Jordan Deglise Moore, Author At Laemmle Theatres

“I want to show the soft parts of the people who look like me. I want to show the sensitive bits that show up, not when we are in danger or inferior but when we are in love.” Rachael Abigail Holder on representing Blackness in her new film, LOVE, BROOKLYN.

August 24, 2025 by Jordan Deglise Moore Leave a Comment

In Rachael Abigail Holder’s new romantic drama, Love, Brooklyn, three longtime Brooklynites navigate careers, love, loss, and friendship against the rapidly changing landscape of their beloved city. We are proud to open the film September 5 at the Laemmle Royal and Glendale.

Ms. Holder wrote the following about Love, Brooklyn:

“On a bike ride, when the sun shines and the breeze hits my face, I can easily cry at the beauty in the ordinary. I am a highly sensitive person. I also happen to be Black. When I first read the script, I saw a timeless story about the wrestle that is love, and I also saw myself. The screenplay was written by Paul Zimmerman about the relationships he had while he was young. But I pictured Black people and the present day. As a filmmaker, I want to tell stories about sensitive Black people who cry and feel, in life not tragic or saccharine. What I read felt like the perfect story.

“I was seven months pregnant during production. When my now eleven-month-old baby hears music in a minor key, or if my extended family and I, which we often do, sing in unison, she will tear up. It is easy for her to deeply soften. I am proud of our movie because it is a story about people with brown skin who soften easily. I hope to expand the representation of what it means to be Black and what’s cool about this moment of inclusion in storytelling is that I don’t have to try to represent Blackness as a whole or all Black people. I can be really specific with how I see people, how they love, hide from love and ultimately show up for it. I want to show the soft parts of the people who look like me. I want to show the sensitive bits that show up, not when we are in danger or inferior but when we are in love.”

“A low-key romantic odyssey that simmers with intimate heat while acting as a loving character study of the beloved, always evolving neighborhood.” ~ Murtada Elfadl, Variety

“Brooklyn has never looked lovelier than in Holder’s soulful debut.” ~ Elizabeth Weitzman, TheWrap

“Love, Brooklyn is a charming and thoughtful meditation on love and change in a city that never stays the same.” ~ Roberto Tyler Ortiz, Loud and Clear Reviews

"I want to show the soft parts of the people who look like me. I want to show the sensitive bits that show up, not when we are in danger or inferior but when we are in love." Rachael Abigail Holder on representing Blackness in her new film, LOVE, BROOKLYN.

“This is such a beautiful discovery, and I had such a warm & wonderful experience watching this at its world premiere at Sundance.” ~ Alex Billington, FirstShowing.net

“Love, Brooklyn is an intricate and beautifully crafted work of art that’s quietly meditative and lovingly told.” ~ Mae Abdulbaki, Screen Rant

“Although it operates on a generally low boil, Love, Brooklyn comes to resemble the pot of water on the stove that starts out feeling like a warm bath and the result ends up sizzling.” ~ Stephen Saito, Moveable Fest

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

August 23, 2025 by Jordan Deglise Moore Leave a Comment

The excellent new American indie film A Little Prayer stars David Strathairn (Good Night, and Good Luck; Matewan; Lincoln; many, many more) as a man trying to protect his daughter-in-law when he finds out that his son is cheating on her. Filmmaker Angus MacLachlan also wrote Junebug, the 2005 comedic drama that featured Amy Adams’s breakthrough role, and his new film features a similar star-making turn by the young actress Jane Levy as the daughter-in-law.

MacLachlan wrote the following about his movie:

“I began writing A Little Prayer in 2016 when my daughter was 15. She’s now 21. And I realize in retrospect that I was writing about parenting adult children. How you still want to protect them and tell them what to do, and you can’t.

“Family, and the life I observe, is a subject I find myself returning to again and again in my work. The push-pull of love, loyalties, secrets, and eternal ties. I wanted to tell a story about the people around me: their humor, pathos, and courage. It is what I find endlessly fascinating. We shot the film in my hometown of Winston-Salem, North Carolina in 2022.

