Harry Potter

Sundance 2013: Sex with James Franco, Sultry Scarlett Johansson, Daniel Radcliffe's Jew-Fro, and a Great Film From Jordan

In his brief remarks before the first public screening of the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, Robert Redford praised the Sundance Institute's ongoing filmmaker development labs as "our core," noting that the festival itself was conceived "to create an audience for the filmmakers in our lab program."

Inside the L.A. Dominatrix Industry

This piece is part of our series on the L.A. dominatrix industry. See also: *How a Dominatrix Does Her Taxes "Chains and whips excite me," Rihanna sings. "You're a dirty little whore, and I'm going to send you home to your parents covered in cum," Lena Dunham's love interest tells her on "Girls." ... More >>

Fidlar - SXSW - March 13, 2012

Fidlar and Superhumanoids SXSW Black & White Iris Showcase March 13, 2012 Better than: Playing bridge with your grandma. Once everyone got over the homeless guys being used as hot spots and the half mile line for tacos made with Doritos shells, folks settled in for the music portion of SXSW. Weekl ... More >>

50 Most Ridiculous Vanity Plates in L.A.

Forget 140 characters: try eight! In a city full of networking self-promoters and wannabe celebs, it's no surprise that ridiculous vanity license plates abound. That little space on the back of your car represents a precursor to the away message and the Facebook status, albeit a near-permanent one. ... More >>

This Life-Sized Stormtrooper Cake is the Dessert You Were Looking For

The team at Amanda Oakleaf Cakes created what might be the best cake in this galaxy or that galaxy far, far away: an enormous Stormtrooper cake, almost completely edible from boot to helmet. When completely assembled, the Stormtrooper stood 6 feet 4 inches tall, weighed a little bit more than 300 p ... More >>

Occult L.A.: Season of the Witch at Cinefamily Reveals L.A.'s Underground Magick Scene

Courtesy of Jodi WilleEat you heart out Harry Potter -- this is what witches and wizards really look like​ The full moon was in Aquarius and Mercury in retrograde as members of L.A.'s cosmic mafia -- a fashionable collection of white witches, black wizards, Crowleyites, healers, shamans, alch ... More >>

85°C Bakery-Café Opens in Hacienda Heights

Jim ThurmanLine at grand opening of 85°C Bakery-Café, Hacienda Heights​ The number of international chains with outlets in Los Angeles County grew by one when 85°C Bakery-Café opened in Hacienda Heights on Saturday. The Taiwanese chain, with nearly 500 stores in Taiwan, China and Australia ... More >>

Ice Cube Talks Art, Boyz n the Hood, and Why He Makes Comedies

Jennie Warren​Ice Cube may cut hair in the movies, but if you schedule a photo shoot with him, his people will request it be BYOB -- Bring Your Own Barber. You'll need to bring a makeup artist, too. After all, he's not the same man he was when Boyz n the Hood came out, 20 years ago last month ... More >>

Top 5 Westwood Dishes UCLA Grads Will Miss

Flickr/Kyle StricklandIn-N-Out Double-Double​ With the mass exodus of thousands of UCLA graduates from their picturesque Westwood neighborhood -- picturesque if you've always envisioned a neighborhood where you'd search 30 minutes for a parking space before giving up, or if you've dreamed all ... More >>

The Inspirational Effects of Coffee, or: What to Drink at a TED Talk

R.E.~/FlickrA cup of inspiration​ In what is both fodder for a future article in The Onion and an actual survey, leading "coffee retail brand" Don Francisco asked some 1,000 Americans to quantify their level of inspiration on a scale of 0 ("not at all inspired") to 100 ("extremely inspired), t ... More >>

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 Review: Franchise King Fights His Last Battle

​ After 10 years, seven movies, six Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers, four directors, two dead parents, one grating house elf, and incalculable amounts of CG wizardry, pubescent growing pains, budding romances, and apocalyptic fire and brimstone, we've finally arrived: Bespectacled Harry ... More >>

Theater Reviews: Cinderella, Schmutzigen Deutsche Kabarett

Also, Sweet Mama String Bean and more

We Are All Hoarders

Worst movie year ever? Or is Hollywood just feeding our addiction to garbage?

