Pala tribe cuts dissident members off rollsThe cited cause of tribal disenrollment is a blood-purity dispute. All 164 disenrolled members are relatives of the late Margarita Brittain, a woman whose lineage has long been questioned …

Movie lover's paradise Meanwhile, Blockbuster and Hollywood Video have shuttered their local outlets. Owner and buyer Guy Hanford understands why. “When you went into a Blockbuster or Hollywood to rent a film, you never engaged …

After what management said, I found it impossible to continue any further as The Reader’s film critic. What did they say? “Scott, I’m sorry to say we’re laying you off.” The real shocker is that, …

This week’s trio was found lounging in an unmarked file box, stuffed with DVD screeners and buried deep in the inner-recesses of my storage locker. The Tillman Story (2010) Director Amir Bar-Lev (My Kid Could …

Democrats in Washington could stand to take a lesson from Hollywood’s demise in the late ‘60s. Voters’ cries for something new, something different, something progressive in a president were answered with a pair of starchy …

Netflix dropped $200 million for their latest star-studded CG extravaganza The Gray Man. That’s $40 million more than the studio sprung for Scorsese’s likewise effects-driven The Irishman, making it the costliest film yet to debut …

The banners are down, the fanboys back in their parents’ basements, and the Gaslamp Quarter no longer resembles a giant roll of flypaper used by corporations to ensnare the costumed souls fortunate to acquire the …

From India, an epic worthy of your attention. RRR (2022) After two hours of having the snot beat out of them, a pair of unwittingly adversarial revolutionaries, pitted against each other by their British overlords, …

The competition was stiff on February 11, 1979, the night John Carpenter’s Elvis debuted on ABC. Gone With the Wind was on CBS and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was on NBC; both kneeled …

Who didn’t like Leslie Nielsen, the white haired journeyman actor who went from B movies and recurring character roles in episodic TV dramas to breaking typecast and becoming an overnight comedy sensation? Day of the …

The arrival of Father’s Day started me pondering on pernicious Papas, and I wound up with five movie dads who probably didn’t get cards. 5) Jasper Hadley in Douglas Sirk’s Written on the Wind (1956) …

Inspiration prevails in the strangest places, places like the 805 off-ramp while tooling towards Chula Vista. Mirage (1965) The trash-hauling buggy before me was piled so high with furniture, appliances, and the like that I …

This week sees the opening of David Cronenberg’s latest, so what better time is to put in a bad word about Crash? No, not Cronenberg’s ode to a desensitized societies dependence of sex in cars, …

The poster art proudly presents the lead actors standing on a red carpet beneath a gleaming marquee, but don’t let that fool you. The cinematic savior in the piece devotes more time to hanging onto …

Welcome to this week’s second and final installment of Kings of Ads. Watch the Kings here. KINGS OF ADS, PART 2 Hugh Hudson. British Airways: “Face” Advertisement. (0:22 - 1:49). Great Britain, 1989. How many …

We’ve all seen compilations of great director’s student films, so why not an anthology that pays tribute to their work as commercial pitchmen and women? Earlier this week while paging through the stacks at Rarefilmm, …

This week brings a twofer from your friendly neighborhood Bella Thorne completist: Time is Up and Measure of Revenge. Plus a surprise bonus! Time is Up (2021) Swim team contender Roy (Benjamin Mascolo) secretly pines …

This week: Clint Eastwood’s “Magnum” opuses. The Many Dirty Harrys In Coogan’s Bluff, Don Siegel jerked the sheriff out of Dodge, relocating the lawman amidst the contemporary urban sprawl, horse and all. It was the …

The best film of 2006 held its local premiere in my living room. Inland Empire (2006) It wasn’t my first viewing: a journey up the 5 to Los Angeles had already been undertaken, seeing how …

There’s a name for people who knew Gilbert Gottfried solely on the basis of the numerous animated birds he voiced: parents. Dig A Hole: Gilbert Gottfried Fans of his numerous appearances on Howard Stern’s radio …

It’s unclear at what point it became my sacred duty to collect the complete works of Robert De Niro on DVD, but the alignment of these three less-than-stellar middle period offerings — shelved side-by-side in …

Two titles, new-to-DVD from Film Movement, are ready to grace your home theater’s screen. The Whaler Boy (2020) Our story of a broken heart begins with a Detroit sex worker (Kristina Asmus) flossing her thong …

As sure as a clown car comes to a stop, so does our March Madness tribute to big top movies, with Martin and Lewis in 3 Ring Circus. 3 Ring Circus (1954) We open more …

This week’s circus of thrills was released two years after The Greatest Show on Earth and decades before genre mashups began clotting multiplex screens. By my calculations, Ring of Fear was the first psycho circus …

