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Newport Beach Film Festival | Reel Knee-Slappers

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Film

Fantastic Films You Don’t Want to Miss at the 2018 Newport Beach Film Festival

Fantastic Films You Don’t Want to Miss at the 2018 Newport Beach Film Festival

April 19, 2018 By Aimee Murillo Leave a Comment

A genre that has been skyrocketing in popularity ... [more]

Fantastic Films You Don’t Want to Miss at the 2018 Newport Beach Film Festival

Fantastic Films You Don’t Want to Miss at the 2018 Newport Beach Film Festival

Aimee Murillo

April 19, 2018 Leave a Comment

A genre that has been skyrocketing in popularity in the past year is science fiction, evident in the steady rise of television shows, films and programs available through online-streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime: Blade Runner 2049, Bright, The Lure, The Void, Altered Carbon, Legion and The Handmaid’s Tale are just a number […]

Filed Under: Film, Film and TV, Newsletter - Arts, Newsletter Edit - Lead Tagged With: 3ft Ball and Souls, A Day, American Animals, Another Time, Closer Than We Think, Kusama Infinity, Newport Beach Film Festival, The Ranger, Wife and Husband

Our Guide to the 2018 Newport Beach Film Festival’s Tasteful Culinary Film Series

Our Guide to the 2018 Newport Beach Film Festival’s Tasteful Culinary Film Series

Aimee Murillo

April 19, 2018 Leave a Comment

For the first time in its epic 19-year history, the Newport Beach Film Festival (NBFF) will include a slate of documentaries and films revolving around the illustrious world of cuisine and the culinary industry. Many of the Culinary Film Series’ eight films are global and West Coast premieres, all of them scattered throughout other showcases […]

Filed Under: Film, Film and TV, Longform, Newsletter - Arts Tagged With: CUBAN FOOD STORIES, MICHELIN STARS TALES FROM THE KITCHEN, Newport Beach Film Festival, RAMEN HEADS, ULAM MAIN DISH

Lasso of Hell Yeah [Special Screenings, April 19-26]

Lasso of Hell Yeah [Special Screenings, April 19-26]

Matt Coker

April 19, 2018 Leave a Comment

Borg vs McEnroe. Janus Metz Pedersen’s multilanguage, internationally co-produced, 2017 sports biopic is set during the 1980 Wimbledon Championships, at which Björn Borg (Sverrir Gudnason), the placid, No. 1 professional tennis player in the world, was challenged by John McEnroe (Shia LaBeouf), a volatile, rising star. The Frida Cinema, 305 E. Fourth St., Santa Ana; […]

Filed Under: Film, Film and TV, Newsletter - Arts, Special Screenings Tagged With: A Plastic Ocean, American Animals, Army of Darkness, Borg vs. McEnroe, Bus Party to Hell, Chapman University Senior Thesis Film Screenings, Cobra Kai, Fragments of Truth: Can We Trust the Bible?, Guys and Dolls, High School Musical, Human Flow, I Am Joaquí’n, Imitation Girl, Inside Out, International Ocean Film Tour, Laguna Art Museum at 100, Living the Change: Inspiring Stories for a Sustainable Future, Love & Bananas: An Elephant Story, Newport Beach Film Festival, November, Purple Rain, Searching for Simón Bolívar: One Poet’s Journey, Seeing Strange Again: Experimental Documentary as Practice, Straws, The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez, The Cat Returns, The Exhibition Room Silent Film Series, The Greatest Time to Be Alive: A Gospel Patrons Film Night, The Karate Kid, The Neon Demon, The Riot and the Dance: A Cinematic Celebration for Creation, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Royal Opera House: Carmen, Trolls, Valhalla Rising, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Wonder Woman

Newport Beach Film Festival Presents Its Funniest Lineup in 19 Years

Newport Beach Film Festival Presents Its Funniest Lineup in 19 Years

Matt Coker

April 19, 2018 Leave a Comment

I have sat through so many films while on the Newport Beach Film Festival (NBFF) beat. Because so many friends and family members know that, I am invariably asked to name my favorite NBFF film. It beats the hell out of me; that would be like choosing a favorite toe. However, to deal with the […]

