Big Screen
Last week brought news of Exitos del Cine Latino, a brand-new week-long film festival, running August 26 to September 1 at AMC Plaza Bonita, that boasts 14 San Diego premieres. Be on the lookout for …
If the Chuck Heston interpretation of Ben-Hur is comparable to a Classics Illustrated comic book, MGM’s new digital facelift should never have left Turner Network Television. The third (and hopefully final) theatrical reboot, this Ben …
It is the ultimate glorification of sports on film and a testament to the man Max Bialystock would later call, “The Hitler you loved, the Hitler you knew, the Hitler with a song in his …
Those who missed out on last May’s San Diego Surf Film Festival — I was surfing the net that weekend — are about to be tossed a life preserver. Huey, the God of Surf, has …
With the Lickona bunch vacationing in New York, this week’s aggregation of new releases falls on my watch. Speaking of aggregation, according to the generally aggravating Rotten Tomatoes, Hell or High Water is Certified 100% …
The Media Arts Center is nothing if not ambitious. Monday brought news of film curator Moisés Esparza’s inspired commitment to second-run bookings. Next week is a three-film tribute to the late Iranian master, Abbas Kiarostami. …
The stars align in the Western sky. Hell or High Water is the sort of film that tempts the critic — well, tempts me, anyway — to start writing the sort of copy that might …
Second-run theatres appear to have gone the way of video cassettes. The once popular “dollar houses” offered audiences a chance to catch big releases on their way to home video, generally at a cost of …
How do I know that I am, at heart, a middlebrow critic? Well, partly because I have yet to join my fellow critic Scott in his celebration of the Jackass franchise. But also because I …
It was 54 years ago today that Marilyn Monroe was found dead in her apartment of an apparent overdose. Suicide? Murder? Accident? Joe Kennedy? The debate rages to this day as the legendary sex symbol …
Who is our greatest (hardly) working director? Godard? Scorsese? Wenders? Arthur Hiller? Oh, yeah! Timpani! It’s Jerry Lewis! I’ve spent more of my adult life defending Jerry Lewis than any other pussycat mush genius on …
In 2013, James Schamus was given, as he puts it, “the privilege and the luxury of being fired from my studio job in late middle age.” (The job was CEO of Focus Features.) “So I …
T-minus six months and counting before the 27th Annual San Diego Jewish Film Festival comes to town, but there’s no time like the present to start the fundraising matzo ball rolling. SDJFF launches its Underwriter …
Reader ur-critic Duncan Shepherd (who has been showing up on the site of late, praise be) was not a huge fan of the original Bourne trilogy. The first was something of a disappointment, I guess, …
Aunt Fay had the hots for Elvis, and little Scotty loved going to the movies. So it was that many a Saturday afternoon found us hopping the 96 Lunt Ave. bus to Chicago’s Adelphi Theatre …
The banners are down, the fanboys back in their parents’ basements, and the convention center no longer a giant roll of flypaper used by corporations to ensnare the costumed souls that make it through the …