Looking Closer Classic

A collection of 46 posts

Journal

Looking Closer: A New Blog Awakens

Hello, class! Please find a seat, get out a piece of paper and a pen, and settle in. Welcome to the first day of a new school year. That's what it feels like for me, anyway, as the curtain goes up on a new version of Looking Closer.

Journal

Mystery and Message

Photographer and teacher Michael Demkowicz on "What We Talk About When We Talk About Art."

On Songs & Albums

The Complete 2014 Christmas Playlist

It started as a spur-of-the-moment experiment. I asked Joe Henry if he'd be willing to share his Christmas favorites playlist. I so admire his music, the projects that he chooses to produce, and the way that he listens. I wanted to hear what he hears at Christmas time.

Civility

Rough Neighborhood

A Note About Facebook, Comments, and Social Media Manner

On Movies & Media

Well-Made Movies Won't Be... Left Behind

Today, Matt Zoller Seitz, editor of RogerEbert.com, defended The Good Lie, a movie in which the central characters are Christians, as "a good movie." Why did he feel the need to defend it? Well, the success of The Blind Side inspired some backlash — opposition to movies in

Looking Closer Classic

Ten Years Ago Today...

Just marking the occasion... Seems to me the best way to mark the 10th anniversary of this blog is to point you to the essay that inspired it — a few words about art and discernment written by my friend, mentor, and high school English teacher, the photographer Michael Demkowicz. It&

Letterboxd

30 Must-See Movies for Kids

Featured in a WORD-FM Radio interview, here's my list of more than 30 of my favorite films for children. Do you like lists? I've got more where that one came from...

Looking Closer Classic

TEN YEARS! Pt. 1: The Best of Looking Closer - 2004

This blog is turning ten! Let's look back a whole decade. What were the highlights here ten years ago?

On Movies & Media

Gravity (2013)

Critics will go on and on comparing "Gravity" to groundbreaking works of art like "2001: A Space Odyssey," but... really?

Overstreet's Books

With Gratitude for the Life and Work of Lee Hough

Lee Hough was my friend, my counselor, my confidant, my voice of reassurance, my coach.

Inside Llewyn Davis

O Coen Brothers, Where Art God? A Conversation with Matt Zoller Seitz

"Do the Coens believe in God? Can we even say that for sure? Do they believe in the non-rational, the supernatural? Or are they just pranksters pulling our chains and hoping to spark conversation pieces like this one, while they sit there snickering?" To explore these questions, Press

On Movies & Media

On "Difficult" Movies

As we're in a season busy with film festivals, I'm reading reviews of what sound like extremely challenging movies. Some of those reviews sound like the kind of comments that might provoke filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami to repeat what he said here...

Lectures

IAM Encounter 10: How Then Shall We Tell Stories?

I hope you enjoy this presentation of my visit to Encounter 10, the 2010 arts conference hosted by International Arts Movement. This talk was my response to a question posed to me by the IAM team. I had the privilege of sharing thoughts in response to the question "How

On Movies & Media

Further Thanks to Christianity Today for a Generous Send-Off

Today's unexpected notes from the team at Christianity Today have been a tremendous blessing to me at the end of a trying week. I am deeply grateful. And thanks to those of you who left comments for me there as well. All I ever did was ramble on,

On Movies & Media

The Passion of the Christ - A Letter to Christians about Mel Gibson's Film

This commentary is a follow-up to my review of The Passion of the Christ. * Most Christian press publications will lavish praise upon Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. They will celebrate the arrival of a film rich with spiritual power, rendered with riveting and even excruciating detail.

On Movies & Media

"Why do you have to analyze everything? Why can't you just enjoy it?"

Recently, I encountered someone who was clearly disgruntled by the mixed reviews of the movie Fireproof. He responded to the critics' observations by declaring that reviews aren't really important... that "the success and value of the film" would ultimately be determined by "ordinary people&

On Movies & Media

An Open Letter to Employees at Focus on the Family and Boundless

Focus on the Family has yet to apologize for, or express affirmation for, the misleading headline at its Boundless blog: "Christianity Today Relishes Sexual Perversion" If you're tired of reading about this — and I wouldn't blame you, I'm certainly sick of thinking

On Movies & Media

WALL•E: Talking with Andrew Stanton, and the Film Forum Reviews

As I sat braced for my ten-minute conversation with Andrew Stanton, the writer and director of my favorite Pixar movie, Finding Nemo, I tried to imagine how I might make something useful out of such a short span of time. I was a bit anxious about meeting one of my

Reader Mail

Reader Mailstrom, 6/18: "Your reviews are no longer of value to the Christian community."

I'm starting a new column, chronicling stand-outs from the daily maelstrom of Looking Closer email. Most of these letters are real. Some of them are amalgalms of a variety of messages. Some of them are what I read between the lines of the things readers really wrote. Each

Music Reviews

My Favorite Music Reviewer Speaks

Andy Whitman, my favorite writer at Paste Magazine, delivered a lecture at the Trinity Arts Conference last week. I missed it. My work schedule prevented me from attending, and it hurt to miss out. Nobody writes about music with more passion than Andy. And few can draw from such a

Christianity Today

Focus on the Family says "Christianity Today Relishes Sexual Perversion." Call That What It Is: A Lie.

Once a month, I talk with Kim Ketola about movies, faith, and culture on her "Along the Way" radio program. She runs a great show, and isn't afraid to ask tough questions. This week, Kim and I talked about Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the

Coen Brothers

Reader!!!! Mail!!!!

This week's blue-ribbon-winning letter from a reader comes in response to my review of No Country for Old Men, which was published at CTMovies. The reader writes: Thank you. You're welcome!!!!!!!!! You are welcome to read my "arguments" in the book Through a Screen

Looking Closer Classic

Have a Joyous Easter!

I imagine driving from Seattle to Portland, Oregon, to my grandparents' house. I spent many a weekend there growing up, almost all holidays, and every Christmas morning. The house was full of the smell of baking -- fresh bread, butterhorns, and ginger cookies my grandmother called "molasses crinkles.

Overstreet's Books

"Through a Screen Darkly" is One Year Old

It's been an interesting week. On Tuesday, I submitted Cyndere's Midnight, the sequel to Auralia's Colors, to the editors at WaterBrook Press. There's still some "trimming" and editing to do, but it's almost ready to go. Time flies

On Movies & Media

There Will Be Blood (2007)

This review was originally published in an abridged edition at Christianity Today. • In Roman Polanski’s Chinatown, detective Jake Gittes became suspicious of a devious California millionaire named Noah Cross, played by the great John Huston. Dazzled by Cross’s fortune, which he’d acquired through laying irrigation pipelines across