Over the Rhine’s Christmas Playlist
December 10, 2014
Here now, is what Over the Rhine would play for you if you asked to hear something besides their own extraordinary Christmas recordings...
1 Comment6 Minutes
Coyote Hunting at Christmas with Linford Detweiler
On Songs & Albums,Interviews,Blog
December 9, 2014
In this, my fourth Looking Closer conversation with Linford Detweiler of Over the Rhine, we talked about the stories behind the songs on the band's third "Reality Christmas" album, Blood Oranges in the Snow.
0 Comments24 Minutes
Alissa Wilkinson’s Christmas Playlist
December 8, 2014
When inquiring of my favorite writers and artists about the Christmas music that means the most to them, I turned habitually to someone I tend to ask for recommendations in almost everything.
0 Comments16 Minutes
Looking Elsewhere: Dec. 4, 2014
December 4, 2014
Here are a few recent distractions and discoveries from elsewhere on the web that gave me fleeting moments of relief from the storms of a Bad News Week.
1 Comment4 Minutes
Ashley Cleveland’s Christmas Playlist
December 4, 2014
Our Christmas Playlist Party continues! Here's one of the most soulful musicians I've ever had the pleasure of seeing live: Grammy award-winning gospel singer Ashley Cleveland.
0 Comments5 Minutes
Joe Henry’s Christmas Playlist
December 2, 2014
Our first Christmas Playlist Party host? Please welcome Grammy award-winning producer, poet, and musician Joe Henry, whose new album "Invisible Hour" is, at this writing, my favorite record of 2014 and the one I have played most often.
2 Comments7 Minutes
Cinematic States Contest Winner
November 29, 2014
Last week, I invited you to tell us which movie best captures the character of your home territory. The winner would receive a signed copy of the book "Cinematic States," Gareth Higgins' thought-provoking tour of the U.S.A. by the way it is revealed through its movies. Whose name did I draw from the hat?
2 Comments14 Minutes
The New World (2007): Looking Closer’s Thanksgiving Movie
On Movies & Media,Blog,Film Reviews
November 27, 2014
So, putting on my film critic hat, I will do as I usually do at Thanksgiving — I will recommend that we remember the origins of this nation, that we reflect on the early days of European culture converging and clashing with Native American culture, through the lenses, the imagination, the eyes, and the conscience of Terrence Malick. My Thanksgiving movie is the "Extended Cut" of The New World.
0 Comments26 Minutes
Rough Neighborhood
November 26, 2014
A Note About Facebook, Comments, and Social Media Manner
6 Comments8 Minutes
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (First Impressions)
On Movies & Media,Blog,Film Reviews
November 22, 2014
Our futures will be shaped by the capacity of rising generations to challenge and test what their screens and gadgets tell them about the world, and The Hunger Games is a parable for them, about them, summoning them to demand freedom, human rights, and the truth.
2 Comments5 Minutes
Saving Christmas (2014): A Looking Closer Film Forum
On Movies & Media,Film Forum,Blog
November 21, 2014
Featuring a guest review by my new friend N. D. Wilson, author of Boys of Blur, Death by Living, 100 Cupboards, and more.
4 Comments16 Minutes
Interstellar (2014)
On Movies & Media,Blog,Film Reviews
November 15, 2014
After I got home from seeing Interstellar — I saw it in good old-fashioned 35 mm, not in IMAX — I had mixed feelings about the movie, and decided I would jot down a few notes. About 90 minutes later, I was still writing.
3 Comments24 Minutes
Birdman (2014)
On Movies & Media,Blog,Film Reviews
November 13, 2014
I've read that Birdman is a movie that pulls back the curtain to reveal (surprise!) that show-biz is really just a hell of egomaniacs on adrenalin highs, using and abusing one another for stardom, and taking the name of "art" in vain. The rumors are true... it does.
3 Comments11 Minutes
Looking Elsewhere: Star Wars – Episode VII, Interstellar, The Hobbit, Best U2 Punchlines, Glen West 2014, Hayao Mizyazaki, Sandworms, George Lucas, Collateral
November 13, 2014
Did you hear the one about the door of U2's private jet falling off mid-flight? Best punchline for that set-up wins...
1 Comment4 Minutes
Here Comes 2014’s Big Finale: Quick — What Were the Highlights of the First 10 Months?
November 1, 2014
0 Comments8 Minutes
Blaze of Gory
October 27, 2014
On Christmas Day 2012 — while Americans were still grieving for victims of the Newtown elementary-school massacre — "Django Unchained," the new film by Quentin Tarantino, opened nationwide. This week, as my community grieves the loss of lives in two recent Seattle school shootings, Tarantino's hyperviolent Western has arrived on Netflix.
1 Comment7 Minutes
Ragamuffin (2014) – A Guest Review by Martin Stillion
On Movies & Media,On Songs & Albums,Blog,Film Reviews
October 25, 2014
"... if the goal of Ragamuffin is to get viewers to reconsider the life and music of Mullins, who’s been dead these seventeen years ... : I have some of his stuff playing on YouTube right now. If the goal was for the film to be a work of art in itself, then there’s a lot more work to be done."
4 Comments8 Minutes
Deliver Us From Evil (2014)
On Movies & Media,Blog,Film Reviews
October 23, 2014
Arriving on home video just in time for Halloween, Scott Derrickson's "Deliver Us From Evil" delivers a creative tangle of tropes and trippy special effects, aiming to do better than merely making us jump out of our seats. And it succeeds.
0 Comments23 Minutes
Battle in Seattle (2007)
On Movies & Media,Blog,Film Reviews
October 20, 2014
#Ferguson. #WTO. #U2iPhone6 Why am I not tweeting my outrage? Have I been pummeled numb by scandal, injustice, and atrocity? Have I become hard-hearted?
1 Comment3 Minutes
Calvary (2014): A Looking Closer Film Forum
On Movies & Media,Blog,Film Reviews
October 15, 2014
"I don't think it will be winning any awards from the Christian world. ... It takes place in a universe very like ours."
0 Comments11 Minutes
Left Behind (2014): A Looking Closer Film Forum
On Movies & Media,Film Forum,Blog
October 2, 2014
This post will be updated over the next few days, so check back as this thrilling — dare I say rapturous? — cinematic occasion unfolds!
19 Comments10 Minutes
The Christian Message of David Fincher’s Gone Girl . . . (Not Really)
October 1, 2014
One of my favorite writers on the subject of art, faith, and culture — Alissa Wilkinson — has seen "Gone Girl," the new film by David Fincher. Let's ask her: "What's the message of the movie?"
4 Comments9 Minutes
The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014): A Looking Closer Film Forum
On Movies & Media,Film Forum,Blog
September 23, 2014
2 Comments10 Minutes
This Post Contains R-Rated Subject Matter: Viewer Discretion is Advised.
September 22, 2014
6 Comments5 Minutes
Chef (2014)
On Movies & Media,Blog,Film Reviews
September 20, 2014
What are the greatest movie moments that involve sandwiches?
3 Comments8 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”