Friday , March 29 2024

To Live and Write in LA

Anthem Film Festival: Slavery Is Alive and Well (And May Be Living Down Your Street)

Slavery has become more subtle and is not just something that happens far away in third world countries. 'The Return' takes us into the world of a Filipino house maid held captive for years by an upper class family in Orange County, California.

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Anthem Film Festival: Laughing Though the Pain

Between films focusing on dysfunctional futures, police excesses, brain damage, political oppression, climate fraud, cancer, and unjust imprisonment, Anthem Film Festival director Jo Ann Skousen worked in a few films that inspired giggles and guffaws. Thank you, Jo Ann.

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Anthem Film Festival: Lenny Bruce, Gilbert Gottfried, and Penn Jillette vs. the Outrage Mob in ‘Can We Take a Joke’

We are reaching peak crazy. There are two possible outcomes. We get trampled or the rest of us wake up and start fighting the people who are trying to stifle free speech.

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LAFF Movie Review: ‘Don’t Think Twice’ with Keegan-Michael Key – Success Can Be Both Funny and Sad – But Mostly Funny

The new dramedy "Don’t Think Twice" begins as if it’s a documentary on how to do improv. Then the members of the fictional improv group, The Commune, violate all the rules in their improv dire results, in their personal lives.

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DWF Interview: ‘Creedmoria’ Director Alicia Slimmer Admits Coming-of-Age Flick is All About Her

'Creedmoria', a film by first-time writer/director Alicia Slimmer, made its SoCal premier at the Dances With Films Festival. It chronicles the efforts of sweet-sixteen Candy Cahill, played by Stef Dawson, to come of age in one of the most dysfunctional families in movie history. As I watched the film, I hoped, for Slimmer’s sake, that this movie wasn’t too autobiographical. It turns out that it was.

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DWF Interview: ‘Virtual Revolution’ Writer/Director Guy-Roger Duvert Spills Real and VR Blood in His First Feature

'Before the shooting, people were asking me all the time in which studio I would be filming, assuming that most of the film would be shot in front of green screens. The reality is very different. Out of the 30 days of shooting, we shot only one day in a green screen studio.'

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LAFF Movie Review: ‘Opening Night’ – A Screenwriting School in Ninety Minutes

The LA Film Festival 'Opening Night' world premiere was Screenwriting 101 in 90 minutes. Filmmakers did everything right in this film, which stars Topher Grace as a failed Broadway star.

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