Melissa McCarthy

Spoken Reasons, the YouTube Poet, Jumps to Hollywood in The Heat

There are plenty of YouTube "stars" on the Internet -- written with quotation marks because they rarely are recognized by age groups outside their target audience of teenagers. But this past week, Spoken Reasons, born John A. Baker Jr., went beyond his subscribers' computer screens and onto the silv ... More >>

The Heat Would Be More Likable If It Stopped Yelling Everything

To Actresses on the Brink of 40: Go Bad or Go Home

Playing evil is more fun than playing good anyway, right?

The Hangover Part III Review: Heart of Fartness

Turning frat boys into dicks

Antonio Villaraigosa's Quest for Wall Street, Washington and Wealth

21 & Over Just Dares You to Get Offended

Slideshow: The 20 Most Tolerable Party Movies

The Evolution of Melissa McCarthy

See also: *More L.A. Weekly Film Coverage *12 Comedy Acts to Watch in 2013 To watch Melissa McCarthy as lovable chef Sookie St. James on seven seasons of the Gilmore Girls was to see an actress perfect the art of playing a sidekick. As best friend of the show's protagonist, Lorelai Gilmore (Laur ... More >>

Laugh Your Way to 2013

Like Marriage, This Is 40 Is Long, Aimless and Worth It

10 Movies We're Excited to See in 2013

See also: *Top 10 Films of 2012 *More L.A. Weekly Film Coverage Most of the blathering this year about the death of the movies has already evaporated from the mind, like so much inert gas. But one gnomic pronouncement endures: Leos Carax describing cinema as "a beautiful island with a cemetery" fol ... More >>

Luci Romberg Is the Queen of Freerunning, an Extreme Sport That's Like Running But More Awesome

Luci Romberg is practicing corkscrews over a blue gymnastics mat on a sweltering day. Most of the other 16 members of Team Tempest are here at the gym, too, also rehearsing methods of launching themselves airborne: flipping off ledges, leaping between walls, vaulting off foam blocks. They're rar ... More >>

2011 Village Voice/L.A. Weekly Film Critics' Poll

Parsing the data

10 Movies We're Excited About in 2012

Sacha Baron Cohen is The Dictator​We know -- you're excited about The Dark Knight Rises. And The Avengers. And Hunger Games. So are we. We're also excited about a lot of other movies whose marketing campaigns have not inundated us with white noise (yet). Allow us to suggest a few more films to ... More >>

10 People Who Mattered in Movies this Year

​By Ernest Hardy, Karina Longworth and Mark Olsen Some of our notables showed great courage this year, others are simply notorious, but all 10 had a big impact in 2011.

Movie Reviews: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, Jennifer's Body, Love Happens

Also, Crude, You the Living and more

Stage Raw: Clowntown City Limits

THE LATEST NEW REVIEWS ARE EMBEDDED IN THIS WEEK'S COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW REVIEW THEATER PICK CLOWNTOWN CITY LIMITSPhoto by Ed RachlesImagine a personable, grimy, makeup-smeared, cigar-chomping guy in a tank top, not unlike Tommy Lee Jones, playing cards outdoors on the porch of some tra ... More >>

Stage Raw: Pigs' Life (St. Joan of the Slaughterhouses)

THE LATEST NEW REVIEWS ARE EMBEDDED IN THE COMING WEEK'S COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW REVIEW THEATER PICK ST JOAN OF THE SLAUGHTERHOUSESPhoto by Vitor MartinsFor a lucid analysis of the malfunctioning global financial markets, one could do worse than Bertolt Brecht. And it's hard to imagine doi ... More >>

Theater Reviews: Yo Ho Ho! A Pirate's Christmas, It's a Stevie Wonderful Life!

Also, Inspecting Carol and Groundlings Holiday Show

Stage Raw: You've Come to the Right Place

The Groundlings, Your Body and You

Theater Reviews: 9 to 5: The Musical, 43 Plays for 43 Presidents

Also, Asleep on a Bicycle, Speech & Debate, Pugilist Specialist and more

Stage Raw: Don't Blame Me, I Voted for Helen Gahagan Douglas

Stage Raw: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Ex-Presidents

Groundlings Swimsuit Edition

Theater Reviews: Groundlings Swimsuit Edition, A Good Smoke

Also, Varla Jean Merman Loves a Foreign Tongue!

Christina Applegate Erases Bundy Past

Samantha Who?

Gilmore Girls Goodbye

"I actually felt happier talking like The Gilmore Girls. I literally felt my mood lighten."

Good News About the New Season

Seriously