Looking Closer Classic

A collection of 48 posts

On Movies & Media

The Golden Compass (2007): Looking Closer at Christians, Controversy, and Phillip Pullman

  And so it begins. The first review of New Line Cinema's The Golden Compass, which is based on the first book in Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, has been published in The Daily Telegraph. Telegraph reviewer John Hiscock says: Weitz, whose biggest success to date

On Movies & Media

Looking Closer... looking back.

Moments like this just make me grateful to work with such thoughtful, brave, and dedicated collaborators. So I'm going to take a moment here and thank a few people who have invested in my work, inspired and challenged me, and played essential roles in the achievements that the

On Movies & Media

Have We Lost Our Minds?

If you've been reading the CT Feedback page and reading this blog, you've seen a lot of recent criticism, and read a lot of accusations, regarding the philosophy of CT Movies reviewers. Well, my blog post describing our "philosophy" inspired an invitation to share

On Movies & Media

Are Christianity Today's Movie Reviews Written With an "Anti-Evangelical Agenda"?

As you may already know, this week a radio talk-show host accused Christianity Today Movies' film reviewers of misrepresenting the magazine's foundation of evangelical conviction. And a Christian filmmaker responded to one of those reviews by declaring that one of CT's most prolific and respected

On Movies & Media

Eugene Peterson's "Eat This Book" ... and Moviegoing

I am finding Eugene Peterson's Eat This Book to be a particularly inspiring meditation on our need to read, taste, chew, and digest the Bible.And along the way, I am thunderstruck by how often the points Peterson is making about how we should read scripture run parallel

On Movies & Media

Publishers Weekly on "Through a Screen Darkly"

It's not often I steal a line from Darth Vader, but here goes: "This will be a day long remembered." Publishers Weekly has given Through a Screen Darkly a starred review! You can read it here. They give it two thumbs up. Really. See for yourself!

On Movies & Media

Why My Faith is Not FoxFaith (and Great Art is Not Necessarily "Christian Art")

When I saw a promotional video for the arrival of FoxFaith, a special library of movies that "Christians and families can enjoy," I had a flashback. As I perused the titles of films being included in that label, I felt the walls closing in, trapping me in a

On Movies & Media

Why My Faith is Not "FoxFaith," and Great Art is Not Necessarily "Christian art"

When I saw a promotional video for the arrival of FoxFaith, a special library of movies that "Christians and families can enjoy," I had a flashback. As I perused the titles of films being included in that label, I felt the walls closing in, trapping me in a

Looking Closer Classic

The Seed of an Idea

Auralia, still as death, like a discarded doll, lay in a burgundy tangle of rushes and spineweed on the bank of a bend in the River Throanscall, where she was discovered by a hapless old thief ... * One day in 1996, before Anne and I were married, we went hiking with

On Movies & Media

Looking Closer Classic: "Mystery and Message"

Not much to blog about today, as I've been sitting at home and at a top-secret Seattle coffee house all day working at condensing all of my thoughts about the wonder of movies into a book. As I wrote, I kept recalling things that I learned from one

On Movies & Media

Doug Cummings on Jean Renoir's "The River"

Peter Greenaway once said that cinema as an "art form" has yet to be established. He meant that, so far, movies aren't much more than illustrated narratives: books with moving pictures to bring the manuscripts to life. That comment has stuck with me, as I'

On Movies & Media

Joke of the Day (except that it's true)

I'm not making this up. This just happened to me. I was contacted this morning by someone who works for one of the three major news networks. They wanted me to come downtown and film a segment for a TV news talk-show addressing the question, "Is the

On Movies & Media

Many, Many Thanks to Those Who Emailed Me

To those who have emailed me in response to The Seattle Times feature on Looking Closer, I can't thank you enough for the encouragement you've given me. I will answer each and every email that you've sent as I find the time, but it&

On Movies & Media

Looking Closer Becomes a Cover Story

The Seattle Times article is up! (... he says, as he crawls under his desk in bewilderment.) On the front page of the Pacific Northwest Magazine section, it'll appear just ahead of the headline: Slug Bait No More! I owe many thanks to the two fellows responsible for this

On Movies & Media

More Mail for CT's Top 10, and My Visit to an SPU Classroom

A couple of days ago, I posted some of the complaints that have come in to CT Movies about the year-end Top Ten List that they posted. And I replied to those complaints. I also used them as material to enliven my presentation when I guest-taught a class for Dr.

On Movies & Media

My Constantine Adventure: Interviewing Keanu Reeves, Rachel Weisz, Shia LaBeouf, and others.

Angels. Demons. Humans caught in the middle. Heroes trying to resist temptation and defeat Satan’s emissaries. Sounds a lot like an adventure yarn from the mind of Frank Perretti. But Francis Lawrence’s action-horror flick Constantine is a far cry from This Present Darkness. While the hero is an

On Movies & Media

Feedback: The good, the bad, and the ugly

CT Movies is getting some feedback on the movies chosen by their critics as the Best of 2004. Here are some examples that editor Mark Moring has posted on the site. I'd encourage you to offer your own thoughts on the list. Send feedback to ctmovies@christianitytoday.com.

On Movies & Media

How David O. Russell turned me into a priest

[An abridged version of this article was originally published at at Christianity Today.] • When I walked into the Fairmont Hotel in downtown Seattle to interview director David O. Russell, I thought I was prepared. A friend had warned me that the man responsible for the new, philosophical existential comedy I

Faith

I Dreamed I Interviewed Flannery O'Connor

I love doing interviews with thoughtful artists. It's one of the greatest thrills of my work. I've had the privilege of interviewing writers like Scott Cairns and Dana Gioia, musicians like Linford Detweiler and Don and Karen Peris, and filmmakers like Patrice Leconte, Spike Jonze, Kevin

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

On Movies & Media

"There's no profanity in my society..."

This letter came to me in response to my article at Christianity Today about profanity in the movies. My argument covered a lot of points, including the fact that artists often use their work to hold up a reflection to culture with all of its pros and cons. Thus, art

Profanity

Ask the Experts: answering a Christianity Today reader on art and profanity

🤐This text was originally published at Christianity Today on May 21, 2004, but has subsequently disappeared from their website. My contract as a CT freelancer granted me permission to republish anything I contributed to their website, I am reposting it here, post-dated to that original date — 05/21/04 — with

Looking Closer Classic

Welcome to the New Looking Closer Journal

The original post of the Looking Closer with Jeffrey Overstreet blog. You've found it.