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“When you have Julia in your head, it’s bliss, because it just makes me funnier, knowing that she’ll do it.” Nicole Holofcener and Julia Louis-Dreyfus on YOU HURT MY FEELINGS, opening Friday.

May 22, 2023 by Jordan Deglise Moore Leave a Comment

Gifted writer-director Nicole Holofcener (Lovely and Amazing, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, The Last Duel) has a new comedic drama we’re thrilled to open Friday at our Claremont, Glendale, Santa Monica, Newhall, North Hollywood and Encino theaters. You Hurt My Feelings is her second collaboration with Seinfeld and Veep legend, 11-time Emmy Award winner and Mark Twain Prize for American Humor recipient Julia Louis-Dreyfus. The first was Enough Said, with James Gandolfini. Hopefully the two collaborate again because this one’s a gem too. Alissa Wilkinson of Vox described the movie as “warm-hearted and rueful and hilarious in all the best ways” while Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com wrote that it’s “one of [Holofcener’s] smartest and funniest films.”

The New York Times just published a joint interview with Holofcener and Louis-Dreyfus. Here’s an excerpt:

Was there an inciting incident that prompted this film?

NICOLE HOLOFCENER It started brewing as soon as I started screening my movies or having people read my scripts, wondering if they’re telling me the truth or not. And believing that I can tell. What a nightmare this situation would be, if somebody that close to me revealed to someone else that they didn’t like my work, or even just one of my movies. They have to love everything, in other words, for me to feel safe.

JULIA LOUIS-DREYFUS She’s very sensitive.

HOLOFCENER I just came up with a what-if. What would be the worst scenario of somebody telling me they love something and me not believing them? I do have friends that I don’t believe. And there’s one person in particular that I don’t believe. I’m actually OK with it. Because I know they love me and get me and clearly they’re wrong. I mean, it hurts a little. They didn’t admit it.

Since Nicole wrote this script with you in mind, did you connect to it immediately?

LOUIS-DREYFUS Yes. I think it’s interesting to consider the notion of worth and self-worth. Am I my work? And who am I without my work? That’s certainly something I like to think about. And that this is ostensibly a great relationship between a married couple, and then the wheels just totally fall off the bus. That was kind of terrifying to consider.

I told Frank Rich [the former New York Times columnist who was an executive producer of her series “Veep”] the premise of this before we shot it. He audibly gasped.

HOLOFCENER Oh good. That’s my audience. Not the p

eople who would hear the premise and go, ‘Yeah, so what? Like, what planet are you from?’

Since you wrote this with Julia in mind, did that change your approach?

HOLOFCENER [To Louis-Dreyfus] Just don’t listen, because it’s going to sound stupid.

[Louis-Dreyfus throws her cappuccino-stained napkin over her head to avoid eye contact.]

HOLOFCENER When you have Julia in your head, it’s bliss, because it just makes me funnier, knowing that she’ll do it. She just sparks my imagination.

Is there a scene that you wouldn’t have written if Julia wasn’t your lead actress?

LOUIS-DREYFUS Oh God.

HOLOFCENER Certainly, I can see other actors doing the scenes differently, and I’m so glad they’re not in it and she is.

What scene specifically?

HOLOFCENER The scene where she’s sitting on the couch with her sister, she’s smoking pot. This is after she’s heard the bad news; she’s crying. It’s tragic. And you really feel for her, but you’re laughing because of that face.

LOUIS-DREYFUS Oh gee, thanks.

HOLOFCENER Julia walks a very fine line between comedy and drama. And that’s what I like to do with my writing. I didn’t have to do much, or anything, for her to get what I mean. We know this movie is about something fairly minor in the world of things.

LOUIS-DREYFUS But also very major.

HOLOFCENER But in the big picture, we’re not going to be crying for her. We hope she’ll get over it. But I think that scene works because she seems like she’s about 16. I think all of us are sometimes still 16. Especially when it comes to getting approval or not getting approval. I still think of myself that way. So that’s funny to see a grown-up person behave like they’re 16, in an honest way. Not in a movie way. Or a histrionic or a silly way.

Click here to read the full New York Times piece.

A film that “raises the bar for trans stories onscreen,” MONICA opens Friday at the Laemmle Claremont, Glendale, Monica Film Center and NoHo.

