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.
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Bringing 'The Heart' to life
'Batman Azteca' wows Comic-Con
Comic-Con Panel Highlight: Graphic India
Little Fish students get work reviewed at Comic-Con
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The Old Globe has a bold new production of “Hamlet” on stage now. It is directed by Barry Edelstein and it made me see the play with new eyes. This podcast is dedicated to Shakespeare’s great play and to understanding it better through film and an interview with Edelstein. -
George A. Romero died on July 16. The zombie community paid tribute to him during Comic-Con, and I gather some of those memories and an archive interview with him for this remembrance. -
Alfred Hitchcock, the master of suspense, Hitch — however you want to refer to him — is a filmmaker who has left an indelible mark on cinema. His career spanned the silents and talkies, black and white, Technicolor, and 3-D, plus film industries on both side of the pond. -
Edgar Wright has a new film out and that is cause for celebration. I speak with the director about "Baby Driver." -
San Diego's Old Globe Theatre has an eight decade history of performing Shakespeare on stage. Now its artistic director Barry Edelstein wants to highlight the Bard on film. -
Found footage is a tired trope in horror but those films all manufacture their supposed found footage. That kind of fakery holds no interest for filmmaker Bill Morrison. He is interested in the real deal, genuine footage that has been unearthed, uncovered or just waiting to be found and brought to light. His latest film, "Dawson City: Frozen Time," finds treasures in the arctic ice. -
FilmOut San Diego is hosting its first-ever block of gay horror shorts and it highlights how LGBT filmmakers are turning more and more to genre filmmaking. So I felt it was time to pay tribute to queer cinema and talk to some filmmakers about why they choose to work in the genre. -
With the return of "Twin Peaks" and a revival screening of "Fire Walk With Me," I decided it was time to dig into the archives for an interview with David Lynch.
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Sugar (opened April 10 at Landmark Hillcrest Cinemas) is a baseball movie in the same way that Eight Men Out was a baseball movie. You cannot conceive of either film without the baseball backdrop but neither film is a formula sports movie in the sense of putting primary importance on the winning or losing of games. -
Earlier this week I highlighted the film "Immobilité" that's being touted as the first "feature-length foreign film shot entirely on a mobile phone." The film by artist Mark Amerikia is showing in The Project Room for New Media at Chelsea Art Museum in New York through May 9, with a remix version exhibited in the Streaming Museum that presents exhibitions in cyberspace. The unique nature of the project inspired me to seek Amerika out for an interview. Here's what he had to say about his provocative new film.
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Following on the heels of the animated "Monsters Vs. Aliens," "Alien Trespass" (opening April 3 at Landmark's Hillcrest Cinemas) covers somewhat similar ground. Both films present us with an alien who comes to earth and then the films try to use the trappings of 50s sci-fi movies to sell the premise. But unlike "Monsters Vs. Aliens," "Alien Trespass" is live action. It also comes from R. W. Goodwin who should know what he's doing since he worked on the cult TV show "The X-Files," which frequently dealt with aliens although usually in a more serious vein.
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Most films that deal with border issues focus on immigrants and immigration along the California or Texas state lines. But the new film "Sin Nombre" (opening April 3 at Landmark's Hillcrest Cinemas) shows us how people living deeper in Mexico and Central America get to that border. The film played last month at the San Diego Latino Film Festival and just about everyone I spoke to at the fest was recommending it. I spoke with first time feature filmmaker Cary Fukunaga at the festival just before he presented the film to a full house.
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Just a quick reminder that the San Diego Latino Film Festival is not the only festival in town screening films this week. The San Diego Italian Film Festival will screen Incantesimo Napoletano/A Neopolitan Spell on Thursday, March 12 at 7:00 pm at the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park. The tageline for the film asks: "In Naples, what could be worse than not being Neapolitan?" Written and directed by Paolo Genovese, "Incantesimo Napoletano" serves up a fanciful tale about the shock felt by a fifth-generation Neopolitan couple whose daughter's first words are in Milanese. Mama mia! This film features Chiara Papa, Gianni Aiello, Serena Improta and Clelia Bernacchi. Although it's nice to have choice it's too bad these festivals are up against each other.
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Here's a little twist on Trailer Tuesday: Instead of posting a preview of a big Hollywood movie or cool indie title you get to see an entire movie.
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The teen critics have spoken out on The Last House on the Left (opened March 13 throughout San Diego) and I was curious to hear what they had to say since they weren't even born when the original film came out (OK, that made me feel old). I was glad that at least one of them had seen the original and found it more disturbing than the remake. -
The 16th San Diego Latino Film Festival kicked off last night with films, music, and a gala party. Now we can get down to the business of seeing films. Here are a few suggestions for what you might want to seek out and mini-reviews of some of the films that I had a chance to screen in advance. All films are at the UltraStar Mission Valley Theaters at Hazard Center.
Stripper Energy just received an Emmy for Journalistic Enterprise, you can watch the six-part video podcast now.