“The central relationship in my film – that of Bill and his daughter-in-law Tammy – is in some ways a simulacrum of the fact that I no longer have the same responsibility to guide my own daughter through her adult life. The theme of loving someone enough to let them go is reflected back to me in this story.” — Angus MacLachlan, Director

“A Little Prayer is spare yet brisk, and it unfolds with a graceful, almost musical sense of modulation: Camp and Weston, both veterans of MacLachlan’s work, strike bracing high notes of acerbic wit.” ~ Justin Chang, The New Yorker

“Everyone is good to great, but [A Little Prayer] belongs to Strathairn and Levy, whose bond becomes the center of the film.” ~ Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com

“There is much to enjoy in watching MacLachlan’s A Little Prayer play out, and an equal amount of wisdom to be gleaned from it.” ~ Fionnuala Halligan, Screen International

“A tough, touching film.” ~ Ty Burr, Ty Burr’s Watch List (Substack)

“MacLachlan’s writing style is at once honest and slightly elevated, the kind we’re used to hearing on stage, where the structure of the entire script matters, and subtext is every bit as important as what’s spoken.” ~ Peter Debruge, Variety

“Small-scale and finely tuned.” ~ Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter

“Laid out in scenes of everyday verisimilitude and quietly gathering heartache, MacLachalan weaves a tale of human frailty and strained connection rare in its avoidance of histrionics and its embrace of what makes us unknowable yet worthy of forgiveness.” ~ Robert Abele, TheWrap

ANY DAY NOW, a new indie film inspired by an unsolved $500 millon art heist, opens Friday at the Monica Film Center

August 20, 2025 by Jordan Deglise Moore Leave a Comment

On March 18, 1990, thirteen works of art were stolen from Boston’s Gardner Museum. Thirty-five years later, the case remains unsolved. No arrests have been made, and not a single piece of art has been recovered. The $500 million theft, regarded as the largest property crime in history, continues to capture the world’s attention.

Any Day Now is a new indie film inspired by the unsolved theft of these 13 masterpieces. To market the project, the team launched a bold pop-up gallery stunt in New York, inspired by the film’s true-crime art heist plot. The opening night party blurred fiction and reality for both invited guests and passerby, culminating in an FBI “raid” where agents dramatically “seized” a Rembrandt.

Now, the show that caused a ruckus in New York has come to L.A. Visit the viral 13 Masterpieces at the lobby of the Laemmle Monica Film Center and get tickets to see Any Day Now in the theater opening 8/22. For a limited time only.

ANY DAY NOW, a new indie film inspired by an unsolved $500 millon art heist, opens Friday at the Monica Film Center

Click here to read Deadline’s article ‘Any Day Now’: How Eric Aronson Artfully Marketed His Indie Heist Movie + Exclusive Clip and watch the recent Inside the Arthouse interview with Aronson and lead actor Paul Guilfoyle.

Leaving Laemmle: A Goodbye from Jordan

August 19, 2025 by Jordan Deglise Moore 13 Comments

My career at Laemmle Theatres began in early 1991 after a screening of Gerard Depardieu’s Cyrano de Bergerac at the Town & Country (now the Town Center 5) Theater in Encino. My father pointed out the “help wanted” sign in the box office window, and by March I was scooping and selling popcorn and later sweeping up the errant pieces from the auditorium floors. Soon enough I graduated to the more coveted role of box office cashier. My most memorable shift in that position involved a case of laryngitis and handmade signs reading “which film?” and “$4.50, please” held up to the box office window for bemused moviegoers to read. It was like a silent Chaplin short before the main feature.

All of this is by way of introduction to the fact that several decades later, I am leaving Laemmle Theatres next week for a much different job in another field entirely. I’m excited for the future but will miss my Laemmle family. As a final, much appreciated gift, Greg Laemmle has offered me this space to write a few words about my Laemmle story.

In 1999, the late Robert Laemmle and his son Greg, at the suggestion of their longtime employee Gregory Gardner, gave me a career when they promoted me from the Music Hall in Beverly Hills to work alongside them in the main office. In the years that followed, the Laemmles have given me so much, treating me like family. They let me telecommute from France for several months in 2022-2023. Bob gave me a loan for the down payment on my first home. A legendary art house exhibitor, Bob was also the kindest of men, and is much missed.

For the last 25 years, I’ve been working in the Laemmle office, programming trailers, proofreading and editing others’ writing about movies, sending hundreds of press releases, and sundry other things to help promote films that are in literally every language spoken on planet Earth. (I add a new language to our film database about ten times per year. Just this week I added Ga, which is spoken in Ghana.) It has been a privilege.

To some fanfare, the New York Times recently published a feature about filmmakers’, actors’, critics’ and their readers’ favorite films of the last 25 years. So I figure I’ll do the same. I base my list on something Emily Dickinson said about poetry. I think it applies to movies too:

“If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?”

