Josh Tate

In 2004, artist Peter Schulberg learned that literally tons of advertising billboards were being dumped into landfills every month. His solution to dealing with all this waste was rather novel: recycle those billboards into art. On Saturday night, the newest exhibition of these pieces is unveiled at Eco-LogicalART. Fifteen local artists have created pieces that will eventually be mounted as billboards across the city. Based on existing traffic patterns, it's estimated that 750,000 people...

After a busy holiday season, there's a pronounced lull in the film distribution business this weekend. The lazy plan is just to go wide with a few films that have already been playing in Los Angeles for a few weeks (The Bucket List, The Kite Runner, The Orphanage). As such, we Angelenos are left with only a few scraps (and bad scraps at that) to consider. Take heart, though--the mysterious and intriguing Cloverfield is...

As part of their Golden Globe Foreign Language Nominee series, American Cinematheque is screening The Diving Bell and the Butterfly tonight at the Aero Theater. Director and noted artist Julian Schnabel will be on-hand to introduce the film. It tells the wrenching story of Jean-Dominique Bauby, the former editor of ELLE magazine who suffered a stroke at the age of 43 and spent the rest of his life able to move only one eyelid....

If any film cried out for a comprehensive DVD this year it was Zodiac. Casual viewers probably didn't realize it, but Zodiac was swimming in meticulously crafted CGI. Check out this video and be truly amazed by the subtle work of David Fincher and his team. Then, go out and buy the DVD. You know that it's been a good year at the movies when 3:10 to Yuma is only the third or fourth...

National Treasure: Book of Secrets ($20.2M/$171M) and I Am Legend ($16.3M/$228.6M) continued to rule the box office, but the weekend's big news belonged to Juno. In its first weekend of wide release, the sly comedy raked in $16.2M ($52M) and has now eclipsed the gross of last year's indie-ish* hit Little Miss Sunshine (*both films were produced by major studios). Alvin and the Chipmunks was a hair behind at $16M ($176.7M). Crappy newcomer One...

Legend holds that after seeing Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Tom Cruise jumped to his feet and loudly declaimed, "That rocks!". Some movies take a little longer to process. After watching No Country for Old Men I remember considering the movie for a few days before finally deciding that it was, indeed, a great film with a perfect ending. Likewise, it's only now--a week after seeing it--that I'm ready to write about There...

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the worst opening weekend of the year! Granted, it's only the first weekend of the year but with a mere one movie opening--one!--I think it may hold the title for the next 51 weeks. That movie, of course, is One Missed Call. It's your typical, 'let's trick bored teenagers into seeing another bad re-make of a better Japanese horror film.' I thought that trend had run its course, but...

John Sayles has enjoyed one of the more respected careers in film over the last twenty-five years. By some estimates, he is the king of the uncredited re-write and has used the large fees he's garnered as a script doctor to further his own career as a writer-director. His resume is studded with several superb pictures (Sunshine State, Passion Fish, Eight Men Out, The Brother from Another Planet) and one masterpiece (Lone Star). Tonight...

You know it's a light week when I lead off with the DVD of a TV series. The Tudors wasn't great television, but it was pretty good and Natalie Dormer was fantastic as the doomed Ann Boleyn. Am I the only one who confuses Shoot 'Em Up with Smokin' Aces? War is Jet Li's last martial arts flick...until the next one. Weird Science lasted two whole seasons? Amazing. Consumer alert!: Indie Sex is mostly...

The most distressing thing about the ten worst movies of the year wasn't even the movies themselves. True, they were all extremely depressing--especially the "comedies"--but nothing was more deflating than the immense amount of money that so many of them made. Their runaway success ensures that 2008 will have no shortage of Grade-A shit. Having said that, here are my ten worst. I can't believe I couldn't find room for Next. 1. Balls of...