Journal Entry

A collection of 137 posts

On Movies & Media

Extended Return of the King in Theatres in October?

☠️2025 Update: This post is past its expiration date. The featured link no longer works 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. The Internet Movie Database reports:

On Movies & Media

Greydanus slays King Arthur

The Decent Films critic showed up at the Arts and Faith Conversation ranting about the latest big screen Arthur. His comments here are shared with permission: Give Troy this much: It made an attempt to hit basic plot points from the Trojan war story. This King Arthur includes one (1)

Quotable

Chesterton speaks

And now three words of wisdom from our mentor... * "Bigotry may be roughly defined as the anger of men who have no opinions." * "Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere." * "It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about

Over the Rhine

Over the Rhine's new live album

The Over the Rhine live album Changes Come is now available for order at Paste Music! My favorite American band has just delivered an album of live recordings from what I found to be an astonishing tour. If you love them, you'll love this. If you've

Over the Rhine

Over the Rhine’s new live album

☠️2025 Update: This post is past its expiration date. The link in the post no longer works. I’m preserving the post for archival purposes. Changes Come, a new live album from Over the Rhine, was available for a few fleeting moments over at Paste. But now the page appears

On Songs & Albums

Where I’d rather be this weekend...

Last summer, I had my first experience at the Cornerstone Festival. And thus, this year, I'm wishing I was there again, * enjoying the 100-degree heat, * the 75% humidity, * the constant rivers of sweat that soak your clothes by mid-morning and continue all day, * the iced thai coffee, * the

On Movies & Media

Reviewing The Clearing (2004)

My review of The Clearing was published at Christianity Today on July 2, 2004. ❗2025 Update: I re-published the review in 2021. You can read the full text here.

On Movies & Media

R.I.P., Marlon Brando

He made moviegoers so many offers they could never refuse. At 80, the man who played the Godfather, Colonel Kurtz, and so many more iconic characters has departed. Here’s coverage of the story at The New York Times.

On Movies & Media

The Notebook, F 9/11, and White Chicks: CT's Film Forum

This week's edition of Film Forum is the liveliest in many months, featuring a wide range of opinions on Fahrenheit 9/11 and The Notebook, plus euphoric raves over Spider-Man 2 and admiration for Two Brothers. Oh, yeah, and then there's White Chicks... Here’s the

On Movies & Media

The Clearing, and More Moore De-bunkers.

☠️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. Last night, I

On Movies & Media

The DaVinci Load

From Language Log's musings on The Da Vinci Code: A voice spoke, chillingly close. "Do not move." On his hands and knees, the curator froze, turning his head slowly. Only fifteen feet away, outside the sealed gate, the mountainous silhouette of his attacker stared through the

On Movies & Media

CT Movies Gets Buried in Pro-F9/11 Mail

I’m already anxious to be done talking about this movie, but this is worthy of note. CT Movies has been swamped by a tidal wave of mail ranting about Peter Chattaway's review of F9/11.

On Movies & Media

Two Brothers, two fine French filmmakers

Last week I had the pleasure of chatting with director Patrice Leconte (Man on the Train) and found him to be one of the most affable, enthusiastic conversationists I’ve encountered among movie-folk. This morning I got up at 6AM to talk with Jean-Jacques Annaud, director of the new family-friendly

On Movies & Media

After the Backlash: Some Support from CT Readers

After the lashings I received from Christianity Today readers for my film commentaries there over the last few months, I can only take it as a gesture of support from the folks at CT that they posted these letters this week. But I can’t say I'm not

On Movies & Media

Reel News. (That isn't a typo.)

🔗This post was updated with corrected links on November 28, 2025. I’m now writing the new movie-news blog at Christianity Today, which they've titled Reel News. This mini-blog made its debut today.

"Christian" is a Bad Adjective

Fred Clark rampage on Christian Art

🔗This post was updated with corrected links on November 28, 2025. Check out this three-part series on "Christian art"... ...over at Slacktivist: Part One, Part Two, Part Three. Preach it, brother.

On Movies & Media

Dodgeball: a true time-waster

Just came out of Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story beaten senseless by the locker room humor. It’s like someone said, “Let's do something like Zoolander, but with a lot more of the really really dumb parts, and then recycle a few of the funny parts.” I got

Sam Phillips

“Charming and Dangerous”

💀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. My collegue-in-blogging Clint

Patrice Leconte

Wild day: bad news, good date night

My brother Jason, singer/songwriter/composer for the a capella group Rescue, is in the emergency room due to a very serious spider bite, and is getting heavily dosed with painkillers and antibiotics. Apparently he’ll have to go through a series of treatments before the volcano on his arm

Reader Mail

Email of the Day: good words regarding bad words

For what it's worth, I posted a response at CT Movies to all of those readers who wrote in to tell me that I will be severely judged by the Lord because of my earlier-posted article, in which I argued that profanity is sometimes an appropriate element in

Concerts

A thank-you 20 years in the making

I have wanted to meet Sam Phillips since 1986. That dream has become increasingly strong over the years since then, as her songs have become the most personal and important to me out of any music I've heard. If I had to choose ten songs that have meant

On Movies & Media

My favorite response to Saved!

The best response to the movie Saved! that I've heard yet is a one-line quip passed along by my friend Michael Leary, who heard someone else say it after a screening of the film: “The Church will only be doing what it really should be doing when it

On Movies & Media

I am a "shatterer of dreams"!

I received this in my email box today, with the strange subject of "Remainder"... I read your article at the (promontoryartists.com) about the film Titanic. I was overwhelmed at the handling of the rviews about the film and my curiosity,anxiety and eagerness to see the film

P.J. Harvey

P.J. Harvey album lands Tuesday

[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.] P.J. Harvey&

Taproot Theatre

Jeff Berryman as C.S. Lewis

[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. I’ve updated the TheaterWeekly link, directing readers to another copy of the same review at Aisle Say. (If you find a solution