Hollywood’s Epic Custody Battle Hollywood has always had a lucrative but loveless marriage to the nation’s movie theaters. For decades, studios and exhibitors have maintained a tense but workable relationship. Sure there have been some knockdown-dragouts, and lamps have been thrown in arguments over things like the cost of a ticket and how long someone …
When Arclight Cinemas and Pacific Theaters announced this week that they were shuttering 16 locations and more than 300 screens — including the venerable Cinerama Dome in Hollywood — you could nearly hear the city deflate like a punctured balloon. The news was met with a collective gasp and sob that Los Angeles hasn’t felt …
The pandemic put the movie industry on ice. But it has set TV on fire. From Tiger King to The Queen’s Gambit, COVID has treated the small screen like royalty. Television viewing nationwide increased for the first time in nine years in 2020. Warner Bros. announced it was turning its 2021 film slate into TV moves of the …
Maybe it’s the sun, but California is a magnet for serial killers. The Zodiac Killer, The Hillside Strangler, The Manson Family; all called the Golden State home. But non were as chilling as The Night Stalker. The Night Stalker is one of the most terrifying serial killers in American history. Typically, psychopathic killers follow a …
In one history of the movies, Citizen Kane screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz might look like a footnote. The former playwright had a hand in many famous pictures, including The Wizard of Oz, but most went uncredited. He was the smartest guy in the room, a drunk and a gambler who was dead at 55. And his kid brother, …
There is no reason a Borat sequel should work. It comes 14 years after the surprise original — a lifetime and a half in movie metrics. Borat’s fish-out-of-water schtick should be a one-trick pony, just as SNL films are glorified sketch jokes. And everybody should know Sacha Baron Cohen’s chameleon mug by now; he’s already …
Like David Mamet, Aaron Sorkin is less a screenwriter than a songwriter. Sure, Goo goo j’goob doesn’t make a lick of sense, but its got a great beat. So, too, does The Trial of the Chicago 7, Netflix’s latest pandemic entrée. Granted, our time in isolation has made us more welcoming than ever to visitors. And Sorkin, the …
There Will Be Blood is ostensibly about real-life California oil tycoon Edward L. Doheny, and even includes the now-famous “I drink your milkshake!” quote, attributed to Doheny during Congressional investigations of the industry. But on Deja-View, it sure seems like Blood director Paul Thomas Anderson is actually paying homage to Stanley Kubrick, particularly 2001: A Space Odyssey. And if …
The Social Dilemma is a terrifying look at what tech engineers have done to make social media a deadly addiction. So it’s more than a little ironic the film couldn’t make itself more arresting. That’s not to say the new Netflix documentary isn’t interesting and, at times, enlightening and downright terrifying. Directed by Jeff Orlowski (Chasing …
The consensus is pretty clear: Tenet is a solid film. The latest Christopher Nolan opus is a time-leaping thriller with a plot as convoluted as Inception and a look that’s just as polished. The movie earned a thumbs-up from three-quarters of the nation’s critics and earned positive reviews from 77% of America’s moviegoers, according to RottenTomatoes.com It also cost …
