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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'Park Opera' redefines opera in Balboa Park

Unpacking the virtues of Ryan Coogler's 'Sinners'

La Jolla Playhouse serves up audacious theatre to WOW you

Cinema Junkie recommends 'Sinners' and 'Gazer'
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Edgar Wright has a new film out and that is cause for celebration. I speak with the director about "Baby Driver."
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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For almost a century nitrate base film was the standard for motion pictures and for good reason. The image looked stunning on the huge screens of movie palaces. But now only a handful of theaters can project the film stock, which has a reputation for spontaneous combustion.
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You must remember this … after 75 years, the film “Casablanca” still maintains an iconic place in pop culture. A new book explores the life, legend and afterlife of Hollywood’s most beloved film.
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Forty years ago, Stuart Gordon adapted Kurt Vonnegut’s novel “The Sirens of Titan” to the stage. Now, Sacred Fools Theater Company in Los Angeles is reviving that adaptation and finding it surprisingly topical.
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A Valentine To Hong Kong's Rapturously Romantic Filmmaker
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Irish playwright Martin McDonagh makes his feature film writing and directing debut with "In Bruges" (opening February 8 at Landmark's Hillcrest Cinemas), a darkly comic tale of two hitmen on holiday in the idyllic European city that calls itself “the Venice of the North.” Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell play the Irish killers. McDonagh previously worked with Gleeson on his Oscar-winning short "Six-Shooter."
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“There Will Be Blood” (opening January 11 at AMC Mission Valley and on January 18 at Landmarks La Jolla Village Theaters) is not the film fans of Paul Thomas Anderson may be expecting but it's a film that should please them nonetheless. The filmmaker who gave us “Hard Eight,” “Boogie Nights,” “Magnolia,” and “Punch Drunk Love” now turns to an 80-year-old Upton Sinclair novel called “Oil!” as inspiration for his epic tale of greed and ambition.
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Let me just say up front what a pleasure it is to watch a well-crafted film in which not a word or a gesture is wasted. The Coens' No Country for Old Men (opening November 16 throughout San Diego) is such a film. You feel that every word has been chosen with care and everything from the type of boots a man wears to the cut of his hair has been chosen for a distinct reason.
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Beth Accomando speaks with actor George Hamilton about his role as Billy Flynn
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Indie Asian American film charms with homage to movie musicals.
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Ten canoes, three wives, one hundred and fifty spears... trouble. That's how Palm Pictures teases its new film "Ten Canoes" (opening August 10 at Landmarks Hillcrest Cinemas), an Australian film that sets a precedent by being shot almost entirely in the Aboriginal language of Ganalbingu.
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Born in Baltimore in 1946, Waters grew up in a comfortable, conservative Catholic family. He knew from an early age that he wanted to make movies and he began by making a pair of super 8 films,
Beth Accomando is taking a short break from film reviews and arts coverage to create a six-part video podcast called Stripper Energy. Check it out!