The Song of Sparrows (2008)

Last updated on: April 9, 2013 at 1:17 pm By Jeffrey Overstreet

This review, which also covers the film Departures, was originally published at Christianity Today Movies. For further exploration of this film, read “Departures: Journeys with Asian Filmmakers” in Image. – Layoffs, bankruptcy, skyrocketing unemployment. Tough times, busy days for job hunters, and everybody’s got an opinion about what went wrong and how to fix it. Movies about employment tend to give us rags-to-riches success stories: Young people with a dream overcome impossible odds and prove the naysayers wrong, earning fortune and... Read more

Departures (2008)

Last updated on: April 9, 2013 at 1:15 pm By Jeffrey Overstreet

This review, which also covers the film The Song of Sparrows, was originally published at Christianity Today Movies. For further exploration of this film, read Jeffrey’s essay “Departures: Journeys with Asian Filmmakers,” published in Image. – Layoffs, bankruptcy, skyrocketing unemployment. Tough times, busy days for job hunters, and everybody’s got an opinion about what went wrong and how to fix it. Movies about employment tend to give us rags-to-riches success stories: Young people with a dream overcome impossible odds and prove the naysayers... Read more

Browser: Lee Isaac Chung; “Departures” and “The Song of Sparrows”; David Carradine

Last updated on: April 6, 2013 at 12:29 pm By Jeffrey Overstreet

A good Thursday to you all. 1. In the next week, I’ll be posting a series of pieces about Munyurangabo and director Lee Isaac Chung. The first, an essay contributed by Chung himself, is now posted at Filmwell.org. 2. Also online today: CT Movies has published my commentary on two films: “Departures” and “The Song of Sparrows”. And, speaking of “departures” … 3. David Carradine has died. At IFC, David Hudson is compiling the tributes and developing reports. Chris Willman... Read more

Review contest: A Poster is “Up” for Grabs

Last updated on: April 6, 2013 at 12:23 pm By Jeffrey Overstreet

Review contest! Send me your 600- to 1200-word review of Pixar’s Up. My favorite entry wins an Up poster & publication here at Looking Closer. (I may publish more than one if I get some good ones.) Email joverstreet at gmail.com. Deadline: Monday at noon, Seattle time. Read more

Yes, You Should See It

Last updated on: April 1, 2013 at 9:10 pm By Jeffrey Overstreet

Terminator Salvation (2009)

Last updated on: July 10, 2014 at 5:42 pm By Jeffrey Overstreet

This review was originally published at Filmwell. – When Arnold Schwarzeneggar first uttered the words “Ahl be bach!“, people laughed and cheered. James Cameron’s The Terminator was suspenseful, exciting, and funny in a way that only the best B-movies can be. We loved the idea of an android assassin from the future hunting down a pregnant SWF who had no idea that her son would grow up to be humankind’s savior during an onslaught of rebel machines. Arnie’s wicked killing... Read more

Lake Tahoe (2009)

Last updated on: January 31, 2013 at 5:04 pm By Jeffrey Overstreet

This review was originally published at Filmwell. – [In Fernando Eimbcke’s second feature, Lake Tahoe, a young man emerges from a car wreck and begins a long and maddening search for help. And it quickly becomes obvious that he’s searching for something far more profound than a mechanic. Eimbcke’s film feels like a search as well. The filmmaker etablishes a rhythm of expansive, colorful, long-take shots (known to the pros as “master shots”). These scenes are interrupted by bold, sometimes... Read more

Let’s Save Paste!

Last updated on: April 1, 2013 at 9:09 pm By Jeffrey Overstreet

Those of you who know the substantial piece of publishing that Rolling Stone once was have probably been saddened by what the magazine has become: an ordinary catalog of advertising, occasionally interrupted by an article worth reading. Even worse, music-lovers lately mourned the loss of No Depression‘s print magazine. But Paste? Paste? (more…) Read more

Eugene Peterson, who gave us “The Message,” is in Seattle on Saturday.

Last updated on: April 1, 2013 at 9:08 pm By Jeffrey Overstreet

Eugene Peterson will lecture, read & receive the annual Denise Levertov award, Sat. at 7:30. The event is free & open to the public. I am so grateful for Peterson. I’m halfway through his new book, Tell It Slant, and it’s changing the way I think about storytelling. I’m also grateful for his words about Through a Screen Darkly, which appear on the book’s back cover. And I get a little giddy thinking about how Bono carries around copies of... Read more

Browser: Save Paste Magazine! Daniel Day-Lewis Dances! Movies Based on a True (False) Story

Last updated on: April 1, 2013 at 2:07 pm By Jeffrey Overstreet

1. SAVE PASTE MAGAZINE. Read this urgent message from Over the Rhine and Paste magazine. 2. The return of Daniel Day-Lewis. And you’ve never seen him do this before. Here’s the trailer for Rob Marshall’s new musical: “Nine.” httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJpwwdOomtY In HD at Apple. 3. Six “Based on a True Story” Movies that bear little, if any, resemblance to the truth. (Caution: Naughty words.) Read more