Karina Longworth

My Week With Marilyn Review

Karina Longworth
  We get the escapism we deserve, I guess: Just as 1930s Hollywood distracted Depression-era audiences with glitzy Fred and Ginger musicals, Harvey Weinstein is answering our Occupy-preoccupied times by releasing two Oscar hopeful fantasies in the same week. Both present the sad lives of Old Hollywood stars, but the......
Martin Scorsese's Hugo

Hugo Review

Karina Longworth
Martin Scorsese's first foray into big-budget family filmmaking — as well as his inaugural effort in 3-D — Hugo is an activist statement disguised as a sellout. Based on Brian Selznick's 2007 illustrated kids book The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Hugo centers on its title character (Asa Butterfield), a just-prepubescent......
Rampart

Rampart Review

Karina Longworth
Directed by Oren Moverman (The Messenger) from a script by Moverman and L.A. noir master James Ellroy, Rampart tracks the downward spiral of LAPD cop Dave Brown (Woody Harrelson). A Vietnam vet whose personal code allows for extreme bad behavior in the name of a hazily defined greater good, Brown......

Your Weekly Movie To-Do List

Karina Longworth
Thurs., Nov. 24 While most local repertory houses are dark tonight, Cinefamily is throwing a party featuring a potluck dinner and a screening of Martin Scorsese's The Last Waltz. It's a members-only affair, but members are allowed to bring as many guests as they like. With memberships starting at $90......

Your Weekly Movie To-Do List

Karina Longworth
Thurs., Nov. 24 While most local repertory houses are dark tonight, Cinefamily is throwing a party featuring a potluck dinner and a screening of Martin Scorsese's The Last Waltz. It's a members-only affair, but members are allowed to bring as many guests as they like. With memberships starting at $90......

Your Weekly Movie To-Do List

Karina Longworth
Thurs., Nov. 17 Two extremely different but equally must-see utopian parables are wrapping up their local runs after tonight: Aki Kaurismäki's present-day take on the French-resistance flick, Le Havre, closes at the Sunset 5 after tonight's screenings, and Dragonslayer, Tristan Patterson's portrait of the economic collapse through the eyes of......
Elvis Mitchell; Credit: PHOTO BY KEVIN SCANLON

LACMA Goes Hollywood With Elvis Mitchell

Karina Longworth
The burger at Ray's, the Kris Morningstar–cheffed, Renzo Piano–designed restaurant at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, comes topped with red onion confit, Gruyère cheese, watercress, bearnaise sauce and a soft-fried egg — no substitutions. As at countless other restaurants in the neighborhood, the waitstaff at Ray's have been......

Your Weekly Movie To-Do List

Karina Longworth
Thurs., Nov. 17 Two extremely different but equally must-see utopian parables are wrapping up their local runs after tonight: Aki Kaurismäki's present-day take on the French-resistance flick, Le Havre, closes at the Sunset 5 after tonight's screenings, and Dragonslayer, Tristan Patterson's portrait of the economic collapse through the eyes of......

Your Weekly Movie To-Do List

Karina Longworth
Thurs., Nov. 10 AFI Fest wraps up tonight. The closing-night film, Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin, will be a tough ticket, but there's plenty else to see, including two of the best 2011 festival films scheduled for release in 2012, The Kid With a Bike and The Loneliest Planet,......

Dragonslayer review

Karina Longworth
Dragonslayer is a lyrical and formally audacious documentary portrait of Josh “Skreech” Sandoval, 23-year-old wastoid pro-skater with corporate sponsors, a place in the unofficial skateboarding hall of fame, a gorgeous teenage girlfriend, a history of crippling depression, and no permanent place to live. Alternately dreamy and abrasive, Tristan Patterson's SXSW-winning......