movie review TOY STORY 5 Running time: 102 minutes. PG (some thematic elements, rude humor). In theaters. Long before Chat GPT was a household name, Hollywood had been making AI the villain for decades — from HAL 9000 to Skynet to Agent Smith. Yet the most emotionally involving spin on the terrors of tech in … Read more
movie review OFFICE ROMANCE Running time: 94 minutes. Rated R (graphic nudity, sexual material, language throughout). On Netflix. As Jennifer Lopez makes her entrance in Netflix’s “Office Romance,” the seventies song “I Believe In Miracles” by Hot Chocolate (“Where ya from? You sexy thing!”) plays. And, suddenly and wincingly, we’re back in 2000, when that retro tune … Read more
Dracula is rising from the dead again. Long-lost footage from a classic 1958 Dracula film with Christopher Lee was found in a warehouse decades after it was cut because early audiences found it so terrifying that they fainted. The three-minutes worth of footage, which has never been seen in the US, was found in a … Read more
movie review BACKROOMS Running time: 105 minutes. Rated R (some violent content, language, bloody images). In theaters. Hollywood trembles in fear of the havoc the internet has wrought and will continue to wreak on its core business. Execs wake up in a cold sweat from a nightmare that blockbusters have been replaced by 30-second TikTok … Read more
In the summer, studios and exhibitors usually look to bread-and-butter blockbusters to boost business. This year, those sizzling titles include a new “Spider-Man” and Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey.” So, Hollywood wasn’t exactly obsessing over Focus Features’ springtime “Obsession,” a little indie released May 15 that was made for just $750,000 — less than a one-bedroom … Read more
Callin’ out around the world — are you ready for a brand new beat? Summer’s here and the time is right for sitting quietly in a dark theater. I mean it! Hollywood is having its biggest sweaty season since at least 2019, with a much-anticipated release opening almost every single week for the next two … Read more
You’ve seen it in car chases, drag races and apocalyptic movie scenes, but the Los Angeles River isn’t a movie set. It’s one of the city’s most important pieces of infrastructure — and one of its biggest environmental questions. The 51-mile river cuts across Los Angeles in a form that feels uniquely LA: half urban, … Read more
movie review THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU Running time: 132 minutes. Rated PG-13 (sci-fi violence and action). In theaters May 22. “The Mandalorian and Grogu” boldly goes where no “Star Wars” movie has gone before. Like rival “Star Trek,” it’s a movie spun off from a TV series. The previously unheard of small screen to big … Read more
Some like it hot — especially those who like springtime in the California desert. And in typical Golden State style, Southern California is celebrating its golden girl Marilyn Monroe later this month on what would have been her 100th birthday. On Saturday, May 30, Palm Springs will host Marilyn 100 at Downtown Park around the … Read more
movie review THE SHEEP DETECTIVES Running time: 109 minutes. Rated PG (thematic material, some violent content and brief language). In theaters. A word of advice on the new movie “Sheep Detectives”: Give it a bleat. Sorry, a beat. The family film begins rather treacly, with a shepherd named George played by Hugh Jackman waxing poetic … Read more
movie review MICHAEL Running time: 127 minutes. Rated PG-13 (some thematic material, language, and smoking). In theaters. This is it? How flabbergasting to see “Michael,” the new biopic about Michael Jackson, the best-selling solo artist of all time, crash and burn into such a cheap and embarrassing bore. Say what you will about Michael Jackson … Read more
How to Be Cultured Menu Film The origins of avant-garde cinema date to the silent era, when artists in the 1920s like Man Ray, Fernand Léger, Marcel Duchamp and Salvador Dalí began to explore film as a kind of abstract form. In the 1930s and ’40s in America, Harry Smith, Mary Ellen Bute and Maya … Read more
How to Be Cultured Menu 1. Greatest onscreen performance? “Marlon Brando in ‘On the Waterfront’ (1954). He’s so calm, and he speaks the way he’d speak in real life, kind of mumbling. Paul Newman, too, in ‘Cool Hand Luke’ (1967). These men were almost father figures for me. I observed them in the absence of … Read more
How to Be Cultured Menu 1. Poem everyone should memorize? “Pablo Neruda’s ‘Ode to the Onion’ (1954). I find his adoration of simple objects appealing. It springs to mind when I’m cooking.” 2. Recipe everyone should know? “Italian ceci, or chickpeas. They should be roasted or fried, so they’re crispy, and garnished with nothing but … Read more
How to Be Cultured Menu Film Ivan Dixon (left) and Abbey Lincoln in Michael Roemer’s “Nothing But a Man” (1964). Courtesy of the Everett Collection ‘Nothing But a Man’ (1964), directed by Michael Roemer Roemer’s feature — about a Black man and his wife (played by Ivan Dixon and the jazz vocalist Abbey Lincoln) facing … Read more
How to Be Cultured Menu Film INDIA Selected by Mira Nair, 68, the director of ‘Mississippi Masala’ (1991) and ‘Monsoon Wedding’ (2001). A scene from Satyajit Ray’s “Jalsaghar” (“The Music Room,” 1958). The Criterion Collection ‘Jalsaghar’ (‘The Music Room,’ 1958), directed by Satyajit Ray In this Bengali drama, an aging aristocrat clings to memories of … Read more
How to Be Cultured Menu 1. Novel that explains the world? “ ‘We’ (1924) by Yevgeny Zamyatin, one of the first to be censored in the Soviet Union. It’s a portrait of the ways technology serves as a tool of autocratic control, a precursor to George Orwell’s ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ (1949) and a stunning read.” 2. Relatable … Read more
How to Be Cultured Menu Film Mary Evans/All Film Archive/Everett Collection ‘Bambi’ (1942), directed by David D. Hand The Disney classic tells a simple story but “never feels like it’s aimed at youngsters,” says Sanders, 64. Among other things, it’s a striking portrayal of what it might feel like to be hunted, and audiences have … Read more
Actor Andrew Garfield is the latest celebrity to speak out against writer J.K. Rowling, arguing that watching the “Harry Potter” films is now “controversial.” Rowling has faced consistent criticism for her views on biological sex, frequently calling for the exclusion of transgender women from girls and women’s sports. During a radio interview, the actor best … Read more
Arnold Schwarzenegger has been helping train his 28-year-old love child Joseph Baena for his son’s bodybuilding debut at a competition in Colorado this Saturday. The 78-year-old former Governor of California and Hollywood action star has been hands on helping as Baena works out at Gold’s Gym in Venice, California, ahead of his first bodybuilding competition. … Read more