Film Lists

A collection of 31 posts

On Songs & Albums

Overstreet's Favorite Recordings: 2009

Here's a video that runs through my favorite albums of 2009. Before I made that video, I sketched out a rough list in order to encourage people to pick up good albums as Christmas gifts. The order was different then, but here's a glimpse of that

On Movies & Media

What Movies Are in Your Top Ten List That Aren't in Anyone Else's? What Albums?

Looking Closer reader Tyler Petty just came up with a good idea for a discussion starter. I mentioned in my first installment of 140 Characters that the movie Midnight Run is on my list of personal, all-time top ten favorite films. I include that film for many reasons. Some of

Looking Elsewhere

Browser: U2 speaks. Filmmakers & Critics Pick Favorites. Buddy Miller.

Here's one of the best U2 interviews I've seen, filmed in Fez. It's not a very professional interview -- the interviewer asks redundant questions and keeps getting interrupted. But the band seems relaxed, in good humor, and full of surprising answers. You'll

On Movies & Media

Michael Leary on "Redeeming Films"

Michael Leary of film-think links to CT Movies' 10 Most Redeeming Films of 2008. And then he responds: ... If we want to use "redeeming" with all of its Christological force as a certain way of looking at films, then we will have to go far off the

Looking Elsewhere

Browser: Gerard Manley Hopkins & Paul Mariani; A moratoriaum on Holocaust films?; Plus, U2, Katherine Heigl, Keanu and more 2008 Film Awards

Paul Mariani, one of my favorite poets, has now penned a new book on Gerard Manley Hopkins. Books and Culture has a review. More... * Should there be a moratorium on "Holocaust films"? Stewart Klawans thinks so. * Watch out, polygamists. Here comes Katherine Heigl. Variety reports: "Katherine Heigl

Looking Elsewhere

Browser: Of Billboards, Brando, and the Best of 2008 (Updated 10:25AM)

NPR has the story of Rev. Gloria White Hammond, who brings a "ministry of healing" to those who are suffering in Darfur. Today, as I read this story of faith, love, and compassion, I'm reminded that Washington State's Governor Gregoire has allowed the following

On Movies & Media

What's the Greatest Final Shot of a Feature film?

At Arts and Faith, Buckeye Jones asked a distracting question today: What's your all-time favorite closing shot of a movie? Here are a few of mine... I'll add to this list as they come to mind, but here is the initial rush of closing shots that

On Movies & Media

Readers Respond to the CT Movies Critics Choice

It's business as usual as readers respond to the 2007 Critics Choice list at CT Movies. What did readers think of Juno, which was the #1 favorite film amongst CT's film critics? And what about Into Great Silence, which showed up on both the Critics Choice

On Movies & Media

The 2007 Critics' Choice List from Christianity Today's Film Critics

You saw the first list, the Most Redeeming Films of 2007. Now, here's the Critics' Choice list. I just can't wait to read the mail this week!

On Movies & Media

CTMovies: The Top 10 Most Redeeming Movies of 2007

Okay, here's the first of CTMovies' two annual movie lists... The Top 10 Most Redeeming Movies of 2007! What do you think? What did the ten participating critics* miss? What did we get right? *The ten voters are part of this diverse group of moviegoers.

On Movies & Media

Favorite Films of the Decade

Adam Walter's still in the mood for lists. So he's picking his favorite films of the DECADE. What are yours? I'm going to wait until my next break in the editing project. And then I'll come back to this post and share

On Movies & Media

Steven D. Greydanus's Favorites of 2007

There is no film critic whose writing I enjoy more than Steven D. Greydanus, even though we sometimes have very different opinions of particular films. (There Will Be Blood, for instance, which didn't mean much to him, but my head is still spinning with all that I enjoyed

On Movies & Media

More 2007 Lists Worth Noting

My Netflix queue just went into cardiac arrest as I read about all kinds of new movies on the 2007-Best lists from Doug Cummings and Robert Koehler. What would I do without tour guides like them? Nate Bell separates wheat from chaff. Brandon Fibbs is impressed with many, but only

On Movies & Media

Looking Closer's 25 Favorite Films of 2007 (With an Introduction About List-Making)

Once upon a time, I was naive enough, and arrogant enough, to post lists of "the year's best films." But now, I'm reluctant to even offer a list of recommendations. It would probably be better if I posted my Favorite Movies of 2007 in

On Movies & Media

Ask 100+ critics to name the best movie of 2007...

... and they say: There Will Be Blood. The runner-up is quite a surprise too. Here's the full list.

On Songs & Albums

Overstreet's Favorite Recordings: 2007

1. I'm Not There - Original SoundtrackWhat a marvel: a two-disc marathon of Bob Dylan songs covered by excellent artists, and almost every single attempt is a knockout. There have been a lot of bad covers of Dylan songs. Too many. But in a year when Dylan was

On Movies & Media

Tarkovsky's Top Ten

At Soul Food Movies, Ron Reed rediscovers Andrei Tarkovsky's top ten movies. Wow. That's a must-see list for all serious cinephiles. Having just seen The Sacrifice, the prominence of Bergman doesn't surprise me. If I hadn't known that The Sacrifice was a

On Movies & Media

The Top Ten Films of 2006, According to Christianity Today

The film critics of Christianity Today Movies have voted. And these are the Cream of the Crop ... the Top 10 Films of 2006. Quite a few critics contributed here, and we all had strikingly different opinions, so it's interesting to see how it all worked out. And hey,

On Movies & Media

Conversations with Critics About Favorite Films of 2006

It was the year of the endangered baby. Tsotsi, L'Enfant, The Nativity Story, Pan's Labyrinth,Children of Men... all of these films were focused on either infants or unborn children who are carried through terrible danger. But that was a subset of films characterized by a

On Movies & Media

Indiewire Critics Rate the Best of 2006

Thanks to Doug Cummings for posting this link. It represents the votes of a long list of writers, many of whom would be on my list of the best film critics working today. And the list itself is amazing, including so many great titles that will go overlooked by the

On Movies & Media

Slant Critics: Two Intriguing Year's-Best Lists.

I'm listening to the critics at Slant Magazine this year. Why? Well, because both of them picked The New World as the best film of 2005, having seen only a hastily fashioned awards-consideration version. Looking at their picks for this year, I'm already agreeing with several

On Movies & Media

Why Is "The New World" on 2005 Best-Lists If Malick Finished It in 2006?

The final cut of Terrence Malick's The New World was not finished until January 2006. It was not shown to critics in Seattle until January 18, 2006. The cut that was shown to Oscar voters in a rather rushed attempt to get an Oscar nomination was not the

On Movies & Media

Michael Leary's Top 10 of 2005

One of my favorite film writers, Michael Leary, who blogs at ImageFacts, sees more of the international highlights than I do, partly due to living between Chicago and Scotland. Thus, I've been eagerly awaiting his Top Ten list, and here I am, reading it at The Matthews House

On Songs & Albums

Ten Favorite Albums of 2005

Here are the records that I've put on and kept on, over and over, this last year.

On Movies & Media

My Favorite Films of 2005

I've just published the Looking Closer "Favorite Films of 2005" list. This list will very likely be revised in the next month, as I catch up to some of those hard-to-reach 2005 releases. But I'll be required to turn in my list to various