Michael Nordine

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Kiss of the Spider Woman

Michael Nordine
The Outfest UCLA Legacy Project Screening Series rolls on with Kiss of the Spider Woman at 7:30. William Hurt and Raúl Juliá star as prison cellmates in an unnamed Latin American country, the former for sex crimes related to his homosexuality, the latter for being a leftist revolutionary. Hurt’s character......
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In the Realm of the Senses, The Blood Spattered Bride

Michael Nordine
Equally subversive, albeit in different ways, is the New Beverly’s pairing of Nagisa Oshima’s In the Realm of the Senses and The Blood Spattered Bride. The former, Oshima’s story of an affair between a hotel owner and one of his maids, which features unsimulated sexual acts, has incited controversy and......
Boyhood is the frontrunner no longer

How to Be the Smartest Person at Your Oscar Party

Michael Nordine
For better or for worse (usually the latter), the Oscars matter. Nominees and winners gain wider recognition, legacies are secured and history is written. Citizen Kane will never be a Best Picture winner, and Crash will always be one. So when we complain about the Oscars, it's because we care......
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The Only Son, There Was a Father

Michael Nordine
Another Ozu double feature at Cal State Northridge, this time of The Only Son and There Was a Father. Though CSUN’s semester-long retrospective is still in the early phase of the Japanese master’s career, tonight’s screening of The Only Son marks his transition into the talkies. As with a great......
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Return to Oz

Michael Nordine
USC’s Movies We Love series presents the misunderstood and underappreciated Return to Oz at 7 p.m. L. Frank Baum purists have always been somewhat divided on this 1985 follow-up, as it hews closer to the books while also suggesting that the land of Oz exists solely in Dorothy’s mind. Beyond......
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Dragnet Girl, A Story of Floating Weeds

Michael Nordine
This week’s installment in Cal State Northridge’s semester-long tribute to Japanese master Yasujiro Ozu is a double feature: gangster drama Dragnet Girl at 7 and the original, silent version of A Story of Floating Weeds, from 1934, immediately after. Ozu’s own color remake of the film, which came about a......
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Wie Man Sieht (As You See)

Michael Nordine
Influential film-essayist Harun Farocki passed away last July, a loss that Los Angeles Filmforum has been commemorating with screenings of several of his works. Wie man sieht (As You See), the fifth in this series, plays tonight at the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles at 7. The film takes a look at......
Return to Oz

6 Great Movies to See in L.A. This Week

Michael Nordine
Friday, Feb. 13 USC’s Movies We Love series presents the misunderstood and underappreciated Return to Oz at 7 p.m. L. Frank Baum purists have always been somewhat divided on this 1985 follow-up, as it hews closer to the books while also suggesting that the land of Oz exists solely in......
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The Phantom Tollbooth

Michael Nordine
UCLA’s Family Flicks program presents a free matinee of The Phantom Tollbooth, Chuck Jones and Abe Levitow’s adaptation of the classic children’s book by Norton Juster, at 11 a.m. Bored young Milo is transported to the Lands Beyond, a journey marked by a shift from live-action to animation. Puns and......