On Movies & Media

Film Forum: Sex and the City; Reprise; Stuck; Bigger, Stronger, Faster; Body of War; Savage Grace; The Edge of Heaven; Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull;

SEX AND THE CITY Courtney: ... Sex and the City is ambitious for all the characters, emotions, and crises it tries to shoehorn into two and a half hours. But the attempt elevates is above most chick flicks and romantic dramedies of late. SATC offers well-developed characters, smart dialogue, interesting plots

On Books & Writing

Congratulations, Tina Ann Forkner!

My friend Tina Ann Forkner has been waiting for this week for a long, long time. Her first novel, Ruby Among Us, has arrived. I've only heard an excerpt from it — Tina read some to a group of authors at a writers retreat a while back. She

On Movies & Media

Hughes: Don't miss Munyurangabo, "far and away the best debut I saw all year"

Darren Hughes, a moviegoer whose recommendations have led me to some memorable and profoundly inspiring films over the last few years, has just posted about another one I'm adding to my must-see list. He writes: Munyurangabo His in-depth article about the film, which includes a conversation with the

Sam Phillips

David Kennedy on Sam Phillips's New Album

David Kennedy is rambling — no, raving! — about the new Sam Phillips album, Don't Do Anything. ... ... [T]o those for whom music - especially Phillips's music - is a treasure held near and dear, Don't Do Anything is yet another delicate miracle from an artist

On Movies & Media

Will it be James "Bilbo Baggins" McAvoy?

The Daily Express may have the answer to the question that has kept the imaginations of Hobbit fans firing on all cylinders in recent weeks: Who are Del Toro and Jackson planning to cast in the lead of The Hobbit? So, Mr. Tumnus... how's your Ian Holm impression?

Quotable

Happy Birthday, G.K. Chesterton!

When asked to list my ten Desert Island Books, I always include G.K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy. So I would be embarrassed if I did not mark today's importance. From today's Writer's Almanac: G.K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton Here are a few of

Looking Elsewhere

Looking Elsewhere: May 27, 2008

Remembering Sydney Pollack GreenCine Daily compiles the tributes. What's your favorite Pollack film? * Over-praising Coldplay What appears to be the first review of Coldplay's Viva la Vida has appeared in The Sun. It's a review by Gordon Smart. Now, I'm somewhat curious

On Movies & Media

Kindlings Muse at the Movies: Iron Man, Standard Operating Procedure, I'm Not There, and many more...

A couple of weeks ago, Dick Staub, Jennie Spohr, Greg Wright, and I discussed Iron Man, Standard Operating Procedure; The Visitor; I'm Not There; The Adventures of Baron Munchausen; Steel City; and the upcoming summer blockbusters that we're hoping will turn out to be worth seeing.

On Movies & Media

Has Terry Gilliam Found His Don Quixote?

Has Terry Gilliam found his Don Quixote? Contactmusic reports that Johnny Depp is back in cahoots with Terry Gilliam as they try once again to make The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, a movie about that greatest challenger of windmills, Don Quixote. Depp worked with Gilliam on this project once

Over the Rhine

A Report from Over the Rhine's "Ohio" Concert

The Enquirer sums up Over the Rhine's 21-song set, the first live performance of their double album Ohio in its entirety. In spite of the sound board problems, I sure wish I could have been there to hear it.

On Books & Writing

Things Mean Things?!

Can art mean whatever a reader or viewer or listener wants it to mean? If so, then what's the point? But that is the claim of the postmodern world we live in. If we affirm that there is such a thing as "absolute truth," then we

On Movies & Media

Remember "Saved"?

Brian Dannelly's satire about growing up in a Christian high school stirred up a lot of controversy and debate amongst Christians back when it opened. I reviewed it here and wrote more about it in Through a Screen Darkly. Now, Saved! is coming back. As a musical off-Broadway.

On Movies & Media

Ebert defends Indy's Standing-O; C.S. Lewis on Mysticism

Indy's standing-o Indiana Jones IV got a standing ovation at Cannes. And Ebert thinks it was genuine. * What did C.S. Lewis have to say about mysticism? Listen to this intriguing podcast at The Kindlings Muse... The Riddle of Joy

Overstreet's Books

World to Be Invaded by Half-Human Monsters?

No, this picture has nothing to do with my upcoming sequel to Auralia's Colors, Cyndere's Midnight. Cyndere's Midnight is, however, a "beauty and the beast story." My version has a whole bunch of beasts. Beastmen, more specifically. Sinister human/animal hybrids that

On Songs & Albums

Tom Waits interviews himself.

Brilliant.

Concerts

An Honor for Over the Rhine

Over the Rhine gets to be the first act at Cincinnati's new 4,100-seat National City Pavilion at Riverbend Music Center on Saturday. And what will they do? Play all of the songs from their sensational double album Ohio!

On Movies & Media

Lear Year

King Lear is on the way... twice on the big screen, and then on the BBC. With Anthony Hopkins, and Ian McKellen, as Lear And Keira Knightley, and Romola Garai, as Cordelia. But who will direct?

On Movies & Media

McSweeney's Publishes a Letter to Aslan

McSweeney's Mari Ness submits A Letter to His Imperial Majesty, Aslan: In the course of talking-animal events, it may become necessary for one animal‚ or human‚ or divine being‚ to come and rescue Narnia from its deepest, darkest hours. We're cool with that. We're

On Songs & Albums

Keith Green, Age 11

My friend Mark Moring just sent this in: I've Got a Secret [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foHRDsFL260&eurl]

On Movies & Media

How "Prince Caspian" Botches the Meaning of the Book

Want to know if Andrew Adamson's Prince Caspian is fun and entertaining? Check out the reviews archived at Rotten Tomatoes. But if you're a fan of C.S. Lewis's Prince Caspian, which is something quite different, and if you hope to see Lewis'

On Movies & Media

Caspian's PG and David Dark's Next

Did Prince Caspian get the right rating? Cinematical's Eric Snider thinks the "PG" is misleading. I didn't know the rating before I watched it, and I didn't remember, off the top of my head, whether the first Chronicles of Narnia was PG.

On Movies & Media

DecentFilms on Prince Caspian: Lewis's Themes and Ideas are "Largely Lost."

When it comes to The Chronicles of Narnia films, well... I want them to be great. I want them to be entertaining, yes. But more than anything, I hope that the filmmakers finds ways to preserve the ideas at the core of the story. In The Lion, the Witch and

On Movies & Media

Christianity Today: 2 1/2 stars (out of 4) for "Prince Caspian"

Are you looking forward to the appearance of Bacchus in Prince Caspian? Alas, you won't see that scene. That's just the beginning of the cuts that concern Peter T. Chattaway in his review of the movie at Christianity Today. Wow. Chattaway does find the film quite

On Movies & Media

Sean Penn Disqualifies Cannes Films that Don't Reflect "Current Climate"

Aaaaaaaand they're off! The Cannes Film Festival has begun, which means Indiana Jones is suiting up for his first big-screen adventure in twenty years, and a crop of great works of art destined to be almost ignored in America are about to screen for very lucky audiences. Sean

On Movies & Media

"The Defanging of Aslan"

Steven D. Greydanus interviews the men behind Prince Caspian. And he finds them making some rather dubious claims. "I've produced a lot of movies based on books," he said, speaking at a New York press event with other Narnia filmmakers. Citing titles from The Natural to