In our current New Film Reviews, you'll find Robert Abele's take on Mike Judge's new film Idiocracy. It's not exactly a rave, but we've slammed other films much harder 'round here:
IDIOCRACY
The strange irony of Fox off-loading the new (yet long-completed) Mike Judge comedy without screenings, trailers, posters, or marketing is that in the IQ-obliterated future Judge's movie envisions, the biggest evil in the collective sanding of our brains is arguably advertising. Luke Wilson plays a present-d
It's 1:30 a.m. late Friday night, and I'm lying on a sheet of cardboard in the back of a minivan, headed God knows where, amid sliding packages of toys, many of them mine that I've hauled around all day in addition to the laptop slowly eating its way through my shoulder till it will eventually cleave arm from shoulder. When offered a ride home, it never occurred to ask if there might actually be seats inside the vehicle of transit.
30 minutes earlier: I ask the driver if he knows where I'm stay
Am I really supposed to be here?
The event: A party for the reopening of the ballrooms in the Anaheim Hilton, and the ongoing renovations (“Redressed for Success”) in all the rooms.
The guests: Rich businesspeople, mostly wearing suits that look like they cost several months worth of my salary. And me, in my Spawn shirt from Hot Topic.
The bar: open. Featured drinks include various pomegranate cocktails, which I try before realizing that there's 12 year-old Scotch. And some kind of high
The publicists for STEEP seemed rather anxious for me to write about it, though I'm not entirely sure why – it's not my kind of film at all. I offer that as a caveat, in anticipation of those who will tell me that I just don't get it, because in some ways, I don't. I find it amusing that once upon a time, somebody said to him or herself “Hmmm, you know what would be fun? Strapping thin planks of wood to my feet and pushing myself through the snow with a pair of branding irons!” And then lo
There's really only one, isn't there?
I mean, sure, if you live near an L.A. art-house theater, you can and should go see SON OF RAMBOW, unless you already caught it at the Newport Beach fest. But I don't need to tell you what the main movie to see this weekend is.
[Adopting Beavis and Butt-head voice and clutching air guitar] DUH, DUH, DUDUDUH! DUDUDUDUDUDUH DUH DUHDUH DUH!
Okay, some things don't translate so well to the printed word. But that's the riff from IRON MAN.
I'd love to review t
I met Cathy and Elliott Pavlos, architects-turned-restaurateurs, and owners of Irvine's Lucca café and deli, during their Wine and Cheese Pairing 101 at Bloomingdales on Saturday. I had been envisaging a low-key gathering of shoppers and foodies (not that they're mutually exclusive, I hasten to add), but when I sidled up 15 minutes into the session I quickly realized that it was a more serious event, with seating, big flat-screen TVs with direct feeds and earnest-looking gourmets making notes.