If I see a film and immediately know I want to see it again, I know I’ve seen a movie that reaches a level of cinematic poetry that Dickinson would recognize. And by “poetry” I don’t mean something pretentious. I think the bunk bed scene in the crude, brilliant farce STEP BROTHERS could make most of the population of the planet laugh.

Before I share my list, I want to say a few things about the many people I’ve worked with. One thing that’s fun about this job is it touches on a few different fields that make theatrical exhibition possible: exhibitors (the people I’ve worked with in the Laemmle office); exhibitor relations people, i.e. the U.S. studios/distributors of the films who coordinate with exhibitors; theater managers; and film media, i.e. the media and film critics. All are essential to getting films in front of audiences. There are too many terrific people I have worked with and admired to mention here, so I’ll single out one person from each area to thank them and sing their praises.

Michele Anderson, née Cecilio, was the longtime general manager of the Laemmle NoHo 7 and later oversaw Laemmle Theatres’ operations. It was a privilege to watch her efficiency and problem-solving talent. She was like Alexander overcoming the Gordian knot with linear thinking, but doing it weekly. She made everyone’s job easier, including mine.

Matthew King has been working in the Laemmle main office about as long as I have. He worked with famed GM Roger Christensen at the Sunset 5 right after I did and went on to design and oversee all of the systems that make Laemmle Theatres run, not least a Filmmaker-based database that functions as our internal IMDB. (The first entry? The 1999 documentary Creature.) Matt once took a couple years off to work part-time and remotely while getting a bachelor’s degree in biological psychology from U.C. Berkeley. I figure he’s a literal genius and a deeply good person too.

I have loved good film criticism since my grandmother encouraged me to read Pauline Kael in The New Yorker. So I was a bit starstruck when I began working directly with local film critics like Manohla Dargis and Kenneth Turan. I met Chuck Wilson when the L.A. Weekly assigned him to review a compilation of Cuban films we were showing. Like other gifted film critics, Chuck can identify and celebrate a movie’s poetry – overall or merely in a scene, a shot, or a line reading – in writing that borders on poetry itself. Chuck and I would go on to become close friends, and he was the best man at my wedding in 2014.

Of the many people at studios/distributors I’ve worked with, Kim Kalyka of Neon Rated stands out. Originally from the Angelika Film Center, Miramax, and IFC Films, Kim is one of the reasons Parasite won the Best Picture Oscar and tops the New York Times list of best films of the century. I don’t know how she can accomplish things like that and still reply to my little emails about posters and trailers faster than anyone I’ve ever worked with, but that’s what she does.

Finally, to the Laemmle audience: Thank you for your passionate movie love and adventurous taste and continuing to see movies in theaters. You make Los Angeles the vibrant movie mecca that it is and have kept Laemmle Theatres in business since 1938.

And now, my list. Actually, I’m going to cheat and do two lists, one for foreign language films and another for films in English.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILMS

Amélie

The Beat That My Heart Skipped

Children of Heaven

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Faces Places

The Gleaners and I

Let the Right One In

Parasite

Perfect Days

Portrait of a Lady on Fire

A Prophet

Roma

A Separation

Together (Lukas Moodysson, 2000)

Tomboy

Y tu mamá también

ENGLISH LANGUAGE FILMS

The Avengers Tetralogy

Best in Show

Bridesmaids

Dune: Parts One and Two

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

The Favourite

Get Out

Ghost World

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Happy-Go-Lucky

Hard Truths

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

Minority Report

Moonlight

Mulholland Drive

Past Lives

Phantom Thread

The Royal Tenenbaums

Step Brothers

Nightmare Alley

TAR

There Will Be Blood

WALL·E

You Can Count on Me

Zodiac

“You do what’s needed. You show up.” Greg Laemmle on Jewish Family Service L.A. and the Laemmle Charitable Foundation.

August 13, 2025 by Jordan Deglise Moore 1 Comment

Founded in 2000, the Laemmle Charitable Foundation gives back to moviegoers and the Los Angeles community by supporting organizations that address the critical social and environmental challenges of our region.

The admirable local charity Jewish Family Service L.A. recently featured the foundation on its Donor Spotlight page with the headline “A Legacy of Giving Back.” It begins:

“For Greg Laemmle, giving back is a family tradition deeply rooted in history, legacy, and a commitment to community.

