Michael Nordine

It’s hard to imagine a more unsettling setting for a horror movie than Aokigahara, the famed “suicide forest” of Japan to which scores of pilgrims travel every year to end their lives. At the edge of the woods — which, per Japanese mythology, are rife with demons — is a......

Christmas comes early for cinephiles in Los Angeles, in the form of AFI Fest. L.A.'s preeminent movie festival got a boost last year with the surprise world premieres of Selma and American Sniper, both of which went on to dominate the year-end discussion and create a wave of momentum that......

Most distributors of world-class foreign and independent cinema are based in New York. For the last year, Cinelicious Pics has been quietly balancing the art-house equation in L.A.'s favor. That feat is all the more impressive considering it's headquartered in the middle of a company town that isn't always as......

Electric Dusk Drive-In isn't quite the last of a dying breed, but it is an endangered species. The number of drive-ins has dwindled in recent decades, so it's lucky for us that we still have a great one in the center of Los Angeles. An arresting view of the downtown......

Next Fest isn’t like most other film festivals, so much so that calling it one almost feels misleading. This is a good thing. The Sundance-hosted festivities are an increasingly multimedia affair in which moving images are only part of the draw — a model for like-minded entities to follow. (It's......

Dictionary.com defines the word "actor" it as “a person who acts in stage plays, motion pictures, television broadcasts, etc.” Articles about movies starring a debuting performer tend to complicate that definition. There are nonprofessionals, amateurs and, in the case of something like the just-released Tangerine, even non-actors. Tangerine is the......

What is the Los Angeles Film Festival? Nine days of cinematic bliss, running June 10 to 18. Film Independent is the producing organization, and the fest is now in its 21st year. Where is it held? Regal Cinemas' L.A. Live downtown hosts the lion's share of screenings. Others are scattered......