Summer Festivals
Los Angeles is not known for its film festivals. There are no Golden Bears, Silver Lions or Palme D’ors awarded to obscure auteurs whose careers rise and fall on a handful of impossible-to-get-into screenings presided over by the cinematic elite. There are no A-List celebrities conducting full press Q&As.
The Other Guys – “Green Lantern” Review
Is it possible for a three hundred million dollar film to be an underdog? Consider the evidence:
Contributor Crosstalk – Quarterly Review (Spring 2011)
ERIC WHEELER: Hello! And welcome to the first installment of what we hope will become a long-lasting and beloved niche in the bowels of The Film Talk website: Contributor Crosstalk. The obvious idea here is that we ‘below the line’ talent (to use an industry phrase) clang our heads together and see what movies have [...]
Don’t Think Twice, It’s Insane, or: When the Communal Viewing Experience Goes Wrong
The Grove in Los Angeles is a lot of things to a lot of people. More precisely, it is meant to be everything to everybody. The sprawling, 575,000-square foot, open-air marketplace offers an alternative to Main Street, Costco, the Internet or any sort of reality existing beyond the confines of a price-tag. I mean no [...]
Sacred Monsters – Bronson v. Statham
At the height of his mid-1970s cinematic celebrity, Charles Bronson was known in movie-mad France as “Le Sacre Monstre,” or “The Sacred Monster.” It’s a strange sentiment, but an appealing one. Bronson was the archetypal action hero of the 70s, but he couldn’t seem more atypical by 21st century standards. He had a face and [...]
Sacred Spaces – Film Theaters as Church and Commerce
Los Angeles is the film production capital of the world, but it’s also a great place to see those films. Just as the term “Hollywood movie” can contain an almost endless variety of meanings, the act of theater-going in the “film colony” can range from enlightening to exasperating. A repertory screening of the original 1972 “The Mechanic” and a multiplex engagement with its 2011, Jason Statham starring progeny, help illustrate this idea.