May 17, 2023 by Jordan Deglise Moore Leave a Comment

Monica is an intimate portrait of a woman who returns home after a long absence to confront the wounds of her past. Reconnecting with her mother and the rest of her family for the first time since leaving as a teenager, Monica embarks on a path of healing and acceptance. The film delves into her internal world and state of mind, her pain and fears, her needs and desires, to explore the universal themes of abandonment and forgiveness.

Monica marks a major first foray into U.S. theaters for filmmaker Andrea Pallaoro, a fresh new voice in Italian cinema who has been making a stir with audiences overseas. A collaboration between breakout star Trace Lysette (Transparent), Oscar nominee Patricia Clarkson, and Emily Browning, the film stood out at last year’s Venice Film Festival, where it competed for the Golden Lion, Queer Lion, and won the Arca CinemaGiovani Award for best Italian Feature before eventually screening in competition at major film festivals in Chicago, Annecy, and Warsaw.

Critical praise for Monica has been almost universal:

“Monica raises the bar for trans stories onscreen, and Lysette takes her rightful place as its muse.” ~ Jude Dry, indieWire

“With uncommon sensitivity toward the interior lives of its characters, as well as to the shifting codes of trans representation, Monica is a film about making amends, where the person who deserves the apology is also the one doing all the work.” ~ Peter Debruge, Variety

“Monica is an intimate look at the complexity of grief, reconciliation and family.” ~ Tracy Brown, Los Angeles Times

“A quiet, heartfelt, and beautifully nuanced drama that feels unique and universal.” ~ Peter Sobczynski, RogerEbert.com

“Director Andrea Pallaoro doesn’t burden this delicate tale of reconciliation with long monologues or extensive back stories, and the performances are compelling in their restraint.” Teo Bugbee, New York Times

“Placing a uniquely trans story in the center of a well-worn road creates a path to a new sentiment to be granted to a tale that many people have and will face in their life.” ~ Niko Stratis, Autostraddle

“Monica is a wondrous work in terms of painting with light, in which the select shadows tell their own story.” ~ Nick Allen, RogerEbert.com

“Director and co-writer Andrea Pallaoro banishes easy sentiment and proselytising in this touching film, allowing the audience to take a journey with the titular Monica and discover her story on the way.” ~ Fionnuala Halligan, Screen International

VERMEER: THE GREATEST EXHIBITION at the Claremont, Glendale & Monica Film Center May 15 & 16.

May 10, 2023 by Jordan Deglise Moore Leave a Comment

Even if you have the time and money to visit Amsterdam and see the Rijksmuseum’s historic, never-to-be-repeated Vermeer exhibition before it closes on June 4, tickets sold out within hours of being made available last year. However, a good plan B is available next Monday and Tuesday in nearby Claremont, Glendale and Santa Monica: Vermeer: The Greatest Exhibition. (We’ll also be screening Close to Vermeer on July 17 and 18 at the same venues. It’s also about the Rijksmuseum show.)

From Vermeer: The Greatest Exhibition producer and co-writer Phil Grabsky: “If there is one exhibition that I have been asked about more than any other to inquire whether we filmed it for Exhibition on Screen, it is the 1995 Vermeer exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. My Exhibition on Screen brand did not germinate in my mind until 2009 and the first film, Leonardo from the National Gallery, did not emerge until 2011
so, no, we didn’t capture that 1995 show.

“Since then we have made two films with a Vermeer theme: one specifically on Girl with a Pearl Earring and its wonderful home, the Mauritshaus in The Hague, and the second film Vermeer & Music based on a very fine exhibition at the National Gallery in London. But when I heard that the Rijksmuseum was planning the greatest Vermeer exhibition in history, I
knew that the Exhibition on Screen cameras had to be there.

“We weren’t alone in requesting access to show, but we’ve worked at the Rijksmuseum before and they trust us – and, I think, like us. Thus it was, on the eve of the opening, we the team (led by director David Bickerstaff) found ourselves in the enormously privileged position of having the galleries to ourselves to film in. We were given the time to interview the key
participants as well as one of the United Kingdom’s leading art historians. I knew from the minute that I saw this exhibition it was something special but even I was amazed that all tickets sold out within hours for the entire three month run. That only confirms how important it is that as often as we can Exhibition on Screen captures, for posterity, not only the huge efforts of those who put on a show like this but also the way that the art looks when hung together in this way.

