Film Reviews & Previews
Teodora Ana Mihai, the filmmaker of the wonderful new documentary WAITING FOR AUGUST, will participate in Q&A’s at the Royal after the 7:50 PM screening on Friday, October 3 and after the 5:30 PM screening on Saturday, October 4.
A LEADING MAN director Steven J. Kung will participate in a Q&A after the 10 PM screening at the Music Hall on Friday, September 26.
BORN TO FLY: ELIZABETH STREB VS. GRAVITY filmmaker Catherine Gund and acclaimed choreographer/aerialist Elizabeth Streb will participate in Q&A’s at the NoHo after the 7:30 PM screening on Friday, September 26 and after the 1 PM screening on Saturday, September 27.
It’s almost time to once again for CicLAvia! In April we returned to the very cool Wilshire Boulevard route. In December we’ll be cycling/walking an all-new South L.A. route. On Sunday, October 5, we’ll be exploring a cool new route in the heart of L.A.. Dig it:
“CicLAvia will return to the Heart of L.A. on October 5 from 9:00 a.m – 4:00 p.m. with an almost entirely new route. Heart of L.A. will cross through downtown L.A. along parts of the first CicLAvia route, but will extend into new areas like Echo Park, the Historic Broadway Theater District, and through Boyle Heights all the way into the County of Los Angeles and into East Los Angeles … the route will feature a pedestrian zone in the Broadway Theater District, a kids zone at the East LA Civic Center and will cross paths with the Festival of Philippine Arts & Culture, which is being held in Grand Park.”
Come out and enjoy car-free streets and see how it changes our city and the way we experience it, not least by eliminating the noise pollution we’ve grown accustomed to. You can bike, scoot, skate or just hoof it at whatever pace suits you. Anything non-motorized is appropriate. Don’t have a bike? See places to rent bikes here.
On Sunday the Newark Star-Ledger published a very good piece by film critic Stephen Whitty about actor Viggo Mortensen and his excellent new thriller THE TWO FACES OF JANUARY. It provides a glimpse into his unusual history and thoughts on acting, including what he likes about his latest role: “What’s great about this kind of story, it leaves a lot of questions unanswered. It provokes conjectures about meaning and motivation. It’s always great as an actor to play someone with a secret, but here you have secrets inside secrets… all the characters are lying to some degree, at least to themselves, and that makes for some very interesting roles.”
Tom Hayes, filmmaker of the fascinating new documentary SMILING THROUGH THE APOCALYPSE: ESQUIRE IN THE SIXTIES, will participate in Q&A’s at the Music Hall after the 7:30 PM screenings on Friday and Saturday, September 26 and 27, and after the 4:50 PM screening on Sunday, September 28.
COPENHAGEN lead actor Gethin Anthony (Game of Thrones) and writer-director Mark Raso will participate in Q&A’s after the 7:10 PM screenings at the NoHo on opening weekend, Friday and Saturday, October 3 and 4.
The Los Angeles Times’ chief film critic Kenneth Turan has a good piece on the state of Hollywood in today’s L.A. Times citing the fox-versus-hedgehog mentality. He makes a very compelling and convincing case that the industry endangers itself and the film culture we all value by focussing on superhero/action-adventure movies with gargantuan budgets rather than more interesting and smaller budgeted films that appeal to adults.