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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SD Fringe adds SDSU filmmaker showcase

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The new horror film 'Ready or Not' was brought to the screen by a collaborative known as Radio Silence. Filmmakers and online pranksters Chad Villella, Matt Bettineli-Olpin, and Tyler Gillett have a very singular vision about how to make movies. They discuss how they went from online videos to making a film in Hollywood, and how a board game helped them seal the deal for "Ready or Not."
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In honor of National Whistleblowers Appreciation Day Cinema Junkie speaks with director Gavin Hood. His new film "Official Secrets" tells the story of Katherine Gun (played by Keira Knightley), a British intelligence specialist who leaked a memo when she felt her government was lying to the people. The film has a special screening July 30 and opens in San Diego theaters on Sept. 12.
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Comic-Con celebrated its 50th show and I celebrated my 41st. Join me as I speak with a trio of people who have attended all 50 shows plus some exhibitors who describe the changes they have seen over the years. I also pull out some archive footage from past Cons and visit Godzilla in his first Toho booth at Comic-Con.
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Chinese-American filmmaker Lulu Wang talks about her film "The Farewell" that she says is based on an "actual lie." The Sundance hit draws on her own family and first came to life as an episode on "This American Life." She also reveals how a trip to Ikea led to her career in filmmaking.
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In this two-part Cinema Junkie podcast I look to the female perspective in film. In part two, I explore the film "Ophelia," which reimagines Shakespeare’s "Hamlet" from Ophelia’s point of view. I will be speaking with director Claire McCarthy as well as with Lisa Klein, author of the novel the film is based on. The film stars Daisy Ridley (of "Star Wars" fame) as the title character.
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In this two-part Cinema Junkie podcast I look to the female perspective in film. In this first part I speak with Heidi Honeycutt, director of programming for Etheria Film Night. Founded in 2014, Etheria Film Night is a showcase of horror, science fiction, fantasy, action, thriller, and dark comedy directed by women and for an audience that includes producers, managers, showrunners, distributors, and genre fans. Etheria says its goal is to put the women directors who want to make genre films and TV in front of the people who want to hire them. Etheria is hosted by American Cinematheque and takes place at its Egyptian Theater.
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African Americans and Hollywood have a long, troubled, and complicated past. I am going to explore that history with Donald Bogle author of the new book "Hollywood Black: The Stars, the Films, the Filmmakers" from Turner Classic Movies. His comprehensive exploration begins in the silent era and wraps up with 2018's "Black Panther." Bogle has been writing about blacks in Hollywood and on screen for decades and over a half dozen books.
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Shakespeare has been dead for four centuries but this summer there is a film about his life called "All is True," an adaptation of the book "Ophelia" that looks at "Hamlet" from Ophelia's point of view, and a pair of his plays and a lecture about his work at the Old Globe Theatre. Cinema Junkie looks to the two new films, and then speaks with Globe artistic director and Shakespeare scholar Barry Edelstein
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"Pride and Glory" is another one of those films about good and bad cops fighting drug lords, but then joining them. This particular story is about a family of cops. The father was in the NYPD and has two sons that grow up to drive the black and whites. His daughter also married a man in a blue uniform. The son-in-law, Jimmy (Colin Farrell), is under the command of the eldest son. But Jimmy is dealing drugs and killing people behind his brother-in-law's back.
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"Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" is one of the best films I've seen this year. It features our four favorite New York zoo animals -- Alex, Marty, Gloria and Melman-- finding themselves on yet another epic adventure in a foreign land. This time our friends are stranded in Africa, which at first seems like a wasteland, but soon becomes a long lost paradise.
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"Madagascar 2; Escape 2 Africa" is a story of four animal friends -- Alex, Marty, Melvin and Gloria -- attempting to go back to New York and to their old lifestyle of living within the zoo. Unfortunately, on their way over to New York, their plane experiences some techinical difficulties and four infamous and mischievous penguins discover that the plane has run out of fuel. Their solution: Crashlanding in Africa.
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"Role Models" is a story about two friends, Danny (Paul Rudd) and Wheeler (Seann William Scott), who work together advertising an energy drink and end up conducting wild behavior. Their punishment: Work off 150 hours of commmunity service hours in a Big Brother program mentoring kids.
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Kristen Scott Thomas is turning into a far more interesting actress than I ever thought she would be. I first noticed her when she did "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and "The English Patient" because those films were such hits. She was good in those films, but not particularly interesting. Yet now that she's in her late 40s, she is taking on more interesting roles in foreign films -- not unlike what fellow British actress Charlotte Rampling has done. This year she had a supporting role in the thriller "Tell No One" and she has a starring role in "I've Loved You So Long."
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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!