My Appearance on the Albert Mohler Program
You can now listen to my interview with on the radio program with Dr. Albert Mohler!
What thoughtful questions, and what a gracious, welcoming way he has with guests on the show. It was a privilege to speak with him.Read more
A Great Week of Radio Interviews
I want to thank
- Melissa Flores of Maryland's "The Listener Cafe" on the He's Alive Network
- Andrew Tallman of The Andrew Tallman Show in Phoenix, Arizona (I was scheduled for 15 minutes, but we ended up on the air for more than an hour! Really exciting chat.)
- Georgene Rice of Portland, Oregon's KPDQ
- John Hall and Stephanie Fraschetti of WordFM in Pittsburgh
- Dr. Albert Mohler of the Albert Moher Program in Kentucky
... for the way they welcomed me to their radio programs over the last several days. They asked great questions about Through a Screen Darkly and the Oscar contenders, and I went away feeling like I'd made some new friends.Read more
Dick Staub on "Pan's Labyrinth" and "Amazing Grace"
When I first met Dick Staub, he was a Christian radio talk-show host who knew how to perform compelling, gracious, unpredictable interviews.
Then I got hooked on his blog, where he ponders the state of Christianity and culture... Staublog.
Then he went off to start a whole new venture... The Kindlings Muse... leading conversations about faith, culture, politics, theology, and art, in the public forum of Hale's Pub and Brewery in Seattle, Washington. And his new book is called The Culturally Savvy Christian.
Some things haven't changed. He's still one of the best interviewers I know. He has a personality that's as big as his enormous heart. And he has a head full of wisdom and quotable quotes from C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, G.K. Chesterton, and other great Christian imaginations.
Last night, he hosted a public forum on faith and film, and it was a wonderful event. I had the privilege of meeting Stefan Ulstein, film critic for Christianity Today Movies, and his wife Jeanne. I was also reunited with Jennifer Spohr, who organized the recent University Presbyterian Film Festival in Seattle. We discussed the five films nominated for Best Picture, and gave our different interpretations of each. The audience seemed excited, and Staub was a great host.
I'll have the podcast of the whole event for you soon. This kind of event is so exhilarating... to be part of a gracious, enthusiastic, insightful conversation about art amongst Christians who love art. I wish you could have been there.
In the meantime, here's Dick Staub's latest blog on Amazing Grace and Pan's Labyrinth.
Have We Lost Our Minds?
If you've been reading the CT Feedback page and reading this blog, you've seen a lot of recent criticism, and read a lot of accusations, regarding the philosophy of CT Movies reviewers.
Well, my blog post describing our "philosophy" inspired an invitation to share the same thoughts at Christianity Today Movies. So my editor, Mark Moring, and I did a bit of editing and polishing and now here it is again, new and improved, with a much better title.Read more
Inspired by the Oscars: My Thank-You Speech for Last Night's Celebration
Last night, while Hollywood got ready for the Oscars, I had the incredible privilege of gathering with many of the most influential people in my life, and a whole lot of people I didn't know at all, in a little bookstore in La Conner, Washington, called The Next Chapter.Read more
Were the Voters Blindfolded?
Somebody explain to me how you can watch Pan's Labyrinth and Children of Men and think that Pan's Labyrinth is the better work of cinematography?Read more
Oscar Thoughts ... as the Show Goes On (Updated)
How do you start things off on a bad note? You take a gospel choir and have them parade around singing "Hallelujah" in honor of the nominees.
Isn't that just about the epitome of the industry's self-congratulation? Taaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaacky!
Otherwise, I appreciated the low-key intro by Ellen DeGeneres.
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I wish The Prestige had taken Best Art Direction. The art direction in that film was complex, colorful, and ablaze with detail and light. Pan's Labyrinth was well-designed, but it was much simpler.
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Black, Ferrell, and O'Reilly's musical performance ... PURE GENIUS. Worth the whole show!!
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Apocalypto didn't win for makeup, but it probably should have. Hollywood is working out its grudge against Gibson. Oh well, Pan's Labyrinth had amazing makeup work so this isn't such a tragedy.
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Breslin and Smith ... the presenters are more fun than the winners tonight.
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Sound editing... once again, presenters upstaging the actual award. What did Letters from Iwo Jima do that hasn't been done in war films before?
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Best supporting actor ... a great group. Not a loser in the bunch.
ALAN ARKIN HAS WON AN OSCAR!!
A great speech, even if he had to read it.
THIS is why I watch the Oscars. To see great talent rewarded, and to hear them thank those who helped them along the way. Once in a while, folks, it happens, and it's beautiful when it does. We can never get enough reminders to thank those who are helping us along the way, and to give that kind of support to others.
Of course, the best way to achieve excellence is to aim to please the greatest judge of everything...
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I can't help but wince, watching Al Gore and Leonardo DiCaprio, because I can hear the grumbling about Gore and his politics all across the country right now.
