Entries
4th row center: A night at the Egyptian and a day at the Chinese
DISCLAIMER: The title of this article is false and misleading. For the sake of full disclosure, when confronted with a hundred foot screen, you'll find me parked two rows behind my customary position in the 4th row. Up in Hollywood …
What San Diego multiplexes have that Hollywood picture palaces don't
The past two days in Hollywood have been a rapturous vacation from San Diego multiplexes. Sunday night saw the sparkling presentation of a 60-year-old dye transfer, 35mm dual projector 3D print of Martin and Lewis' Money From Home. The screening …
Trailer Park: Rocky Stallone vs. Jake DeNiro in Grudge Match
It's "bash DeNiro Friday" at
This is not the celluloid Visine needed to cleanse my eyes of the retinae-burning The Family. This is a joke, right, Bobby D? You can't be doing it for the green. Stallone is happy to devour any piece of meat …
Paul Schrader 'likes' me!
Halfway through the screening of Luc Besson's dismal mob comedy The Family, an image from one of Robert DeNiro's early, funny films flashed through my brain. Miami, 1962, and they've just tossed a bloated Jake LaMotta in the cooler where …
Review: The Family
I’d issue a SPOILER ALERT!, but how does one go about curdling something as putrescent as The Family? By now we have all grown accustomed to THE GREATEST ACTOR OF HIS GENERATION using the eeny-meeny-miney-moe method of script selection. With …
New releases opening this week: Short Term 12, some other stuff
Look, Destin Cretton went to SDSU film school and made good. And he even had the grace to put up with grumpyman Marks on the whole jigglycam thing. Go see his film, Short Term 12! (It's good!) There really isn't …
Dig a hole: Noise reduction pioneer Ray Dolby
"I was never a gold-digger, or an Oscar-digger, or anything like that. I just had an instinct about the right sort of things that should be done in my business. So all these things just fell into place." -- Dr. …
Vanity, thy name is plate?
It's one ampersand away from being just another plate on the 101. Considering this photo was taken in Hollywood, it's a shock that it doesn't read "UBER S&M." The fact that it's attached to a Caddy, -- aka a vehicle …
Everything Comes From the Streets: San Diego's lowriders
Hour-long documentary examines San Diego's custom car culture.
Quick brainstorm: San Diego history. Kumeyaays grinding acorn flour on rocks, Father Serra rebuilding the immolated mission, Pio Pico maxing out in Old Town, several bloody clashes, a few earthquakes, Horton Hall, Balboa Park, John Montgomery gliding over Otay Mesa, …
Orson! Welles!
Just watch this. It's not even three hours long.
A snippet from somwhere around 1:45: "Somebody said that Touch of Evil seemed very unreal and yet real. And I corrected that statement and said what I was trying to do was to make something which was unreal but true. …
Village Person Randy Jones to tie the knot
Hey! Remember The Village People, the supergay supergroup who helped to introduce Middle America to the concept of homosexuality with chart-topping hits like YMCA, In the Navy, and Macho Man? Randy Jones, the cowboy of the group and star of …
Destin Cretton talks about his long-term commitment to Short Term 12
Look at the big shot kid who years ago walked into Citizen Video where I used to work, with a copy of his first film, the superb documentary, Drakmar: A Vassal's Journey, in hand, currently making the rounds to promote …
Debajo del Cuero: shooting the motorcycle outlaws of Tijuana
A documentary about Tijuana's two-wheeled terrors, made in under 100 hours.
It sounds like the premise of a Vice short, but Debajo del Cuero (Underneath the Leather) – a documentary about Tijuana motorcycle club Sólo Ángeles – was written, produced, and directed by an independent team of filmmakers from northern Mexico …
Studio collagist Jacques Kapralik created the fabric of Hollywood ballyhoo
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/sep/10/52967/ Normally a derisive terms, Hollywood collagist Jacques Kapralik was the master of the cut-and-paste job. My fascination with sculpted, 3-dimensional caricature dates back to character design on a Colorforms set my Aunt Jen presented me with on the occasion …
Crisis in the aisle: blogger calls cops over texting twit
A midnight screening of a low budget shocker at the Toronto International Film Festival became even more horrifying when a brave blogger — fed up with blue lights dotting his peripheral vision — called 911 on a texting fool. It's …
Dig a hole: Cal Worthington
Never so much as a rank and file member of the motion picture industry, Calvin Coolidge "Cal" Worthington's presence was felt in practically every film produced during Hollywood's golden era. At one point or another, his crass commercial spiels and …
Trailer Park: The Art of the Steal
I can remember when people read books instead of stealing them.
No, it doesn't look great, but everybody loves Kurt Russell, right? All I know is, I've been away from this blog for a while - the doctors say the scarring should be minimal, thanks for asking - and I need …
4th row center: Triumph of the Will
The long-awaited demise of Hitler's bodyguard, Rochus Misch, had finally arrived. His death at age 96 brings to mind my one and only dust-up with Bund-lovin' brown shirts. It was one of the first films I remember driving to after …
New releases opening this week: Afternoon Delight, Riddick and more
I thought Afternoon Delight was a smart movie. And I enjoyed talking to the woman who wrote and directed it. I came this close to liking Riddick. Scott? Scott got stuck with Terraferma, which was about forty times too earnest …
Review: Terraferma
Terraferma opens today at Landmark's Ken Cinema. Click for Showtimes. Director Emanuele Crialese (Respiro, Golden Door) opens by elegantly casting a net over the audience -- we assume the fish’s point-of-view -- hoping to reel us into his thawed Frozen …