Reader Mailstrom, 6/18: "Your reviews are no longer of value to the Christian community."
I'm starting a new column, chronicling stand-outs from the daily maelstrom of Looking Closer email.
Most of these letters are real. Some of them are amalgalms of a variety of messages. Some of them are what I read between the lines of the things readers really wrote.
Each installment of Reader Mail-strom will be updated over the course of the day, so check back to see if I've responded to you.
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READER:
Thanks for your blog about Ted Slater's over-the-top attacks on CT's review of Sex and the City. I work at Focus on the Family.... I have to say I'm embarrassed by his original blog, and his follow-up just compounds the damage, as did his combative response to anyone who disagreed with him in the comments. ... Thanks for your charity towards him and Focus.
MY RESPONSE:
Brian Volck Discovers "There Will Be Blood"
Brian Volck saw There Will Be Blood for the first time on DVD.
That's too bad, as it was a riveting big-screen experience.
But Volck does not appear to have suffered much. He was, to borrow the term my friend Brandon Fibbs employed when he first saw the movie, "gobsmacked."Read more
Josh Jackson Interviews Sam Phillips
Josh Jackson interviewed Sam Phillips recently, right at the beginning of her tour of Borders bookstores. I'll be talking with her again soon for a special assignment I've been given. Can't wait.Read more
God and Hollywood: Have Movies Improved Since "The Passion of the Christ"
One week ago, beer-drinkin' believers gathered at Hale's Brewery in Seattle to discuss The Passion of the Christ, "faith-based filmmaking," and whether Mel Gibson's movie heralded a new era for Christian filmmaking (as so many believed it would), or a new era in mediocrity and proselytizing.
Sorry, the beer's all gone. But the discussion still lives! Listen to Dick Staub, Greg Wright, Jennie Spohr, and me as we talk it over and respond to challenging questions at The Kindlings Muse!
Here's the summary...
Statler and Waldorf - Heroes for Critics Everywhere
Were these the most influential role models of my childhood?Read more
Back Through a Screen Darkly...
As recent posts have raised some of the same questions that prompted me to write Through a Screen Darkly, I think I'll provide links to...
Chapter One: How a Camel Made a Grown Man Cry (PDF)
Chapter Two: Viewer Discretion Advised
I wrote this in order to take the time necessary to explore questions that are too complicated to address sufficiently in a blog post.
It's been a joy to have this book welcomed by Christian universities and colleges and film studies programs across the country as a provocation to discussion about the intersection of faith and film. I'm enjoying the conversations I have with students at Seattle Pacific University, Calvin College, Fuller Seminary, and beyond. It's exciting to see Christian dialogue about the movies get beyond "This movie is good, this movie is bad."Read more
Reader Mailstrom, 6/17
I'm chronicling memorable messages from the daily maelstrom of Looking Closer email. Most of these letters are real. Some of them may be amalgams of a variety of messages. Some of them are what I read between the lines of the things readers really wrote. Each installment of Reader Mailstrom will be updated over the course of the day, so check back to see if I've responded to you.
Stan Winston, Designer of the Terminator, Dead at 62.
Did you flinch when Edward Scissorhands reached out? That was Stan Winston.
Did your stomach turn when The Thing tore apart its victims? That was Stan Winston.
Read more