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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Are you ready to binge on Fringe?

SD Fringe adds SDSU filmmaker showcase

'Park Opera' redefines opera in Balboa Park

Unpacking the virtues of Ryan Coogler's 'Sinners'
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You may think you’ve seen bad movies but you haven’t seen anything quite as bad as “The Room." Listen to my radio feature about how a film’s badness is turning it into a cult hit on the midnight movie circuit. This is like a car crash that you cannot avoid looking at.
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Horrible Imaginings Film Festival director Miguel Rodriguez discusses his upcoming horror fest.
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Landmark’s Ken Cinema has found success with its classic film weeks and midnight movies. "They Live" pays tribute to the late Roddy Piper.
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If you found "Turbo Kid" on a VHS tape in someone's garage you'd probably swear it was a movie from the 1980s and that's just part of its charm.
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Tribute to horror master Wes Craven, who died on Sunday. I pull an archive interview from 2006 when he discussed the state of horror and how he thinks audiences arrive at his movies already in fear.
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Unearth a Geek Roundtable with fellow podcaster and Horrible Imaginings Film Festival director Miguel Rodriguez to discuss Universal monsters and the continuing film series The Universal Suspects at the Digital Gym Cinema.
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Oscar-winner George Chakiris talks about his career, Marilyn Monroe, and his dog Sammy.
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"Drown" premiered in San Diego earlier this year at FilmOut where it won six awards including Best Narrative Feature, Best Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Soundtrack and Outstanding Artistic Achievement. "Drown" is a difficult film to watch but for all the right reasons.
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Coming of age films are filling the theaters these days. Recently we have seen coming of age tales play out in 1980s Pittsburgh ("Adventureland") and Northern Australia ("The Black Balloon"), and coming up we travel to 1970s New Jersey ("Lymelife").
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Earlier this month "Fast and Furious" scored a surprising hit at the box office bringing in $72 million in three days. What's also surprising is that at the helm of this $80 million dollar Hollywood sequel is one time indie film darling Justin Lin. Today, "17 Again" -- the new film with Disney star Zac Efron -- opens, and in the director's chair is another independent filmmaker, Burr Steers.
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In "17 Again" (opening April 17 throughout San Diego) Mike O'Donnell (Disney star Zac Efron of "High School Musical" fame) is a star on his high school basketball court with a college scout in the stands and a bright future in his grasp.
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The San Diego Italian Film Festival may be the new kid on the block but they have been actively bringing films to San Diego both at their festival and for single screening film events. These are films that have not played in San Diego before and are unlikely to receive any kind of release here.
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Seth Rogen has become an unlikely star through a series of projects with Judd Apatow beginning with the TV series "Freaks and Geeks" in 1999 and reaching a peak with the feature film "Knocked Up" in 2007. Those projects played on Rogen's slacker appeal. Now Rogen tries something a little different with "Observe and Report" (opened April 10 throughout San Diego).
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For last year's closing night, FilmOut San Diego presented the world premiere of James Vasquez' homegrown film "Ready? Okay!" This San Diego-based charmer concerns a young boy named Josh who wants to join his school's cheer squad.
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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.
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!