Film Reviews Lee Isaac Chung Week, Day Five: a review of Abigail Harm Lee Isaac Chung's strangest film isn't easy to watch. Nor is it easy to forget. But it is well worth seeking out for its cautionary tale of a compromising love affair, mystical visitors from "up there," and the dangers of self-isolation.
Film Reviews Judas and the Black Messiah (2021) Compelling, occasionally impressive in its cinematographic finesse, occasionally obvious in its allusions, often too familiar in its form, eventually painful in its truth-telling, this flashy new film is, ultimately, a necessary testimony.
Film Reviews Oscar-bait extravagance: Mank is a mess In David Fincher's much-anticipated epic about the origins of Citizen Kane, its political context, and its troubled screenwriter, so much artistry is spent on ambitious and extravagant scenes. But there's no magic happening here.
Film Reviews Yes God Yes (2020) [This post was originally titled "Caution: Raunchy Christian high school sex comedy may cause flashbacks!"] I found Yes God Yes, a raunchy but sincere little indie comedy from writer-director Karen Maine (Obvious Child), streaming on Kanopy, and it was just the kind of mildly amusing distraction I needed
Film Reviews Overstreet Archives: Séraphine (2008) I'm delighted to publish, for the first time at Looking Closer, a piece I wrote for Image (archived here) about Martin Provost's extraordinary film Séraphine, which I rated my favorite film of 2008. (Since then, I've come to favor Olivier Assayas's Summer
Film Reviews Overstreet Archives: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) Who would have guessed that the person in the Pirates of the Caribbean credits who would eventually come to mean the most to me would be ... Mackenzie Crook? But it's true. In recent years, I have watched the TV series Detectorists again and again, delighted and moved by
Film Reviews Overstreet Archives: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) In 2003, I approached Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl with trepidation. The movie caught me by surprise. Below, I'll restore my original Looking Closer review to this site — it's been missing for many years. At the time, I was writing my
Film Reviews At long last — a substantial documentary on Flannery O'Connor Listen to a podcast reading of this review and additional commentary from Jeffrey Overstreet at the new Looking Closer podcast. How I wish this film had been available last winter when my Seattle Pacific University students and I were politely arguing about Flannery O'Connor. From January to March,
Film Reviews In Bacarau, a town fights back against gunslinging predators As he raged through the Coen brothers' Oscar-winning No Country for Old Men, playing the murderous devil called Chigurh, was actor Javier Bardem taking inspiration from singularly menacing screen presence of Udo Kier? That question crosses my mind as I watch the new film Bacarau, and see Udo Kier,
Film Reviews Overstreet Archives: Days of Heaven (1978) In September 2018, I launched a short-lived film website for Seattle Pacific University and began to write about films that have risen to a sort of legendary status that I call "sacred cinema" — films that routinely inspire spiritual reflection in dialogue with the Scriptures. Days of Heaven was
Film Reviews Hamilton (2020) Having never listened to the soundtrack album, and having never attended a performance of the play, I was introduced to Hamilton through the Disney+ movie of the original production. Instead of posting a review here, I am saving my response for the Looking Closer Specialists, that lovely community of readers
Film Reviews Overstreet Archives: A Very Long Engagement (2004) A blast from the past: Here's my original review of Jean-Pierre Jeunet's World War One epic.
Film Reviews The Quarry: murder, scripture, and Southern Gothic style Set in a world rich with echoes of Flannery O'Connor and Cormac McCarthy, The Quarry's story of a fake preacher and a violent sheriff raises hard questions about the possibility of redemption in a world as ruined as this one.
Film Reviews It's Groundhog Day in Palm Springs Palm Springs plays with a familiar formula, and its innovations are diminished by its crassness and the flimsiness of its "insights."
Film Reviews Da 3 Movies in Da 5 Bloods Spike Lee's latest multi-tasking movie is a ferocious work of passion and Gospel that succeeds in spite of its stumbles and dissonant styles.
Film Reviews Extra Ordinary Ghost-busting in Ireland The second big paranormal-thriller surprise of the summer (after The Vast of Night), Extra Ordinary is the funniest thing I've seen all year.
Film Reviews Catching Up With The Bling Ring When those that qualify as the 2% won't rest until they've stolen their way into the 1% — The Bling Ring is a thoughtful and prophetic portrait of a generation obsessed with becoming media gods, exploiting social justice slogans in service of their own social-media avatars.
Film Reviews Why The Vast of Night hits close to home Like 2019's Prospect, Amazon's new sci-fi thriller The Vast of Night makes magic with modest resources and gives us the two most memorable investigators of the paranormal since Mulder and Scully first argued.
Film Reviews Predators in academia: Shirley's search for lost girls Shirley, driven by great performances from Elizabeth Moss and Michael Stuhlbarg, is dark, strange, and unnervingly wise.
Film Reviews Raised by 20th Century Women I recently caught up with director Mike Mills's film 20th Century Women and wished I'd seen it earlier to include it in my 2016 Favorites list.
Film Reviews Onward's Frivolous Fantasy Looking for an escape from sheltering-at-home familiarity, I turned to America's most reliable animation studio. But Pixar's Onward remains stuck in uninspired tropes.
Film Reviews Catching Up With Cléo from 5 to 7 In which I begin posting thoughts on the movies I'm watching during the 2020 season of COVID-19 lockdown. First up? A beloved French New Wave masterpiece by Agnes Varda.
Film Reviews Before Mulan... we had Whale Rider. Before you see Niki Caro's reinvention of Mulan, discover her 2003 film about another young female hero who subverts the expectations of her people and overturns restrictive patriarchal traditions.
Film Reviews Vagabond (1985) My enthusiasm for Agnes Varda's documentaries has prompted many to recommend her narrative features. This week, I caught up with Vagabond.
Film Reviews Knife in the Water (1962) Another in my "Less than 500 words" reviews: I finally caught up with Roman Polanski's breakout thriller.
