The China Hustle—an engrossing documentary that exposes, as Vanity Fair put it, “the biggest financial scandal you’ve never heard of”—begins with images of high rises and bustling downtowns against the conciliatory words of President Richard Nixon toward America’s then-enemy, the People’s Republic of China. Great, I thought to myself while taking this in, right from […]
Newsletter - Arts - Lead
Magical Visions Inhabit a New Exhibit at Hilbert Museum of California Art
Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty was something of a boondoggle when it opened in 1959. Critics were unimpressed, many convinced that this particular goldmine had been dug one too many times before. Back at a time when reviews mattered, audiences stayed away in droves, and the film tanked at the box office. It was an expensive, […]
Burlesque Superstar Dita Von Teese Performs Sold-Out Homecoming Show at the House of Blues Anaheim
Miss Dita Von Teese may not have been the type to be named homecoming queen when she was a student at University High in Irvine in 1990 (she was too busy staying home perfecting her craft and building the empire she now sits proudly on the throne of, after all) but she had a homecoming […]
Izzy Gets the Fuck Across Town is an Inventive Indie
Watching Mackenzie Davis in the low-budget indie Izzy Gets the Fuck Across Town had me thinking about Cary Grant in that most Hollywood of classics, Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest. That’s not because of the acting by the leads, which is masterful in both, but because Davis spends most of Izzy’s 86-minute runtime sweating up […]
‘Summer of Color’ Brings Walls of Street Art to the Laguna Arts District
The animals charge northward across the west-facing wall of the Fuse Building: horse, goose, snake, wolf and tiger. The creatures have a transparency, as if they were projected, and the guide marks used in the mural’s execution are clearly visible. The words Creatio Continua are emblazoned behind the beasts, assuring us creation/creativity is indestructible, while […]
OC Weekly’s Midyear Guide to the Best Local Theater
It’s summertime, and even though the living ain’t always the easiest, OC summertime sure beats the hell out of Stockton summertime. And for those of you who want to immerse yourself in a little bit of artsy-fartsy culture, there’s plenty of stuff both inside and outside, theatrically speaking, to satisfy that most perverse of urges. […]
Keep the AC Running for Our Summer 2018 Film Preview!
It’s been a good year so far for movies. And while audiences are plugged into online streaming services such as Netflix or Hulu (and with good reason—have you seen Wild Wild Country yet?!), it can be hard to pay attention to what’s coming to the big screen, too. That’s why I’ve come up with this […]
![The Cog•nate Collective, Amy Sanchez Arteaga and Misael Diaz, Create Art Through Research [OC People 2018]](https://www.ocweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/culture-cognate-collective-credit-John-Gilhooley-1-348x180.jpg)
The Cog•nate Collective, Amy Sanchez Arteaga and Misael Diaz, Create Art Through Research [OC People 2018]
As artists in residence at Grand Central Art Center (GCAC) for four years, Amy Sanchez Arteaga and Misael Diaz (a.k.a. the Cog•nate Collective) have established a presence beyond the gallery through a series of public interventions in Santa Ana, Tijuana, Los Angeles and Mexicali. The two have focused their practice on sparking dialogue on issues […]
![Glenn Brumage Spreads the Stoke as the Ambassador of Surf [OC People 2018]](https://www.ocweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/culture-glen-brumage-credit-John-Gilhooley-2-348x180.jpg)
Glenn Brumage Spreads the Stoke as the Ambassador of Surf [OC People 2018]
Long before Glenn Brumage began serving on Surfing Heritage and Culture Center’s (SHACC) board in 2014, he had been fulfilling its vision to “spread the stoke” of surfing with the world. As of January, he became the San Clemente nonprofit’s executive director and gets to focus full-time on its mission of sharing the sport’s history […]
Hurricane-Force Musical Hamilton Touches Land at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts
What do you write about a play that has been so written about, talked about, dissected, analyzed and been christened as the Big Theatrical Thing? We’re talking, of course, about Hamilton, the Lin-Manuel Miranda musical that is an international sensation. It entered the American political conversation after Vice President Mike Pence attended a show in […]
A Collegial Appreciation of Laguna Project Mastermind and BC Space Curator Mark Chamberlain
BC Space curator Mark Chamberlain died April 23. He was 75. In lieu of retelling his accomplishments, so numerous they wouldn’t fit on this page, I asked his local friends and colleagues to briefly write what he meant to them. Lev Anderson, documentary filmmaker: “A self-proclaimed river rat, Mark relished any opportunity to talk about […]
The Recently Appointed Queen of Medieval Times in Buena Park Is Met With Cheers and Jeers
“Are you ready to be a queen?” Queen Isabella asks the young girl standing in front of her as a mid-size crowd of tourists gathers in the main hall of a replica castle on Beach Boulevard on a recent Monday night. “It’s quite exciting,” she assures the child. Just before show time at Medieval Times […]
Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami Showcases the Amazonian Work of Art
The Normal classic “Warm Leatherette” from 1978 made it onto the mixtapes of many listeners of “The Rock of the Eighties” on KROQ. How could it not? Those siren-like instrumentals. Those monotone vocals by Daniel Miller. Those ultra-dark lyrics. A tear of petrol Is in your eye. Quick, let’s make love Before we die. “Warm […]
Newport Beach Film Festival Presents Its Funniest Lineup in 19 Years
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 […]
Did ’70s Sci-Fi Cinema Nail Our Looming Brave New World?
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 […]
Amy Freed’s Shrew! Reshuffles the Bard for South Coast Repertory
If awards were given to program notes, then the odds on South Coast Repertory’s Shrew! would be even money. Among the insightful reads is SCR dramaturg John Glore’s two-page treatment of the history of Shakespeare’s popular but problematic The Taming of the Shrew and Amy Freed’s process in writing her new, imaginative, reshuffling. None of […]
Edie Falco and Jay Duplass Are Star-Crossed Lovers in Outside In
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 […]
The Decline of Western Orange County, Starring Penelope Spheeris!
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 […]
Though Bumpy at Times, Cambodian Rock Band Is an Exhilarating Ride
Part play, part rock concert, part eccentric comedy set against the backdrop of the Cambodian genocide, Lauren Yee’s new play, Cambodian Rock Band, is many things stuffed into one undeniably entertaining package—stuffed being the operative term. Commissioned by South Coast Repertory (SCR), it’s now receiving its world-premiere production, and the play’s relative newness shows. While […]
Crimes of the Heart Is a Southern Gothic With Legs, But It Lags
Beth Henley won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1981 for Crimes of the Heart. What made it surprising wasn’t so much that the play wasn’t great (it was one of the more competent ones amid a meager lot of plays during a period of commercial transition in mainstream American theater), but her gender. She […]
The Oscars Don’t Matter—But You Should Still Watch Them
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, […]
