Film Reviews & Previews
COMMUNION filmmaker Anna Zamecka will participate in Q&A’s at the Fine Arts on January 3 (after the 7:30 PM show); at the Laemmle Glendale on January 4 (following 3:00 PM and 7:30 PM shows); and at the Monica Film Center on January 5 (following 11:00 AM show).
Sean Penn and the International Documentary Association’s Claire Aguilar will co-host the January 3rd screening at the Fine Arts.
Whether they expose, enlighten, or simply entertain, we love seeing documentaries on the big screen. That’s why we’re delighted to team with the Academy on a special program that kicks off the new year: OSCARS SPOTLIGHT: DOCUMENTARIES, an opportunity to see all of the vital and compelling films on the Academy’s nominations shortlist at our Santa Monica and Pasadena theaters. All Q&A’s will be at the Santa Monica location unless otherwise noted. There may be additional Q&A’s so stay tuned.
| Date | Title |
| Thursday, 1/03 at 7pm | FREE SOLO |
| Saturday, 1/05 at 11am | COMMUNION Q&A with director Anna Zamecka |
| Sunday, 1/06 at 11am | OF FATHERS & SONS Q&A with director Talal Derki |
| Tuesday, 1/08 at 7pm | THE SILENCE OF OTHERS Q&A with director Robert Bahar |
| Wednesday, 1/09 at 7pm | DARK MONEY |
| Thursday, 1/10 at 7pm | CHARM CITY co-producer Meryam Bouadjemi |
| Saturday, 1/12 at 11am | HALE COUNTY THIS MORNING, THIS EVENING |
| Sunday, 1/13 at 11am | ON HER SHOULDERS |
| Monday, 1/14 at 7pm | DISTANT BARKING OF DOGS |
| Tuesday, 1/15 at 7pm | SHIRKERS |
| Wednesday 1/16 at 7pm | CRIME + PUNISHMENT |
| Thursday, 1/17 at 7pm | MINDING THE GAP |
| Saturday, 1/19 at 11am | WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR |
| Sunday, 1/20 at 11am | RBG |
| Monday, 1/21 at 11am | THREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS |
RSVP ON EVENTBRITE
This is a Free Event
LAEMMLE LIVE proudly launches its third season with the musicians of Kaleidoscope Orchestra. The critically acclaimed local conductorless chamber orchestra is dedicated to enriching lives through exhilarating concert experiences, artistic excellence, musician leadership, and connecting with the diverse communities of Los Angeles. They envision a world where commitment to collaborative artistic process results in profound orchestral performances that inspire people to pursue cooperation and artistry in their own creative, professional and personal lives. Benjamin Mitchell, President. For more info, please visit: www.kco.la
The program will include the Octet in F Major, D. 803 by Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Benjamin Mitchell, clarinet
Nick Akdag, bassoon
Nicolee Kuester, horn
Benjamin Hoffman, violin
Chiai Tajima, violin
Alex Granger, viola
Stella Cho, cello
Rebecca Lawrence, bass
Sunday, January 27, 2019
11:00 AM
Monica Film Center
1332 Second Street
Santa Monica
If you are in Claremont, Pasadena, NoHo or West Los Angeles this holiday season, check out our fine art galleries. No ticket required. Laemmle’s ART IN THE ARTHOUSE continues to connect film audiences with the visual arts all year long and our artwork is for sale. You might be inspired to buy a memorable work of art for someone special. Our CLAREMONT ART SHOW, curated by Joshua Elias, is winding down in late January. Highlights include digital works by Ron Dunlap, florals by Kathy Leeds and dynamic images by James Miley. Or peruse the artworks of our PASADENA artists including the playful collages of Lois Keller, bold paintings by Lynn Chang, dynamic watercolors by Mitsuko Hays and bright abstracts by Alla Vilesova. Our Pasadena show runs till March 2019
. Before the end of February, visit our innovative SCREENINGS show in NoHo, featuring 36 Los Angeles-based artists, commissioned to make artwork in the format of the movie screen. The artists selected represent diverse practices including painting, printmaking, conceptual art, film, and video. The show was curated by Conor Thompson
. At Laemmle venues around town, we provide movie goers with the opportunity to bond with notable and emerging visual artists. We focus on local talent and the robust Los Angeles arts scene, applying high curatorial standards to long-lasting exhibits that allow for repeat visits and extended reflection. Contribute to the conversation and become a Laemmle patron of the arts. Going to the Royal any time soon? Say hello to a festival of color from the duo of HILL & STUMP, lovingly curated by Tish Laemmle. These breathtaking floral compositions will grace our walls till February 2019. Please know, we proudly donate a portion of art sales to the Laemmle Foundation which supports a variety of environmental and humanitarian non-profits doing inspired, essential work in our community.
THE PARTY’S JUST BEGINNING Q&A moderated by John Cho with actor, filmmaker Karen Gillan, actor Rachel Jackson, producers Mali Elfman, R. Andru Davies, executive producer Tien-Huei Grace Yeh following the 7:45 pm show on Friday, 12/7.
