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.
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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.
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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.
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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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"Hellboy II: The Golden Army," inspired by Mike Mignola's comics and graphic novels, arrives today on DVD and Blu-ray. The film is one of my favorites from this year. The fabulous Ron Perlman returns as the big-hearted and big-fisted red demon working for a secret paranormal government agency. This time out he's trying to announce himself to the world while he fights Prince Nuada (a beautifully tragic Luke Goss) from the underground elf world. Once again, filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro creates a vivid fantasy world where we feel the greatest connection to the monsters and creatures.
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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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Stripper Energy just received an Emmy for Journalistic Enterprise, you can watch the six-part video podcast now.