Josh Tate

The weekend is here so lots of free stuff is on tap for the L.A. Film Festival. The Festival Promenade on Broxton will be taken over by Family Day activities. There'll be screenings, games, giveaways, pony rides, a petting zoo, magician Ryan Majestic and characters from Playhouse Disney to entertain the kiddies. Events will run from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Two free programs will be held at Bel Air Camera today. At 1:00...

The L.A. Film Festival lumbers towards its final weekend today and The Director Lunch Talk series has its best interview yet. John Horn talks to Danny Boyle (Sunshine, Trainspotting) at 12:30 p.m. at the Target Red Room. Another free talk is on tap at 7:00 p.m. at the Hammer Museum. It's Been There, Done That: A Conversation with Mickey Rooney. If you've never seen Mr. Rooney talk in person, treat yourself to this program....

There are some films, particularly foreign films--no, particularly foreign foreign films--where you have to throw your critic's hat out the window and just try to keep up. That's how I felt watching Half Moon. I'm fairly certain that there were many Iranian jokes and Persian allusions that I just didn't get. (How do I know that? Well, there was an Iranian guy sitting next to me in the theater who obviously did.) Still, I...

Though Westwood is now a smoking ruin, I am happy to announce that Optimus Prime and his heroic Autobots have defeated Megatron and his dastardly Decepticons. For those of you now whining "spoiler!"--come on. Does anyone really not know how Transformers is going to end? Don't worry. They left plenty of room for sequels. I just want to take this time to personally thank the programmers of the LA Film Festival for finding a...

Thousands of innocent Angelenos are expected to perish today when a highly advanced robot civilization descends on Westwood. However, the carnage is not expected to ensue until 8:15 p.m. so you'll have most of the day to get your affairs in order. That's right, the LA Film Festival is celebrating the glory of independent film with a mult-theater premiere of the multi-million dollar budgeted Transformers. Indie favorite Michael Bay directs. If such esoteric fare...

Mark Wahlberg lights up TV screens this week as Shooter reaches the DVD shelves. I don't know about you, but this tale of double-crosses and revenge had a distinct late 80s/early 90s vibe to it for me. Did Sly pass on this script 20 years ago or was it Steve in '95? For those of you who want to see Samuel L. Jackson in full-on Samuel L. Jackson mode, pick up Black Snake Moan....

Today the festival begins with another Director Lunch Talk at 12:30 p.m. at the Target Red Room. Los Angeles Times writer John Horn talks with Scott Prendergast, director of Kabluey (screening at this year's LAFF). At 7:00 p.m., Who Let the Blogs Out?, a panel discussion of L.A. film bloggers, kicks off at the W Los Angeles in Westwood. Variety's Anne Thompson moderates and one of my favorites, the curmudgeonly Jeffrey Wells, is on...

A good documentary tells a compelling story that may have otherwise remained unknown. The best ones do so through people you can't believe actually exist. Such is the case with The Town That Was. Using a blend of archival footage and recent interviews, directors Chris Perkel and Georgie Roland tell the sad, strange story of Centralia, Pennsylvania and one of its last remaining residents, the marvelously eccentric John Lokitis. In 1962, Centralia was a...

A few weeks ago in this space, I predicted that Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer would be the big-budget flop of the summer. Turns out I missed it by one week. Evan Almighty tallied a meager 32.1 million dollars at the box office over the weekend--well below already reduced expectations (the ugliest five words a studio chief can ever hear--worse even than "the call girl taped everything"). Considering its budget was somewhere...

Now that the frenzied first weekend is over, it should be much easier going at the L.A. Film Festival in terms of actually getting to see a movie. Virtually every film playing today shows either standby availability or tickets available at the door. Free events, unfortunately, are in short supply. Of course, there's the daily Bands on Broxton at noon and 7 p.m. at the Festival Promenade, but the only other free event is...