Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
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To the horror of my colleagues in the press and evoking a chorus of gasps and boos from them at the recent press junket for CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR (although Paul Rudd cheered and Kevin Feige lit up like a Christmas tree), I dared to say that which apparently should not be said: CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR is BETTER than "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." I said it then, I've said it since and I say it again now. While "The Force Awakens" is a global phenomena filled with...
You've seen the pictures. I've seen the pictures. The whole world has seen the pictures. And "the pictures" remain to this day the most requested images in the National Archives. What pictures, you may ask? Those taken on December 21, 1970, by White House photographer Ollie Atkins; when Elvis Presley met President Richard Nixon. Now, thanks to director Liza Johnson and screenwriters Hanala Sagal, Joey Sagal and Cary Elwes, culling from personal notes, recollections and...
Santa Monica College (SMC) is pleased to announce that CORA-a short film written and directed by SMC student Kevin Maxwell-has been accepted into The 19th American Pavilion Emerging Filmmaker Showcase at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. SMC is one of only 4 U.S. film schools in competition in the "Student Short Films" category along with NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Chapman University and The School of Visual Arts. 23 short films and documentaries by emerging filmmakers from...
Lots of good stuff opening in theatres this week, as well as on a concurrent digital/VOD platform, including the much anticipated Disney's THE JUNGLE BOOK. Normally, I would devote full coverage to this Disney film, but given the review embargos were lifted some time ago and reviews have been flooding the marketplace leading up to the April 15th release, we're going to look at some of the unsung winners of the week in this column today. But, suffice to say, when it comes to TH...
The 2016 TCM Classic Film Festival, hosted by Ben Mankiewicz, will open at the historic TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood on Thursday, April 28, with a red carpet screening of "All the President's Men". Carl Bernstein, author of the book by the same name, will be there to meet with invited guests. A gala meet-and-greet for guests will follow the screening. At least fifty-five actors, producers, directors, cinematographers, writers and musicians are scheduled to attend the...
(From our March 3, 2014 issue, with an update at the end.) Olaf Pooley is a very special man. He turns 100 years old on March 13. This man has seen many changes throughout the years he's been alive. Having lived through both World War I and World War 2 and countless other wars, this man has seen it all. He was born in Parkstone, Dorset, England on March 13, 1914. His father was English and his mother was Danish. Olaf was a student of architecture at the Architectural...
Still in the midst of spring break and with baseball season fast upon us, it's a moviegoing grand slam this week with everything from a biopic on an American institution, Hank Williams, to a foul-mouthed, hard talking, stuck-in-the-past Olympic bronze medalist comedy to the tenderness of a young woman with Asperger's looking for love to a look at one aspect of the greatest American pastimes, baseball. First up to the plate. . . FASTBALL Justin Verlander. Sandy Koufax. Bob...
Leave it to Jean-Marc Vallee to deliver yet another emotionally intense and introspective character driven film. Leave it to Jake Gyllenhaal to once again put his chameleonic skill set to use to deliver yet another indelible and unforgettable performance. A film that goes against the emotional grain, toying with our own unspoken fears about "what if" and "waiting for the other shoe to drop", DEMOLITION manipulates, shocks and examines in a tapestry of unpredictability that is...
Anyone who seen writer/director Deon Taylor's freshman film, "Supremacy", has been awed by the power and strength of the heavy dramatic themes rising from the a racially motivated true story. Many, including myself, have anxiously awaited his follow-up film curious to see what Taylor would deliver next. That wait is now over. And I am here to tell you, MEET THE BLACKS is nothing at all like "Supremacy". Going from the darkest depths of the souls of men, Taylor reaches the...
Clive Owen is always a welcome presence in any film, but particularly in one as smartly subtle and engaging as Bob Nelson's THE CONFIRMATION, and in which Owen shares the screen with (and is often upstaged by) one of the greatest young talents of the next generation, Jaeden Lieberher. THE CONFIRMATION is quietly moving, laced with the humor and pain inherent to life. A beautiful character study in the dynamics of a father and son, the chemistry between Owen and Lieberher is...
In a year during which the Academy Awards were mired in protests and boycotts over the lack of diversity of Oscar nominees, the 2016 Film Independent Spirit Awards, America's most prestigious award ceremony for independent filmmakers, celebrated diversity. Held on February 27 in a tent on the beach in Santa Monica, the Spirit Awards honored non-white and transgender performers in a wide range of movies including Spotlight, Beasts of No Nation, Room, and Tangerine. Spotlight,...
Pixar Animation Studios has done it again. Not only have they delivered what should prove to be the indisputable Best Animated Feature Academy Award winner come February 28, 2016, but a hot contender as an overall Best Picture nominee with INSIDE OUT. Breaking new ground with storytelling and technology, while retaining the hallmarks of what makes Pixar great, director Pete Docter and the Pixar team boldly go where no one has gone before - into the mind of an 11-year old...
While my love and admiration for Joss Whedon and the World of Whedon (not to mention the "Avengers" and that irascible Tony Stark aka Robert Downey, Jr.) knows no bounds, when it comes to AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON, I have to admit that from a story standpoint and the execution thereof, the Russo Brothers still reign as the current kings in the Marvel world thanks to their inspired direction of "Captain America: Winter Soldier". I know, I know. Shocker to hear from this lover of...
