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Cinema Junkie

Satisfy your celluloid addiction and mainline film 24/7 with Cinema Junkie’s Beth Accomando. So if you need a film fix, want to hear what filmmakers have to say about their work, feel like taking a deep dive into a genre, or just want to know what's worth seeing this weekend, then you've come to the right place. You can also find Beth's coverage of other arts and culture events here.

Ryan Coogler directing Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo on the set of "Sinners." Undated photo. Playing
Unpacking the virtues of Ryan Coogler's 'Sinners'
Step into Black Benatar’s bold, immersive, and unapologetically queer, world where drag, magic, comedy, and spectacle collide in a late-night experience for adults at the La Jolla Playhouse's 2025 WOW Festival.\ Playing
La Jolla Playhouse serves up audacious theatre to WOW you
Michael B. Jordan as Smoke, one of the twin brothers facing vampires in 1932 Mississippi in Ryan Coogler's "Sinners." (2025) Playing
Cinema Junkie recommends 'Sinners' and 'Gazer'
Playing
WorldBeat Center's Sound Healing Garden
  • "John Wick: Chapter 3 -- Parabellum" finally arrives and stuntman-turned-director Chad Stahelski delivers an exhausting, exhilarating film. I have a review of the new film and have a 2017 interview with Stahelski where he explains exactly why John Wick raises the bar on action films. And learn the difference between having a star do action versus doing stunts.
  • J.R.R. Tolkien famously wrote "The Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings" books that inspired Peter Jackson's recent films. Now a film biography about the author hits theaters. I'll discuss the allure of Tolkien's fellowship, have a review of the biopic "Tolkien" and speak with the film's director Dome Karukoski about making connections between the man and his books.
  • Reel Science returns with the San Diego Natural History Museum and Digital Gym Cinema pairing sci-fi films with real scientists to put the movie science into a broader context. Whether you want preview of the film series or if you can't make the films but want to watch sci-fi films with some questions to ask you'll want to hear entomologist Michael Wall and cognitive scientist Eric Leonardis dissect "Damnation Alley" and David Cronenberg's "The Fly."
  • I may hate the Academy for some of its Oscar choices but I have nothing but praise for the work it does to preserve film history. I speak with Josef Lindner, the preservation officer at the Academy Film Archive about the challenges of preserving and restoring films. As an example we discuss the pre-Code comedy naughtily titled Cock of the Air.
  • In part one of my look at the 10th Annual TCM Classic Film Festival I spoke with TCM Film Festival programmer Charles Tabesh. Now for part two, I speak with Fox archivist Schawn Belston about the studio's past, future, and exactly what it is an archivist does. He also discusses some of the strange places he has discovered film elements.
  • TCM Classic Film Festival is a four-day event held in Hollywood and showcasing films from the silents on up into the 1980s. In part one of this week's podcast I speak with TCM Film Festival programmer Charles Tabesh about what it takes to put on the festival and about the special Fox Appreciation presentation. In part two, I will speak with Fox archivist Schawn Belston about the studio's past and the challenges of restoring films.
  • This spoiler-filled episode examines the hidden meanings of Jordan Peele's latest box office hit with the help of a UC Riverside professor of media and cultural studies.
  • With Alfonso Cuaron’s recent multiple Oscar win and San Diego Latino Film Festival entering its second quarter century, I felt it was the perfect time to pull up an archive interview I did with Mexican director Guillermo del Toro.