Music Reviews

100% Pure Yorkshire Beauty

First impressions of Kate Rusby's new album.

On Movies & Media

Now You Can Edit the Violence Out of Movies!

CT Movies posted a point/counterpoint today regarding the new "U-Edit-the-movies" ClearPlay DVD Player, which can be set to filter out cussing, violence, and nudity. There’s one article about why it's a good idea. And then there's my article. You

On Movies & Media

Catwoman (2004)

[This review was originally published at Christianity Today.] Reviewing Catwoman, a film critic can take the easy road: find the most readily available derogatory metaphor relating to cats. “It’s the pick of the litter box,” for starters. Or, “This kitty’s just roadkill that’s been left to bake

Josh Hurst

Josh Hurst calls for closing the doors on CCM

[2025 Update: This post is past its expiration date. Some of these links may no longer work due to the cruel realities of the Internet’s impermanence. (If you find a solution to the broken link, let me know.) I’m preserving this post for archival purposes.] Josh Hurst at

On Movies & Media

Coffee and Cigarettes (2003)

[This review was originally published at Christianity Today.] • If you could sit down and have a cup of coffee with anybody in the world alive today, who would you choose? Filmmaker Jim Jarmusch has done even better than that. He's brought together many of his favorite pop culture

On Movies & Media

More Than Half a Picture

[2025 Update: This post is past its expiration date. Some of these links may no longer work due to the cruel realities of the Internet’s impermanence. (If you find a solution to the broken link, let me know.) I’m preserving this post for archival purposes.] Slate’s got

On Movies & Media

SHOCKER! Christian critics hate Saved!

[2025 Update: This post is past its expiration date. Some of these links may no longer work due to the cruel realities of the Internet’s impermanence. (If you find a solution to the broken link, let me know.) I’m preserving this post for archival purposes.] Right on cue,

On Movies & Media

Three reflections on The Passion, post-hubbub

In the latest issue of SPU's Response, Todd Rendleman, film instructor, and Rob Wall, professor of the Christian Scriptures, join me in offering reflections on The Passion of the Christ now that the hubbub has died down. Turns out we have three very different views.

On Books & Writing

Another Scholar Calls DaVinci Code's Bluff

Who’s next in line? It appears that Eric Vogt, Associate Professor of Foreign Languages and Literature at Seattle Pacific University, is the latest scholarly mind to find fault with Dan Brown's bogus bestseller.

On Movies & Media

A Movie That Needs to Be Made

It's been made before, but rarely seen. This true story has a plot that should captivate the imagination of some filmmakers out there . . . It’s the story of Jake DeShazer.

Scripture

A Verse for Writers and Other Artists

As I plunge headlong through a jam-packed, stress-heavy workday, I am reminded of a Scripture verse I found quoted recently in a devotional: Ecclesiasticus 38:24. The wisdom of the scribe cometh by his time of leisure and he that is less in action shall receive wisdom.

On Movies & Media

Troy - a movie review for the sports page

Here, at long last, is my review of Troy, written in a caffeine-induced haze last night. I was wishing I was at home watching more episodes of the great Aaron Sorkin-scripted TV show Sports Night, and that preference may have influenced what I said in my review... [Want

Anne M. Doe Overstreet

Anne Quote of the Day

One of the reasons I married Anne is that, while I’m trying to look closer at movies and music and other arts, she’s looking closer at what God has made. Yesterday, out of the clear blue, after a silent minute in the car, she suddenly said, “Did you

On Movies & Media

Troy (2004)

Troy, starring Brad Pitt, is a movie about a historic tournament clash of two GBA (Greek Basketball Association) Basketball teams. There are many all-star players on the court for this exhausting, energetic tournament, but Achilles (Brad Pitt), a point guard with a deadly jump-shot is the superstar.

On Movies & Media

"There's no profanity in my society..."

This letter came to me in response to my article at Christianity Today about profanity in the movies. My argument covered a lot of points, including the fact that artists often use their work to hold up a reflection to culture with all of its pros and cons. Thus, art

On Movies & Media

Most prestigious film award goes to...

Michael Moore for Fahrenheit 911. That's right, this year's Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival goes to the guy who brought us Bowling for Columbine and who now is showing us what went on behind the scenes in the Bush administration during and

Anne M. Doe Overstreet

“Surviving the Open Heart”

Today I'm directing you to the excellent online poetry journal DMQ Review for some truly disquieting poetry. One of the poets published in this edition is particularly close to my heart. And congratulations to her! Be sure to read “Surviving the Open Heart.” [This post was updated with

Gratitude

Thank You of the Week

Linda Wagner has inspired a large crowd of writers through her work at the annual Seattle Pacific University writers’ conference. She changed my life one day, in 1994, when I was working in the Humanities office at SPU. She asked if the rumors were true, that I was writing science

On Books & Writing

Yet Another Gaping Hole in The Da Vinci Code

"But it's fiction!" people keep saying to me, when I criticize The Da Vinci Code or Phillip Pullman's The Golden Compass. "Why are you taking it so seriously?" Because most people are inclined to find fault with Christianity, and are quick to

Profanity

Ask the Experts: answering a Christianity Today reader on art and profanity

🤐This text was originally published at Christianity Today on May 21, 2004, but has subsequently disappeared from their website. My contract as a CT freelancer granted me permission to republish anything I contributed to their website, I am reposting it here, post-dated to that original date — 05/21/04

On Movies & Media

Amid the 25-Minute Ovation, a Surprising Criticism

[2025 Update: This post is past its expiration date. The IMDB link no longer works, alas. I’m keeping the post online for archival purposes. (If you find a solution to the broken link, let me know.)] While it’s true that Michael Moore received an 25-minute standing ovation

On Movies & Media

Ebert on Moore’s Dubya-bashing film

Farenheit 911 sounds like a must-see... ... even if it's sure to be a “must-dissect-and-examine-piece-by-partisan-piece.”

Anne M. Doe Overstreet

What Do Poetry and Police Brutality Have In Common?

[2025 Update: This post is past its expiration date. The Seattle Times link no longer works, alas. I’m keeping the post online for archival purposes. (If you find a solution to the broken link, let me know.)] Today, these words opened Nicole Brodeur’s column in The Seattle Times:

Jobs

Looking for Your Dream Job in the Arts?

Pray. Work hard. Strive for excellence. Be vigilant. In three days’ time, two friends of mine have called. They don't know each other. They’re not even in the same discipline or state. But both of them have suddenly glimpsed opportunities, out of the clear blue, that might

On Movies & Media

Joaquin Phoenix is... Johnny Cash?

And Reese Witherspoon is... June Carter Cash? Here's the scoop at The Guardian: “Man in black set for silver screen”