ArtPower! at UC San Diego is poised to debut their first annual Filmatic Festival later this month in Atkinson Hall, headquarters of the Qualcomm Institute on the UC San Diego campus. The event, billed as …

Prior to 1904 and the National Child Labor Committee that was formed in the wake of the Industrial Revolution, there was no such thing as a period of adolescence. One was either a kid or …

Local filmmakers Andrew Rubin and Ricardo Villarreal's Ride with Larry, the enrichingly uplifting documentary profile of Larry Smith, a retired cop with Parkinson's who rode his bicycle across South Dakota to inspire others living with …

A few days after the red carpet was put in mothballs comes a reminder that the San Diego Latino Film Festival doesn’t end following its annual two week run. Lisa Franek, program director at the …

Friday was a grand night for moviegoing at this year’s San Diego Latino Film Festival, where I had the pleasure of introducing a couple of pictures on behalf of the San Diego Film Critics Society. …

What would you do for a Klondike Bar? Preferably choke on one before ever again biting into a Dovebar. M&M/Mars, the company that acquired the Dove line in 1986, has decided the best way to …

Lars von Trier’s latest, most outrageous releases, Nymphomaniac: Part 1 and Nymphomaniac: Part 2 are tough sells. That more than likely accounts for why so many of the film’s big name stars, give or take …

“I always wanted to make another picture about sharks,” Steve Spielberg joked during last night’s fever dream, “and given the success of The Terminal, I wouldn’t mind throwing in a couple of jets to spark …

My piñata runneth over as the most wonderful time of the year for los amantes del cine locales — the 21st Annual San Diego Latino Film Festival — rolls into town for the next 11 …

Scottish funnyman Billy Connolly, The Big Yin himself, is coming to town. The actor, singer, cartoon voice artist, and comedian will perform live at the Balboa Theatre on March 11. With a guy like Billy …

Godfrey Reggio uses precisely 74 shots to tell his story. With only four behind me and 70 left to go, the film’s thesis was already stated and its conclusion long foregone. Do I grab a …

From the opening strains of Hooray for Hollywood, viewers knew they were in for something wonderfully original when Alan Degenerate took to the stage of the Raymond & Dottie Chandler Pavilion to host last night’s …

Hey, Turner Classic Movies! You must remember this: there is more to vintage cinema (and the vast holdings in the M-G-M/Warner Bros. vaults) than, "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn," "We'll always have …

TIMPANI! Ladies and gentlemen, the Film Consortium San Diego is proud to announce the star-studded, first ever San Diego Film Awards! A relative new kid in town, the FCSD "has been actively working to mobilize …

If anyone should be doing hard time on account of this crime against cinema, it's Jane Fonda and future Amateur Hour hostess, JLo, not some poor simp in South Carolina who failed to return a …

Christmas and professional wresting go together like Larry the Cable Guy and nothing even remotely amusing. Somewhere Daryl F. Zanuck is vomiting blood. 20th Century Fox Home "Entertainment" and WWE "Studios" are joining forces on …

If fierce logic is something you demand in a stand up, then put Brian Regan’s name at the top of the list. It’s not enough for Regan to make an audience laugh. He dares the …

Forty-five years after the Japanese practice of nurses identifying newborns by names written in Magic Marker on the soles of their feet was thought to have ceased, it took one thoughtless orderly to forever alter …

We haven't heard much of Yung Chang in these parts since Up the Yangtze, his exacting impressionistic documentary on China's ever-changing landscape during the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, played the Landmark Hillcrest in …

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Philip Seymour Hoffman died leaving behind only one crucial scene to film in order to tie up his character's plot thread in the final Hunger Games sequel. It was today …

The San Diego Jewish Film Festival ushers in its 24th year with a showcase of 60 shorts, documentaries, and features chosen from across the globe. With this year’s film festival comes two fresh faces: publicist …

From the producers of Underworld and one of the the scripters responsible for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl comes...frankly, if that ignominious ancestry doesn’t scare you off, nothing will. January …

Trying to capitalize on the latest media craze of gay men as fashion accessories, a trio of prom queen probables (Sasha Pieterse, Xosha Roquemore, and Andrea Bowen) battle over friendship rights to their recently outed …

At the time, it was the biggest cash robbery ever committed in the United States. Not the daring 1978 Lufthansa heist at New York's JFK International Airport that inspired Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas. I'm talking about …

