Karina Longworth

Arthur

Karina Longworth
ARTHUR In this rethink of the 1981 screwball throwback, the titular drunken heir, originally played by lovable lump Dudley Moore, has been rebuilt to suit slinky British sleaze-comedian Russell Brand, whose constant nattering rarely transcends throat-clearing improv. The film apparently takes place in the present day (cue recession reference), although......
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Interview: Mr. Oizo Is Back, with a Movie about a Killer Rubber Tire

Karina Longworth
BY AARON HILLIS Until now, quirky French artist, electro-house musician, and filmmaker Quentin Dupieux--more commonly known by his pseudonym, Mr. Oizo--had reached his widest audience with a series of Levi's commercials in the UK featuring a head-banging yellow puppet. Dupieux/Mr. Oizo's career should only get stranger with his Cannes-approved feature......
"Robert

Film Review: Rubber

Karina Longworth
In Rubber's pre-credits prologue, a man dressed like a cop (Stephen Spinella) climbs out of the trunk of a car and delivers a deadpan monologue in praise of something that he says unites "all great films": "the element of no reason," to which, he says, the flick to follow will......
Falling in love with Jean-Luc Godard

Film Review: Every Man for Himself at LACMA

Karina Longworth
The Jean-Luc Godard film screening at LACMA this weekend goes by many names. Made in 1979 and currently in the midst of a nationwide rerelease tour, the picture originally was released stateside in 1980 under the title Every Man for Himself. In Britain, it was called Slow Motion — a......

Super

Karina Longworth
SUPER When a local crime boss (Kevin Bacon) lures away his wife (Liv Tyler), lifelong pushover Frank (Rainn Wilson) — under the influence of a bizarre Christian kids’ TV show and a sci-fi-style encounter with something like God — starts to make himself over into a real-life superhero. On discovering......
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Catherine Deneuve's Potiche

Karina Longworth
The opening title card of François Ozon's 1977-set Potiche seems to take design inspiration from the exploitation films of that period — a sneaky-smart way of nodding to one of this pastel-colored political farce's key topics, if not its stylistic mode. As Suzanne, Catherine Deneuve plays the title role, which......

Last Chance Cassavetes: Your Weekly Movie To-Do List

Karina Longworth
Thursday Cinefamily's monster John Cassavetes retrospective ends on Friday with a party, an encore screening of A Woman Under the Influence, a presentation from archivist Ross Lipman on Cassavetes' collaboration with Charles Mingus, and much more. But tonight's penultimate program of Opening Night and Love Streams is just as can't-miss:......

Peep World

Karina Longworth
PEEP WORLD Twenty-nine-year-old Nathan (Ben Schwartz) has one best-selling novel under his belt, and already he's modeling himself on Mailer and making sport out of negging pretty publicists like Meg (Kate Mara). Nathan is coincidentally wrapping up his book tour in his hometown of Los Angeles on the same day......
Barbara Loden

One-Hit Wanda

Karina Longworth
"Barbara Loden has youth, beauty, talent, a Tony Award, her name in Who's Who — and the fascinating Elia Kazan for a husband. What else could she ask for? Everything, she says." That was the lede of a January 1968 McCall's profile of Loden, the actress turned writer-director of the......
The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach

LACMA Salutes 50 Years of Cannes Discoveries

Karina Longworth
Critics' Week — aka la Semaine de la critique, the Cannes Film Festival's emerging-filmmakers sidebar responsible for providing early international exposure to filmmakers as diverse as Guillermo del Toro, Miranda July, Wong Kar-Wai and Kevin Smith — is coming off a banner year. In 2010 it hosted the international premiere......