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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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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It is that time of year for classic film zealots to make the pilgrimage to the mecca known as the TCM Film Festival, running April 6 through 9 in Los Angeles.
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Cannibal films — in which people mindlessly slaughter and eat others or where carnage soaks the screen — are a dime a dozen. But films in which great care is taken with both the filmmaking and the preparation of human flesh for consumption are more rare. And that's what we are going to be talking about on this gourmet cannibal podcast.
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This week, the 24th annual San Diego Latino Film Festival kicks off, and that is a perfect excuse to look at Latin cinema — so good it’s scary.
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The wait is finally over. After 13 years "Samurai Jack" is back for his fifth and final season and I speak with Phil LaMarr, the voice actor who has brought Jack to life since his debut in 2001.
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February is Women in Horror Month and just before the month closes I want to pay tribute to some wickedly talented filmmakers, Jen and Sylvia Soska and their second feature, "American Mary."
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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.
Stripper Energy just received an Emmy for Journalistic Enterprise, you can watch the six-part video podcast now.