On Movies & Media

Concussion: another Christian football movie?

Facing the Giants, When the Game Stands Tall, Woodlawn ... ...Concussion? I've been hopeful about Concussion. It's a film about a problem that I care about very deeply. But I certainly didn't anticipate what I recently read about it in The New Yorker. Ian Crouch

On Movies & Media

2015: Overstreet's Favorite Films

Note: I will continue to add brief reviews to this post as the weekend progresses. But since I said I'd post this list on New Year's Eve, and it is now two days late, I'm posting the bare-bones list now.

On Songs & Albums

Overstreet's Favorite Recordings: 2015 — Part Two

Sufjan Stevens, Kendrick Lamar, Torres, Courtney Barnett... and many, many more make up my Favorite Recordings of 2015 countdown. Listen to your favorites and make some new discoveries.

Journal

Looking Closer's New Year's Party

Start your 2016 with some inspiration. Turn to the Specialists. This website is brought to you by generous contributors who help cover the costs of its design, production, and resources. I call them the Looking Closer Specialists. We have our own private Facebook group where they influence my vision for

On Songs & Albums

Overstreet's Favorite Recordings: 2015 — Part One

How to compare them? They're apples and oranges — and pears, peaches, lemons, and pineapples, along with some nutritious helpings of vegetables. To try and rate them in a single list is pretty much pointless... ...unless you perceive this as a way of recommending them to you with different

J.J. Abrams

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

On Songs & Albums

Looking Closer's 2015 Playlist

Over the last several weeks, I've been building a playlist of some of my favorite songs from 2015. I'm wrapping it up between now and New Year's Eve. It's currently 64 songs long. I've been sharing that playlist with the

Interviews

Bret Lott and the Ambition contest winners

It's Christmas Eve. I feel like handing out some gifts. A few weeks ago, I invited people to send me their lists of films, books, or songs that speak to them about ambition. Then I asked a jury of Looking Closer Specialists to vote on the lists they

Force Awakens Update

You'll find an update on my upcoming Star Wars review here. Just click "Begin."

Film Review

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and Wardrobe (2005)

This review was originally published at Christianity Today in December 2005. It is reprinted here with permission.

On Songs & Albums

Ken Priebe's Christmas Playlist

Stop animation — that's what I see when I hear "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" or "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town." I suspect that this is true for many who grew up, like I did, with a Christmas tradition of watching stop-animation

Film Review

The Partains' Christmas Playlist

If you're having the kind of year that I'm having, you need to take Christmas music with you or the season will pass you by in a hurry. So I'm grateful for the Christmas playlists that friends have been sharing with Looking Closer. Dusty

Film Review

Stations of the Cross (2015)

"Do you think it would be a good idea if Michael Haneke made a film based on a concept by Lars von Trier?" So writes Michael Sicinski, one of my most reliable sources of discernment and insight on cinema, on Dietrich Brüggemann's Stations of the Cross.

On Movies & Media

Force Awakens Review

This time, I did not have an opening-day deadline for my Star Wars movie review. Thank the Maker! Instead, I'm writing my review over the course of a few days, after reflecting, writing, and talking with people who loved it, people who hated it, fans who were

Tomorrow's film critics today: Mary Lawrence

For the final part of this 4-part series of guest reviews written by students at Vashon Island High School, I present a review of Gone Girl written by Mary Lawrence . (In case you missed it: Thanks to English teacher Steven Denlinger, I was a guest teacher for three days

Dusty Henry's Christmas Playlist

Last year, I embarked upon an epic investigation of other people's Christmas music playlists. You can enjoy the treasure that I found right here: a remarkable line-up of personal and idiosyncratic soundtracks from Joe Henry, Ashley Cleveland, Sara Zarr, Alissa Wilkinson, Over the Rhine, Steve Taylor, and

On Movies & Media

Tomorrow's film critics today: Emmaline Wittwer

For Part 3 of my 4-part series of guest reviews written by students at Vashon Island High School, I present a review of Ex Machina written by Emmaline Wittwer . When I look back at the film reviews I wrote in high school, they weren't nearly as well-

On Movies & Media

Tomorrow's film critics today: Callan Foster

For Part 2 of my series of guest reviews written by students at Vashon Island High School, I present a review of Inside Out written by Callan Foster. Thanks to English teacher Steven Denlinger, I was a guest teacher for three days in journalism and science fiction classes, and we

On Movies & Media

Tomorrow's film critics today: Sierra Richter

Is there a future in film criticism? Are young people just consuming movies, or are some of them really thinking about what they mean and how they mean it? This series will introduce four high school students who might become tomorrow's film critics.

Interviews

Writers of Ambition: a roundtable interview

This may be a first: I don't know that I've ever interviewed several of my favorite writers at once. But Ambition has made me ambitious. In Ambition, the Chrysostom Society’s latest collaborative book of wisdom and testimony, nine members of the Society — Diane Glancy, Emilie

On Movies & Media

Popeye still pops

Whenever the question comes up "What's your favorite comic-book movie?" I usually answer "The Incredibles." Then I remember that it was a movie before it was a comic book, so I quickly change my answer to "The Dark Knight." But if

Edward Scissorhands

"You've been cloistered away up in that castle too long."

Happy 25th birthday, Edward Scissorhands! Tim Burton has made more accomplished, more artistically sophisticated films. But if I had to sketch the anatomy of Burton's work, Edward Scissorhands would be its big beating heart. What could be more timely than to watch Edward Scissorhands with the family? It&

On Books & Writing

Is it okay for artists to be ambitious?

There was a time when women were frowned on for their ambitions... if those ambitions were for anything other than becoming a wife and a mother. Thank God, we are leaving those days behind. I am grateful for those who dedicate themselves to marriage and to motherhood — two of the

On Movies & Media

Listen: Star Wars Cantina Surprises!

In the cantina of Hale's Ales Brewery & Pub, the following rebels against forces of scum and villainy assembled: * the director of Seattle Pacific's University Scholars program — Dr. Jeffrey Keuss; * a seminarian who is also Star Wars super-fan — Carlo Nakar; * a pastor who happens to

On Movies & Media

Kill Bill's role model for a Christian woman

Lauren Wilford at Christ and Pop Culture: Kill Bill Skeptical? I think Lauren would understand that. But you've got to read this. It'll all become clear to you. I've been a fan of Lauren's writing for several years — she wrote a guest