Steven Greydanus

Star-gazing again, I'm pointing to one of the brightest in the cosmos of criticism: Steven D. Greydanus. I'd be hard-pressed to think of a critic who has had a more consistently inspiring influence on me over the last 20 years of my engagement with film and with film essays.

Looking Closer has a new Twitter account! Also: Here are my first impressions of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, a link to the latest Arts & Faith movie list, and one of the reviews of The Northman I've been most looking forward to.

Merry Christmas early! The Weekender will be a Surprise Box, an unpredictable newsletter, a bulletin board of things I'd like to share that I would have expanded into full, individual posts if life had afforded me the time.

In which I talk about the art of book-to-movie productions, a lot of great movies, and a few terrible movies, with David Kern and Steven Greydanus. Listen to our lively, in-depth exploration of the art of adaptation!

Beatles medicine. End times zombies. Coens go Biblical. Do's and don'ts of filmmaking. Jedi versus Airbender.

I hoped that Brad Bird would experience a much more positive response to his own passion project — the long-anticipated Tomorrowland — than Andrew Stanton did for his passion project, "John Carter."

I'll conclude with a few words about the American Sniper hubbub. But first, here are some of the things that caught my attention on the Wild Wild Web in the last couple of weeks...