Christina Noble is a name many may not know but after seeing NOBLE, thanks to not only the subject of the film, but the well crafted storytelling of writer/director Stephen Bradley and indelible life-affirming performances by Dierdre O'Kane, Sarah Greene and Gloria Cramer Curtis as Christina Noble at various points in time, you will not only want to know the name, but the woman. An amazing woman. An inspiring story. A powerful and moving film. Christina Noble was born in the...
Let's just get it out there now so there's no mistaking. Nicholas Sparks is Nicholas Sparks is Nicholas Sparks. You know what you're going to get (for the most part) when you pick up a Sparks novel or sit down to watch a Sparks adaptation on the big screen. You know there will be beautiful scenery with lots of sun, lots of greenery, lots of rain (literally and metaphorically), lots of tears and lots of very fine looking people. You also know that in probably 75% of the cases,...
Seems that not just Spring has sprung, but so has the movie box office which is jam-packed with a multiplicity of new releases in limited and wide release this month. This week I turn your attention to two films: TRUE STORY - based on the true story of a killer and a journalist and, UNFRIENDED - conceived by the innovative and cutting edge Russian filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov, sheds a frightening light on the internet, Skyping, instant messaging with some horrifying results....
This week, I want to shed light on some indie gems that everyone should be on the lookout for, be it in the smaller art house-type theatres or on VOD. Each bodes strong female voices and performances, the latter two - MAN FROM RENO and APARTMENT TROUBLES - find directors pushing the envelope and developing their own skill sets and storytelling techniques, while, EFFIE GRAY, takes us back in time to 19th century London and the story of a scandalous female historical figure....
I don't know if it's because I'm getting older or Al Pacino us just getting better, but between his recent tour de force in "The Humbling" and now DANNY COLLINS, I have fallen in love with him as an actor. The nuance that he brings is electrifying and emotionally enticing and fulfilling and never moreso than as DANNY COLLINS. Written and directed by Dan Fogelman, DANNY COLLINS is, as the screen credits playfully note, "Kind of based on a true story a little bit." That true...
A thoughtful film that places the past and its lingering effects on the present as told through feuding Appalachian families who can't or don't want to move forward in a 1970's backwoods North Carolina, THE WORLD MADE STRAIGHT is a microcosmic microscopic examination of introspection. Adapted from Ron Rash's 2006 novel by writer Shane Danielson and directed by David Burris, THE WORLD MADE STRAIGHT is a slow, methodical, atmospheric burn that celebrates the gravitas of performa...
So much and yet so little happened in the year 2014. Surprisingly, gluten bored and angered me enough to change dining friends (yes I literally gave up the bores so I can eat bread in peace, Jesus did it?) and want to become a glutton. Deadly sins I salute you, but the sins of taste I cannot get past! The over sized and over used ass that that didn't break the Internet, just my literary heart, inspired me that I could indeed eat more and it would be OK as long as I...
Fans of the stage musical, and those who have heard of but never seen the wonder that is Stephen Sondheim, are in for a special holiday treat come Christmas Day as all tied up with a big red bow, er, cape, is Sondheim's acclaimed and long-running INTO THE WOODS which finally arrives on the big screen in this stunning adaptation written by stage scribe James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim and directed by Rob Marshall. What big eyes you'll have as you watch the magic of this fairyt...
Grant Gershon, esteemed Artistic Director/Conductor of the Los Angeles Master Chorale (LAMC), filled the Walt Disney Concert Hall with his passion and joy as they presented their annual holiday concerts. He channeled his un-rivaled enthusiasm during the LAMC’s presentation of “Festival of Carols” on December 13 and Handel’s Messiah on December 21. The LAMC rung in the holiday season with a concert of favorite carols sung by one of the greatest chorales in the world. Sprinkled with new arrangements (three by composer in resi...
The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO) opened its “Baroque Conversations” series on Thursday at Zipper Concert Hall at The Colburn School in downtown Los Angeles. It was a special affair honoring James Arkatov, artistic founder of LACO and original member of the cello section. There was a champagne toast for him at the pre-concert reception attended by musical director/conductor Jeffrey Kahane and then Arkatov kicked things off by saying a few words of thanks on stage before the concert. And that’s when the magic began...
Yusuf, formerly known as the incomparable Cat Stevens, made a stop on his "Peace Train" on December 14 during his five-city swing of America to present his "U.S. Peace Train...Late Again Tour 2014." Late again because it's been 35 years since the British singer-songwriter has played a concert in front of a live audience due to a decision he made in 1979, after 10 years of pop-stardom, to exit the music business to raise a family and explore his conversion to Islam. On this...
Delving into somewhat rare territory with bringing a true life story and real life individuals to the big screen (the last time being "Ed Wood"), one of whom is very much alive and very much a part of the making of BIG EYES, Tim Burton returns to the bemused wonder and charm that he demonstrated with "Edward Scissorhands". While in many respects a departure from what we have grown accustomed to in recent years from Tim Burton, in others, BIG EYES feels like the smooth fit of...
