Free Republic

A documentary about a sitting first lady is unusual. A $40 million documentary, released theatrically while its subject occupies the White House and retains full editorial control, is something else entirely. That is the situation surrounding Melania, a feature-length documentary about Melania Trump, which premiered this week at Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center before a global theatrical rollout backed by Amazon MGM Studios. The film, which reportedly follows roughly 20 days surrounding the Trumps’ return to the White House, has sparked questions not because of what it reveals, but because of how, when and why it exists at all.From its price...

LOS ANGELES -- The filmmakers of "Left Behind: World at War" figured a little preaching to the choir would help market the Christian-themed thriller. They preceded the movie's DVD release Tuesday with screenings at about 3,200 churches across the United States and Canada, hoping to build word-of-mouth for the straight-to-video sequel in Kirk Cameron's series of films about Armageddon. Cloud Ten Pictures, which produces the "Left Behind" movies, did not yet have attendance estimates on how many people caught "World at War" during the weekend screenings. But the company went into the weekend projecting as many as 1.8 million people...

Perhaps you, like so many across the planet, are more than a bit baffled by the runaway success of "The Passion of the Christ." Perhaps you, furthermore, are more than slightly disturbed that millions have flocked to this bizarre ultraviolent blood-drenched revisionist flick and that so many actually believe its story to be absolutely true, and that it just surpassed "The Return of the King" in total box office and is the No. 8 most successful film of all time and it was No. 1 again across BushCo's flyover states during Easter weekend and has sold 650,000 books and 125,000...