San Diego Miniature Show, The Festival of New Trumpet Music West
Events February 2-February 5, 2020
Various Authors noon, Jan. 26
Movie Reviews
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Quezon’s Game: A Filipino Schindler’s List?
“Could I have done more?”
For a month, the link languished in my mailbox — I put off playing Quezon’s Game until the latest possible moment. Frankly, the thought of a Filipino Schindler’s List held about as much interest as ...
Dolittle: Robert Downey, Jr. goes down
Does a dragon even qualify as an animal?
It is with deep and abiding regret that we report the passing of Robert Downey, Jr. — one of the last of his generation of trailblazers — over to the dark side. Admittedly, the transition ...
The best and worst films of 2019
Scott Marks’ picks
Of the nearly 250 films I viewed in 2019, here are the front-runners and slopsuckers. For more on this year in film, visit the Big Screen. Favorites: 10.) Last Letter A romantic drama void of ...
The reign of Dag Hammarskjöld
Documentarian Mads Brügger is in it to monitor “the evil that white men do”
Where were you when you first learned of the death of Dag Hammarskjöld? For some, it will be wherever they’re reading this review. But at the time, his mere existence was viewed by some as ...
Uncut Gems: Adam Sandler plays a bad man with a plan
His day consumed with robbing Peter to pawn to Paul
Who says television isn’t educational? Ever hear of African Jews? Diamond man (14 carat, not baseball) Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler) hadn’t, not until the night a documentary introduced him to a tribe of landlocked nomads ...
Richard Jewell: American hero
Bronson was a popcorn salesman. Eastwood is an artist.
Were cash and prizes all that motivated Clint Eastwood, he’d have had himself de-aged, made another Dirty Harry sequel for Netflix, and been done with it. But there’ll be none of that small screen hoo-hah ...
63 Up: Grow old along with me
The world’s first and longest-running reality television show
The late ’50s-early ‘60s proved to be a wellspring of worldwide experimentation in documentary realism. Banking on unscripted reactions to outrageous situations as his key to success, American television personality Allen Funt tucked his Candid ...
The Wolf Hour: Prisoner of the past
Locked away on a mysterious journey with a brooding agoraphobic
A shade of wet newsprint grey smudges the facade of the still-standing South Bronx apartment. From the opposite side of the street, the only visible sign of life in the tenement is a faint glow ...
The Irishman: Small-screen Scorsese
Netflix is to theatrical distribution what Trump is to detente
We begin by giving thanks to the local publicist who was swell enough to arrange a press preview of The Irishman in an auditorium to my liking. (Reading Cinemas Grossmont #5.) That said, it angers ...
Honey Boy: Shia LaBeouf’s daddy issues
A film about a boy who both wants and deserves a better father and the inescapable reality that he will never get one
January 1, 2019. The following Nostradamic text, signed “Anonymous,” arrives at the stroke of midnight: “The year will end with Shia LaBeouf’s self-penned biopic cracking your top ten.” Did I miss an announcement piece in ...
Playing With Fire: Andy Fickman is an unhaugty auteur
How does material like this make the final cut of a film geared for the entire family?
Has it really been six Christmases since Andy Fickman and Walden Media gifted audiences with the historically and hysterically misguided family frolic Parental Guidance? Last weekend, Fickman and Walden rattled the cage and East County ...
