FilmWeek

Ted Chen and critics Lael Loewenstein, of Variety, and Claudia Puig, of USA Today, review some of the week's new feature films including "Get Smart," "The Love Guru," "Kit Kittredge: An American Girl," and "Brick Lane."

Larry and critics Andy Klein, of CityBeat, Jean Oppenheimer, of Village Voice Media, and Charles Solomon, of amazon.com review some of the week's new feature films including "The Happening," "The Incredible Hulk," "Savage Grace," "Meet Bill," and "The Animation Show 4."

Larry and critics Wade Major, of boxoffice.com and CityBeat, Claudia Puig, of USAToday, and Charles Solomon, of amazon.com review some of the week's new feature films including Kung Fu Panda, You Don't Mess With the Zohan, When Did You Last See Your Father?, and Mongol.

Larry talks with Academy Award winning actor Dustin Hoffman about his role as Honorary Chairman of The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Silent Film Gala, which takes place tomorrow, May 31st, at 8:00 p.m. at UCLA's Royce Hall, and about his career in Hollywood.

David Gilmour's unconventional family memoir, "The Film Club," begins when he was an unemployed movie critic and tried to convince his fifteen-year-old son Jesse to do his homework. When David realized Jesse was disinterested in school, he offered him an unconventional deal: Jesse could drop out, but he must watch three movies a week of his father's choosing. Larry talks with both father and son about what they shared, learned, and how their lives changed through this unusual parenting decision.

Larry and critics Peter Rainer, of The Christian Science Monitor, Claudia Puig, of USA Today, and Charles Solomon, animation critic for amazon.com review some of the week's new feature films including "The Chronicles of Narnia", "Prince Caspian," "Noise," "Roman de Gare," and the documentary "Up the Yangtze."

Every week, nearly a dozen movies open in the U.S. Most are independent films that won't ever see more than two weeks in a theater. Some think there are too many independent movies, too many bad movies, too many festivals, too many critics, too many awards shows and too many multiplexes. Larry and our FilmWeek critics Wade Major and Andy Klein discuss if there are too many movies today and ask our listeners to weigh in as well.

May officially kicks off the summer movie season. Larry and our FilmWeek critics Claudia Puig and Lael Loewenstein ask our listeners what films they're looking forward to and why. What makes a film worth seeing in a theatre, considering that after paying for parking, tickets, babysitter, gas, popcorn, it could run you upwards of $75 for an evening out? Is movie going as a collective and social experience in danger of being supplanted with home viewing?

This new documentary chronicles the story of Tomas Young, a 26-year-old soldier who was shot and paralyzed from the chest down after serving in Iraq for less than a week. The film was produced and directed by Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro. It follows Young as he deals with his disability and ultimately becomes an anti-war protestor and what he describes as a "political irritant." Larry talks with Donahue and Spiro about the film.

In his recent article for The Atlantic, Ross Douthat examines how the Iraq War and President Bush have sent the movie industry back to the paranoid, cynical era of the 1970s. Larry talks with Douthat about his theory that the industry is again trying to connect with Americans who are trying to cope with a military quagmire, rising oil prices, ecological destruction, and political corruption.