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by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
‘Diversity’ is a buzzword that says a lot by saying very little, so it is with McFarland, USA, from Disney, starring Kevin Costner leading a remarkable cast.
When this movie opens wide on Feb. 20, nobody will need to know anything about the buzzwords, other than it is a “huge hit” from Niki Caro (Whale Rider) that will put America’s small San Joaquin Valley farming town on the map of our hearts.
Costner, who showe...
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...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Even if you don’t know what “prog rock” is, new documentary Miracles Out of Nowhere, that chronicles the rise of America’s iconic superband Kansas, is a must-see.
Monday night three of the band members, Robby Steinhardt (violin, vocals), Rich Williams (guitar) and Phil Ehart (drums), along with longtime producer Budd Carr and director Charley Randazzo, showed up for Miracles world premiere at the Lobero Theater in Santa ...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Some actors find themselves between jobs, Michael Keaton found himself between careers.
Now Oscar-nominated for Birdman (Or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), the veteran actor had some “This Is Your Life” moments last night when he received the Modern Master Award from the 30th International Film Festival in Santa Barbara (SBIFF).
“Let’s call it a Renaissance,” intoned Leonard Maltin, who play...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
With Jennifer Aniston in the house, the red carpet threw off sparks last night when she blew in town to receive the Montecito Award at the 30th Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF). To put this award in perspective, fellow honorees include Daniel Day-Lewis, Geoffrey Rush, Julianne Moore, Kate Winslet, Javier Bardem, Bill Condon, Naomi Watts and Oprah Winfrey.
And to put her star power in perspective, the CEO of SBIFF noted that he ...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
It’s fitting that Eddie Redmayne’s father is a numbers guy in Finance, who not only explained the statistical odds of making a living as an actor, but added that a mere finger-count of those who make a living, actually make a mark.
Fitting because the mark his son has made is based on his portrayal of Theoretical Physicist Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything, a man who made his mark by numbers - the higher math of space-time...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
There have been backlashes against celebrity before, from Ingrid Bergman and Rita Hayworth being pilloried in Congress in 1949-1950, for Roberto Rossellini and Aly Khan, respectively, to Liz Taylor getting a media shellacking for her multiples in marriage. But these fits of pique have usually come from outside Hollywood. That all changed this past November, when the backlash against celebrity was revealed to come from inside the dream factory, s...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
What better way to usher in the Oscars Nominees than with the real-time footage that had some of us up on the West Coast at 5:30 am. Of course, since they split the announcement in two this year, we had to wait until 5:38 (5:39 actually) to hear the majors above-the-line. But it was a historic first to have below-the-line categories given such a huge nod with J. J. Abrams and Alfonso Cuarón.
Here’s the Academy Award Nominees for 20...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
It wasn’t too long ago that the words “Golden Globes” would raise the specter of litigation, corruption, and a whiff of foul play - but no more. For 2015, it looks like current President Theo Kingma has cleaned house over at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA). Because everything that won for 2015 looks to be incredibly legitimate to the prevailing sentiment among film critics. Even the usual detractors, as well as w...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Just as the biggest breaking story drops in her lap, filmmaker Laura Poitras is thinking ‘why did he choose me?’ The ‘he’ in question is then 29-year-old Edward Joseph Snowden, an outsourced infrastructure analyst working for a subcontractor to the NSA. And the rest is history. Encrypted emails came out of the blue to Poitras almost exactly two years ago, January, 2013. The implications for average netizens were ast...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
(*Richard Linklater also just received the Sonnny Bono Visionary Award at the 26th Annual Palm Springs Film Festival.)
Two things will happen as Writer/Director Richard Linklater* (Slacker) hits the stage with Elvis Mitchell for Film Independent’s “An Evening With … Richard Linklater” in the Bing Theater at LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) presented by Film Independent, the BAFTA Awards are poised to tip the dir...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
After Brad Pitt stole the show Saturday night at Palm Springs International Film Festival with his “oh-yellow-oh” David Oyelowo name-rhyme edutainment for SELMA, directed by Ava DuVernay - on which Pitt is a producer - the sparkly desert town still had the rush of afterglow on Monday. But, this is an important international film festival, so everyone regained their composure fairly quickly, despite his star showing, also Reese ...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
UPDATED: SONY Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton was slated to give his “All Hands” speech* this week about the Sony Hack, whereby on or about 11/24, “hackers” opened 38,000 documents with private employee and performance data to the world via web releases on Fusion and BitTorrent, among other sites. The details of the data breach are astounding, and point to major security flaws in SONY security.
