Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

Here's a review of J.J. Abrams' The Rise of Skywalker that follows the example of the movie.


2 Comments22 Minutes

My #1 Christmas gift recommendation — and five reasons why

I've been asked to recommend five highlights from my many years of reading Image, my favorite literary arts journal. I had difficulty limiting my answer.


0 Comments13 Minutes

Light from Light (2019)

Paul Harrill, director of Something, Anything, returns with another venture into the borderlands between body and spirit, head and heart. But this time, it might not be God that a young woman is discovering. It might be a ghost.


1 Comment15 Minutes

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019)

Another Mr. Roger movie. Another essential vision — for here, for now, for American children and American adults.


2 Comments19 Minutes

Ford v Ferrari (2019)

Race cars. Guys with clenched jaws. Bromances. Grudge matches. A good wife back home tucking the moppet into bed at night. This is sure to be a big hit.


0 Comments10 Minutes

Light From Light: A Looking Closer Film Forum

Until I can finish my own review, here's a round table of reviews worth reading that represent a range of perspectives on my favorite ghost story of 2019.


0 Comments4 Minutes

Cinemarginalia: Justin Chang & Ins Choi at The Glen Workshop; Criterion sale; Scorsese in Seattle

You can spend a week in Santa Fe with Justin Chang, Ins Choi, Over the Rhine, and more. Also: The new Scorsese film is getting the best possible projection in Seattle. Read about these things and more here...


0 Comments5 Minutes

Overstreet Radio: Wilco, Lucy Dacus, Innocence Mission, R.E.M., Bruce Cockburn, and more

Here's a long list of new songs that are heating up my cold autumn days. Enjoy!


0 Comments6 Minutes

Practicing the Prophetic: James K. A. Smith on liturgy and discernment

Behold — James K. A. Smith's plenary lecture from Seattle Pacific University's Day of Common Learning.


0 Comments1 Minutes

Famine Walk – the new Joe Henry opening track is here

I heard this in the car today, and I had to pull the car over.


0 Comments1 Minute

Overstreet Archives: Anchorman (2004)

Digging back into the archives, we've discovered evidence that I reviewed Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy for Christianity Today on its opening weekend.


0 Comments16 Minutes

Hustlers (2019)

Glamorous actresses, agile pole dancing, thrilling needle drops — Hustlers is an edgy crowdpleaser. But what is it really celebrating?


2 Comments18 Minutes

Cinemarginalia: September 21

Notes on my moviegoing priorities for this week; streaming services and other movie sources; and my first viewing of The Outsiders (a movie I didn't see in my high school years).


0 Comments10 Minutes

Cinemarginalia: September 14

This is the first installment in an new weekly series of miscellany-loaded posts. This one includes notes on my recent encounters with Blue Jay, Luce, War of the Worlds, The Peanut Butter Falcon, and more!


0 Comments31 Minutes

Turn and Face the Strange: a challenge to artists and churches

In April, I closed the Sacrament & Story conference in Seattle by posing a challenge to artists and churches, and by addressing a question that has kept you awake at night, I'm sure: If you go into space, will your DNA be rewritten and turn you into an alien?


0 Comments1 Minutes

First Impressions of The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance

As soon as I'd started watching the new Netflix series that expands on Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal, I called animator and author Ken Priebe to talk about the artistry of it. Here's our conversation.


0 Comments26 Minutes

Honeyland (2019)

In a case of "found poetry," documentarians following a remarkable Macedonian beekeeper have captured a rich and meaningful story of stewardship and injustice.


0 Comments11 Minutes

Mandy (2019)

Here's an idea for a movie: They've taken the woman he loves. So he's out for revenge.


0 Comments13 Minutes

Frame 3: Unlearning to Read Along My Commute

A journal entry about the curse of compulsive reading.


0 Comments12 Minutes

Guest review: Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood

Guest reviewer Damian Arlyn considers the place of Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood in director Quentin Tarantino's oeuvre.


0 Comments16 Minutes

Wild Rose (2019)

Wild Rose has the stuff to be the year's biggest crowdpleaser... but it's already disappearing from theaters. Don't let it get away.


0 Comments10 Minutes

Frame 2: Another Psalm 12

A personal paraphrase of Psalm 12, in which the Scripture becomes, in the moment, a "living word" indeed.


0 Comments5 Minutes

The Farewell (2019)

The summer's most surprising hit, The Farewell has almost every critic singing its praises. Me, I might be a heartless monster, because I wasn't moved by it at all.


1 Comment19 Minutes

Frame 1: Intersection

A journal entry.


0 Comments5 Minutes

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2019)

Can Terry Gilliam, after all that he and this troubled production has been through, deliver a satisfying Don Quixote movie based on inspiration that is now more than three decades old?


0 Comments1 Minute

Georgia O’Keeffe and others review The Lion King (2019)

Disney celebrates itself by making a shot-for-shot, photo-realistic remake of an audience favorite. According to the reviewers I admire and tend to trust, this is a product of the circle of lifelessness.


0 Comments8 Minutes

Toy Story 4 and the Gabby Gabby problem

In Part 3 of my review, we wrestle with questions about controversial plot twists. (There will be spoilers!)


0 Comments21 Minutes

Well played, Pixar! Thoughts on Toy Story 4

Part One of a three-part reflection on Toy Story 4, in which I am proven wrong and the movie turns out to be a fantastic, opening up promising new frontiers for these beloved characters.


1 Comment15 Minutes

I Am Not a Witch (2018)

Don't miss this overlooked treasure from 2018: a mystical "fantasy" about a young Zambian girl condemned as a witch.


0 Comments8 Minutes

Booksmart (2019)

Booksmart is certainly energetic and exciting. But do its high-powered hormones overwhelm its generous heart?


0 Comments19 Minutes

Her Smell (2019)

Elisabeth Moss stars as Becky Something, a ferociously self-destructive rock star who challenges us to consider the tenacity of our love.


0 Comments10 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”