Good with crayons? Enter Auralia’s Coloring Contest.

As the four volumes of The Auralia Thread reach their decennial anniversaries, here's a challenge for imaginations of kids young and old: the first-ever Auralia's Coloring Contest.


0 Comments5 Minutes

Widows (2018)

Widows starts with a bang and then devolves into an overstuffed, over-serious, and even predictable thriller.


0 Comments13 Minutes

Madeline’s Madeline (2018)

Josephine Decker's wildly imaginative new film is worth seeing for its experimental ambitions, even if, in the end, it's all a bit too much.


0 Comments12 Minutes

First Man (2018)

Putting Ryan Gosling's feet on the moon, Damien Chazelle has found firmer footing than he did in the eager-to-impress La La Land. This film is modest by comparison, but I find it haunting and enigmatic.


0 Comments12 Minutes

The Hate U Give (2018)

Preachy, but elevated by an excellent lead performance, The Hate U Give is the kind of after-school special that all of America needs right now.


0 Comments10 Minutes

A Star is Born (2018)

Bradley Cooper's big remake of A Star is Born strums all those predictable chords so hard, all the strings start breaking.


1 Comment9 Minutes

Join me for two special screenings of Prospect in Seattle

At two special Seattle screenings of the sci-fi thriller Prospect, I will interview filmmakers Zeek Earl and Christopher Caldwell. You're invited!


0 Comments1 Minutes

Puzzle (2018)

This film looks like a movie made from far-too-familiar pieces. Instead, Puzzle is a delightful and rewarding surprise.


0 Comments10 Minutes

Dead Poets Society and the Legacy of Dr. Luke Reinsma

Four years ago this week, I wrote about how I had changed my mind about "Dead Poets Society." This week, I re-post it as a tribute to my favorite professor.


0 Comments18 Minutes

A great film about linguistics has arrived…

"There is nothing novel about isolationism," says Dr. Kathryn Bartholomew, professor emeritus of languages and linguistics. "It’s the contrary, hospitality, that surprises and delights us." Can you guess which recent sci-fi film inspired this observation?


0 Comments1 Minute

Three Identical Strangers (2018)

Three Identical Strangers is about the joys of brotherhood, the importance of free information and effective journalism, the difference between nature and nurture, and the dangers of science unchecked by conscience.


0 Comments11 Minutes

Crazy Rich Asians (2018)

Crazy Rich Asians is a Cinderella story in which someone much richer than most of us discovers that wealth is relative, and she might not measure up to the standards of China's super-rich.


0 Comments12 Minutes

Eighth Grade (2018)

If "Love is attention," like they say in Lady Bird, then the secret of Eighth Grade is the love it shows its central character: 13-year-old Kayla.


0 Comments19 Minutes

Mission: Impossible — Fallout (2018)

While Mission: Impossible—Fallout played, I loved every minute of it. But afterward, I had an itch that I couldn't scratch. I wrote this to scratch it.


0 Comments20 Minutes

Hearts Beat Loud (2018)

Just what the summer movie season needed: a light, fun, frivolous 90 minutes in a record store with Nick Offerman.


0 Comments10 Minutes

Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (2018)

I'm not likely to see a more memorable, meaningful movie all year. Neither are you.


0 Comments22 Minutes

Leave No Trace (2018)

From the director of Winter's Bone, Leave No Trace is a powerful portrait of a father and daughter that asks us what price we're willing to pay in order to live with integrity and freedom.


0 Comments18 Minutes

Incredibles 2 (2018)

Incredibles 2 suffers a bit from a predictable twist and from themes that get, like Elastigirl, bent out of shape. But it's still the most sensational action movie of the year so far.


2 Comments21 Minutes

First Reformed (2018)

The most invigorating subject of discussion at the movies this year is also a difficult and, for me, frustrating film.


3 Comments27 Minutes

Ocean’s 8 (2018)

Ocean's 8 should've been a blast. It's a missed opportunity in so many ways.


0 Comments12 Minutes

Pope Francis: A Man of His Word — a Looking Closer film forum

Can a documentary about the Pope give us a complex, nuanced, truthful vision that is more than just a vehicle for a message?


0 Comments2 Minutes

Game Night (2018)

For friends and weekend parties, Game Night is bound to become a movie-night favorite.


0 Comments9 Minutes

The Theology of the Coen Brothers? A Conversation Between Matt Zoller Seitz and Jeffrey Overstreet

Originally titled "O Coen Brothers, Where Art God?", this is my conversation with Matt Zoller Seitz about theology, Raising Arizona, morality, Fargo, good and evil, The Big Lebowski, and so much more.


2 Comments35 Minutes

Ready Player One (2018)

Spielberg gets lost in nostalgia, serving up a flashy but frustrating contradiction.


0 Comments25 Minutes

Praising Paul, Apostle of Christ

Justin Chang and Steven Greydanus are impressed with "Paul, Apostle of Christ."


1 Comment6 Minutes

Movie’s Not Christian — and Vox’s Not Dead

God's Not Dead, but he sure is misrepresented! Here's Alissa Wilkinson on just how misguided this series of films really is.


1 Comment1 Minutes

Isle of Dogs (2018)

Wes Anderson's latest is the most visually enchanting of his career. For me, it's also the most frustrating.


0 Comments15 Minutes

An American who deserves a parade

A trailer for a movie about a man who made America great by being a humble, loving, welcoming American.


0 Comments1 Minute

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”