Looking Closer
Robert Bresson’s haunting, soulful masterpiece is coming… Have you advance-ordered your copy? I have. This was the best film I saw on the big screen last year, and I’ve thought about it more than any other film since. (more…) Read more
Robert Bresson’s haunting, soulful masterpiece is coming… Have you advance-ordered your copy? I have. This was the best film I saw on the big screen last year, and I’ve thought about it more than any other film since. (more…) Read more
Paul Giamatti stars in “Gladiator 2: Cinderella Man” I haven’t seen Cinderella Man yet, but man, the hype around this movie is building, and the momentum it’s gaining looks likely to guarantee it a spot as an Oscar favorite. Think about it: It’s the Oscar-winning team of the vastly overrated A Beautiful Mind—Russell Crowe and Ron Howard, together again. But THIS time, Crowe is reprising his role as the Gladiator: a thoughtful family man working hard for a living during... Read more
Here’s a recommendation for your home stereo, your iPod, or your car stereo today: Bruce Cockburn. Looking Closer salutes one of the most prolific, influential songwriters alive today… on this, today, his 60th birthday . (more…) Read more
David Brooks hits a home run. Here’s an excerpt: (more…) Read more
Somewhere, the real Aslan is feeling betrayed. There are going to be FOUR soundtrack albums for The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. Not two. Not three. But four. (Five is right out.) Can you say “overkill”? If they keep this up, my enthusiasm for this project will sour very quickly. (Thanks to PTC for the alert.) One album will be the real soundtrack. One will be a collection of fun stuff… you know, for kids. One will be a... Read more
from IMDB news, with a few of my own revisions: The Rev. Tim Wildmon announced Tuesday that his American Family Assn. has decided to end its nine-year-old boycott of the Walt Disney Co. Disney employees searching for the “End of Boycott” party were surprised to discover that the most of their coworkers were unaware that their had even been a boycott, and certainly didn’t know that one had ended. Wildmon indicated that he was not calling off the boycott because... Read more
Ismail Merchant of the famous Merchant/Ivory films (A Room with a View, Howards End, The Remains of the Day) is dead at 68. (more…) Read more
J. Robert Parks, who frequently contributes to the review archive at Looking Closer’s movie page, stops by with a preview of this summer’s big screen features… (more…) Read more
Can this be true? Personally, I like Pop the way it is. But you can bet I’d be in line on release-day to hear what the band intended the album to be. (more…) Read more
Today’s specials: Greg Kot gets a memorable interview with Bono. Jonathan Rice gets cast as Roy Orbison in I Walk the Line. On my radar for summertime fiction: Freddy and Fredericka, a new novel by Mark Helprin described as a satire about a future king and queen of England slumming in the States. Od Magic, the latest from Patricia McKillip, my favorite living fantasy writer. And she’s got another one coming too–Harrowing the Dragon. A Feast for Crows, by George... Read more
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