As the desert oasis and playground, two hours to the south of Los Angeles, Palm Springs has long been a retreat. Thankfully, the changes in the Coachella Valley are not housing developments but updating and refurbishing of properties for the visitor. Formerly the hotel Ballantine's, the Palm Springs...

[Generation P, courtesy Generation P, LLC]

The 23rd presentation of the Palm Springs International Film Festival, concluded January 14, presented 188 films from 73 countries, including 40 of the 63 foreign language offerings for the Academy Award. But as is often the case...

Margo Veil, Odyssey Theatre Ensemble
Bart DeLorenzo directs masterfully Len Jenkins's almost indescribable, thrillingly inventive science fiction-noir mystery. DeLorenzo has assembled actors from his excellent Evidence Room brethren here, including Dorie Barton, Tom Fitzpatrick and Lauren Campedelli, in a tale of transferred minds and bodies that, with the...

1. Senna (dir. Asif Kapadia) Thanks to more than 15,000 hours of archival footage, expertly edited, this thrilling and complex doc on three-time Formula One driving champion Ayrton Senna has the narrative drive of a scripted feature. A legend in his native Brazil, we see how Senna's religious fervor led...

It is high praise that the documentary feature on Brazilian race car driving legend Ayrton Senna has been attracting more women than men and plenty of non-racing enthusiasts to its previous screenings. For the film, which has been culled...

When you find yourself as a journalist at the largest short film festival and market in North America, it is neither daunting nor unlikely to see 87 films in three and a half days. Palm Springs may...

With the release of Richard Rush's landmark film The Stunt Man on DVD and Blu-Ray, I've reposted a piece on Rush I wrote for Entertainment Today in 2000.

The American Cinematheque, operating out of the luxurious Lloyd E. Rigler Theatre at the Egyptian on Hollywood Boulevard, is doing, arguably, some...

The move from the campus of UCLA to USC for the L.A. Times Festival of Books could not dampen the enthusiastic attendance for the largest American book fair. Everything in life is a tradeoff: The congested 110 Freeway to the USC campus versus less stairs for children and the elderly...

There seems to always be a strong field of short animated films for Oscar consideration each year, regardless of what has been selected as short live action and documentaries. Last year's stunning Oscar winner, Logorama, from France, began comedically with corporate...

[Adventures of Power]

Much is made of the films that get picked up for distribution each January at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. If you read the trades, there are updates on who has ponied up and how much they've...

Palm Springs, the mecca for those withdrawing from colder climes, the playground of Hollywood, is steeped in a history of mid-century modern architecture. It is present in a few of the homes and some of the more authentic redesigns of hotels and...

The Palm Springs International Film Festival has grown to such remarkable proportions that over 130,000 people attended its 205 films from 69 countries during the Festival's run of Jan. 6-17. While 41 of the 65 films nominated for the Foreign Film Oscar were unspooled, it was often the movies that...

1. Mother (dir: Bong Joon-ho/Magnolia Pictures)

South Korean horror helmer Joon-ho has elevated his work with this ingenious thriller about a doting acupuncturist-herbalist (Hye-ja Kim) who believes her mentally handicapped 28-year-old son has been unfairly blamed for the murder of a young woman....

Our current state of politics is so easily lampooned and our expectations for change so effortlessly undercut by disappointment that any political satire, attempting to strike deep within the heart of an audience, becomes an onerous task. Thus, the romantic yet bitter, funny yet...

Some pine for summer's vacations, its cookouts, trips to the beach or pool. My summer ritual includes the Mods and Rockers Film Festival every August at the historic Grauman's Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, home of the American Cinematheque. This year's Mods and Rockers (www.ModsandRockers.com),...

The Ivy Substation in Culver City, home of the Actors' Gang, is an ideal theatre for a cooking and comedy concert conducted by chef Jewel Rae Jeffers (writer-performer Donna Jo Thorndale). For the former power station is mostly brick and a catwalk provides an...

[An Eyeful of Sound]

For those who do not have the patience for sitting through full-length feature films at a festival, the Palm Springs Short Film Festival is a top tier venue for those who simultaneously love the cinema but are stricken with...

Alex Gibney does not believe in making small, personal documentaries. He pursues outsized figures and major political topics that shape our times. His prolific output includes serving as writer, director and producer on the Oscar-winning exploration of interrogation techniques in Iraq, Taxi to the Dark Side, as well as the...

The largest book festival in the US, the recently concluded L.A. Times Festival of Books, on the UCLA campus, is one of the few times one can savor excessive traffic. The 130,000 plus attendees wandered the campus, attending panels and presentations among more than 400 authors.

It was this author's...

Daniel Beaty is the kind of theater artist who has Multiple Personalities -- not the disorder but the gift. His ability to use voice, posture and dialogue to create a whirlwind of characters in a novelistic one-man show is truly impressive. His 2007 Obie...