With the holidays right around the corner, why not consider giving a meaningful gift of art or simply stop by to view our galleries. No tickets required. ART IN THE ARTHOUSE connects film audiences with the visual arts all year long and our artwork is for sale. We proudly deliver a unique, alternative art-viewing experience at seven of our nine venues. You might be inspired to buy a memorable work of art for someone special.
Check out the bold, dynamic paintings and collages of Isabella Kelly-Ramirez at the Monica Film Center. Ramirez coopts images from fashion and art magazines, repurposing them to create surreal urban legends and ironic emblems of commercialism. Her show runs till early January, 2019. Or get on up to Glendale for Caley O’Dwyer’s modern mixed media works; we extended his NoHo show to our newest Laemmle theatre. O’Dwyer explores multiple selves through deft application of gouache and collage cutouts. His work is on display till February, 2019.
At Laemmle venues around town, we provide movie goers with the opportunity to bond with notable and emerging visual artists. We focus on local talent and the robust Los Angeles arts scene, applying high curatorial standards to long-lasting exhibits that allow for repeat visits and extended reflection. Contribute to the conversation and become a Laemmle patron of the arts.
Going to Encino Town Center any time soon? Take a look at Kirk Mann’s colorful nature photographs. We recently moved his show over from the Royal. With an awe and reverence for the natural world, Mann presents a unique artistic convergence of Eastern philosophy and nature’s essence. His exhibit runs till February, 2019. Please know, we proudly donate a portion of art sales to the Laemmle Foundation which supports a variety of environmental and humanitarian non-profits doing inspired, essential work in our community.
PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF DESIRE post screening Q&A’s:
Saturday Dec 1st: 4:10pm (director Hao Wu & Adrian Chen, staff writer at The New Yorker) and 7:00pm (director with a panel of Chinese online influencers).
From the New Yorker today, November 27, 2018, by Richard Brody: From the title alone, it’s obvious that “Bathtubs Over Broadway,” a new documentary by Dava Whisenant that opens this Friday, will be a delight. Its subject is the industrial musical—plays produced by corporations for their employees to enjoy at nationwide or regional sales meetings and conventions. Steve Young, who was, for more than twenty years, a writer for David Letterman, became obsessed, in the mid-nineties, with these shows—in particular, with LPs of them, which were pressed solely to be distributed to employees as souvenirs. The ostensible subject of “Bathtubs Over Broadway” is the amusement value of these exotic, eccentric by-products of show business, whose kitschy pleasures include celebrations of automobiles, dog food, and disposable blood-absorbing liners for the operating room, in a number that rhymes “hysterectomy” and “appendectomy.” But the overarching and underlying question that the film poses is nothing less than: What is art? And, for that matter, is the conventional definition of good art too narrow to account for the merits of such works as these?
Young admits that he was initially attracted to these records because he found them “unintentionally hilarious.” (This is the quality that led him to work the musicals into bits on the Letterman Show, for the recurring segment “Dave’s Record Collection.”) But, as he devoted himself to collecting the albums more intensively and combed archives and personal collections for memorabilia, whether sheet music or handbills, photographs or reels of film, Young discovered that, alongside the intrinsic element of absurdity and incongruity, there’s often a sincere and authentic spark of creative imagination and ingenuity.
He noted that some of these shows employed major artists (or ones who’d later become famous), both behind the scenes and onstage, including the composers Sheldon Harnick (better known for “Fiddler on the Roof”) and the team of John Kander and Fred Ebb (“Cabaret”); such actors as Chita Rivera, Florence Henderson, Bob Newhart, and Martin Short; and directors including Bob Fosse and Susan Stroman. Young also became fascinated by other performers and composers whose prominence in industrial musicals wasn’t matched by success in public theatre, and he sought to learn more about their art and their lives.
“Bathtubs Over Broadway” chronicles Young’s own story, as a writer early in his career who had no hobbies and instead found an obsession—and whose increasing involvement with industrial musicals coincided with David Letterman’s retirement and Young’s own withdrawal from comedy writing. (Fascinatingly, Young describes himself as “comedy-damaged,” explaining that decades of immersion in comedy have left him evaluating the craft rather than responding to it, and his sideline in industrial musicals appears to restore him to a state of unjaded passion.) Yet the central enticement of the documentary comes from the records and films of the musicals themselves. “Bathtubs Over Broadway” springs to life above all when Young puts an LP on his turntable, when he’s in a Library of Congress viewing room and sees a private 16-mm. copy of a production, or when digitized copies of soundtracks and films are excerpted directly into the film. The movie includes clips from the disco-style Johnson & Johnson “sunscreen musical of 1978,” a musical number called “Xerox Spoken Here,” the sheet music for an instrumental number called “Seagram’s Symphony,” and a scene of a kick-line chorus singing a financial ditty about “the extra margins that accrue.”