by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent Apologies for that misleading and crass headline, but it worked, right? BOOKSMART is actually Olivia Wilde’s directorial film debut from Annapurna that opens on Memorial Day, May 27. And it’s as wild as you would suppose it would be, in a good way. “From the beginning, my take on the story was that high school has extremely high stakes,” notes director Olivia Wilde. “When you’re in it, high school feels like lif...

Daddy’s Home 2, Review: Audience’s at home too When you can count twelve credited parts, and five of them are children, you might yourself arithmetically challenged. For relief, the film is titled Daddy’s Home 2, which, thankfully, does not make you look for your abacus. But you do realise that in this case, 2 is 1 too many. Okay, so we will make no comparisons to the first outing a couple of years ago, and accept that in part II, as in Chapter I, the two Daddies are going t...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent Mel Gibson comes back from traffic court, lol, okay too soon. Mulligan. Mel Gibson comes back from his Hollywood resurrection this year with his six-pack Oscar-nominated movie HACKSAW RIDGE (2016), that won two Oscars for sound mixing and editing, to join son of anarchy Mark Wahlberg and deviant nice guy Will Ferrell in DADDY’S HOME 2, their hit franchise reteam. But he’s not alone in the father-figure star power value-add. Beloved ...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent Steve Carell tells a story about working with Vanessa Redgrave in Foxcatcher, the movie for which he is Oscar nominated, and in this one scene he reveals a lot about actors. It also reveals why the Academy tapped Carell, and he has been named Performer of the Year at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. To set the mood, Steve Carell’s bad son, heir John E. Du Pont, tries to hand his matriarch, Mrs. Du Pont (Redgrave) a wrestling...

EVERYTHING MUST GO is based on a Raymond Carver short story about a middle-aged man, Nick Halsey (Will Ferrell), who in the space of one day become jobless, wifeless and homeless, in his front lawn, all due to an alcohol relapse. Feeling miserable, he has five days to vacate his front yard, but has to hold a yard sale in order to be able to stay those five days. A new neighbour moves in, Samantha (Rebecca Hall), he makes friends and employs a local kid, Kenny and visits an old high s...

  by Marla Lewin We will be attending another Shorts Film Fest this time here in Los Angeles. They proclaim themselves to be the largest short film festival in the world with 285 film screenings and 9 days of educational panels, interactive and entertaining events. Their host venue is the Laemmle Sunset 5 Theaters located at 8000 Sunset Blvd. West Hollywood CA 90046. They tell me that the festival has quickly become the industry standard for showcasing and awarding undiscov...

Tuesday, June 5------The MTV Movie Awards are the Oscars for the cool, hip crowd.....and last night's ceremonies in Los Angeles were their typically outrageous and unconventional. Hollywood's elite definitely does show up for these awards----which give the films and performers instant "street cred". The Awards are voted online by the MTV crowd.....the 18-35 year olds who have the potential to create blockbusters and cult hits. The ceremonies were emceed by Sarah Silverman, the ...