Filed Under: Film, Film and TV, Longform, Newsletter - Arts - Lead Tagged With: A Swinger’s Weekend, Adventures in Public School, All Square, American Animals, Another Kind of Wedding, Another Time, Better Start Running, Boundaries, Chasing the Blues, costa mesa, Destination Dewsbury, Gregg Schwenk, Happy Birthday Toby Simpson, Most Likely to Murder, My Blind Date With Life, Never Goin’ Back, Newport Beach, Newport Beach Film Festival, Sarah Sleeger, The Bill Murray Stories, The California No, The Long Dumb Road, The Pretend One, The Ranger, The Unicorn, When Jeff Tried to Save the World, Wife and Husband, Wild Honey, Zoo

<i>The Handmaid’s Tale</i> Starts Season 2 Just as Intense; Plus, a Writer Comes to Town

The Handmaid’s Tale Starts Season 2 Just as Intense; Plus, a Writer Comes to Town

Matt Coker

April 16, 2018 2 Comments

Based on the intense first three episodes of the second season of The Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu, it is obvious why Elisabeth Moss and Ann Dowd were Emmy winners for Outstanding Actress and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series respectively. The Handmaid’s Tale was also the Emmy winner for Outstanding Dramatic Series, and among the […]

Filed Under: Film, Film and TV, Newsletter - Arts Tagged With: Ann Dowd, Chapman University, Dodge College, Dorothy Fortenberry, Elisabeth Moss, Hulu, The Handmaid's Tale, Women in Focus

Did ’70s Sci-Fi Cinema Nail Our Looming Brave New World?

Did ’70s Sci-Fi Cinema Nail Our Looming Brave New World?

Stacy Davies

April 12, 2018 5 Comments

In the 1970s, Hollywood was hell-bent on scaring the bejesus out of audiences with futuristic dystopias, churning out iconic, outrageous, science-fiction stories that imagined—and warned of—horrific “things to come.” But just how accurate were these filmmakers’ visions, most of which were believed far too insane to ever come to pass? Hold our Moscow mule! ROLLERBALL […]

Filed Under: Film, Film and TV, Newsletter - Arts - Lead, Newsletter Edit, Slider Tagged With: 1970s, Charlton Heston, edward g. robinson, james caan, Logan's Run, Michael York, Rollerball, sci-fi, SIRI, Soylent Green

Who Are You Really? [Special Screenings, April 12-19]

Who Are You Really? [Special Screenings, April 12-19]

Matt Coker

April 11, 2018 Leave a Comment

Isle of Dogs. Wes Anderson’s latest animation has, by executive decree, all the canine pets of Megasaki City exiled to a vast garbage dump called Trash Island. That sends 12-year-old Atari off alone in a miniature turbo prop to find his bodyguard dog, Spots. He is assisted on his epic journey by a pack of […]

Filed Under: Columns, Film, Film and TV, Newsletter - Arts, Special Screenings Tagged With: Amendment, Bjorn Borg, Bombshell, Borg vs. McEnroe, Bronson, Chapman University, Dating Project, Distant Sky, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Exhibition Room Silent Film Series. Imitation Girl, Fear the Walking Dead, Grease, Gunfight at the OK Corral, Hedy Lamarr, Human Flow, Isle of Dogs, John McEnroe, Kong: Skull Island, Laguna Art Museum at 100, Living the Change, Luisa Miller, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Phoenix Wilder and the Great Elephant Adventure, rocky horror picture show, Sacrifice, selena, Spirited Away, Surfer, The Riot and the Dance, Valhalla Rising, Walking Dead

