The Official Blog of Laemmle Theatres.

Laemmle Theatres

Film Reviews & Previews

  • All
  • Theater Buzz
    • Claremont 5
    • Glendale
    • Newhall
    • NoHo 7
    • Royal
    • Santa Monica
    • Town Center 5
  • Q&A’s
  • Locations & Showtimes
    • Claremont
    • Glendale
    • NewHall
    • North Hollywood
    • Royal (West LA)
    • Santa Monica
    • Town Center (Encino)
  • Film Series
    • Anniversary Classics
    • Culture Vulture
    • Worldwide Wednesdays
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • TikTok
  • YouTube

Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s new thriller CLOUD, “a cautionary tale of e-commerce — and the summer’s best action movie,” opens Friday at the Laemmle Encino, Glendale and Monica Film Center.

August 6, 2025 by Jordan Deglise Moore Leave a Comment

“A master of existential dread, Kurosawa was early to posit a creepy side to online culture… Things have gotten even grimmer in Cloud. The malevolence is not supernatural but human.” ~ John Powers, NPR
*
“Kurosawa inches back toward the knotted-stomach dread of his horror classics Cure and Pulse with Cloud, albeit accented this time with a healthily morbid sense of humour. And, perhaps more surprising, a serious affinity for action movie shoot-outs.” ~ Barry Hertz, Globe and Mail
*
“That tension between modes [of realism and online fantasy] gives Cloud tremendous visceral and intellectual force, plus a persistent air of moral inquiry.” ~ Justin Chang, The New Yorker
*

“Kurosawa’s slow, patient direction throws just enough stones into the stagnant waters of Ryosuke’s life to make the vengeance of those he has harmed seem almost justified.” ~ Richard Whittaker, Austin Chronicle

Kiyoshi Kurosawa's new thriller CLOUD, "a cautionary tale of e-commerce -- and the summer's best action movie," opens Friday at the Laemmle Encino, Glendale and Monica Film Center.

“Kurosawa films the descent into kill-or-be-killed mayhem with his typically masterful visual proficiency — any given frame of Yasuyuki Sasaki’s no-nonsense cinematography can quickly go from bland to ominous.” ~ Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times

“For all of his genre-bending on display, Kurosawa is interested in something more real and more dark about humanity’s capacity for greed and bitterness, and the quiet ways that the internet can further mutate those diseases in us.” ~ Brandon Yu, New York Times

“Cloud is a portrait of merciless 21st-century commerce and social cruelty that’s filtered through various genre lenses.” ~ Nick Schager, The Daily Beast

“Kurosawa films psychological torment with real gravity, and he films physical cruelty with humorous detachment. The absurdity of his vision matches our topsy-turvy reality.” ~ Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture

“A brisk film that leaves one pondering its themes, especially what it means to live in an era when nothing is real.” ~ Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com
*

“Unfolding at a hauntingly subdued register before unleashing its pent-up tension during its final act, director Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cloud skewers the anonymity that characterizes our presence in online spaces.” ~ Zachary Lee, Chicago Reader

“Kurosawa Kiyoshi is an empathetic yet pitiless poet of the modern void.” ~ Chuck Bowen, Slant Magazine

“Cloud is a sophisticated send-up of social commerce culture.” ~ Adam Nayman, The Ringer

Leave a Comment Filed Under: Featured Films, Featured Post, Films, Glendale, Monica Film Center, Press, Santa Monica, Theater Buzz, Town Center 5

0 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Search

Instagram

This is the way. 🍿 Exclusive Mandalorian & Grogu p This is the way. 🍿 Exclusive Mandalorian & Grogu popcorn tins and collectible figurines. Yours with a Mando Combo purchase! Very limited supply. 

@LaemmleNewhall & @LaemmleNoHo

🎟️Tickets: laem.ly/4aoKwRb
🖌️Sandwich board art by @mikaelparis_

#StarWars #TheMandalorian #Grogu
☘️ WEAR GREEN ☘️ $AVE GREEN ☘️ $2 OFF your concess ☘️ WEAR GREEN ☘️ $AVE GREEN ☘️ $2 OFF your concessions order!

⭐ St. Patrick's Day! Tuesday March 17th Only!

-Movie ticket purchase not required
-Like and show this post!
🎟️ laemmle.com/discounts
🚀 PROJECT HAIL MARY, AN EPIC PRIZE PACK GIVEAWAY! 🚀 PROJECT HAIL MARY, AN EPIC PRIZE PACK GIVEAWAY!
👉 ENTER in BIO!

#ProjectHailMary — starring Academy Award® nominee Ryan Gosling and directed by Academy Award®-winning filmmakers Phil Lord & Christopher Miller. Based on Andy Weir's New York Times best-selling novel.

🎟️ GET TICKETS in BIO!
For the 21st consecutive year, Laemmle will be scr For the 21st consecutive year, Laemmle will be screening the Oscar-Nominated Short Films, opening on Feb. 20th. Showcasing the best short films from around the world, the 2026 Oscar®-Nominated Shorts includes three feature-length programs, one for each Academy Award® Short Film category: Animated, Documentary and Live Action.

