Quentin Tarantino is a provocateur who, yes, sometimes pushes the boundaries a bit too far. He has (sometimes reckless) fun with the films he makes, but his seriousness as an artist is underrated. Every detail of his singular brand of cinema is painstakingly constructed with both personal taste and Big Ideas in mind. I’ve long felt Tarantino’s work had interesting theological overtones (I even contributed a chapter to a 2015 book called Tarantino and Theology), but his latest film, Once Upon a Time … In Hollywood, is his most theologically significant yet.

What does a Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio movie about 1969 Hollywood, and the Manson Family, have to do with God? Even if Tarantino would resist the God connection, he nevertheless puts his finger on something profound. Movies are an inherently eschatological medium. They long for justice, for the undoing of evil, for a reversal of the curse. To say more of how Tarantino’s film embodies this idea would be to spoil the movie’s spectacular ending, so read the featured article only after you’ve seen the movie. After you do, consider how this and other movies express deep longings in our secular age, giving voice to a groaning for transcendence that will not go away.