience's hunger for uplift with an artist's need to tell hard truths - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Jul 26, 2023
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Oppenheimer (2023) |
I am not a formal member of the Church of Nolan, though I do think he is the most consistently ambitious commercial director working today. And I think that’s a good thing. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Jul 19, 2023
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Prisoner's Daughter (2022) |
Brian Cox and Kate Beckinsale are outstanding in breathing life into some relatively stock characters. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Jul 18, 2023
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The Starling Girl (2023) |
In this day, one almost hates to saddle a feature-film debut with too-effusive praise because it is the nature of the Internet to push back on anything enthusiastic. But, hey, bravas to Parmet and star Eliza Scanlen. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Jul 17, 2023
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The Problem of the Hero (2023) |
For someone who has grown up with [Native Son], the film provides the space to reflect on how my own response to Wright's work and attitude has changed over the years. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Jul 08, 2023
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Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) |
One of the most refreshing and satisfying franchise films since Aliens. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Jul 07, 2023
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Rodeo (2022) |
Only in a few brief scenes where we see some of the bike tricks performed or discussed does the film shake off its sluggish lethargy and offer a tone other than sullen. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Jun 26, 2023
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It Is In Us All (2022) |
The story never quite coalesces into a coherent enough narrative to land hard, but it does provide Cosmo Jarvis with a welcome showcase for his considerable talent. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted May 22, 2023
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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023) |
Yes, there are space battles, but the impetus for them is personal rather than universal survival, and that makes us more invested in the outcome. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted May 02, 2023
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Queen of Glory (2021) |
A modest but effective portrayal of reverse culture shock. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted May 01, 2023
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The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) |
I wasn’t expecting Pixar, but the heroes end where they started, not having been transformed by their experiences or learning anything from them. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Apr 08, 2023
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Space Oddity (2022) |
Is it more loving to indulge someone’s fantasy than to confront it for what you think it is? - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Mar 28, 2023
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Last Contact (2023) |
It’s a melancholy, meditative work more interested in its situation’s ability to extract philosophical dialogue from its characters than its ability to force them into dramatically meaningful decisions. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Mar 27, 2023
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Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023) |
Sufficient for the day are the pleasures of the day. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Mar 27, 2023
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Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania (2023) |
A return to what Marvel does best ... teasing the next movie. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Feb 23, 2023
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Shadowplay (2022) |
More enthralled by its ideas than capable of enthralling others with them. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Feb 04, 2023
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Kitchen Brigade (2022) |
They say that one of the hardest culinary challenges that distinguish top-tier chefs from those closer to average is making a seemingly plain consommé. Louis-Julien Petit has nailed the cinematic equivalent... - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Jan 15, 2023
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Voodoo Macbeth (2021) |
Welles comes across here as a bit of a naifish knave, a slightly less affable version of Shakespeare in Love‘s lovable idiot genius. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Jan 06, 2023
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Borrowed (2023) |
It doesn’t help that there have been other, better movies that have more coherently explored the territory between grooming and loving. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Dec 27, 2022
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A Star Without a Star: The Untold Juanita Moore Story (2022) |
It is a film that conspicuously, but fairly addresses historical racism in Hollywood and, subsequently, America. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Dec 14, 2022
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The Sound of Violet (2022) |
"The characters are so one-dimensional that the film appears to flounder when asked to provide any secondary features of them beyond the single adjective identifiers that would fit on a pitch card: autistic, prostitute, grandmother, pimp, boss..." - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Nov 17, 2022
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Stay the Night (2022) |
"A tamer version of Before Sunrise.' - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Oct 30, 2022
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All Sorts (2021) |
Office Space meets Beetlejuice...and it works. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Oct 19, 2022
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Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story (2022) |
An uplifting documentary that argues that people from different backgrounds can fuse and harmonize. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Oct 19, 2022
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Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. (2022) |
Comedy, in other words, is the land of embarrassment, but Honk For Jesus is a detailed map of the land of shame and guilt — the least funny emotions there are. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Sep 01, 2022
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Luck (2022) |
If you are looking for an animated film with the emotional gravitas of a Pixar heart-plucker and just a touch of old-school Looney Tunes zaniness, you are in Luck. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Aug 05, 2022
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Both Sides of the Blade (2021) |
Both Sides has the trademark Denis opacity, but the scenario should be more familiar (than that of Beau Travail) to those watching - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Jun 30, 2022
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The Forgiven (2021) |
If the worst thing I can say about The Forgiven is that it is not as good as Calvary, the best thing I can say is that it is nevertheless a serious film about conflicted characters wrestling with moral questions. - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Jun 29, 2022
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Jerry & Marge Go Large (2022) |
A surprisingly nuanced examination of work, capitalism, and what gives our lives meaning.... - 1More Film Blog
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| Posted Jun 16, 2022
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