A common complaint I heard from parents last year who took their kids to see Where the Wild Things Are was, "It was too dark for a kids' movie." To these parents I say, "You are fucking morons." The only kids for whom this movie is too dark are stupid and ordinary kids, and who cares what they think anyway. For me, Where the Wild Things Are was the latest oddball entry in Spike Jonze's increasingly awesome canon. Don't rent it; buy it. The same goes for the latest from grand master Hayao Miyazaki, Ponyo. In fact, while you're at it pick up Totoro and Kiki's, too. 2012 is disposable garbage, but if you're in the mood for that you could do worse. Cold Souls might have been considered a brilliant movie if it had come out before Being John Malkovich. Instead, it's just derivative (but still pretty good). Who will stand up and end the MILF onslaught? more ›

Paramount refused to screen G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra for critics which is usually a huge, obvious warning that the film is an unmitigated disaster. Then again, maybe the studio is still just chafing from the deserved reaming given to Transformers 2: Racist CGI Porn by reviewers. In any case, G.I. Joe is obviously on the "skip" list. The consensus on Julie & Julia (LAist review here) appears to be that the movie would have benefited from more Julia and less Julie. To get a true grasp of what an amazing actress Meryl Streep is, Netflix the following movies and watch them in this order: Doubt, Silkwood, Sophie's Choice, Stuck on You. more ›

The 15th annual Los Angeles Film Festival kicks off tonight at 7:30 pm with the premiere screening of Paper Man at the Mann Village Theater. The full festival begins in earnest the following morning as over 80 documentary and narrative features unspool in venues across the Westside. In addition to that, the festival features panels and seminars, coffee talks and poolside chats, short-film programs, music video showcases, live concerts and free screenings of such beloved films as Ghostbusters, Election and The Muppet Movie. more ›

Two very good studio films opened at the box office this weekend (I Love You, Man and Duplicity) and, naturally, neither of them managed to win the box office crown. That went to the terrifyingly moronic Knowing which tricked America's rubes into shelling out approximately $24.8M of hard-earned money. The quite funny I Love You, Man under-performed to the tune of $18M as did Julia Roberts' Duplicity which only managed to bring in $14.4M. Last week's champ Remake of Witch Mountain fell all the way to fourth but still had a solid performance ($13M/$44.7M). The ambitious Watchmen, however, continued to flounder ($6.7M/$98M). more ›

FETISH FILM: The Fetish Film series continues tonight at 7:30 pm at the Egyptian with Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom) (1975). “[It] depicts with cold precision the sexual and psychological atrocities visited on sixteen young men and women, held hostage by a group of depraved nobles at the end of WWII.” The film’s not for the faint of heart and due to the graphic sexual nature of this film, no one under 18 will be admitted to the screenings. There will be discussion with series curator Rick Castro following the screening. more ›

Considering that Doug Liman has directed some seriously good movies (Go, Swingers, The Bourne Identity), to see how badly it can go. more ›

As one of my favorite bloggers Jeffrey Wells recently wrote, "The Sundance Film Festival is a 10-day event, but it's always over as of Wednesday morning...the voltage turns down, there are fewer people on Main Street, all the presumably hot titles (i.e., name casts, advance-hyped) have been screened." Park City actually becomes a manageable town again and tickets that were impossible to get a few days ago can usually be had for less than face value. With that in mind, I decided to blow off the morning's press screenings and head out with a group of friends to see a film I'd been closed out of earlier, . more ›

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 Big Lebowski. Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin and Tommy Lee Jones all give superb performances in this adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel of the same name.... more ›

The only thing this week means to me is that It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia premieres on Thursday. I've seen some previews and goddam if that shit isn't funny. 9:00pm Dateline NBC - Sensationalist exploitation of the Connecticut home invasion by 2 ex-cons that left a woman and her 2 daughters dead and her husband badly beaten. 10:00pm Saving Grace TNT - For lack of anything better (Dr. 90210 anyone??) I guess the only choice... more ›

Last night at the El Rey, The Hold Steady did just that -- Not playing the coy, indie-nerd wallflowers and never crossing into absolute rock and roll mayhem, Craig Finn and the boys held the line, well, steady. Looking like a more-hip Paul Giamatti and gesturing feverishly like a less-nebbishy Woody Allen, Finn led the charge with flails and jolts, hand claps for miles, and his frighteningly accurate, wholly incongruous, Springsteen voice. Mesmerizing. The... more ›

KABC has wasted no time in getting the awkward questions, stammered remarks, and best wishes to everyone coming down the red carpet. So far we've already heard them refer to Ben Stiller as "studly", and Naomi Watt's very current gown as "vintage". It's almost too painful to watch, but you know we'll keep doing it. more ›

More SAG Awards liveblogging. Watch out, Dakota is coming. more ›

Blogwatching the Golden Globes (it's not liveblogging if it's tape-delayed, right?) We forgot to write down times, but trust us, this is (mostly) chronological. We blogged the red carpet, too. more ›

We're bouncing back and forth between the NBC and E! red carpet broadcasts. Woah, Dean Cain is carpeteering for NBC and he still looks like Scott Peterson. Dean, it's time to lose the highlights. more ›

There was good and bad for uber-actor Paul Giamatti this past weekend when he was awarded a SAG statuette for his Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. Yes, that's right, he had to share it with three other people. more ›