“We can only do this if you keep coming to the cinema and spread the word about Exhibition on Screen to your friends and colleagues. Please visit our website for more background clips, etc and lots of offers and goodies. I hope you enjoy the film.”

ONLY IN THEATERS now on VOD.

May 3, 2023 by Jordan Deglise Moore Leave a Comment

If you or someone you know want to see the acclaimed documentary about Laemmle Theatres Only in Theaters at home, it’s now available for rent via Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play and other on demand platforms. The film about the 85-year history of the family owned and operated foreign and indie movie exhibition company has been praised as both “heartbreaking and heartening…its subject the movies themselves” (Longtime lead L.A. Times film critic Kenneth Turan). Robert Abele of the Times wrote “like a knotty, poignant family business saga you might see on one of their screens, the story here is beautiful and complicated, one in which the twin weights of legacy and calling bear down on the need to survive in changing times.” The interviewees include Turan, Greg and Tish Laemmle, Allison Anders, Cameron Crowe, Ava DuVernay, Nicole Holofcener, James Ivory and Leonard Maltin.

Bronx Bomber Yogi Berra bio-documentary IT AIN’T OVER opens May 11 with 2-for-1 discounts.

May 3, 2023 by Jordan Deglise Moore Leave a Comment

Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra is one of baseball’s greatest. He amassed ten World Series rings, three MVP awards and 18 All Star Game appearances. He caught the only perfect game in World Series history. Yet for many his deserved stature was overshadowed by his simply being himself and being recognized more for his unique personality, TV commercial appearances and unforgettable “Yogi-isms,” initially head-scratching philosophical nuggets that make a lot more sense the more you think about them. In telling the whole story, It Ain’t Over gives Berra his due in following the life of a savvy, commanding, bad ball-hitting catcher with a squat frame but also a D-Day veteran, loving husband and father and, yes, product endorser and originator (mostly) of his own brand of proverbs now ingrained into everyday life. Granddaughter Lindsay Berra tells his story along with his sons, former Yankee teammates, players he managed, writers, broadcasters, and admirers (such as Billy Crystal), plus photos and footage on and off the diamond. Berra famously said, “I’d be pretty dumb if I started being something I’m not,” and It Ain’t Over lovingly makes clear he stayed who he was for the benefit of baseball and everyone else.

We open the film on Thursday, May 11 at the Royal and Friday, May 19 at the Town Center, Newhall, Glendale and Claremont.

On Thursday, May 11 and Sunday, May 14, we’re running a two-for-one promotion: buy one ticket for any screening of It Ain’t Over at the Royal on either day and get a second one for free. The only restriction is you have to buy your tickets at the Royal box office, not online.

“Yogi Berra lived the kind of life we wish our heroes to have: filled with love, respect, and integrity. This is a film fans can embrace and younger generations can learn from. I loved it.” ~ Leonard Maltin, leonardmaltin.com

“More emotional than you’d expect from a doc about a hard-hitting catcher.” ~ Dan Fienberg, Hollywood Reporter

“Wincingly funny, stealthily emotional,” Kelly Reichardt’s SHOWING UP opens Friday.

April 19, 2023 by Jordan Deglise Moore Leave a Comment

Oregonian filmmaker Kelly Reichardt’s fourth collaboration with actress Michelle Williams is a quietly brilliant and funny portrait of an artist and her MFA milieu. It’s also further confirmation that Williams, who can manifest characters as varied as Marilyn Monroe, Mitzi Fabelman, Gwen Verdon and now Lizzy of Showing Up, is a talent as rare as the finest actors in the language, including Daniel Day-Lewis and Meryl Streep. We open the film this Friday at the Monica Film Center and Laemmle Glendale, April 28 at the NoHo, and May 5 at the Newhall and Claremont.

