I am going to keep this brief, because if you’ve looked at the time stamp on this audio file, you know I’m about to tie up a lot of your time — and I promise, it will be time well spent.
Nearly 20 years ago, I was working two jobs. One was as a writer at a weekly newspaper, where the editors were kind enough to let me begin experimenting with movie reviews. The other was as a part-time cashier at a Bible bookstore. One evening, a coworker brought me a copy of a book called Through a Screen Darkly by Jeffrey Overstreet, which billed itself as “a travelogue of dangerous moviegoing.” I was hesitant, because I knew the reputation of “Christian film criticism” was basically that it was a swear-counter. But I purchased the book and was amazed. Here was a writer engaging film and faith not with fear but with excitement, tackling projects as varied and challenging as Babette’s Feast, Wings of Desire, Taxi Driver and Life of Brian. It remains one of the most formative books I’ve read, and it was essential in shaping who I hope to be as a film-lover, person of faith and a writer.
This month, Jeffrey’s second book about film was released, and it’s possible that Lost and Found in the Cathedral of Cinema is even better. It’s a personal look at a life lived in church and at the movies — and sometimes, the two become one. Jeffrey continues to prove himself a thoughtful writer and viewer, and it’s a book drenched in beauty, wisdom, hope and faith. I highly recommend you buy it as soon as you can.
For awhile, I’ve wanted to do an interview component to this Substack, and a few weeks ago I started making some inroads on that, which I’m hoping to record soon. In the midst of those discussions, Jeffrey made himself available for a conversation about his new book, and it was one of the best conversations I’ve had in a long time. We talked about film and film criticism, we talked about the church’s failure to engage culture and whether that’s shifting. Longtime readers won’t be surprised to find that we talked about The Last Temptation of Christ. And my friends will not be shocked that we also talk Over the Rhine and The Muppets.
I highly recommend you pick up Lost and Found in the Cathedral of Cinema, and that you join the conversation Jeffrey Overstreet is having on faith and film. His voice is needed, and I’m thankful we had the opportunity to talk.
