Truth, love, and the potent spirit of Syd Barrett triumph over lies, hatred, and the dull memory of Gustav Husak in Rock'N'Roll, Tom Stoppard's great play about the long era of totalitarian torpor in Czechoslovakia between the Soviet invasion in 1968 and the Velvet Revolution over two decades later. Since its premiere in London in 2006 and on Broadway the following year, Rock'N'Roll has been performed by major companies in cities around the U.S. and the world, but somehow L.A.'s own institutional mainstays neglected to grab this one. Fortunately, though, the always-admirable Open Fist Theatre Company has picked up the slack, and Rock'N'Roll is now playing in L.A. for the first time. more ›

It's only March, but I can already guarantee House is the weirdest film you'll see in a theater this year. The slice of '70s pscyhedelia takes a band of Japanese school-girls, sends them to an old house, and severs all ties to sanity. House deftly melds art-house tricks with gore and slapstick, and turns on a dime. There's new-wave editing, laser ghost cats, gorgeous lighting, dancing skeletons, faux newsreel footage, martial arts, haunting melodies and a series of deaths so outrageous I don't even know how to put them to words. It opens at the New Beverly on Friday, where it plays for an entire week. And considering all the amazing films the Bev only screens a couple nights... more ›

Jesus H. Christ might have turned water into wine, but Maynard James Keenan goes for the hard stuff in Blood Into Wine, uncorking this weekend at Laemmle's... more ›