Holiday films that provoke, (and Some Just for Fun)

Published on November 21, 2012

In addition to the traditional family and feel-good holiday films, this season offers a small selection of unexpectedly provocative productions.

Ozomatli: Band of the people

By Ryan Torok
Published on November 23, 2011

The Latin band Ozomatli is rocking out on the flatbed of a truck parked on a closed-down Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles. It’s a Saturday in early November, and the band is playing for a motley group of aging and 20-something hippies, union workers and even some Jews from the Westside, all of whom are dancing in the street a few hundred yards from the Occupy L.A. encampment on the grounds outside City Hall.

Through a lens, starkly

By Tom Teicholz
Published on November 23, 2011

“Pacific Standard Time,” the sprawling multivenue consideration of Los Angeles art from 1945 to 1980, is, for the most part, a story of artists who thrived here. However, “Naked Hollywood: Weegee in Los Angeles,” which opened Nov. 13 at MOCA Grand Avenue, posits a different narrative, recounting the famed New York photographer’s sojourn in Los Angeles between 1947 and 1952 as a somewhat soured love affair. If Hollywood is indeed a boulevard of broken dreams, then the Weegee show is our tour guide.

Back to Ukraine: A filmmaker’s diary of living in her ancestors’ land

Published on November 23, 2011

Naomi Uman is a woman of many talents, but drawing is not one of them. “I always knew that I was an artist, but I can’t and I couldn’t draw realistically,” Uman said during a phone interview from New York where she was visiting her mother. And so, rather than pursuing a career as a painter, she became a chef. Cooking in the kitchens of society fixtures like Gloria Vanderbilt and Malcolm Forbes, Uman carved out a fine, if unfulfilling, career for herself. “Eventually, watching all of my creations being consumed became frustrating.”

Beyond the blockbusters

Published on November 23, 2011

Among the holiday-oriented movies slated for this season, we find some quite unusual, fascinating fare, including a spy story, a silent movie, a couple of films from Iran and the latest project of the celebrated, though controversial, French-Polish filmmaker, Roman Polanski.

Holiday preview calendar

By Ryan Torok
Published on November 23, 2011

Part of “Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980,” this exhibition at The Getty explores how a community of Southern California artists, including Wallace Berman, George Herms, Judy Chicago and John Baldessari, developed innovative strategies to disseminate their work.

David Cronenberg on ‘A Dangerous Method,’ S & M and The Birth of Psychoanalysis [VIDEO]

By Naomi Pfefferman
Published on November 22, 2011