Chad Hartigan First impressions of The Threesome Chad Hartigan's fourth feature finds him once again dodging genre conventions and finding something singular, as he plants intriguing characters in messy situations and chooses grace over ruin.
Boys Go to Jupiter First impressions of Boys Go to Jupiter In recent years, the highlights for me have been lower-budget, higher-creativity movies. Here's another one—a weird, hilarious, unpredictable musical running on a deep current of sadness.
On Songs & Albums From the archives: a conversation with Don and Karen Peris of The Innocence Mission Look what I found! An interview with one of my favorite bands that is now (checks notes) almost 25 years old.
Newsletter First impressions of Weapons Zach Cregger's impressively ambitious horror film is filled with allusions to his influences. But do all of these ideas cohere into something meaningful?
13th It's not too late: Ava DuVernay's 13th is shock treatment for America's conscience From the Looking Closer Archives: Here's my original review of Ava Duvernay's astonishing Netflix documentary, which I originally wrote for Christianity Today.
Seth Worley First impressions of Sketch One of 2025's brightest surprises, bound to become a new family favorite, Seth Worley's film understands the dangers of suppressing imaginations, even those that disturb us.
Alex Garland In 2003, 28 Days Later revitalized a genre, cautioned us about viruses and rage, and divided Christian film critics From the archives at Looking Closer, here's my original review of 28 Days Later, along with reactions from critics I quoted in my Film Forum column at that time.
Silence Silence According to Scorsese: an interview from the Looking Closer archives As Fr. James Martin has just published a new interview with Martin Scorsese about his faith, I thought it a good time to revisit my own 2017 conversation with the director of Silence.
Writing Light Reading #1: On the opening line of Leif Enger's I Cheerfully Refuse Something new: To glean more nourishment from my reading, I'll start a series of posts where I pay close attention to a few lines of a book. You're invited to read along. Share your own observations.
Eva Victor First impressions of Sorry, Baby In this free post, I urge everyone to call up a friend and make plans to see Sorry, Baby, while it's still in theaters. If it's too late, rent and stream it. It's one of 2025's best.
Brad Pitt F'ing up: Thoughts on F1 on an IMAX screen These notes may include some spoiler-ish comments. But the movie's so predictable, does it matter? Here are my thoughts—more importantly, my concerns—about the summer's biggest IMAX adrenaline rush.
James Gunn Time to catch up! Here are some overdue notes on Superman. I'm late to the party. But then, the party would not have enjoyed my take on James Gunn's Superman. Here's the first of several catch-up reviews I plan to post this week.
On Songs & Albums Songlights: Rhiannon! Lucinda! Sufjan! Sixpence! Plus, new Jon Batiste, Jeff Tweedy, Sunny War, Robert Plant, Deerhoof, Wet Leg, Russ Taff, and more. [UPDATE: New from Mike Reid & Joe Henry!] Here's a flight of flavors that have been helping me drink down a difficult week.
Gareth Edwards First impressions of Jurassic World Rebirth — and my complicated history with dinosaurs Gareth Edwards's new film in the classic Spielberg franchise has rekindled troubling memories of my childhood obsession with dinosaurs.
Constance Tsang First impressions of Blue Sun Palace One of my favorite films of 2025, and perhaps the most promising directorial debut, focuses on women struggling for survival, companionship, and hope in the dangerous context of a massage parlor.
Steve McQueen Only twelve years ago, 12 Years a Slave won Best Picture at the Oscars My notes on this film were originally published at Looking Closer on November 2, 2013. It's time to republish them.
The Phoenician Scheme First (and second) impressions of The Phoenician Scheme After two viewings (and more on the way), here are my notes on Wes Anderson's latest—his first led by Benicio Del Toro , and, more importantly, his first to feature Michael Cera and Mia Threapleton.
Journal Entry Fundamentals of Fatherhood: Reflections on My Father's Life (in Four Parts) I offered a much-abridged version of these reflections at the Celebration of Life service in memory of my father, Larry Overstreet, at Damascus Community Church on Saturday, June 21.
On Songs & Albums Songlights: Join me & Anne for Over the Rhine's 3-day music festival with Amy Helm, Jeffrey Martin, & more. Also: David Byrne laughs. Annahstasia shines. Laura Stevenson returns. Elbow shares extras. I'll keep updating this post with new music that moves me between June 28 and July 4. So, check back! Share a song that's deeply moving you right now—I'll add a link to it at the end of the post.
Satire Galaxy Quest (1999) More than a quarter-century later, this Star Trek spoof remains a gold standard for sci-fi satire. With the announcement of a new Star Wars spoof, maybe it's time to remember what's possible
Danny Boyle First impressions of 28 Years Later Danny Boyle returns to direct the third episode of the series he began in 2002. This one features the best performances in the series so far, but in service of what? What does this movie love?
Harvey Weinstein All the Pretty Horses (2000) For 25 years, I've wanted to see a movie that Harvey Weinstein destroyed. Here are my original notes on the wreckage of Billy Bob Thornton's Cormac McCarthy adaptation, and dismaying footnote.
Django Unchained Blaze of Gory: Overstreet's Christianity Today commentary on Django Unchained One from the archive: Here's the commentary that Christianity Today editors asked me to write in 2013.
Carson Lund First impressions of Eephus I'm back from a long, hard road to offer my overdue review of one of the year's funniest movies: an elegiac comedy about America’s declining traditions and communities.
Stephen King First Impressions of The Life of Chuck Despite its charming dance numbers, Mike Flanagan's feature film based on a Stephen King short story thinks it's so much more profound than it is.
