Results tagged “movie”

Have you seen this yet? If not, don't worry. But just in case you need to hear Adam Goldberg explain how restaurants in Silver Lake suck (dude, we dig Edendale Grill's Secret 3-Cheese Delight, savvy?) and how Franklin Avenue is difficult to cross, here you go. Thankfully, Goldberg admits his bitching consists of "bourgeois problems" and that this is all in good fun. The vid is in promotion of his NYC-based flick called (untitled).

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.

If you haven’t heard of Film Independent's Filmmaker Forum, it's best described as a three-day cinematic tornado of an event, that’s definitely worth getting caught up in, provided you can handle the price of admission, and you’re serious about gaining some kind of a foothold in the world of independent film. The event is thrown each year by the good folks at Film Independent, the non-profit arts organization also in charge of the Independent Spirit Awards, and Los Angeles Film Festival.

When you hear the phrase “the Japanese Step Brothers” used to describe a movie, you’re probably a least a little interested. That is, if you’re anything like me, but you probably aren’t because my parents say I’m one in a million, so eat it. Not that the American version of Step Brothers is all that spectacular, it’s just that imagining the role of an inept, aging, homebody loser being played by a Japanese man is - intriguing. And Jimmy, the comic lead in White On Rice, certainly is all of the things described above - but this movie is no Step Brothers.

The opening shot of The Burning Plain is a stark one: a fully engulfed trailer in the middle of the desert, backed by rocky, dry mountains. The next scene is equally strong, as Charlize Theron awakes to gloomy surroundings, sporting a hangover and nothing else. There’s a moment where she makes it to a window, topless, in time to see a few school children notice her as they scurry off down the wet pavement. And then the next shot is...and then...followed by....

For someone living in Los Angeles, 500 Days of Summer was not only a cute and hilarious movie (watch the trailer here), it was equally pleasing to see a film shot in downtown Los Angeles that had a story line taking place and recognizing the burgeoning neighborhood for what it is. From the Redwood Bar to the Broadway Bar, Bunker Hill to the Civic Center Mall, it was exciting, for once, to go, "hey, I know that location and it's not being masked as New York City," and not go "why are they filming downtown but calling it North Hollywood? NoHo isn't that urban."

You know Jim Breuer, if not by name then at least by his perpetually stoned-looking mug or his outlandish Saturday Night Live characters, most notably Goat Boy. This is the Jim Breuer you recognize, from Half-Baked and Chappelle’s Show and even Clerks. But a lot of people don’t know that Breuer also has a long love affair with stand up, dating back many years and several TV specials. And those specials, while rarely game-changing, have been good, sometimes great; the AC/DC hokey pokey bit is pretty magical. Unfortunately, Breuer’s new special Let’s Clear the Air lacks all of the magic and most of the funny that you could previously expect from the man you thought you knew.

Last summer The Dark Knight earned $18.5 million in midnight screenings. Then came along Harry Potter last night bringing in a record $22.2 million. Earlier this summer, the horribly-awesome-but-really-horrible Transformers made $16 million on its first night of midnight screenings followed by the "second biggest single day gross in history of $62 million," according to Hollywood.com who notes that reviews for the new Harry Potter "have been the strongest for any film in the franchise and that means word-of-mouth buzz will be strong and will propel the grosses on an upward momentum rather than the typical drop-offs." All that could mean more records to be broken this weekend.

Sacha Baron Cohen's latest character-star-turn as the "flamboyantly gay Austrian fashionista," Bruno opened on movie screens all around the country yesterday, and now The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) has come out in objection to the flick, saying it "reinforces negative stereotypes and decreases the public's comfort with gay people," according to the Huffington Post. While some of the movie's moments "hit the mark," Cohen's cavorting "hit the gay community pretty hard and reinforce some damaging, hurtful stereotypes" GLAAD's president noted. Universal Studios, who released the film, sought input from GLAAD during advance screenings, and insist the film is meant to be seen only as satire. However, one scene that includes "Bruno in a hot tub with his adopted infant son and two naked men involved in a sex act," remained in the film, despite GLAAD's objection. Bruno has also ruffled feathers locally after a series of photos taken at Birmingham High angered LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines.

