We like it when our friends become successful<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Words cannot begin to describe how happy I am for my friend and colleague Jeffrey Overstreet, who just announced at his blog that Random House has offered\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/05\/we-like-it-when-our-friends-become-successful.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"We like it when our friends become successful\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Words cannot begin to describe how happy I am for my friend and colleague Jeffrey Overstreet, who just announced at his blog that Random House has offered\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/05\/we-like-it-when-our-friends-become-successful.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2005-05-31T17:19:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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{"id":2782,"date":"2005-05-31T17:19:00","date_gmt":"2005-05-31T17:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/05\/we-like-it-when-our-friends-become-successful\/"},"modified":"2005-05-31T17:19:00","modified_gmt":"2005-05-31T17:19:00","slug":"we-like-it-when-our-friends-become-successful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/05\/we-like-it-when-our-friends-become-successful.html","title":{"rendered":"We like it when our friends become successful"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Words cannot begin to describe how happy I am for my friend and colleague Jeffrey Overstreet, who just announced at his blog that Random House has offered him a two-book deal<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure where or when I first made contact with Jeff, but I believe it was primarily through a couple of now-defunct e-mail discussion lists devoted to Sam Phillips and Steve Taylor in the mid-1990s. The first time I met him in person was when I drove down to Seattle to see The Apostle<\/a><\/i> (my review<\/a>) in early 1998, at a time when the film was getting a lot of attention in the religious press but still did not even have a Canadian distributor, much less a release date. And I think the first time I met his lovely wife Anne was when they came up to Vancouver to attend an unusually early press screening of The Prince of Egypt<\/a><\/i> with me later that year.<\/p>\n

Jeff and I have fairly different tastes and temperaments, so our reactions to films \u2014 and I do mean reactions, as opposed to responses, which is something else entirely \u2014 are often quite different too, but I think we share a common philosophy about the work we do, and on those occasions when I have wanted to go beyond the normal boundaries of \u201cChristian film criticism\u201d and promote edgier stuff like, say, The Dreamlife of Angels<\/a><\/i> (1999; my review<\/a>), it has been great to have him in my corner; back in the days before the explosion of online Christian film criticism<\/a>, I could always count on Jeff\u2019s moral support. And I still can.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d be lying if I said I hadn\u2019t observed his recent successes with a bit of pride and<\/i> envy. I remember paying a visit to his church in December 2001, on my way to a concert or some such thing. This was shortly after I had attended a press screening for The Fellowship of the Ring<\/a><\/i>, and Jeff \u2014 who was setting up a special \u201cTolkien party\u201d as we spoke \u2014 was curious to know what the film was like. Two years later, it was Jeff who had the professional upper hand; as I waited patiently for The Return of the King<\/a><\/i> to be given a Vancouver press screening, he was flown out to the press junket, where he met many of the cast members in person.<\/p>\n

But no, I\u2019m not about to start singing Morrissey\u2019s \u2018We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful\u2019. I am truly happy for Jeff. All I ask is for an autographed copy of his first published book!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"