Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh, co-directors of the double Sundance-winning film WRITING WITH FIRE, will participate in a Q&A at the Royal following the 7:20 PM screening on Thursday, December 2. Film critic Kenneth Turan will moderate.
‘Y Tu Mamá También’ 20th Anniversary Screenings Wednesday, December 8, 7 PM at the Royal, Playhouse, Glendale & Newhall.
Alfonso Cuarón’s sexy and provocative road movie, Y Tu Mamá También marked a homecoming as well as a breakthrough for Cuarón in 2001. After making his directorial debut a decade earlier in his native Mexico, Cuarón was drawn to Hollywood, where he earned strong reviews for A Little Princess and a modern-day reworking of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations. Then, however, Cuarón decided to return to Mexico to make a more personal film and he wowed the cinematic world with this coming-of-age drama. Y Tu Mamá También broke box office records in Mexico when it opened in the summer of 2001. It went on to win the Best Screenplay award at the Venice Film Festival and was also nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay the following year. Cuarón wrote the film with his brother Carlos Cuarón.
Cuarón cast two up-and-coming young actors, Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna, as teenage friends from different social classes. The working class Julio (Bernal) and the upper class Tenoch (Luna) are friends and rivals. They both become infatuated with an older woman (Spanish actress Maribel Verdú) and invite her to join them on a road trip to a spectacular, secluded beach. She accepts and they embark on an adventure that turns out to be a funny, sexy and revelatory experience for all three of them. Much of the film was improvised by the actors, with Cuarón’s encouragement.
In addition to the luscious cinematography and the sexual candor (it was released unrated in the U.S.), the film features narration in the style of some of the European films that inspired Cuarón, particularly Truffaut’s Jules and Jim, another landmark movie about a ménage à trois. Reviews were almost universally glowing. In Newsweek David Ansen wrote, “The movie has an emotional kick that lingers like a primal memory.” Entertainment Weekly’s Lisa Schwarzbaum called the movie “sad, funny, sexy, and altogether marvelous.” The New York Times’ Elvis Mitchell concurred, describing Y Tu Mamá También as “fast, funny, unafraid of sexuality and finally devastating.”
The film’s success propelled Cuarón to the front ranks of contemporary directors. He went on to helm the best Harry Potter movie (The Prisoner of Azkaban), the dystopian Children of Men, and earned an Oscar for his direction of the sci-fi adventure Gravity. When he returned to Mexico to make the autobiographical Roma, he earned a second Oscar as Best Director.
Y Tu Mamá También will play for one night only at the Royal in West L.A., the Playhouse in Pasadena, Glendale, and Newhall December 8.
The power of the film: Jane Campion’s ‘The Power of the Dog’ is one of the year’s best movies.


THE FIRST WAVE Director in Person for Q&As in Santa Monica.
THE FIRST WAVE director Matt Heineman will participate in Q&As at the Monica Film Center after the 7:30 PM screening on Saturday, November 20 and after the 4:40 screening on Sunday, November 21. Joining him will be Covid survivor Ahmed Ellis and his wife Alexis, Dr. Nathalie Dougė, and physical therapist Karl Arabian.
Q&A with the ‘Kurt Vonnegut’ Filmmaker Opening Night at the Royal.
KURT VONNEGUT: UNSTUCK IN TIME director Robert B. Weide will participate in a Q&A after the 7:10 PM screening at the Royal on Friday, November 19. Michael Sragow will moderate.
L.A. Phil: Reel Change Festival ~ The New Era of Film Music.
See IDA Documentary Awards Nominees at Laemmle: ‘Faya Dayi,’ ‘Writing with Fire,’ ‘Not Going Quietly,’ and more.
The International Documentary Association just announced the nominees for its 37th annual awards, and we’re screening or soon to screen almost a dozen from this cinematic treasure trove:
FAYA DAYI is a triple nominee for Best Feature, Director and Cinematography and is available on Laemmle Virtual Cinema.
NOT GOING QUIETLY also garnered three nominations: Best Feature, Director and Writing. It, too, is on LVC.
We open the animated FLEE (Best Feature and Director) in January.
We have Best Feature nominee WOJNAROWICZ: F**K YOU F*GGOT F**KER now on Laemmle Virtual Cinema.
We open Best Feature nominee WRITING WITH FIRE on November 26 at the Royal.
Pare Lorentz Award Winner and Best Cinematography nominee THE FIRST WAVE opens this Friday at the Monica Film Center. The filmmaker will attend for Q&A’s after the 7:30 PM screening on Saturday, November 20 and after the 4:40 screening on Sunday, November 21.
Best Cinematography nominee ASCENSION is available now on LVC.
Best Music Documentary Nominee LYDIA LUNCH is now on LVC.
We open Best Editing Nominee PROCESSION this Friday at our Glendale theater.
Finally, we open ABC News VideoSource Award Nominee LIKE A ROLLING STONE: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF BEN FONG-TORRES November 26 at the Monica Film Center.
Vaxxed or Tested: #SafePass is now in effect at our City of L.A. venues, the NoHo, Royal and Town Center.

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