You've probably heard by now that Darren Aronofsky — director of Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, The Wrestler, and Black Swan — is now making a movie about Noah's Ark. Perhaps the news has reached you that Russell Crowe will play Noah. And Jennifer Connelly, of course, will offer comfort to Noah's beautiful mind. You may have even heard that Anthony Hopkins is playing Methusaleh. But have you seen the first image of the ark under construction? I suspect this means that … [Read more...]
Black Swan is a dance production, a horror movie, and a psychological thriller, and a film that's almost certain to earn Natalie Portman a little golden statue. But is it worth seeing? … [Read more...]
[This review was originally published at Filmwell.] By now we know that the words "A Darren Aronofsky Film" promise us a fever dream, an intense psychological thriller, a discomforting but enthralling experience. We also know that we’re likely to see very good actors deliver performances so maniacal that veins will bulge and pulse across their temples and throats, as if they're androids plugged into more voltage than they can survive. And we'll be confounded by surreal visions — a … [Read more...]
1. Stephen Colbert and Conan O'Brien have a dance off! 2. At The Rabbit Room, Pete Peterson praises The Wrestler. Earlier: Michael Leary has a problem with The Wrestler. … [Read more...]
ARONOFSKY'S WRESTLING PIC IS A VENICE FILM FEST CHAMP Darren Aronosfky, director of The Fountain and Requiem for a Dream, has just been given¬†the Golden Lion award¬†at the Venice Film Festival for his new film The Wrestler, which stars¬†Mickey Rourke.¬† Hopefully we'll hear more from some of my pals who are at the Toronto fest. The movie will screen there on Monday.¬† I spoke with Aronofsky, who is married to actress Rachel Weisz, by telephone, and then again in person, … [Read more...]
Here are a few links I've been saving up this week... Scott Cairns and Anne Overstreet both have poems in the new issue of Relief! Order your copy today! Ross Douthat on Knocked Up and its (surprising?) lack of talk about abortion. (Updated: Even more.) (Oh, and I just discovered his first post on the movie.) Peter Chattaway on Disney's upcoming Adam-and-Eve movie... All About Adam. Peter's also keeping an eye on The Golden Compass's movie hype, and how director Chris Weitz and … [Read more...]
What is going on? I just posted a story about a guy who built an ark, and now I'm reading that Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain) is building one too! Aronofsky and Noah go way back. When the writer-director was 13, he won a United Nations competition at his school in Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn; it was for his first poem, a little effort about the end of the world as seen through Noah's eyes. "That story has interested me ever since," he says, squinting through his … [Read more...]
Earlier this month, I had a long conversation with director Darren Aronofsky, the man responsible for this year's most ambitious sci-fi film The Fountain, and who has also given us Requiem for a Dream and Pi. We talked by telephone about The Fountain, and about how it begs to be interpreted in so many different ways. We talked about the power of myth, the idea that the world's religions can be traced to common origins, and humankind's constant struggle to solve the problem of mortality … [Read more...]
What does Darren Aronofsky, director of Pi, Requiem for a Dream, and The Fountain think of Through a Screen Darkly? After reading the first several chapters, he says: … [Read more...]
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“Jeffrey Overstreet is a witness. While habituating the dark caves of movie theaters, he gives articulate witness to what I too often miss in those caves — the contours of God’s creation and the language of Christ’s salvation. … I find him a delightful and most percipient companion — a faithful Christian witness.”- Eugene Peterson, author of The Message and Tell It Slant, on Overstreet’s moviegoing memoir Through a Screen Darkly
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"Jeffrey is ... one of my favorite film critics. He writes with great lucidity and compassion about all sorts of movies, from all sorts of angles, but what I value most about his work is the theological-moral perspective he takes on things. He’s not a dogmatic scold, sifting through popular art looking for work that fits a rigid world view; he’s more interested in Looking Closer, as his blog title suggests, to discover what, if anything, the work is saying." - Matt Zoller Seitz, founder of the film review websites The House Next Door and Press Play (at indieWire) and television critic for New York Magazine-
“Overstreet’s writing is precise and beautiful, and the story is masterfully told.”- Publisher’s Weekly on Overstreet’s novel Auralia’s Colors
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“In Auralia’s Colors, Overstreet masterfully extends the borders of imagination.”- Gina Ochsner, author of The Russian Dreambook of Color and Flight
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“… [T]he spirit of the Inklings is alive and well and at least one living writer could have held his own at their table!”- Dick Staub, author of The Culturally Savvy Christian
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“Jeffrey Overstreet is a trespasser. He’s constantly moving outside of the borders of what church and culture deem to be ironclad, eternal categories (sacred vs. profane, high culture vs. popular culture) — and he has a knack for bringing people along with him. His passport? The imagination. ... When you trespass with Jeffrey Overstreet, you don’t have to ask for forgiveness.” - Image-
EXCUSE OUR DUST: This blog is under construction. Please email Jeffrey if you find broken links or problems. Many reviews, interviews, and posts are still being restored from the past decade of blogging. So check it out: This blog will expand both forward and backward in time. The future is now, and yesterday is not so very far away.-
About Jeffrey Overstreet-
About Looking Closer: An Introduction-
Comment Policy-
Overstreet on Tour: Speaking Calendar-
Some Favorite Quotes-
Some Favorite Sites-
"Mystery & Message," by Michael Demkowicz-
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