Comic-Con: Man In Harry Potter T-Shirt Stabs A Fellow Convention-Goer

File photo of Comic-Con.​A Comic-Con attendee was stabbed over the weekend following an argument over a seat at the annual convention in San Diego that has become increasingly important to Hollywood and its appetite for comic-based franchise films. The scuffle happened Saturday afternoon at ... More >>

Man Stabbed with Pen in Comic-Con's Hall H Following Argument About Sitting 'Too Close'

​ The big-time film and TV panels that are hosted in the San Diego Convention Center's mammoth Hall H during Comic-Con are usually epic in a number of ways, particularly on Saturday which is the con's busiest day and when all of the marquee blockbusters trot out their teasers and treats for th ... More >>

We Are the Mods, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead

Also, Inception, Predators, Kisses

Picks from San Diego Comic-Con's Schedule: Emily the Strange, Yoshitaka Amano, Buffy the Musical

Check out our Comic-Con picks for Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Sunday is Kids' Day at San Diego Comic-Con. Throughout the day, there will be lots of events for the young ones. But, if you don't have kids and you're not completely exhausted, there might be a few panels for you too. If you've been ... More >>

THE MAN WHO WOULD BE CORALINE

Mysterious Moaning Hermit's Cabin at LACMA: Emily Lacy's "Temples of the Mind"

Photos by Jimmy Fusil​Here's something to check out this weekend: a mysterious moaning "Hermit's Cabin" at the museum. The rickety, tin-roofed cabin is located outside of the Pentimento restaurant at LACMA. A woman's wailing emanates from inside it. It was made by artist Emily Lacy, one of the ... More >>

This Is It Almost Wasn't

The strange, surprising story behind this ghoulish Michael Jackson movie

Consumer Reports Tells You How to Store Produce: They'll Rate Appliances AND What's Inside Them

ConsumerReports.orgAutomatic coffee makers, 1958​I don't know about you, but when I was a kid we read the Sears, Robuck catalog, the Farmers' Almanac and Consumer Reports like kids now read Harry Potter or Manga comicbooks. Okay, the windswept prairie circa 1960-whatever was not a cultural Mec ... More >>

Film Reviews: Blood: The Last Vampire, Herb & Dorothy, I Love You Beth Cooper

Also, An Unlikely Weapon and Weather Girl

Barackula: The Vampire Musical

When Barack Obama was in college, he fought vampires. At least according to the musical starring and directed by Justin Sherman. It's a little bit Harry Potter, a little bit Buffy, a lot bit that Dracula puppet show rock opera in Forgetting Sarah Marshall (but with real actors, not puppets). Here i ... More >>

Best Roller-Coaster Rides

Ohhmysweetjesusgodpleasemakeitstop!

Confessions of a Promo-CD Junkie: Who Will Stop the Music Industry Gravy Train?

With so much music available at the click of a mouse, do tastemakers really need hard copies anymore? Is it worth the waste?

At L.A.'s E3 Summit: The Business of Beautiful Killing Games

Faster, Dracula! Kill! Kill! Bloodthirsty peeks at the latest versions of Flock, BioShock, Borderlands, WolfQuest and Castlevania, plus Konami designer Koji Igarashi

Madness at Medusa, Nettwerk's Sync space and Tigerheat at Avalon

Touched in the Head of Elizabeth Otero

The Future of Reading for Non-Readers: Book Expo America 2008

Book Expo America is supposed to be "for the trade" only. So says the program. That is a move in the wrong direction. Book events, especially the massive spectacle ones, should be inclusionary rather than exclusionary. How else are we going to regain the sense of reading as a fun, sexy thing to do ... More >>

Theater Reviews: Astroglyde2007, Polaroid Stories, Tango

Also The Rat Pack: Live at the Sands, A Christmas Carol and The Prisoner of Second Avenue

Too Cute for Their Own Good

Little children in the movies

Movie Reviews: Kurt Cobain: About a Son, Michael Clayton

Also Beyond Hatred, Blade Runner: The Final Cut and more

Film Reviews: Goya’s Ghosts, Cashback, Captivity

Also this week's pick, Ten Canoes

Film Reviews: Interview, My Best Friend and More

Also Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox, Tekkonkinkreet

One of Those Weeks

Christopher Rouse's Requiem and Mark Robson at Zipper Concert Hall

Do the Monster Mashup!

Best Anachronistic Bird Watching

The Bird Man of Elysian Park

Film Reviews

Over the Hedge and Under the Radar

Mapping today’s kiddie-movie landscape

Theater Reviews

For March 3 - 9

Eyes Opened Eyes Closed

Two CalArts-sponsored mash-ups celebrated MOCA's "Visual Music" exhibit

Gun Shy

The latest police shooting of a young black male is heard, but not felt, around the city and in the mayor’s race

Anime Magnetism

Coachella 2004

Hottest Teen Crushes

Think Tink!

The new Peter Pan both soars and satisfies

DIY

A cultural history of masturbation

A Walrus Shrugged

Chilling with AWOL 0ne, The Rapper Laureate of La Habra

Gray’s Magic

What the governor hasn’t told us could hurt this summer

Picking Up the Pieces