And while people grumble, they're missing what he's trying to do... he's trying to encourage us to take care of the world God gave us. He's trying to remind us that God wants us to demonstrate responsibility, care, and compassion in how we use the resources entrusted to us. Even if I don't always agree with his approach or his priorities, his heart is in the right place on this one... and I appreciate his willingness to strive so vigorously to awaken the conscience in each and every person who puts aside their biases to listen to his plea.
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A tribute to writers?
Amen!
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As much as I love Children of Men, I'm glad it did NOT win Best Adapted Screenplay. It wasn't an adaptation. It took the premise of the book and then came up with a completely different screenplay.
The Departed, on the other hand, is a brilliant adaptation of what was already a great script. Good choice. I, however, would have voted for Little Children, the most sorely underrated film to be mentioned at tonight's Oscars.
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Meryl Streep is brilliant even during a moment of improv.
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Costume design ... WOW. Another award going to the right candidate! Marie Antoinette was a costume designer's dream. In fact, the costumes (and the food) almost stole the show from the cast. Almost.
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Okay, I was wrong.
Ellen rocks.
She's making this show so much fun. Bring her back next year!
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CINEMATOGRAPHY...
Come on, Children of Men... Children of Men...Children of Men... Children of Men... Children of Men...
It's a masterpiece, far, far beyond anything else this year. Nothing even comes close. AND it's filmed by the same guy who filmed The New World.
Does it win?
UN-FREAKING-BELIEVABLE.
Pan's cinematography was good. But Children of Men was so mind-blowingly awe-inspiring that it will be used as a model for decades to come. They'll still be writing about its cinematography in 25 years.
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Wow. The Lives of Others pulls off a major upset!!
I've GOT to see this film.
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"LOOK WHAT GOD CAN DO." - Jennifer Hudson.
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An Inconvenient Truth. Hey, it may not be the best documentary of the year, but it is the most important, and I'm glad they have the microphone to encourage us one more time.
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Morricone. A legend who deserves every bit of applause.
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Best score: Give it to Pan's Labyrinth. It deserves this one. Haunting, spooky, lush, gorgeous.
Oh well, Babel's soundtrack was powerful and effective. This is cool.
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THE BEST SPEECH BY THE OSCAR PRESIDENT EVER.
This is the best Oscars ever.
I know when I've been proven wrong. And I was wrong. DeGeneres is knocking it out of the park.
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Best screenplay:
LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE - Wow. That's a big, big surprise. And history makes me think that this means it *won't* win Best Picture. Babel is likely to take home the grand prize. And Babel deserves it. But I still have this hunch... this nagging hunch... that Sunshine's going to surprise everybody.
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Beyonce and Jennifer are burning the place down. Amazing. Whatever folks say about her ego, Knowles can really sing. And Hudson... how do you recover from winning an Oscar and then turn around fast enough to sing like that?
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Loved Michael Mann's vision of America on film... but, as we might expect from Mr. Mann, it was a little heavy on the . . . men.
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Hooray for Thelma Schoonmaker. There were so many great editing works this year. The Departed was definitely impressive.
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I'm choking up, as I knew I would, as Robert Altman's name appears along with this year's losses. So many great talents lost this year. But man, do I miss that guy already.
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BEST ACTRESS
Frankly, I think Judi Dench's performance was every bit as accomplished as Mirren's. But we all know who's winning tonight.
And, the winner is...
Well, she *IS* the queen, after all!
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BEST ACTOR
Forest Whitaker. What a great actor, for so many years, in so many movies. I think, to celebrate, I'll watch Smoke and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai again.
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It's just weird to see George Lucas on an Oscar platform.
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You know, as legendary as Scorsese is, and as much as he's deserved it before, I think anybody who has seen United 93 knows there was a more deserving director THIS year.
Still, it's so great to see him being recognized in this way.
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So, here we go....
What's it gonna be?
THE DEPARTED.
The biggest surprise of the night. (Here's my review.)
I gotta get ready to fill two hours of radio time on KGNW about this, so I'll talk to you all later.
Should Christians Give Christian Movies Rave Reviews?
If you've been reading this blog recently, you know that Christian film critics sometimes get blasted for pointing out weaknesses in Christian films.
I thought I'd ask the thoughtful, eloquent crowd of Christians over at ArtsandFaith.com what they think about this question:Read more
The Christianity Today Readers' Poll
I've already linked to Christianity Today's "Most Redeeming Movies of 2006" list (a list of the most inspiring, redemptive big-screen stories of the year).
And I've linked to their critics' "Cream of the Crop" list (a list of the films that CT critics found to be the most accomplished works of cinematic art).
But there's another list I forgot to mention: the Readers' Poll!!
A "critic of the critics" recently criticized CT Movies film reviewers for being "out of touch" with their Christian readers, thinking that we needed to learn something from the majority. Perhaps it will be eye-opening for us all to see what exactly the readers chose as the Best Film of 2006...
The winner: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.
The runner-up for best movie of the year? X-Men 3: The Last Stand.
Are Christianity Today's film critics thinking differently about films than the majority of their readers?
Clearly.
I'll leave that up to you to decide if that's a sign that we've "lost [our] evangelical conviction," or if we just prefer films that dig a little deeper, demand a little more than the year's biggest blockbusters....