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

High Fidelity (2002)

Digging through the archives, I've found an old favorite and I'm taking it for a spin. Here's my original Year 2000 review of High Fidelity.


0 Comments13 Minutes

Ash is Purest White (2019)

Jia Zhangke delivers a wildly ambitious epic of a gangster's girlfriend thrown overboard into Chinese capitalism's unmerciful storms. Go see it. (Caution: Part Two of this essay examines the film's confounding conclusion, so — spoilers!)


0 Comments15 Minutes

Love & Revelation: a ‘magic hour’ with Over the Rhine

Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist return with songs of ruin, loss, and hard-won hope.


0 Comments20 Minutes

From Bamboozled to BlacKkKlansman: A conversation about Spike Lee Joints

In the latest episode of North by Pacific Northwest, I discusses Spike Lee’s films with cinephile, writer, and frequent Criterion Reflections contributor Josh Hornbeck.


0 Comments1 Minute

Shrek (2001)

Lo and behold—archaeologists digging deep in the Looking Closer archives have unearthed Overstreet's original 2001 review of Shrek.


0 Comments10 Minutes

The Coen Brothers: Winning With Losers

"Coen losers tend to stay losers." — Damian Arlyn on the Coen brothers' characters


0 Comments1 Minutes

Chungking Express (1994)

A brief reflection on Wong Kar-wai's Chungking Express.


0 Comments4 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”