But this latest infractio...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Lord of the Rings has it, Star Wars has it, Indiana Jones, Spider Man, Star Trek, even The Wild Bunch (1969) has it too. But you can find it in Disney movies, nearly from every studio, at least a few big projects. So what is it?
Known by insiders as “The Wilhelm Scream,” a term coined by George Lucas’ sound designer wizard Ben Burtt, this is that familiar toe-curling roar let out by dying Storm Troopers, bit players eate...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
As Demi Moore is whisked outside the back of Bacara Resort & Spa with an entourage after the fete for Jessica Lange, who just received the Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, the words of her “three daughters” still float on the crisp night air.
During the ceremony, after 38 years of clips unspool starring the wildly talented Lange, Moore will break the dramatic tensi...
By Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Here they are, the winners and full list of the sparkling moments that made AFI Fest presented by AUDI a hit this year:
AFI FEST 2014 presented by Audi
ANNOUNCES JURY AND AUDIENCE AWARD-WINNING FILMS
Encore Screenings of Selected Award-Winning Films
at the Chinese 6 Theatres Today
LOS ANGELES, CA, November 13, 2014 – AFI FEST 2014 presented by Audi today announced this year's Jury and Audience Awards for features and s...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Between Charlton Heston on Jan. 8 at #119 and Kirk Douglas on Nov. 1 at #121 in 1962, Sophia Loren would be the #120th handprint and footprint ceremony at famed The Chinese in Hollywood on July 26, 1962. She was 28 years old, and Natalie Wood had received her star the year prior. The next year a joint ceremony would be held for the dynamic and wildly popular married duo of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. But Sophia Loren’s hands had barel...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Only Clint Eastwood could take the story of slain US Military Sniper Chris Kyle, who was mysteriously shot and killed at age 38 last year at a Texas gun range by a fellow vet, and make it a hit as well as a memorial to the man in question. The surprise screening of this highly anticipated feature film last night at AFI Fest presented by AUDI was a crowd-thriller, especially in its subtlety, its restrained sound design, the whoosh of wind, the cr...
Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Mark Wahlberg sits in a director’s chair on stage to a packed house at The Dolby Theater after the world premiere of his new film The Gambler at AFI Fest presented by AUDI, and says “there are four pictures on the wall in my basement. Steve McQueen, Jimmy Cagney, John Garfield… and James Caan. I wanted him (Caan) to see The Gambler. He comes over to my house, sees the pictures on the wall, and says ‘Did you put this up just...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
When Michael Keaton “was frozen” in a scene for the newly released Birdman, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, according to Edward Norton, who appeared with him at an AFI conversation on 11/8, “you could see he was having trouble.”
“I mean, I don’t know if this story is apocryphal,” Norton offered, “but there’s this story I heard (from a director), that when Greta ...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
What is it about Oscar Isaac? When he and Jessica Chastain kicked off AFI Fest 2014 Opening Night with A Most Violent Year, the energy between the two of them was evident.
Not because they both attended Juilliard, or because they are both born in March, or even the visible screen chemistry as a couple on film. But because if you trace both of their film choices, between the pair, you begin to see them build their credits and their onscr...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
When Sophia Loren was tapped as the banner honoree of the 2014 AFI FEST presented by AUDI, it was no surprise that they also dubbed her “one of the last living legends” of Hollywood. But that only begins to explain the career of Loren, having come from the proverbial nowhere to grace screens worldwide with a kind of charisma unseen in the bevy of ‘dark-haired beauties’ before her.
As AFI opens its annual gala tomorrow, h...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
It is a little early for Julianne Moore to run away with Best Actress heat for Still Alice, but Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl) and Shailene Woodley (The Fault in Our Stars) already have made traction in the Oscar race so far.
The festival noise from Still Alice is deafening, and will catch up with the buzz early next month, but even the anticipation at seeing an early November pre-screening is adrenaline rush enough.
Keep in mind, Julianne Mo...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Yesterday Christoph Waltz, a two-time Oscar winner, turned 58; and it’s a high probability that no one at his party told him he has made the most important movie of his career in The Zero Theorem, but he did. Anything Tilda Swinton is in, is usually great, this being no exception. Call it a Terry Gilliam magnum opus, once in a lifetime movie that proves all the math on the greatness of Brazil’s promise, but with extra gears both in i...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
That loud booming noise, which is actually silent and internal, is Hollywood waking up to the Digital Era with the help of its own Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan, who has just hopped on the Google Platform that is about to shake the foundations of Tinseltown.
Nolan's latest movie, Interstellar - a widely hyped dystopian space flick, out Nov. 7, will indeed change the world, at least the "it's a small, small, world" of insiders i...
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Johnson Quendrith 