A Look At the Most Memorable Music DJs in Film

A Look At the Most Memorable Music DJs in Film

Stacy Davies

April 5, 2018 4 Comments

In the roughly 112 years that Hollywood has been churning out feature-length films, radio disc jockeys have made for some interesting, if not iconic, cinematic characters. Record spinners really started appearing onscreen in the 1970s—back when DJs were still able to pick their own music—and here are some of the best. Stevie Wayne, The Fog […]

Filed Under: Film, Film and TV, Newsletter - Arts Tagged With: Adrian Cronauer, Adrienne Barbeau, Alan Freed, American Graffiti, American Hot Wax, Christian Slater, Clint Eastwood, Dave Garver, DJ, Do the Right Thing, Good Morning Vietnam, Hard Harry, Lynne Thigpen, Mister Señor Love Daddy, Play Misty for Me, Pump Up the Volume, Robin Williams, Samuel L. Jackson, Stevie Wayne, The Fog, The Warriors, The Wolfman, Tim McIntire, Wolfman Jack

No More Hammer Time [Special Screenings, April 5-12]

No More Hammer Time [Special Screenings, April 5-12]

Matt Coker

April 4, 2018 Leave a Comment

Psiconautas, los niños olvidados (Birdboy: The Forgotten Children). Alberto Vázquez and Pedro Rivero’s darkly comic animated feature is based on Vázquez’s graphic novel and is not intended for children. Stranded on an island in a post-apocalyptic world, teenager Dinky and her friends hatch a dangerous plan to escape for a better life. Meanwhile, her old […]

Filed Under: Columns, Film, Film and TV, Newsletter - Arts Tagged With: #Screamers, A Year With Betty Gold, Amendment, Basket Case, Bolshoi Ballet, Distant Sky, Eating You Alive, Giselle, Grease, Human Flow, Isle of Dogs, Laberinto Yoéme, Light of the Moon, Love and Everything in Between, Mary Poppins, Memorias del subdesarrollo, Psiconautas, Road to Morocco, rocky horror picture show, Rogers Park, Skid Row Marathon, Space Jam, Special Screenings, The Sacrifice, Thor Ragnarok

Edie Falco and Jay Duplass Are Star-Crossed Lovers in <i>Outside In</i>

Edie Falco and Jay Duplass Are Star-Crossed Lovers in Outside In

Aimee Murillo

March 29, 2018 1 Comment

Brothers Jay and Mark Duplass have carved themselves an interesting niche of indie cinema that has consistently examined mid-30s age malaise as reflected in interpersonal relationships in the 21st century. Together—and separately—they’ve embarked on making character-driven films in which the main protagonists are flawed, uncertain individuals working through some type of anxiety and confusion during […]

Filed Under: Film, Film and TV, Newsletter - Arts - Lead Tagged With: Ben Schwartz, Edie Falco, Jay Duplass, Kaitlyn Dever, Lynn Shelton, Outside In

Wonderful You [Special Screenings, March 29-April 5]

Wonderful You [Special Screenings, March 29-April 5]

Matt Coker

March 28, 2018 Leave a Comment

Una Mujer Fant‡stica (A Fantastic Woman). Writer/director Sebastian Lelio’s 2018 Best Foreign Language Oscar winner has Marina (Daniela Vega), a transgender waitress who moonlights as a nightclub singer, facing persecution after the death of her older boyfriend (Francisco Reyes). The Frida Cinema, 305 E. Fourth St., Santa Ana; thefridacinema.org. Thurs., March 29, 12:30, 2:45, 5, […]

Filed Under: Film, Film and TV, Newsletter - Arts Tagged With: #Screamers, A League of Their Own, April Fool’s Day, Awakening:, Best Friends, Cosí“ fan tutee, Drive, Eating You Alive, Godfather Part II, Laberinto Yoéme, Popeye, Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, room, Southland Tales, Una Mujer Fant‡stica, What We Started, Wizard of Oz

The Decline of Western Orange County, Starring Penelope Spheeris!

The Decline of Western Orange County, Starring Penelope Spheeris!