There are plenty of movies out there that pay homage to their forefather films, those exceptionally well made pieces that stand the test of time and help to define a genre. However, this is perhaps seen nowhere more than in horror film vein, where hat-tips to the Evil Deads, the Braindeads, and even the Shaun of the Deads are practically mandatory. But these exist for a very specific reason: those movies kick ass.

Most of the iconic images we see - the ones that define an era or change a social tide - come without much of a footnote at all. Unless it’s in your nature or your profession, there’s a good chance that Ansel Adams or Annie Leibovitz are about as deep as you’re willing to wade into the photo pool. But there’s also a good chance that all those other photographs you don’t have a name to put with, those real images from war or those celebrities or presidents out of their element and yet so comfortable...there’s a good chance Eddie Adams did those.

For the most part, eco-documentaries follow a pretty narrow pattern; either they’re well funded and a little boring or guerrilla style and probably a bit nauseating, but either way you’re supposed to be so outraged you get out of your seat and punch the richest asshole you can find. That’s the gist. But there’s often a disconnect between the images of the film and the actions of the audience because, ecologically, problems tend to be so big any given person feels powerless.

“The way we eat has changed more in the last 50 years than in the previous 10,000, but the image that’s used to sell the food … you go into the supermarket and you see pictures of farmers. The picket fence and the silo and the 1930s farmhouse and the green grass. The reality is … it’s not a farm, it’s a factory.”

Of all the pressing medical issues in America today, Lyme disease doesn’t usually rank very high on the list of things to worry about. That is, unless you believe the startling new documentary by Andy Abrahams Wilson, Under Our Skin. In it, the filmmaker postulates that Lyme is not only more prevalent than most people realize, it is a rapidly growing problem across our nation that leaves behind it missed diagnoses, insurmountable medical bills, crippling health issues, and sometimes death.

If there was ever any question that Love of Lebowski runs deep in the veins of believers, one needed only stand outside the Wiltern on Thursday, May 7th, or at Cal Bowl the following Friday for proof aplenty.

Star Trek made a killing this weekend for obvious reasons: it was really, really good and it didn't matter if you were a Trekkie or not. And the fact that it wasn't 100% green screen and computer generated graphics was one of the redeeming factors. “So much incredible stuff happens in Star Trek that I wanted to keep it feeling as real as possible,” Director J.J. Abrams said in production notes provided by Paramount Pictures, via Wired Magazine's Underwire. “I didn’t want to have it all be green screens and CG.”

Karma Calling Trailer
Director Sarba Das was in the process of writing a script with her brother Sarthak about an Indian family in Hoboken when the phone rang and a call operator struggled to communicate in English. Sarthak realized the voice on the other end of line was Indian and began speaking to him in Hindi. A lively conversation bloomed and the call operator told them surreal stories about what went on in the call centers: accent neutralization clinics, even culture lessons that included studying The Simpsons. “We found the stories to be so compelling that we wanted to put it into the screenplay we were working on. We decided that the spendthrift family from New Jersey would get bombarded by call center operators in Mumbai. And so Karma Calling was born,” explains the director. The comedy screens 2:30 p.m. this Sunday, May 3rd at the DGA Theater as part of the 25th annual Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival.

Okay, we lie, but that's what all of Hugh Jackman's fans would have preferred (duh). Nevertheless, the Tony and Emmy-winning actor this morning became one of the honored stars to have his hand and footprints and signature imprinted outside Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Blvd. Of course, X-Men Origins: Wolverine comes out on Friday, May 1st.

She made Tokyo's Park Hyatt into a character in "Lost in Translation" and now Sofia Coppola is set to film a movie based in Hollywood's Chateau Marmont.

