Looking Closer
Luci Shaw and Margaret Smith: two good friends of mine, two marvelous poets, two folks who were incredibly generous in helping me finish my book about films. (more…) Read more
Luci Shaw and Margaret Smith: two good friends of mine, two marvelous poets, two folks who were incredibly generous in helping me finish my book about films. (more…) Read more
Colbert continues to amaze. (more…) Read more
My friend Julie Mullins has written a substantial article about Frederick Buechner’s lastest collection, Secrets in the Dark, in the new issue of Image. I highly recommend you pick up a copy of both the book and the journal. Secrets begins with a meditation on the story of Jacob wrestling the angel titled “The Magnificent Defeat.” I read it aloud last night to Anne, and we were both deeply moved by it. Having grown up in the church, I’ve heard... Read more
If you haven’t seen Yi-Yi (A One and a Two), you’re in for a treat. It’s been out on DVD before, but not like this. The full Criterion treatment has arrived, and I encourage you to check it out as soon as you can. Beautifully filmed, poetic, funny, unpredictable, with a cast of characters as large and memorable as the cast of Magnolia, it is one of those films that seems to capture all of life within its 2 1/2-hour... Read more
Even as one AMG reviewer praises Sufjan Stevens’ The Avalanche, another — Stephen Thomas Erlewine, one of AMG’s most prolific reviewers — has posted a strikingly different assessment of Stevens’ work. (more…) Read more
The outspokenly Christian Baldwin brother, Stephen Baldwin, has an autobiography coming out, and in it, he criticizes Bono for working so hard to help the poor in Africa. [Baldwin] writes of Bono in his upcoming autobiography THE UNUSUAL SUSPECT: MY CALLING TO THE NEW HARDCORE MOVEMENT OF FAITH, “You would do far more good if you just preached the gospel of Jesus rather than trying to get rid of Third World debt relief.” Huh. So… Jesus didn’t want us to... Read more
“The Lure of Theocracy,” a new column by Philip Yancey at Christianity Today. (more…) Read more
Judging from the reviews coming in for Pirates 2, about 60-70% of critics probably wouldn’t have liked The Empire Strikes Back if it came out today. They would have called it too long, a re-make of the first film, etc. (more…) Read more
Here’s Steven Greydanus’s review of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, which understands all of the things that Entertainment Weekly’s reviewer does not! (more…) Read more
I need to resurrect this contest, because I nearly forgot about it. Looking back, I realize that I didn’t receive enough entries for the contest to be complete. So, read this challenge again and send me your list. (If you already have, don’t worry, I have your entry.) I’ll call the contest quits this Friday. (more…) Read more
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