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 top pick: 'Smile'

Are you ready to binge on Fringe?

SD Fringe adds SDSU filmmaker showcase

'Park Opera' redefines opera in Balboa Park
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"The Overnight” has been stirring buzz since its premiere at Sundance earlier this year. It's a raunchy comedy but with more than sex on its mind.
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It’s summer so that means Shakespeare takes the stage at the Old Globe Theatre in Balboa Park. But for its 80th anniversary, the Globe is adding a twist to the Summer Shakespeare season — films.
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In an era of fast food entertainment, “We Are Still Here” (opening June 25 at the Digital Gym Cinema) serves up a slow meal of haunted house horrors.
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“Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” (opening June 19 in select San Diego theaters) won the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.
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Here's a little twist on Trailer Tuesday: Instead of posting a preview of a big Hollywood movie or cool indie title you get to see an entire movie.
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The teen critics have spoken out on The Last House on the Left (opened March 13 throughout San Diego) and I was curious to hear what they had to say since they weren't even born when the original film came out (OK, that made me feel old). I was glad that at least one of them had seen the original and found it more disturbing than the remake.
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The 16th San Diego Latino Film Festival kicked off last night with films, music, and a gala party. Now we can get down to the business of seeing films. Here are a few suggestions for what you might want to seek out and mini-reviews of some of the films that I had a chance to screen in advance. All films are at the UltraStar Mission Valley Theaters at Hazard Center.
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Real life French teacher François Bégaudeau plays an on-screen version of himself in "The Class/Entre les murs" (held over at Landmark's La Jolla Village Theaters), based on his book about his own classroom experiences. We discussed the film on last month's Film Club but I also wanted to highlight the film on my blog. Director Laurent Cantet (who also made "Time Out" and "Heading South") collaborated with Bégaudeau to bring his story to the screen. The ressult is a documentary style portrait of teaching in a contemporary French school. Cantet chose to shoot multiple improvised takes using real students and multiple cameras to chronicle what happens in a single classroom of middle school age students. The film was nominated this year for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and took home the Palm D'Or at Cannes. While there were definitely more worthy films to pick as the best of the year, the Cannes Award is telling because it reflects France's need and maybe desire to try and come to terms with its increasing multi-ethnice make-up, a fact that's been harder to ignore inlight of recent riots and protests.
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A text messaged Teen Critic review from Kimi Allen and Shelby Iacometti:
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Since Christian Bale's been making news for his outburst on the set of Terminator Salvation , I thought I'd load up the trailer for the film so you could see what's going on in front of the cameras rather than just the sensationalism behind the scenes.
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In "Yonkers Joe" (opening January 30 at the Reading Gaslamp Stadium Cinemas), writer-director Robert Celestin seems to know his way around a small neighborhood cash-stakes game of craps or poker. Watching the title character (played by Chazz Palminteri) work his magic - of inserting new cards in a deck or swapping out regular dice for weighted ones - is mesmerizing. Any time a filmmaker can give you an insider's look at a secretive world, it's a tantalizing point of view. Too bad Celestin wasn't content to stick to that world.
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The Uninvited (opening January 30 throughout San Diego), originating from the South Korean movie A Tale of Two Sisters, is about a young girl named Anna who goes through some odd experiences with her somewhat "mysterious and unsolved" past. The movie begins with Anna at a hospital and then she is released back home. She then finds out about her father's new girlfriend, Rachel. As Anna adjusts to her home, her sister Alex updates her about a few things regarding what's been going on, especially the relationship between Rachel and their father. Anna's memories of her late mother haunts her as she sees her mother's spirit back at the boathouse where she died. From the experiences that Anna goes though, Anna gathers the clues together and thinks that her mom has been trying to tell her something, a message pointing Rachel out as a "murderer." As the movie goes on, Anna finds out the truth of what truly caused the fire at the boathouse where Anna's mother passed away and what really is going on.
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!