“Reichardt reflects an abiding respect for artists and their freedom to explore and process while Williams inhabits the soul of a creative being in every frame and every second.” ~ Randy Myers, San Jose Mercury News

“The on-the-surface modesty of Showing Up is a kind of sorcery. It’s in the days afterward, when you’ve left its spell and gone back to the world, that its essence is more likely to take shape.” ~ Stephanie Zacharek, TIME Magazine

“It’s about who will turn out to be firmly on Lizzy’s side when all is said and done… The answer surprises her as well as us, and it brings this wincingly funny, stealthily emotional movie to a conclusion that feels both casual and momentous.” ~ Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times

“Showing Up is a portrait of an individual but the film is universal in the sense that it’s about a woman living in the concrete here and now.” ~ Manohla Dargis, New York Times

“Brilliantly nuanced and meticulously observed.” ~ Claudia Puig, FilmWeek (KPCC – NPR Los Angeles)

“That this moody, woozy character study falls closer to the ‘masterpiece’ side of the fence isn’t a surprise, considering it comes from Kelly Reichardt and Michelle Williams, one of the best filmmaker-actor duos of the last quarter century.” ~ David Fear, Rolling Stone

“What initially seems to be a slice-of-life drama eventually reveals itself as a paean to the difficulties, and rewards, of making art.” ~ David Sims, The Atlantic

“Kelly Reichardt… turns her thoughtful attention to the act of creation itself, rendering both its transcendence and mundanity with equal curiosity.” ~ Michael O’Sullivan, Washington Post

“We must switch over — and fast.” Oliver Stone on his new documentary NUCLEAR NOW, opening April 28

April 19, 2023 by Jordan Deglise Moore Leave a Comment

As fossil fuels continue to cook the planet, the world is finally becoming forced to confront the influence of large oil companies and tactics that have enriched a small group of corporations and individuals for generations. Beneath our feet, Uranium atoms in the Earth’s crust hold incredibly concentrated energy- science unlocked this energy in the mid-20th
century, first for bombs and then to power submarines and the United States led the effort to generate electricity from this new source. Yet in the mid 20th century as societies began the transition to nuclear power and away from fossil fuels, a long-term PR campaign to scare the public began, funded in part by coal and oil interests. This campaign would sow fear about
harmless low-level radiation and create confusion between nuclear weapons and nuclear power.

With unprecedented access to the nuclear industry in France, Russia, and the United States, iconic director Oliver Stone explores the possibility for the global community to overcome challenges like climate change and reach a brighter future through the power of nuclear energy- an option that may become a vital way to ensure our continued survival sooner than we think.

We open Nuclear Now for a week-long engagement April 28 at the Monica Film Center with one-night screenings at our Newhall, NoHo, Town Center and Claremont theaters on May 1.

DIRECTORS STATEMENT:
Climate change has brutally forced us to take a new look at the ways in which we generate energy as a global community. Long regarded as dangerous in popular culture, nuclear power is in fact hundreds of times safer than fossil fuels and accidents are extremely rare.

So, how can we lift billions of people from poverty while rapidly cutting greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane — and, in many countries, coal? “Renewables” like wind and solar power can certainly contribute to this transition but are limited by weather and geography. While miracle batteries are not arriving to save us, engineers have been commercializing new, smaller nuclear reactor designs that can be mass-manufactured at low cost.

We must switch over — and fast.

This is, in my mind, the greatest story of our time — discussing humanity’s arc from poverty to prosperity and its mastery of science to overcome the modern demand for more and more energy. – Oliver Stone April 2023

“One of the most original American thrillers in years,” HOW TO BLOW UP A PIPELINE opens Friday.

April 12, 2023 by Jordan Deglise Moore Leave a Comment

Thrilling film critics (and alarming a Kansas City intelligence agency enough to release a bulletin calling the movie a security threat), we’re excited to open How to Blow Up a Pipeline this Friday at the Laemmle Glendale and Monica Film Center and April 21 at the Newhall, NoHo and Claremont.

“Incendiary and furious, confident and courageous, the new thriller How to Blow Up a Pipeline boasts not only the best title of the year so far but also the best score, cast and itchy, charged, electric directorial vision.” ~ Barry Hertz, Globe and Mail

“One of the most original American thrillers in years, and one that draws from a deep well of movie history as it develops its characters and sets up its plot twists.” ~ Matt Zoller Seitz, RogerEbert.com

“The way that filmmaker Daniel Goldhaber pulls off what feels like a tightly wound Hollywood potboiler on what we imagine is little more than a studio caterer’s budget is, in itself, a textbook how-to example.” ~ David Fear, Rolling Stone

“An incendiary, ticking-clock thriller about a group of self-styled insurgents with echoes of Kelly Reichardt’s Night Moves and Bertrand Bonello’s Nocturama.” ~ Adam Nayman, The Ringer

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