In 2004 the documentary buzz was all about Born Into Brothels, a stark look at the Calcutta prostitution ghettos that are a part of daily life for eight unassuming and wonderful children. The level of humanity, depth, and sorrow found in the crowded streets and scenes inside Born Into Brothels earned it the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in the year’s awards, not to mention global notoriety. Well, as one might imagine the producers of such a groundbreaking and charitable film weren’t content to sit around and shine their accolades, so they went out and worked on a project that hits much closer to home: misogyny in the art world.

There’s a touching scene in the film Sugar where our title character is playing baseball at Roberto Clemente Ball Field. It is at this actual park in the Bronx that writers/directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (who previously delivered the critically-acclaimed Half Nelson) first began doing research for their latest film about one man’s journey to the U.S. to find a better life for himself and his family as a baseball player.

How GOOD is Steve Zahn?! LET'S TALK ABOUT IT. Photo courtesy Magnolia Pictures. Showmanship in the long-held traditional sense just keeps getting moved more and more to the fringes of contemporary entertainment. Circuses, for all of the revelry and majestical wonder they inspired only a decade ago, are in serious decline. David Blaine and Criss Angel are the magicians and mentalists of our day. Indeed the horizon looks bleak. That is, unless you ask the Great Buck Howard. Or, rather, see the film.

She wants fame through the camera lens, so maybe this deal is more to her liking than a non-profit's offer of free round-the-clock childcare: Local adult industry company Vivid Entertainment has offered OctoMom Nadya Suleman up to $1 million to star in a film for their Vivid-Celeb imprint line, according to TMZ.

Jonathan Jarvis, a master's candidate at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, kept it more than a little bit real with "The Crisis of Credit Visualized." This 11-minute animation is just one part of Jarvis's thesis. May his grad school debt vanish with great haste.

It's a reasonable assumption that a film chronicling the inner workings of an actual mob syndicate would be interesting, engaging even. You would assume, as you saunter in with your too-large Coke and your caution-orange butter popcorn that, "hey, some of this is probably going to end up on the floor, because I'm going to get startled or have to turn myself away quickly from the bloodshed and gunplay".

The holiday season is a time for reflection. We’ve all been fortunate enough to make it through another year relatively unscathed; sometimes we stick out our hands to help those around us, and sometimes the hands reach out for us, but any way you look at it, there’s a lot that we’ve all done for each other, and ourselves. so when you finally sit down to relax this season, really try to reflect.

You hear phrases like ‘fact is stranger than fiction’ all the time. People constantly share heartfelt and truly miraculous real life stories; then they get in their Aerostar vans and drive over to the cineplex to watch Twilight for the umpteenth time. Meanwhile, if you’re a documentary filmmaker and your name isn’t Michael Moore, you’ve got a better chance of becoming the Vice President than seeing any substantial commercial success from a film that captures the same raw emotions and intensity as the true-to-life tales we often tell each other.

Police released the name of the swordsman who was shot dead Sunday afternoon by a security guard at the Scientology Celebrity Centre on Franklin Ave. in Hollywood. Mario Majorski, who was involved in the church, possibly as early as 1990, according to an anti-Scientology website, went to UCLA in 1993 and was a plaintiff in a two suits against UCLA and a school professor.

Los Angeles survives on its image, be it through tourism or the entertainment industry or the weather. Lots of people come here for lots of reasons; some stay, others move on. But the truth is, for anyone with family in a small town somewhere else, the reality of Los Angeles, day in and day out, is usually much more mundane. We all have to go to work, or to eat, or to pick up the kids from any number of unknown locations. There is a grind in LA that falls well below the radar once you leave the left coast. And it almost always slips by the movie industry.

If there is ever a time to get people out of their house and into movie theaters, it is now. The weather is turning colder, Oscar season is fast approaching, and a large amount of turkey makes it hard to want to do anything besides sit in plush chairs with 40 oz. of liquid crack within easy reach. The problem, though, is that everyone knows this, from the big picture houses on down to the independent filmmakers trying to earn a living. And most people, like it or not, will go see the American film with star power and an 8-figure budget that gets wasted on sending plumes of smoke and fire into the air. It’s a tough season for the independent outsiders. Just ask Ron Paul.