Gaidi Finnie was one of the first people I met upon arriving in San Diego during the winter of 2000. He acted as co-director of the Museum of Photographic Arts during my tenure as their …

Next to edible pizza, Italian beef "sangwitches," and Pekin House egg rolls (made with baby shrimp, morsels of barbecued pork, and peanut butter to bind them), squirrels are what I most miss about Chicago. Apart …

“What would I be if I weren’t strong?” asks one of the characters in director Jeremy Teicher’s Tall As the Baobab Tree. Strength is a quality that reverberates throughout the six films to be screened …

Who needs a Big Ben wind-up to sound the alarm on the morning of Oscar nominations day? Long before the cock crowed, this reporter was parked in front of his trusty Trinitron waiting to have …

Bad news: You have until today to see Kaya Scodelario’s American big screen debut, The Truth About Emanuel, at the Gaslamp. The good news is you can watch it tonight on VOD. The camera loves …

Not unlike the Japanese tourist who kicks off Paolo Sorrentino’s latest cinematic feast by collapsing under the scenic force of his search for the great beauty of Rome, I find myself more than a bit …

Aren't the people's choice awards handed out every Monday morning when the weekend box office receipts hit the trades? It’s been years since I sat down and watched a telecast of The People’s Choice Awards …

Will it be Redford or Streep? Captain Phillips or Philomena? The Croods or Despicable Me 2? Masters of Sex or The Big Bang Theory? Do you really care who or what takes home a Golden …

No sooner had I finished praising Reading Cinemas and Jennifer Deering for their illustrious 40-Foot Films series do I check to see what films are on the January schedule. None. It's over. Finished. Kaput. Even …

People who complain that 2013 has been a lousy year for movies are spending too much time in a multiplex with only three letters in its name. Of the twenty films I single out as …

If a film is so bad that I can’t make it all the way through to the end, then it automatically qualifies as one of the year’s worst. This year found me making a mad …

Having never read Jordan Belfort’s autobiography, The Wolf of Wall Street — which forms the basis of Martin Scorsese’s latest, most outrageous essay on common denominators living the life of upscale, drug-enhanced, and power-infested businessmen …

Tonight brings a stereotypical Jewish Christmas Eve: Chinese food and a movie. The festive pre-show meal takes place at China Too on Fifth, the only Cantonese chow house in town where ambiance is defined by …

When you consider all the questionable "bile" this column pumps, I am amazed to report that one Joseph Genoese has decided to take offense to a goof column written under the guise of "Earl Stiff." …

When news hit this desk that Tom Laughlin died earlier this month of complications from pneumonia, I...just...went...BERSERK! You want berserk? I was in the audience the night Laughlin four-walled the UA Cinema 150 in Oakbrook, …

The mention of Melanie Hamilton in GWTW or the second Mrs. de Winter in Rebecca might be enough to jog a few memories, but seeing how it's been over 20 years since either Olivia de …

My column on the San Diego Film Critics Society year-end picks met with such little resistance that I received a callback. On top of that, I think there’s a Christmas present in my future! While …

Why waste time and money on Miyazaki's animated wallpaper or Disney's sitcom ice princess when this holiday season's foremost anthropomorphic amusement stars our disgraced former mayor, Bob Filner, and could be coming soon to a …

What can be said of a Christmas season wherein Disney's holiday offering ends with its heroine resorting to senseless physical violence to make her point? Remember the good old days when the plight of Bedford …

The only enjoyable part of Out of the Furnace was untangling its plot loopholes on the car ride home. An ex-con (Christian Bale) with the word “fishy” tattooed across his forehead takes a road trip …

Jeffrey Tambor has been a fixture on movie and television screens for the past 40 years, so it’s safe to assume that by now he has become somewhat of an authority on the subject of …

Tales of toddlers dying on film is generally not my genre du jour, but when you present the material in musical form, it’s difficult to resist. Don’t expect wet-eyed characters to break into song in …

Call it one-man show, seminar, or question-and-answer session, Jeffrey Tambor is bringing all three of them to a synagogue near you. The name might not have clicked, but now that you've had a chance to …

Oh, for the sweet irony of someone choosing Last Tango in Paris or The Last Temptation of Christ — two titles that Blockbuster refused to let sully its shelves in their original form, if at …

Blockbuster Video has shelved its last title.The video-rental giant opened its first outlet in Dallas, Texas in 1985. The chain reached its peak in 2004 with 60,000 employees in more than 9000 stores. By 2010, …