“A third-generation Angeleno, Greg’s roots in Los Angeles run deep. Greg’s grandfather, Max Laemmle, and his brother Kurt founded Laemmle Theatres in 1938, after being introduced to the film industry by their relative Carl Laemmle, founder of Universal Studios. Carl wasn’t just a Hollywood pioneer; he helped rescue hundreds of European Jews before World War II, including Greg’s relatives, by providing affidavits for immigration.

“’After World War I, Carl focused on helping rebuild Germany. But when the situation changed—when there was a change in government and a change of heart in Germany—he shifted. As much as he loved his homeland, there was a greater priority,’ said Greg. ‘It’s a powerful reminder that we must adapt to the moment and do what’s most needed. As much as we may cling to our image of who we are and what our place in the world is, sometimes things change, and we have to adapt.’

“Greg’s grandfather continued the legacy of community and service in Los Angeles by serving on nonprofit boards and helping establish institutions like the Brandeis-Bardin Institute at the American Jewish University.

“As a way to carry that commitment forward, Greg and his father created the Laemmle Charitable Foundation. The foundation focuses on nonprofits working to improve life in Los Angeles, especially around key social and environmental issues. It remains flexible, adapting each year to meet the changing needs of the community.

“’By the end of this year—our 25th—we will have granted more than $2.5 million to nonprofits across Los Angeles,’ said Greg.”

Click here to read the rest of the piece.

Feast on this fall’s cornucopia of Culture Vulture screenings.

August 13, 2025 by Jordan Deglise Moore 1 Comment

We choose the best films from the world of ballet, opera, stage, fine art, architecture, design, photography and more to feature on the big screen every Saturday and Sunday morning and Monday evenings at five Laemmle theaters — the Laemmle Claremont 5, Glendale, Monica Film Center, Newhall, and Town Center 5 — as part of our long-running Culture Vulture series.

August 23-25: The first documentary exploring the visionary genius of Rudolph Schindler, the architect who redefined modern living by blending innovative design with the natural world, Schindler Space Architect is narrated by Meryl Streep and features architect Frank Gehry. The film affirms the singular genius of one man and the eternal challenge every artist faces to stay true to their vision in an effort to leave a lasting impact. We’ll bring the film back in November for a regular engagement at the Monica Film Center.

Culture Vulture skips Labor Day weekend but comes back to start autumn with:

September 6-8: Lotto and Berenson: Crossed Destinies follows the intertwined journeys of Lorenzo Lotto, a forgotten Renaissance master, and Bernard Berenson, the Jewish American art critic who resurrected his legacy. Through the eyes of actor Alessandro Sperduti, the film retraces Lotto’s artistic path across Italy, uncovering the painter’s personal and professional struggles.

September 13-15, Naked Ambition: Bunny Yeager, the photographer behind the bikini, Bettie Page’s rise, and the invention of the selfie, comes to life in this rediscovery of a brilliant yet overlooked artist, featuring testimonies from Bruce Weber, Dita Von Teese, and more. Also screening September 12 at the NoHo.

September 20-22: A Savage Art: The Life and Cartoons of Patrick Oliphant chronicles the life and career of the brilliant Australian-born, Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist. Oliphant’s tenure as an American cartoonist spanned five decades and ten U.S. Presidents. In 1990 The New York Times called Oliphant “the most influential editorial cartoonist now working.” The film covers the history and importance of political cartoons in global democracies, as well as the decline in the profession and in the newspaper industry. Also screening September 17 at the Royal.

September 27-29, back by popular demand: The True Story of Tamara De Lempicka & the Art of Survival is a visually stunning and sweeping feature documentary that traces the life and survival of the renowned painter through her powerful paintings – from her rise to international stardom in 1920s Paris, to her move to the United States in 1940, fleeing the rise of fascism, and her revival in the current art market.

October 4-6, Inter Alia: Oscar-nominated Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl, Saltburn) is Jessica in the much-anticipated next play from the team behind Prima Facie. Jessica Parks is a smart Crown Court Judge at the top of her career. Behind the robe, she is a karaoke fiend, a loving wife and a supportive parent. When an event threatens to throw her life completely off balance, can she hold her family upright? Writer Suzie Miller and director Justin Martin reunite following their global phenomenon Prima Facie, with this searing examination of modern motherhood and masculinity.