Circus month continues! Those quick to peg Cecil B. DeMille’s The Greatest Show on Earth as the least deserving winner of a Best Picture Oscar must have been sick the week Chariots of Fire, Crash, …

It’s a circus of reviews this week, starting with Joe E. Brown as the rube roustabout who follows elephants with a shovel with the same fervor as he does the comely cross-dressing equestrian toying with …

Reviews of two absolutely dreadful home video releases this week; but first, a word from Popeye. Popeye the Sailor Man It’s been my privilege to introduce Reader-mate Matthew Lickona’s extended brood to the world of …

Personal identification was never the turnkey that unlatched my door to cinematic understanding, but this one was unusual. Room for One More (1952) It was sunny in the Valley, but not hot enough to require …

This should have been my first post when I began working at The Reader over a decade ago. The facts were made known to me by the brilliant Jennifer DeSplinter, a former student who, after …

The San Diego Jewish Film Festival continues through February 20. For screening information, visit the Festival website: Ronnie’s (2020) Ronnie Scott was a British saxophonist who, in 1959, at the height of his popularity, chose …

Of special note from this year’s Jewish film festival: a trio of uniquely personal biodocs. The festival runs February 9-20. Visit the SDJFF website for more information. Eddy’s World (2020) What a joy! We open …

This week finds two new home video releases from Film Movement, and yours truly still stinging from the loss of a funny broad. Joy Womack: the White Swan (2021) Accepted to Russia’s esteemed Bolshoi Ballet …

It was a marriage made in single-screen heaven, the night Peter Bogdanovich made the acquaintance of Roger Corman in a Los Angeles movie theater. Bogdanovich was quick to pick the low-budget producer-director out of the …

It has been a year since Erich von Stroheim’s Greed entered the public domain and still the Gods of Cinema remain sound asleep at the switch. More than two-thirds of the legendary 9+ hour epic …

My first entry for 2022 was originally intended for another trio of last year’s leftovers. But my steed blew a flat before making it to the finish line of The Green Knight. One can only …

Let’s end the year batting cleanup on three of this year’s oddities and curiosities, starting with a request. Several months ago, Lydia D’moch wrote asking why I never got around to reviewing Lamb. It opened …

The most challenging component of being my stickling, anal-retentive moviegoing self has been this dumbfounding devotion to logic and historical continuity that rides roughshod inside my skull. The trailer to Sing spoke to me, saying, …

During an audience Q&A at the Chicago International Film Festival, Robert Wise was asked why he chose to open both West Side Story and The Sound of Music with tapering views from above. “Because I …

A friend recently linked me to a collection of Sunday newspaper TV ads, and I chanced upon a half-pager from November 1973 pitching a late show airing of The Young Lions, in which Marlon Brando …

Like most Americans, rather than fortify the pre-feedbag portion of Thanksgiving Day with parades and sporting events, I chose to gorge on 2-D transfers of two dozen or so impeccably restored-to-blu-ray 3-D curios. Why 2-D? …

Rather than calling this week’s column a homework assignment, look upon it as a chance to reacquaint yourself with one of cinema’s founding fathers, the man who gave editing its pulse, a purveyor in Russian …

Speaking with Christian McKay was the closest I would ever come to meeting Orson Welles in this lifetime. McKay (pronounced “Mc-KYE”) made his screen debut in Richard Linklater’s Me and Orson Welles, a boffo pre-Citizen …

This week’s trio skipped town before I could get around to covering them. Coming soon to a blu-ray or streaming service near you. Drive My Car (2021) In the shadows of their bedroom, a Japanese …

Many families, in some way or another, exercise their right to rely on secrets and lies as means of postponing (prolonging?) life’s darker moments. It wasn’t until I turned 30 that my mother copped to …

Let’s harken back to a time when DVDs were arranged on the rental rack spine side out and alphabetically by title. One never knew what unknown riches were just a lateral scan of the eye …

Author's note: an hour after the paper went to press, I received a note informing me that the distributor delayed the virtual engagement at the Digital Gym by one week. Luzzu streams starting on November …

This year’s San Diego Asian Film Festival continues to dazzle. The three films up for discussion will screen at UtlraStar Cinemas in Mission Valley. Next week’s lead review is Drive My Car, the festival’s closing …

I am a sucker for 3-D. The eye sees in three dimensions, why shouldn’t a moviegoer? Three of the five major technological advances that cinema would undergo in the first 126 years of its history …

Thank heavens for this year’s San Diego Asian Film Festival, if for no other reason than it gives me an excuse to showcase quality over Hollywood’s latest regurgitation. The Festival runs October 28 through November …

To celebrate the release of the 27th James Bond film, might I humbly suggest that some time before or after you make time for No Time to Die, that you spend 142 minutes in the …