Matt Coker

March 22, 2018 6 Comments

Penelope Spheeris’ three The Decline of Western Civilization documentaries are Los Angeles-based stories, although Orange County plays a major role. It’s fitting then that Angeleno (Angelena?) Spheeris returns to the region she grew up in to present 2K restorations of her trilogy. At the Frida Cinema in Santa Ana on Friday night, she introduces The […]

Filed Under: Film, Film and TV, Newsletter - Arts - Lead, Newsletter Edit Tagged With: Anna Fox, Decline of Western Civilization, Michael X-Head, Penolope Spheeris, Rock 'N Reel, Sin, Stand Up for Kids

Better Work It, Girl [Special Screenings, March 22-29]

Better Work It, Girl [Special Screenings, March 22-29]

Matt Coker

March 21, 2018 Leave a Comment

Aliens. The director baton was handed from Alien’s Ridley Scott to James Cameron, and the 1986 sequel is now regarded as a sci-fi classic. Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is awakened 57 years after being the lone survivor when her merchant space ship returned to Earth. At first skeptical about her claims regarding who wiped out her […]

Filed Under: Columns, Film, Film and TV, Newsletter - Arts Tagged With: Aliens, Blade Runner, Buck Privates, Dreams So Real, Dudes, Hippocratic, How to Train Your Dragon, I Tonya, Ice Dragon, In Between, In the Intense Now, Julius Caesar, Ponyo, Race to Nowhere, Rear Window, RuPaul's Drag Race, The Decline of Western Civilization, The Little Rascals, The Redeemed and the Dominant, Una Mujer Fant‡stica, UNSTUCK, Zardoz, Zootopia

This Film is Cursed: Zak Bagans Conjures Up a Spooky Doc with ‘Demon House’

This Film is Cursed: Zak Bagans Conjures Up a Spooky Doc with ‘Demon House’

Aimee Murillo

March 16, 2018 1 Comment

It was like something out of a horror movie: a series of strange, unexplainable occurrences began happening to a family living in a small Indiana town, and the results of those happenings became their own supernatural legend. Back in 2014, Latoya Ammons and her three youngchildren started experiencing abnormal signs in their Gary, Indiana home […]

Filed Under: Film, Film and TV Tagged With: Demon House, demonic possession, demons, documentary, film, Ghost Adventures, Indiana, Now Showing, possession, Travel Channel, Video on Demand, Zak Bagans

I Kill Giants Is a Coming-of-Age Tale With Surprises

I Kill Giants Is a Coming-of-Age Tale With Surprises

Aimee Murillo

March 14, 2018 Leave a Comment

Having never read Joe Kelly’s excellent graphic novel, I expected an earnest giant-killing fantasy film out of Anders Walter’s directorial feature I Kill Giants. What I got instead was a film that, albeit one that still contained elements of fantasy, was more a direct coming-of-age story about a young girl being the David to the […]

Filed Under: Film, Film and TV, Newsletter - Arts Tagged With: Anders Walter, I Kill Giants, Imogen Poots, Joe Kelly, Ken Niimura, Madison Wolfe, Sydney Wade, Zoe Saldana

Everyone Has Their Own Truth [Special Screenings, March 15-22]

Everyone Has Their Own Truth [Special Screenings, March 15-22]

Matt Coker

March 14, 2018 Leave a Comment

Before We Vanish. In the sci-fi thriller from acclaimed Japanese horror director Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Pulse, Cure), three aliens travel to Earth on a reconnaissance mission before a mass invasion. Each takes possession of a human body, robs it of its essence and leaves it unrecognizable to family members. In Japanese with English subtitles. The Frida […]

Filed Under: Film, Film and TV, Newsletter - Arts Tagged With: Alien, Aliens, before we vanish, Breakfast Club, Chinatown, Grey Canyon, Gun Crazy, have a nice day, I Tonya, Julius Caesar, Oscuro Animal, Phantom of the Paradise, terrifier, Vertigo, Wonder

