Sometimes, these are short. Not tomorrow’s, actually, but today’s is.

I am very very bad at catching up on screeners, also known as “a giant pile of good movies and TV shows I need to watch not only because they’re good, but because I should vote on them having watched them.

But I watched Wake Up Dead Man tonight — hey! Stop yelling “Finally” at me! I know! I also wanted to see it in its incredibly short theatrical run that Netflix provides to pretend they don’t hate movie theaters!

And I’m not going to review it for a zillion reasons, including that media criticism is dead and reviews are for people who review things not make things. Because really I just want to talk about one thing: the priests.

So, I grew up in a Catholic megachurch. A “get there two hours early for a seat” megachurch. And we had a monsignor. And it was revealed – via both time and criminal charges – that he was a megalomaniacal psycho. A bad guy and a bad priest. And I in fact have known more than a handful of bad priests, because a large chunk of my life was spent working for the Church and a larger chunk was spent being pretty Catholic. These cult of personality priests with their devoted little followings and total departure from any kind of actual Christianity are out there right now! Some are social media stars!

So... Bad Priest, bingo. Know it, survived it, loathe it.

But hot damn, Father Judd. If you’re reading past the spoilers, you saw the movie, you get the deal. He’s a good priest, and a good guy, just trying to make it work and love people. And I know a ton of Father Judds. I was actually kind of shocked, not because I had any doubts Rian Johnson could nail a priest character, but because it nailed the almost boring plainness of what a good priest looks like. No flash no charm no virality. Just a guy trying to do a good blue-collar job.

I have had a least a toe in Catholic American culture my entire life. I was for a short while a seminarian. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more realistic version of a priest on screen. I am sure real priests or real film reviewers have dug deeper into that, but for me, it was simply seeing a guy I recognize from my real life, and I found that very satisfying.

Well, crap. Turned out to be almost 500 words.

See you tomorrow.

-Greg