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November 30, 2007
Everyone has a guilty pleasure when it comes to terrible movies (mine is Autumn in New York--don't ask). Tonight at the glorious old Vista in Los Feliz, the good people from the So Bad It's Good Film Fest will be screening one of the true standards of the genre:... [continue]
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With the big Christmas season movies still a week away (The Golden Compass, Atonement), it's a rather soft schedule of new releases. That's not to say there aren't any quality films coming out, though. At the top of the list is The Savages. Philip Seymour Hoffman, Laura Linney and... [continue]
November 29, 2007
For me, Edgar Wright is one of those directors whose films I see the moment they hit theaters. Both Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz share a comic spirit that never diminishes even after many viewings. This past August, Wright hosted several sold-out screenings of his films at... [continue]
Though hardly a mainsteam name, George Hickenlooper has managed to carve out a long filmmaking career full of varied and fascinating work. From documentaries (Mayor of the Sunset Strip, Monte Hellman: American Auteur) to narrative features (The Man from Elysian Fields, Factory Girl), Hickenlooper has always delivered unexpected and... [continue]
November 28, 2007
I'm ashamed to admit how long it took me to finally catch Sidney Lumet's latest film, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. After all, Lumet is one of the true grandmasters of the craft (he directed his first significant film, 12 Angry Men, over fifty years ago!). What's more,... [continue]
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November 27, 2007
Beck - "Where It's At" If you were one of the lucky 700 who packed the Echoplex last night you were treated to Beck's only North American tour date before he head off to Europe to open for a little band called the Police. For the rest of you,... [continue]
November 26, 2007
To no one's surprise, Enchanted handily won the weekend box-office crown. Though early estimates ranged as high as 58 million dollars for the 5-day holiday weekend, the actual returns were a still robust $50.048M. Excellent word of mouth and a strong appeal to families should ensure that the Disney... [continue]
November 23, 2007
The buzz on Enchanted--and especially Amy Adams--has been high for the last few weeks. Weren't they saying the same thing about Adams, though, after Junebug? Either way, I'll see Enchanted this weekend. In a strange way, it reminds me of Galaxy Quest. Stay with me here. I thought Galaxy... [continue]
Fridays at 7:30 pm: THE PERVERSE PUPPETRY OF JAN SVANKMAJER Unsurpassed in his tactile, uncanny approach to experimental animation, surrealist Czech master Jan Svankmajer's films have inspired a generation of directors, including Tim Burton and The Brothers Quay, to expand their confidence in what is visually and conceptually possible in... [continue]
November 19, 2007
Listen to the interview here: Bobby Slayton is an icon, he's been doing stand-up for 30 years, everyone in the industry knows him, and generations of us have grown up on his comedy. At his live show the crowd gets warmed up with a video of practically every single well-known... [continue]
While it easily won the weekend box-office crown, Beowulf disappointed somewhat with a 28.1 million dollar opening. If it's anything like Zemekis' last film Polar Express, though, the amazing 3-D will continue to pull in audiences for weeks to come. Having seen it at the IMAX theater at the... [continue]
November 17, 2007
After a short hiatus of movie theater experiences at the Sherman Oaks Galleria this summer, Pacific Theatres reopened their doors as an ArcLight yesterday in a soft launch, preparing for the official December 14 grand opening. This will be the second Arclight in Los Angeles, the first being in... [continue]
November 16, 2007
It almost feels like summer again as Beowulf comes crashing into theaters with a huge amount of hype. From where I'm sitting, though, that hype actually looks deserved. If 3-D is (once again) the future of film, consider me an early adopter. Combine a technical innovator like Zemekis with... [continue]
Just surfacing amongst the depths of the Pitchfork servers comes the prospect of an unreleased P.T. Anderson short film featuring our beloved Elliott Smith. From the article: "In this film, wrote Wholphin [the one who linked to the story on Cigarettes and Red Vines,] Smith plays a Rastafarian basketball... [continue]
November 14, 2007
No Country for Old Men is so profoundly good, so rich in depth and meticulous in craft that if someone were to ask me what I thought of it, I would only be able to stammer, "Just...go see it. Quickly!" Adapted from the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same... [continue]
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November 12, 2007
Covering the weekend box office race can sometimes be a tedious job for the simple reason that there are rarely big surprises. Typically, a movie opens on a bunch of screens, makes a large portion of its money in its opening frame, then drops 50% in each successive weekend... [continue]
November 10, 2007
So I will admit I've never seen Julien Temple's The Filth and The Fury. I've heard about it, but being more of a Clash fan than a Pistols fan, I've been waiting years for a film about The Clash, preferably portrayed by actors like The Beatles in Backbeat, (quick,... [continue]
November 9, 2007
With one very notable exception, it's a fairly dull weekend in the movie world. That exception, of course, is the sterling No Country for Old Men. After several misfires (Intolerable Cruelty, The Ladykillers, The Man Who Wasn't There), the Coen Brothers are back with their best film since The... [continue]
November 7, 2007
A new documentary by the always innovative, if lowercase, dublab, entitled Secondhand Sureshots: an experiment in creative sound recycling, will be pre-screened at the USC Annenberg Auditorium on November 14th, at 6pm. Presented by The Norman Lear Center's Popular Music Project, the documentary centers around four L.A. djs (Daedelus,... [continue]
November 6, 2007
It was impressed on me from the get-go, "Heima" is the Icelandic term for "at home" or "homeland". In Sigur Rós' first film ever, due out November 20th, "Lilo & Stitch" co-director Dean Deblois takes a quirky approach to documenting their 2006 return to Iceland. After touring the world in... [continue]
November 5, 2007
There was a welcome flight to quality this weekend as movie-goers finally gave some love to a good flick. American Gangster blasted its way to the top with an impressive haul of 46.3 million dollars. Bolstered by positive reviews and the stellar box-office power of Denzel Washington, Gangster should... [continue]
November 2, 2007
This weekend is one of those weekends where--if you love movies--you'll be hard-pressed to choose which one (or two) to see. Most will probably settle on American Gangster, and I don't see anything wrong with that. Couple two powerhouse actors (Denzel & Crowe) with a reliable director (Ridley), add... [continue]
November 1, 2007
In a year of great documentaries, Sharkwater resides in the very top tier. It is a passionate advocacy film about the immense slaughter of sharks currently going on in the world's oceans. Sharks are caught in 60-mile long lines, have their fins cut off and then are simply dumped... [continue]
The opening moments of Sharkwater promise what appear to be little more than a beautiful film about the kingdoms of the deep. Plants sway with the current, silver schools of fish move as one and sharks glide effortlessly through the clear water, remote and menacing. Then, one of the... [continue]