ANIMATED SHORTS: (Estimated Running Time: 83 mins)
The Three Sisters
Forevergreen
The Girl Who Cried Pearls
Butterfly
Retirement Plan
 
LIVE ACTION SHORTS (Estimated Running Time: 119 minutes)
The Singers
A Friend Of Dorothy
Butcher’s Stain
Two People Exchanging Saliva
Jane Austin’s Period Drama

DOCUMENTARY SHORTS (Estimated Running Time: 158 minutes)
Perfectly A Strangeness
The Devil Is Busy
Armed Only With A Camera: The Life And Death Of Brent Renaud
All The  Empty Rooms
Children No More: “Were And Are Gone”

Please note that some films may not be appropriate for audiences under the age of 14 due to gun violence, shootings, language and animated nudity.
Follow on Instagram

 

Laemmle Theatres

Laemmle Theatres
Tickets: http://laemmle.com/film/viaggio-travels-pope-francis | Subscribe: http://bit.ly/3b8JTym | IN VIAGGIO: THE TRAVELS OF POPE FRANCIS is a decade-long chronicling of the head of the Catholic church, from Academy Award® nominated filmmaker Gianfranco Rosi (FIRE AT SEA, NOTTURNO). In the first nine years of his pontificate, Pope Francis made trips to 53 countries, focusing on his most important issues: poverty, migration, environment, solidarity, and war. Composed mostly of archival footage, the documentary grants rare access to the public life of the pontifical.<br /><br />Tickets: http://laemmle.com/film/viaggio-travels-pope-francis<br /><br />RELEASE DATE: 3/27/2023<br /><br />-----<br />ABOUT LAEMMLE: Since 1938, Laemmle [Theatres] has been showing the finest independent, arthouse, and international films.<br /><br />Subscribe to Laemmle's E-NEWSLETTER: http://bit.ly/3y1YSTM<br />Visit Laemmle.com: http://laemmle.com<br />Like LAEMMLE on FACEBOOK: http://bit.ly/3Qspq7Z<br />Follow LAEMMLE on TWITTER: http://bit.ly/3O6adYv<br />Follow LAEMMLE on INSTAGRAM: http://bit.ly/3y2j1cp
Tickets: http://laemmle.com/film/somewhere-queens | Subscribe: http://bit.ly/3b8JTym | Leo lives a simple life in Queens with his wife, their son "Sticks," and Leo’s close-knit network of Italian-American relatives and friends. Happy enough working at the family construction business, Leo lives each week for Sticks' high school basketball games, never missing a chance to cheer on his only child, a star athlete. When Sticks gets a life-changing opportunity to play college basketball, Leo jumps at the chance to provide a plan for his future. But when sudden heartbreak threatens to derail things, Leo goes to unexpected lengths to keep his son on this new path.<br /><br />Tickets: http://laemmle.com/film/somewhere-queens<br /><br />RELEASE DATE: 4/21/2023<br /><br />-----<br />ABOUT LAEMMLE: Since 1938, Laemmle [Theatres] has been showing the finest independent, arthouse, and international films.<br /><br />Subscribe to Laemmle's E-NEWSLETTER: http://bit.ly/3y1YSTM<br />Visit Laemmle.com: http://laemmle.com<br />Like LAEMMLE on FACEBOOK: http://bit.ly/3Qspq7Z<br />Follow LAEMMLE on TWITTER: http://bit.ly/3O6adYv<br />Follow LAEMMLE on INSTAGRAM: http://bit.ly/3y2j1cp
Tickets: http://laemmle.com/film/severing | Subscribe: http://bit.ly/3b8JTym | The Severing, from filmmaker Mark Pellington, is a visceral, powerful feature-length dance film. This cathartic movement piece was created in collaboration with the brilliant choreographer Nina McNeely (Gaspar Noe’s Climax), Dutch cinematographer Evelin Van Rei, and editor Sergio Pinheiro. Inspired by the Wim Wenders' Pina, Pellington was interested in expressing feelings and emotions through a ‘narrative of movement and text,’ told through the physical expression of dancers’ bodies and souls.<br /><br />Tickets: http://laemmle.com/film/severing<br /><br />RELEASE DATE: 4/17/2023<br />Director: Mark Pellington<br />Cast: Danny Axley, Allison Fletcher, Maija Knapp, Courtney Scarr, Ryan Spencer, Blake Miller<br /><br />-----<br />ABOUT LAEMMLE: Since 1938, Laemmle [Theatres] has been showing the finest independent, arthouse, and international films.<br /><br />Subscribe to Laemmle's E-NEWSLETTER: http://bit.ly/3y1YSTM<br />Visit Laemmle.com: http://laemmle.com<br />Like LAEMMLE on FACEBOOK: http://bit.ly/3Qspq7Z<br />Follow LAEMMLE on TWITTER: http://bit.ly/3O6adYv<br />Follow LAEMMLE on INSTAGRAM: http://bit.ly/3y2j1cp
Subscribe
This error message is only visible to WordPress admins

Cannot collect videos from this channel. Please make sure this is a valid channel ID.

Recent Posts

  • The Needle, the Noise, the Nineties: ‘Trainspotting’ Turns 30
  • The Last Great Maestro: Inside ‘Bernstein’s Wall’
  • Culture Vulture: All the World’s a Stage, and These Are Its Players

Archive

Featured Posts

An “embrace of what makes us unknowable yet worthy of forgiveness,” A LITTLE PRAYER opens Friday at the Claremont, Newhall, Royal and Town Center.

Leaving Laemmle: A Goodbye from Jordan