I'm not the first person to say it, but it's true — this film, like the two before it, is designed to be seen a second time, when viewers will realize just how every fleeting moment either foretells upcoming events, sets up elaborate jokes, or reveals a punchline for a joke yet to be told. It's the fastest-moving, most confidently scripted and edited film I've seen this year. And the action scenes are dizzyingly joyous. When was the last time…

R.I.P., James Frawley. You may not be a director I bring up in conversation very often, but you changed my life with a movie more substantially than anyone else. What an honor to see your film in a theater, on the big screen, for the first time since 1979, on the very day that we learn of your passing.

Thank you.

I saw this at a sing-a-long affair at the Egyptian, as the opening gala event for the Children's Film…

This isn't cinema, so I'm not seeing the point in writing a film review of it. If it ends up nominated for Oscars, I will have to finally surrender any hope of understanding what the point of the Oscars really are. Cinema — narrative or documentary in nature — is an art form focused on what artists accomplish within the frame of a screen, not a stage, and this does not make any sense to me as either. The screen is…

In 2005, on assignment for Christianity Today, I traveled to L.A. to interview the filmmakers and cast of Constantine. I may not have liked the movie at all, but the interviews were a hoot (Rachel Weisz! Djimon Honsou! Shia LaBeouf and I enjoyed the company of film critics who have become dear friends.

Here are some excerpts from that review, which is archived at at Looking Closer.
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Constantine touches on many things that Christians hold to be…

16 THINGS ABOUT GOSFORD PARK

1. Still my favorite Altman film.
2. Still head and shoulders above the entirety of Downton Abbey.
3. Still the most virtuosic choreography of a large ensemble cast I've ever seen.
4. I miss Clive Owen.
5. That scene with Tom Hollander eating jam in the cellar. That scene.
6. I believe that when he goes home from work, Richard E. Grant dresses and behaves just like this.
7. All of the moments with Claudie…