Into the woods, with French movie-thriller ‘Misericordia’
It’s no news to anyone — we’ve known it since “Hansel & Gretel.” Bad things happen in the woods. To prove that that essential truth has gone unchanged since the days of Grimm’s fairy-tales, the woods are the chosen terrain in which auteur Alain Guiraudie stages the central plot turn of his latest movie, Misericordia ...
Road trip with Neil Young, April 17, via new doc ‘Coastal’
February 9, 2025: Neil Young performs for victims of Altadena fire at Pasadena Red Cross shelter He’s so interesting — and so worth it. He’s truly an artist of our collective lifetime. I saw him in concert in the summer of 2023 at the Greek Theatre. His show was a fascinating melange of devoted musicianship ...
In month of March, ‘A Week of French Language Cinema’!
Mar
11
2025
We all have to find our bliss anymore, don’t we. For me, it’s watching motion pictures to the sound of “la belle langue.” It’s the dulcet tone of francais in your ears — if only for a few hours. A Week of French Language Cinema, an annual West Los Angeles event of francophonia + cinemaphilia, ...
Film review: THE SUBSTANCE, a triumph of the insubstantial
Ed note: This review, written in August 2024, is belatedly published, thus the wishful reference to a woman president in its last paragraph. The director is French, which I found surprising. And she cannot be called young. That was my second shock, for, in watching her movie, THE SUBSTANCE, I would have sworn it was ...
BEST IN SHOW: A tour of Oscar-nominated international movies of 2024
Fernanda Torres, I’m Still Here Each year it’s the best of world cinema, delivered to your doorstep. The competition for Best International Feature Film is my personal favorite part of awards season, and the crop of films released in 2024 did not disappoint. Depending on your tastes and preferences, any of the five movies up ...
Oscar-nominated designers in 15th annual costume panel at the Egyptian
It’s such a fascinating “way in” when considering the different elements that go into making a successful feature film — via the vision and craftsmanship of the artists who create the costumes. Just consider one of them. Arianne Phillips, nominated for A Complete Unknown, has garnered prior nominations for Academy Award for Best Costume Design ...
Digging & dining: ‘Groundhog Day’ at Alamo Drafthouse
Jan
26
2025
We need fun! We need fun! There. I’ve said it twice — because I mean it doubly. Also because it’s in keeping with the time warp of repetition proffered by a very funny movie along that theme. Groundhog Day (1993) tells the tale of an egotistical Pittsburgh teevee weather guy, Phil Connors (Bill Murray), who ...
Only the screen was small: Ida Lupino television work at UCLA Film & Television Archive
Jan
25
2025
It bodes one of those great-but-long evenings at UCLA Film and Television Archive, where we have produced several film events, in the Billy Wilder Theater at UCLA’s Hammer Museum. I want to go. born to play with bogie, here, High Sierra (1941) Why? Because Ida Lupino was so cool. She was a really good actress ...
Colman Domingo’s star power galvanizes new film, ‘Sing Sing’
Director Greg Kwedar, Colman Domingo, Jane Fonda, Clarence Maclin attend A24’s Sing Sing Screening hosted by Jane Fonda, London Hotel in Los Angeles, Sat Jan 4, 2025 Following his Oscar-nominated turn as the civil rights leader in Rustin (2023), Colman Domingo is back in the awards spotlight this year with Sing Sing. The critically acclaimed ...
Clothes make the man, in ‘Monte Cristo’ & ‘West Side Story’
If clothes make the man in real life, then it’s only more so in the movies. That’s when an audience is maximally focused and alert, and processing quick information about characters. I found myself repeatedly distracted, in an awesome way, by the stunning men’s wear in THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO (2024), which I recently ...