The Trip (2010): Or, Up for a Celebrity Impressions Road Trip?
It works as a buddy movie, as a "foodie" film, as a meditation on a mid-life crisis, as battle of brilliant improvisational comedians, and as a surprisingly dry and bittersweet comedy about celebrity.
0 Comments7 Minutes
U2’s Songs of Innocence: Not Bad for Four Guys in Their Mid-50s!
Okay, for the one reader out there who doesn't know: You can download the new U2 album for free right now on iTunes.
1 Comment1 Minutes
Q&O: What I’d Change in My Memoir. My Favorite Moviegoing Companion. Top Albums of 2014 So Far. Why You Rarely See Me Smile. More “Noah” Bashing. And More!
Who do you take to the movies? Why are you such a snob? What's your favorite album of 2014 so far? Why do you rarely smile in pictures? Questions are coming in, so... time for another Q & O = Question and Overstreet!
4 Comments24 Minutes
Snowpiercer (2014): A Few First-Impression Notes
Terry Gilliam's Brazil + Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Delicatessen + Peter Weir's The Truman Show + Alfonso Cuaron's Children of Men + John McTiernan's Die Hard. Link those cars together and, wow, what a helter-skelter train!
1 Comment13 Minutes
Boyhood: The Podcast!
Listen to my conversation about Richard Linklater's "Boyhood" with Christianity Today's Chief Film Critic Alissa Wilkinson and the Christ and Pop Culture Superfriends — Richard Clark and Wade Bearden.
0 Comments1 Minute
From the Director of “Metropolitan” and “The Last Days of Disco”
I'm excited to find, among the new Netflix original series, "The Cosmopolitans," a new series from Whit Stillman.
0 Comments2 Minutes
When the Game Stands Tall (2013): A Looking Closer Film Forum
"When the Game Stands Tall" is getting a lot of attention in evangelical Christian culture because it's a match made in evangelical Christian movie heaven: It's about football, and it stars Jim Ca-jeezus.
10 Comments15 Minutes
The Flood Hits Home Video: Give Noah a Chance
Since Aronofsky's surprisingly (and maddeningly) controversial film "Noah" has finally arrived on home video (video on demand, streaming, blu-ray, and DVD), let me point you to my own review and the best reviews of the film I have come across to date.
0 Comments1 Minutes
Who Among Us Is Thirsty? — A Reflection on the Loss of Robin Williams
I am sick at heart over the loss of one of my favorite imaginations.
14 Comments17 Minutes
Lucy (2014) : A Looking Closer Film Forum
I haven't seen "Lucy" yet ... but the clash of opinions about it among critics I respect has been entertaining and intriguing.
0 Comments5 Minutes
Boyhood (2014): A Three-Part Response
In which I think through Richard Linklater's movie "Boyhood" by interviewing my 7-year-old self, my 15-year-old self, and my 20-year-old self...
2 Comments37 Minutes
Overheard at the Movies: Persecuted, Noah, Wish I Was Here, Life Itself, I Origins, and A Most Wanted Man
Does the film about Roger Ebert get a "thumbs up" at Christianity Today? Is Persecuted an "overwrought, alarmist cog in the paranoia machine"? Is Noah "laughable and silly"? Does Wish I Was Here peddle "mushy feel-goodisms"? And how is Philip Seymour Hoffman in A Most Wanted Man?
0 Comments9 Minutes
Summer Reading Bargain: Auralia’s Colors is Less Than $5 at Amazon
This summer, Amazon is offering you Auralia's Colors — both the paperback edition and the Kindle edition — for less than $5.
0 Comments8 Minutes
Gloria (2014)
Just so happens that the first two contestants in the 2014 Looking Closer Beauty pageant were Polish. Now it's time to meet the third contestant. She's from Chile...
1 Comment15 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”