Wow, what an opening.  Limos cruised behind the red carpet, helicopters buzzed around LA Live, spotlights strobed the skies, and I felt like I was in a Batman movie, with the big action sequence about to erupt around me.  Festival volunteers ushered me to the rooftop Opening Night party of the LA Film Festival, telling me excitedly "you'll be able to watch the riots from there!".   Yes the riot police were marching out. Were people actually RIOTING over the opening n...

Los Angeles Film Festival Lights up HollywoodDowntown A crystal clear night set inthe backdrop of the Staples Center where the LA Lakers came out on top in the NBAFinalsLAFF brought out the starsboth in the sky and on the red carpet on the opening night screening of “TheKids are All Right” at the Regal Cinemas. Director Lisa Cholodenko hascreated a comedy which deals with parenthood in this day and age which hastaken on a whole new twist and both gay and heterosexual audiences will havesom...

"Gutsy, original, smart and free" - Mark Ruffalo says it all, at the Los Angeles Film Festival Opening Night Film 'The Kids Are All Right´Wow, what an opening. Limos cruised behind the red carpet, helicopters buzzed around LA Live, spotlights strobed the skies, and I felt like I was in a Batman movie, with the big action sequence about to erupt around me. Festival volunteers ushered me to the rooftop Opening Night party of the LA Film Festival, telling me excitedly "you'll be able to watch th...

A crystal clear night set in the backdrop of the Staples Center where the LA Lakers came out on top in the NBA FinalsLAFF brought out the stars both in the sky and on the red carpet on the opening night screening of “The Kids are All Right” at the Regal Cinemas. Director Lisa Cholodenko has created a comedy which deals with parenthood in this day and age which has taken on a whole new twist and both gay and heterosexual audiences will have something to smile about. Nic (Annette Bening )and J...

Director Lisa Cholodenko's The Kids Are All Right premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2010 to very positive reviews, resulting in one of the festival's most visible bidding war. Rumored suitors included Fox Searchlight, Sony Pictures Classics, The Weinstein Company, and Summit Entertainment; however, Focus Features (the specialty film unit of Universal Pictures) confirmed on Thursday that they had picked up distribution rights for the United States, the United Kingdom, South...

  Actor Mark Ruffalo, a genial leading man who has been one of the most consistent (and unheralded) actors in significant films over the past decade, has made his directorial debut here at the Sundance Film Festival. His sturdy direction offers a quirky spin to SYMPATHY FOR DELICIOUS, a comedy drama bout a diabled disk jockey who wakes up one day with the power to heal. The DJ, who is paralyzed and confined to a wheel chair, is winning played by Christopher Thornton, who also wro...

  The Brothers Bloom is a cute quirky film quite reminiscent of The Darjeeling Limited and no it wasn't because the film shared the same NYIndieSeen favorite talent Mr. Adrien Brody. BUT...I digress and say that this movie is what I like to call a smunny flick. Smunny movies are films that are smart and funny at the same time. The film is about two brothers played by Indieseen favorites Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo who are both con-artists. They've been conning since...

Tribute to Laura Linney: Lessons in passion and grace By MARC LEE for AFI online dailies Daily News Editor With speeches from Philip Seymour Hoffman, Mark Ruffalo, an introduction by LA Weekly film critic and editor Scott Foundas and a wealth of stunning film clips, AFI FEST's tribute to Laura Linney brought the ArcLight audience to its feet more than once. Appearing at the AFI FEST Rooftop Village with fiance Marc Schauer, Linney had a brief moment of calm before having her portrait take...

With Zodiac, presented in Competition, David Fincher unveils one of his works in Cannes for the first time. Over ten years after the release of Seven, the director makes a second descent into the world of serial killers with an exploration of Zodiac, the criminal who terrorized San Francisco in the late 1960s, always managing to elude police. To accomplish this ambitious endeavor, based on the book by Robert Graysmith, the reporter who spent years tracking Zodiac, Fincher called upon three sure-...

Friday, January 19----And so we're off.....the Sundance Film Festival opened last evening with the world premiere of CHICAGO 10, an intoxicating mix of straight-ahead documentary, visionary animation and truthful recreation of one of the more shameful periods of recent American history. The trial of the Chicago 10, leaders of the anti-war protestors who had gathered in Chicago for the 1968 Democratic Party Convention to express their outrage with the Vietnam War, was a milestone clash between...

Opening Night: National Premiere of United Artists' "The Yes Men" and Gala PartyThursday, Sept. 23, 7:30 pm; tickets $48"The Yes Men" follows the real-life group of prankster-activists () as they gain worldwide notoriety for impersonating officials of the World Trade Organization. The film is directed by Chris Smith, Dan Ollman and Sarah Price, the filmmaking team behind acclaimed Sundance Grand Prize Jury winner "American Movie" A special appearance by The Yes Men themselves promises to make th...