Latest Columns & Features

INTERVIEW: MUCH ADO ABOUT AMY ACKER & ALEXIS DENISOF

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Interviews with MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING actress Amy Acker and actor Alexis Denisof were conducted separately via phone on Friday, June 7, 2013, and edited together.

James R. Janowsky: I’ve been watching interviews of Joss Whedon and the actors from MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING from last year’s Toronto Film Festival to this year’s Seattle International Film Festival, and what I gleaned from those interviews was that the production of MUCH ADO embodies the heart, the soul, the spirit, and the sense of community that is independent filmmaking

CAMP DAVID MAY 2013: ROLL ME IN DESIGNER SHEETS

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The other day I found myself wandering about the quaint little village of Westwood for the first time in years. As I was walking through the courtyard of the Bruin Theater it struck me all at once that something in the atmosphere was missing, which seemed strange to me. Westwood village is more than familiar territory to me having lived around the LA area for decades now, yet some aspect was missing from the late 70′s and 80′s when films like SHAMPOO, A STAR IS BORN and AMERICAN GIGOLO all had their premieres at this very spot.

INTERVIEW: ANTONIO CAMPOS AND BRADY CORBET

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Interview with SIMON KILLER writer/director Antonio Campos and actor Brady Corbet at the Crosby Street Hotel on Monday, April 1, 2013.

CAMP DAVID MARCH 2013: APPOINTMENT IN SUMARA

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I would like to believe that DESTINY plays a hand in life, and one of Boris Karloff’s parting gifts to the film industry was his choice to bestow upon a then 28-year-old Peter Bogdanovich, his chance to finally prove himself as a director. It was of course Roger Corman who gave Peter the initial shot at directing TARGETS, but more to the point it was Karloff who gracefully acted several scenes within his particular segments in the film allowing Bogdanovich the opportunity to show off his ability to frame the iconic Karloff in just such a way as to showcase the legacy of this great actor at the top of his game.

INDIE CORNER: CHILLY WINTER 2013

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Making my first films in high school in the late 1970’s was for me, and other student film-makers, a test of patience, and sometimes a study in suspense. The same fragile strip of Super 8mm film that went through your camera was the same piece of film you edited and sent through a projector. Duplicate prints for editing, screening and archiving just didn’t exist. Your only edits in Super 8mm were mostly your final decisions.

CAMP DAVID JANUARY 2013: CAKE OR CROTCH? YOUR BREATH STINKS, BUT I DIG IT

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Any film from American International Pictures that opens with the line of dialogue “It is not true that my father was a homosexual” has my attention to begin with and in the case of this transgressive masterpiece of questionable taste—the relatively unknown counterculture flick ANGEL, ANGEL, DOWN WE GO —it is a cinematic catalogue of wiggy dialogue and sexual situations to keep any film buff focused on this sixties meltdown of a motion picture.

FIR 2012 STOCKING STUFFER

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It’s that season again where weighty gifts are appropriate, and the economy is rebounding just enough to allow some of us to indulge in that extravagant mode of gift-giving. So here are some big home video collections and some terrific coffee table books to dazzle those on whom you wish to bestow something extra special for the holidays.