Houston Coley Patron

Theme park theologian. Appreciator of beauty. Writer of bad takes and pretentious bios.

Favorite films

  • Kiki's Delivery Service
  • Little Women
  • Short Term 12
  • A Kingdom of Tea & Strangers

All
  • Materialists

    ★★★★½

  • A Kingdom of Tea & Strangers

  • Hit Man

    ★★★★½

  • The Phoenician Scheme

    ★★★½

More
Impressions of

1982

★★★★★ Liked 4

"they leave for the sake of leaving, and without knowing why, they always say, 'we must go.'"

I'll say it again: it may be an 18-minute movie shown in a theme park, but this is the defining cinematic experience of my life. 200 degrees of a mesmerizing, hypnotic dream world. every time I get to see it again feels like a gift.

I've seen a few people over the years infer that some of the film feels a little corny…

A Kingdom of Tea & Strangers

2024

Liked 4

"My goal, tonight, is to feed our imaginations; to awaken the mind's ear, through art, to a wise and enriching life."

I felt like surely I should at least log this once before the end of the year—though of course, I've watched it several dozen times in the last few months alone.

Long story short: I made a movie! Filmed over summer 2022, I spent nearly 2 years working with 90 hours of footage in post-production to eventually assemble this…

More
Materialists

2025

★★★★½ Liked 2

This is neither as tight nor as subtle as Past Lives, but I'll be damned if I didn't adore it all the same. there are some truly inspired choices here that continue to prove that Celine Song is capable of depicting modern love (and the contemporary world in general) with elegance and wit while interweaving something that feels ancient, spiritual, and poetic. the way she captures New York City here is enough to make you want to stick around another…

A Kingdom of Tea & Strangers

2024

Liked Rewatched

Howdy y'all. I thought I'd share an interview that I did recently about A Kingdom of Tea & Strangers for a publication called Mere Orthodoxy. Read on for an in-depth conversation about the making of the film, the themes of hospitality and community, the value of engaging art and culture, and some pieces of extra meaning in various scenes. And click here to read the piece on Mere O's website.

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The following is an interview with filmmaker Houston Coley, conducted…

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Conclave

2024

★★★★★ Liked 81

I’m seeing a lot of enjoyably quippy Letterboxd reviews saying that this is a funny movie about priests gossiping, and that isn’t untrue—but it also neglects to mention that it’s a very earnest and profoundly soul-stirring picture about the tension of faith, the desperate search for certainty, and the true purpose of the church in the world. the ending touched me dearly and I think it’s brilliant. this is the kind of well-staged ”men in rooms” drama that feels like…

The Grand Budapest Hotel

2014

★★★★★ Liked 24

a movie about a girl, who reads a book about a man, who hears a story about a lobby boy, who meets a man who runs a hotel, a hotel for which the story, the book, and the movie are named for