…Doubt: written and directed by John Patrick Shanley and starring Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams & Viola Davis.

This film is an adaptation of the stage play Doubt: a parable written by John Patrick Shanley (yes, the same Shanley as above), and has been widely criticized as anti-Catholic and demonizing the entire Roman Catholic clergy in the world.

Set in 1964 the film is about a Catholic church in the Bronx. Father Flynn gives a sermon about doubt being an unifying force. Sister Aloysius, headmistress of the attached school asks her pupil sisters to keep a close eye on Father Flynn because of his peculiar sermon. Sister James notices a close connection between Father Flynn and Donald Miller, the school’s only African American student and an altar boy.

…Towelhead: written and directed by Alan Ball and starring Toni Collette, Summer Bishil and Aaron Eckhart a.o.

The film, premiering under the name Nothing is private is based on the novel Towelhead by Alicia Erian.

It’s a coming-of-age story of a young Lebanese American girl named Jasira. When the boyfriend of her mother gets interested in her, she is sent to live in Texas with her old-fashioned and domineering Lebanese-Christian father.