The Young Karl Marx Paints a Humanizing Portrait of the Reviled, Revered Philosopher and His Friend

The Young Karl Marx Paints a Humanizing Portrait of the Reviled, Revered Philosopher and His Friend

Gabriel San Roman

March 8, 2018 4 Comments

Young intellectuals smoking cigars, playing chess and trading philosophical barbs between moves in the mid-19th century may not seem like the makings of compelling cinema. But when situated in a European society newly transformed by the Industrial Revolution and centered on a 26-year-old protagonist destined to become the founding father of communism, The Young Karl […]

Filed Under: Film, Film and TV, Newsletter - Arts, Slider Tagged With: august diehl, friedrich engels, pascal bonitzer, raoul peck, stefan konarske, vicky krieps, young karl marx

You’re in Terrible Danger, Girl! [Special Screenings, March 8-15]

You’re in Terrible Danger, Girl! [Special Screenings, March 8-15]

Matt Coker

March 7, 2018 Leave a Comment

Oscar Nominated Short Films. The Oscars are over, but the screenings continue. Academy Award Best Live Action Short Film nominees: Reed Van Dyk’s DeKalb Elementary; Derin Seale and Josh Lawson’s The Eleven O’Clock; Kevin Wilson Jr.’s My Nephew Emmett; Chris Overton and Rachel Shenton’s The Silent Child; and Katja Benrath and Tobias Rosen’s Watu Wote/All […]

Filed Under: Columns, Film, Film and TV, Newsletter - Arts Tagged With: before we vanish, best little whorehouse in texas, Breakfast Club, chavela, Coraline, dr. zhivago, Hamlet, have a nice day, in the fade, initial d, It, mulholland drive, sailor moon, semiramide, sonic sea, sorry wrong number, terrifier, tosca, Yu-Gi-Oh!

Movie Town, OC’s Last Great Video-Rental Store, Set to Close After 25 Years

Movie Town, OC’s Last Great Video-Rental Store, Set to Close After 25 Years

Gabriel San Roman

March 5, 2018 3 Comments

On a recent Friday night, Movie Town in Anaheim bustled with more customers roaming the aisles than usual. It appeared that the video-rental store enjoyed the kind of foot traffic needed to continue making it an OC rarity in an era of digital streaming. But far from a display of resurgence, loyal customers began bidding […]

Filed Under: Arts & Culture, Film, Newsletter - Arts, Newsletter Edit Tagged With: Anaheim, La Habra, Movie Town, Video Rentals, Video Town

The Great Parks Huell Howser Showed Us on View at Orange County Great Park

The Great Parks Huell Howser Showed Us on View at Orange County Great Park

Matt Coker

March 1, 2018 Leave a Comment

Huell Howser exposed Orange Countians (and other Californians) to the Golden State’s great parks (and beaches and lakes and mountains and rivers and etc., etc., etc.). So, it is only fitting that the Orange County Great Park is the venue for the art exhibition “Golden Parks: Huell Howser.” Opening Sunday with a reception from 1-3 […]

Filed Under: Arts & Culture, Film and TV, News, Newsletter - Arts Tagged With: art exhibition, California's Gold, Huell Howser, Orange County Great Park

The Oscars Don’t Matter—But You Should Still Watch Them

The Oscars Don’t Matter—But You Should Still Watch Them

Aimee Murillo

March 1, 2018 3 Comments

I love watching the Academy Awards. I love seeing the glitter of the people walking the red carpet, discovering what designer each actress chose to wear, the pomp and glamour of the award presenters, the “In Memoriam” montage, and even the possibility of seeing older stars come back for a surprise cameo. As a film-lover, […]

Filed Under: Film, Film and TV, Newsletter - Arts - Lead, Newsletter - Film - Lead, Newsletter Edit Tagged With: #metoo, #timesup, Academy Awards, Barry Jenkins, Dennis Hopper, Halle Berry, Harold Russell, John Singleton, Oscars, William Wyler

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