Empathy Machines

I’d like to pause this week from our regularly scheduled movie column to reflect on why we’re doing this. Why, in the year 2026, are we taking up space here to write about movies? To frame this thought exercise let’s briefly turn it over to the greatest movie critic who ever lived, Roger Ebert, who said:

“We all are born with a certain package. We are who we are: where we were born, who we were born as, how we were raised. We’re kind of stuck inside that person, and the purpose of civilization and growth is to be able to reach out and empathize a little bit with other people. And for me, the movies are like a machine that generates empathy. It lets you understand a little bit more about different hopes, aspirations, dreams, and fears. It helps us to identify with the people who are sharing this journey with us.”

When I look around at the news, on social media, even in daily life, it can be hard to identify with people. We all feel it now more than ever. We’re in our little bubbles, surrounded by people and media that reflect back our own worldviews. When something breaks in that’s different, we lash out, feeling like it doesn’t belong. But we might just be out of practice. I think movies could be a way to train ourselves to look at the world through unlimited perspectives.

That’s what I’d like us to try to do here, in this column and in our own movie-watching, to broaden our horizons, try new things, and maybe click “play” on something we normally would shy away from. We’ll continue to cover plenty of blockbusters, but also smaller movies, and yes even foreign films. Many of these movies will be about topics that seem controversial, scary, or put us outside our comfort zone. We’ll watch people who seem unlike us, and my hope is, we’ll realize we’re more alike than we think.

I don’t know if empathy is a muscle you can exercise. But if it is, watching movies might be the right machine for this much-needed workout.

In memory of my grandfather Mick Gibbs, who loved John Wayne movies.