It's true. RyGo is coming to Downtown Los Angeles Thursday, May 3 -- kinda. The revered documentary "#ReGENERATION" will premiere at Downtown Independent, and the film is narrated by the man who should've been named 2011's Sexiest Man Alive. more ›

The Goethe-Institut Los Angeles celebrates German auteur Wim Wenders' unique brand of wanderlust with an all-day Wimfest! Then have a quick laugh (or 10) at Downtown Independent with the L.A. Comedy Shorts Film Festival. more ›

UCLA's Student Chapter of the Association of Moving Image Archivists inaugurates a new 35mm screening series, Something Old, Something New, at the New Beverly. Elsewhere, local high schoolers reinvent Shakespeare and the first alt-Easter line-up. more ›

Something called a "Super Bowl" intercepts many venues' schedules this weekend. See the big game on the big screen, Bigfoot at the New Bev or big scares in the anthology The Theatre Bizarre! more ›

We love the New Beverly's special events so much that we sometimes forget how solid their "standard" programming is. Elsewhere, Horrible Movie Night brings the turkey a little early with Mega Python vs. Gatoroid. more ›

It's a remake rumble this weekend, as two R-rated redos go toe to toe. Lionsgate comes out swinging with Conan the Barbarian, while Dreamworks & Disney don't want you to sleep on Fright Night. more ›

Seth Green returns to the New Beverly for a weekend-long guestival! The Robot Chicken guru pairs pulp & circumstance Thursday with a screening of the car-chase classic Smokey and the Bandit & Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven. Plus the weekend and more! more ›

The Downtown Independent has a winning line-up this weekend! Everyone's favorite Adonis warlock has been booted from the small screen, but Charlie Sheen truly explodes on the big screen! The Charlie Sheen Weekend Bender features Wall Street on Friday night, and a tenacious trio of The Chase, Hot Shots & Major League on Saturday! Between films, the Bender boasts #tigerblood competitions & a Charlie Sheen Lookalike contest. Fans of the Downtown Independent have also started a #wewantcharlie campaign on Twitter in an attempt to lure the actor away from his "goddesses" and into an appearance at the event. more ›

Destroy All Movies is the punk film Bible, and a weekend-long release party at Cinefamily proves LA's still the mohawk Mecca. Raw concert clips, post-apocalyptic gang fantasies and scene survivors will blow the doors off the Not-At-All-Silent Movie Theatre with rare footage from the East Coast, West Coast and both ends of the pond. more ›

I'd be remiss to my Lord Samhain if I put off the Halloween coverage a second longer. But before plunging into the depths of hell, take a moment to plumb the depths of heaven at the Aero. Counterculture cartoonist Bill Plympton appears in support of his latest work, Idiots and Angels. The hand-crafted dark comedy finds a drunken curmudgeon sprouting a pair of wings that compel him to do good deeds. The only problem is - he wants to be bad, and will stop at nothing to sour his spirits. If you can't make it on Thursday, it's also playing for one week only at Laemmle's Sunset starting Friday. more ›

While the pint-size terrors of Orphan and Seed of Chucky aren't considered quality motion pictures, they're a ton of fun. The New Beverly pairs both on Thursday, and gives Seed of Chucky the Criterion treatment by bringing together Jennifer Tilly and everyone responsible for the deadly doll's life: scribe Don Mancini, voice Brad Dourif and puppeteer Tony Gardner. The program is co-presented by Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule, and if the blog's extensive Orphan promo is any indication, these films will see more attention and insight tonight than they ever have or will. If you want more demento for your dollar, the Cinefamily's Friday night special, The Diabolical Dr. Cinefamily's Horrifying Anthology Of Horror Anthologies hosts local Martian Tommy Wiseau and his latest short, The House That Drips Blood on Alex, accompanied by the trashy Night Train to Terror, the terrific Creepshow, and choice cuts from horror shorts and anthologies. more ›

‘Free’ is a much heavier word than it sounds. Free as a bird, you say, or free thinker. But there is another side to free, filled with warnings and buyers doing their best to beware. When it comes to free, you get what you pay for, they say, and usually that’s true. But every once in a while, a freebie comes along that is so pure, so honest, and so worth the price of admission ($0) that the only words you’re left with are: Holy Fuck. more ›

Halloween comes a little early this year, as the film that introduced the world to Michael Myers tears through The Egyptian on a double bill with the classic sci-fi/horror hybrid The Thing. It's part of a weekend long tribute to writer/director/producer/composer/probably-leaving-something-out-because-he's-done-everything John Carpenter, that also pairs '80s action funfests They Live (best film starring a wrestler, hands-down) and Big Trouble in Little China, as well as a personal favorite, Escape from New York, and its sequel Escape from L.A.. If that isn't enough to plot your escape, Carpenter himself will be appearing at the Friday show. His latest film, The Ward, just opened at the Toronto International Film Festival, and maybe if a bunch of us ask really nicely he'll talk about it. more ›

Ken Russell's The Devils is one of the most controversial films ever made. Based on the Loudun possessions of medieval France, it's a brutal critique of theocracy and power, and its own poster frankly warns the matrimony of sex, violence, and sacrilege "is not for everyone". Nearly 40 years on, The Devils has yet to be released uncut on home media. But BAFTA and the American Cinematheque bring it to the Aero this weekend to tempt fate and pay tribute to Ken Russell. The "Brave New Worlds" series also features sci-fi-devo-mind-warp Altered States, the D.H. Lawrence adaptation Women in Love, and Tchaikovsky biopic The Music Lovers. If the name Ken Russell still leaves you wondering, "Who?", then head up to Hollywood, where the Egyptian hosts Russell's film version of The Who's Tommy, paired with Lisztomania, another Roger Daltrey-starring bizarro rock opera. more ›

J.D. Ryznar is so freaking amazing. Seriously. Just watch his cult Channel 101 Internet television show, "Yacht Rock." By popular demand, the definitive final and twelfth episode of Yacht Rock will be premiered tonight in Downtown LA at the new home of Channel 101, the Downtown Independent Theater. This ends a saga created from 2005 to 2006, followed by a "Footloose"-themed sequel starring Jason Lee as Kevin Bacon in 2008. 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 ›

A year ago, LAist wrote about a group of energetic, young, indie filmmakers who, instead of taking the traditional route of trying to get their movies into film festivals, invented a new model of film promotion by putting together their own little film festival and taking it on the road, touring from city to city in a van, rock band-style. more ›

Every January the quaint Mormon hamlet of Park City, Utah is overrun by tens of thousands of people eager to attend the films (and parties) of the Sundance Film Festival. Having attended the festival for the last three years, I can highly recommend the experience. In fact, I'd say that everyone should try to attend at least once. From the freezing weather to the immense crowds to the abundance of cinema, alcohol and sleeplessness, it is a film festival that is unique to the world, and tomorrow night a little bit of Sundance comes to Los Angeles. more ›