Lee Isaac Chung Week: Day One

This week, I'm celebrating the theatrical and streaming release of "Minari" in honor of filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung. We'll get it started with just a clip from a 2010 interview that will set some of the context for my appreciation of this filmmaker.


0 Comments6 Minutes

In space, no one can hear you scream. But on a podcast?

Listen to the latest episode of Looking Closer, which features a conversation with Sarah Welch-Larson about her new book on the theological implications of the Alien franchise.


0 Comments1 Minute

Overstreet’s 39 Favorite Films of 2020

Consider this a travel journal full of wonders, escapes, thrills, wisdom, and revelation. These are the films that blessed and challenged me most in 2020. Most of them are easily accessible now and you can enjoy them and share them. Take your time and explore.


1 Comment121 Minutes

This Is Chad Hartigan: a conversation with the director of “Little Fish”

In this episode of the Looking Closer podcast, filmmaker Chad Hartigan talks about his new sci-fi love story "Little Fish," its focus on the power of memory, and what it was like to make a pandemic-focused movie just in time for a real pandemic.


0 Comments1 Minutes

Favorite Recordings of 2020: Part 2 (#35–#21)

The countdown continues! Having listed my Honorable Mentions, I move on to my list of 35 favorite recordings from 2020. This post counts down #35–#21.


1 Comment31 Minutes

Favorite Recordings of 2020: Part 1 (Honorable Mentions)

Every year for decades I've posted annual lists of favorite albums here. I'm taking things up a notch, with a longer list and more links to specific tracks than ever before. Here's Part One of three posts on my favorite recordings of 2020. Put on your headphones and make some discoveries!


2 Comments30 Minutes

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.


1 Comment19 Minutes

Letterboxd Spotlight: Glen Grunau on contemplative cinema and Peter Jackson’s war movie

Cinephile Glen Grunau offers a remarkable list of 100 "contemplative films" that will reward those who seek them out. Also: Grunau posts some insights on Peter Jackson's innovative WWI documentary.


0 Comments7 Minutes

Babette’s Feast: The Leftovers!

Thanksgiving leftovers!Listen in on a conversation between Alissa Wilkinson, Sam Thielman, and Jeffrey Overstreet as they celebrate the greatest feast ever filmed.


0 Comments2 Minutes

Wolfwalkers and the Rise of Cartoon Saloon — a conversation with Dr. Lindsay Marshall

Here is a new episode of the Looking Closer podcast, featuring my first impressions of Wolfwalkers, and then my conversation about it with Dr. Lindsay Marshall.


1 Comment1 Minutes

November 7, 2020: Relief, Elation, and Gratitude

I share this as the first in a series of more personal posts, in hopes of expanding the range of subjects I explore at Looking Closer. I hope you enjoy this glimpse of the glory that played out in front of me at the close of this beautiful day.


1 Comment11 Minutes

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.


1 Comment16 Minutes

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."


0 Comments12 Minutes

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.


1 Comment19 Minutes

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.


0 Comments5 Minutes

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.


0 Comments15 Minutes

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.


1 Comment15 Minutes

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.


1 Comment15 Minutes

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.


0 Comments13 Minutes

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.


0 Comments21 Minutes

Looking Closer with Jeffrey Overstreet

(now the ears of my ears awake andnow the eyes of my eyes are opened)

– e. e. cummings, “i thank You God for most this amazing”