{"id":8172,"date":"2005-04-29T17:32:00","date_gmt":"2005-04-29T17:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lookingcloser.wordpress.com\/2005\/04\/29\/turn-to-the-right-theres-a-new-critic-of-the-month\/"},"modified":"2012-09-04T09:50:34","modified_gmt":"2012-09-04T15:50:34","slug":"turn-to-the-right-theres-a-new-critic-of-the-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2005\/04\/turn-to-the-right-theres-a-new-critic-of-the-month\/","title":{"rendered":"Critic of the Month"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>For the month of May, the spotlight falls on STEVEN D. GREYDANUS.<\/p>\n<p>Steven is, I think, the closest thing to a Roger Ebert in Christian film criticism. His reviews have a strength and a confidence to them; he speaks with authority, experience, eloquence, and a penetrating intellect. From time to time, I disagree with his reviews, but rarely \u2026 and even when I do disagree, I still learn from his perspective.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>A few notes on SDG\u2019s strengths:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>He has a passion for good family movies, but he defines \u201cgood family movies\u201d not by things that the films <em>don\u2019t <\/em>have in them, but by the things they <em>do <\/em>have in them.<\/li>\n<li>He can be <a href=\"http:\/\/www.decentfilms.com\/reviews\/grinch.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">frighteningly<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.decentfilms.com\/reviews\/catinthehat2003.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">clever<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Greydanus wrote one of the finest reviews on <em>The Passion of the Christ <\/em>that has been published (see the link in the margin).<\/li>\n<li>He has a sound sense of fairness and justice, and thus he is always worth hearing on films in which there is a question of caricature or prejudice. (See <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.decentfilms.com\/commentary\/magdalenesisters.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">The Magdalen Sisters<\/a><\/em>.)<\/li>\n<li>He appreciates both the best of cerebral and international filmmaking (<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.decentfilms.com\/reviews\/russianark.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Russian Ark<\/a><\/em>) and the best of commercial Hollywood blockbusters <em>(<a href=\"http:\/\/www.decentfilms.com\/reviews\/spiderman2.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Spider-man 2<\/a>).<br>\n<\/em><\/li>\n<li>And while I think he\u2019s wrong to favor <a href=\"http:\/\/www.decentfilms.com\/reviews\/lordoftherings3.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><em>The Return of the King<\/em><\/a><em> <\/em>over <a href=\"http:\/\/www.decentfilms.com\/reviews\/lordoftherings1.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><em>The Fellowship of the Ring<\/em><\/a><em>, <\/em>he has an appreciation for fantasy film that I fully understand.<\/li>\n<li>In the occasional disputes that come up between the volatile-tempered Christian film critic community, he conducts himself with grace without compromising his passion for the truth.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I\u2019ve long been an admirer of his work, and getting to know him has been one fo the highlights of the last few years for me.<\/p>\n<p>Steven, keep up the good \u2026 no, the <em>essential <\/em>\u2026 work.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For the month of May, the spotlight falls on STEVEN D. GREYDANUS. Steven is, I think, the closest thing to a Roger Ebert in Christian film criticism. His reviews have a strength and a confidence to them; he speaks with authority, experience, eloquence, and a penetrating intellect. From time to time, I disagree with his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1051,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[71,563,493],"class_list":["post-8172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journal","tag-criticism-is-an-art","tag-decent-films","tag-steven-greydanus"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Critic of the Month<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For the month of May, the spotlight falls on STEVEN D. GREYDANUS. 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