Round One: Thursday, January 22nd, 2026

Tonight I took some edibles and watched the first 35 minutes of -- I need you to imagine here on out how hard of a time I'm having keeping a straight face saying all of this -- Luther, the 2003 historical political drama directed by Eric Till, starring Joseph Fiennes and Alfred Molina, and funded by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, a Christian financial services company.

I own a DVD copy of this because I watched it (TWICE!) twenty years ago in my Lutheran confirmation class. Aside from the aggressively hagiographical approach to its depiction of Martin Luther, the thing that astonishes me the most about this movie so far is how weirdly uh, sexy it is? People were so ready to talk about Jude Law being The Pope Who Fucks, but what about Joseph Fiennes as Martin Luther Who Could Fuck If He Were Not SO Profoundly Tortured? Aside from the fact that Protestantism, Lutheranism in particular, is such a profoundly unsexy faith tradition aesthetically, the repression of the body and the hyper-moralization of pleasure and desire are so fundamental to the core tenants of its theology that I'm just floored by the existence of the biopic where Martin Luther is depicted as wanting to fuck. I remember being told as a child that doubt was "part of the point" (uh) so in keeping with that anxiety-inducing tradition, maybe there's more to the confused sexuality of the film than the first thirty minutes conveys. (I have my doubts.)

I only got 35 minutes into it because it was at that point that the depiction of a psychologically tormented man hyperfixated on his own ontological purity and the internal & practical consistency of his morality stopped being fun. For now. Really weird movie. Who was this for, other than to further indoctrinate teenagers into the church? I'm too in the weeds to say, but it seems pretty inaccessible as a general audience movie -- I'm not sure that the weight of the events or even the series of events makes much sense without knowledge of the theological and historical context.

#letmartinlutherfuck #mydoubts