October 11-13: Plunderer: The Life and Times of a Nazi Art Thief is a feature-length documentary that focuses on the career of Bruno Lohse, a Nazi art dealer who served as Göring’s art agent in Paris and headed the ERR, the Nazis’ clearinghouse for confiscated art in France. Captured and interrogated by the Monuments Men after the war, Lohse served a brief prison sentence. Following his release, he profitably dealt in stolen art for sixty years, selling to collectors, galleries, and major museums.

October 18-20: Jago: Into the White follows Jago, known worldwide as “the new Michelangelo,” for two years from New York to Naples as he worked day and night and in complete solitude on his new sculpture: a modern version of Michelangelo’s Pietà. Jago is not only an artist who retraces the footsteps of the great Renaissance masters, he is also a young pop star with over a million followers on social media, a tireless traveler who moves to every corner of the world, a motivator for new generations of artists, and an entrepreneur.

October 25-27, Rebel with a Clause: A grammar guru takes her pop-up grammar advice stand on an epic road trip across all 50 states to show that comma fights can bring us closer together in a divided time. One fall day, Ellen Jovin set up a folding table on a Manhattan sidewalk with a homemade sign that said “Grammar Table.” Right away, passersby began excitedly asking questions, telling stories, and filing complaints. What happened next is the stuff of grammar legend. Ellen and her filmmaker husband, Brandt Johnson, took the table on the road, visiting all 50 states as Brandt shot the grammar action. Also screening October 22 at the Royal.

November 1-3, Mrs. Warren’s Profession (National Theatre Live): Five-time Olivier Award-winner Imelda Staunton (The Crown) joins forces with her real-life daughter Bessie Carter (Bridgerton) for the very first time, playing mother and daughter in Bernard Shaw’s incendiary moral classic. Vivie Warren is a woman ahead of her time. Her mother, however, is a product of the old patriarchal order. Exploiting it has earned Mrs. Warren a fortune – but at what cost?

IT’S NEVER OVER, JEFF BUCKLEY opens Friday at the Laemmle Glendale and NoHo with in-person director Q&A’s and rare concert footage.

August 6, 2025 by Jordan Deglise Moore Leave a Comment

You may not be familiar with Jeff Buckley’s name. But you almost certainly have heard his haunting cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” a song which was named to Rolling Stone Magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and has been inducted into the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry.

In her latest documentary, It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Amy Berg explores the singer’s story and impact.

Tragically, Buckley drowned while swimming in the Wolf River in Memphis just as he was about to start work on his second album. But his stature as a singer and songwriter has only grown in the years since his early death at the age of 31. Acclaimed by musicians like Bob Dylan, David Bowie, and Jimmy Page, Buckley’s life and legacy is being given a thoughtful and thorough review in this new documentary — which includes a treasure trove of archival material, candid interviews with the man’s family, friends, lovers and collaborators. We emerge from the film with a greater understanding of the forces that shaped his artistic aspirations and an appreciation for all that he accomplished in his short life.

Ms. Berg will participate in Q&A’s after the 4:00 P.M. screening at the Glendale on August 10 and the 7:00 P.M. screening at the NoHo on August 11. You can also watch or listen to an interview with her on a recent episode of Inside the Arthouse. We will also open the film on August 15 at the Monica Film Center.

All of the screenings in Glendale and North Hollywood will feature special bonus footage. Very few people were fortunate enough to witness Buckley live, but those who did often described it as transcendent, jaw-dropping, and emotionally shattering. As part of the theatrical release of It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley, Magnolia Pictures proudly presents 26 minutes of exclusive, remastered footage from a rare solo performance at The Middle East in Cambridge, MA, filmed on February 19, 1994. This previously unreleased set will screen immediately following the film, offering both longtime fans and newcomers a rare opportunity to experience Buckley’s raw, unfiltered brilliance.

“Pays tribute to one of the greatest singers ever…Buckley hasn’t had a million portraits sketched of him, much to this degree. The singularity of It’s Never Over, along with the access and the candor, makes up for a lot here.” ~ David Fear, Rolling Stone

“The film is a resonant depiction of the gaping holes left by Jeff Buckley’s untimely death.” ~ Chris Barsanti, Slant Magazine

“Offer[s] a unique perspective on the varying music of the 1990s, an experimental time where lonely artists like Buckley could buck the system and create a new brand of music.” ~ Matthew Creith, TheWrap

“As we drink in the majesty of his voice, the film lays bare a paradox about him that isn’t nearly as apparent if you just listen to Grace (1994), the only album he ever released.” ~ Owen Gleiberman, Variety

“A stirring tribute made with a lot of heart.” ~ David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

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

“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