The last time a film as promisingly ludicrous as “Kingsman: The Secret Service” came out, it was also by the hand of director Matthew Vaughn. “Kick-Ass” was a gleefully unprofessional way to handle cinematic adaptations of comic books, and it was all the better for it. “Kingsman” fits the same genre-bending mold, but with more […]
Category Archives: Film & TV
Movie Review: ‘Jupiter Ascending’
“Jupiter Ascending”Directed by Andy Wachowski and Lana WachowskiWarner Bros.2.0 / 5.0 paws Ever since their peak with 1999’s “The Matrix,” a film that fits the idea of “cultural touchstone” to a T, the Wachowskis have fallen further and further down the rabbit hole. That’s not just in regards to the maligned “Matrix” sequels – their […]
Q&A: Filmmaker discusses documentary on Jewish identity
Kathy Wazana left her home country of Morocco at the age of 10. Growing up in Canada, Wazana said she was taught that Morocco was a hostile place for Jewish people. Later she would make a film that would challenge those and other perceptions about the relationship between Jews and Muslims. Wazana’s documentary, “They Were […]
Q&A: Alum Randall Park talks acting career, role in ‘Fresh Off the Boat’
UCLA alumnus Randall Park said he’d never thought acting would be anything more than a hobby. It wasn’t until later that he would drop everything to pursue acting as a full-time career. Park will play Louis Huang in ABC’s “Fresh Off the Boat,” premiering Wednesday. The show was inspired by a novel of the same […]
Movie review: ‘The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water’
One has to wonder where exactly the cult-like admiration for “SpongeBob SquarePants,” arguably the most popular production Nickelodeon has ever had, comes from. Is it the endless barrage of pop culture references? Writers who can create witty, indelible lines that remain in millennials’ minds? The unwillingness to stick to any single theme for longer than […]
Oscar-nominated documentary shorts offer fresh, humanistic perspectives
The enchanting thing about this year’s – as any year’s – nominations for the Academy Award for best documentary short is how intrinsically humanistic they are. For the most part, these are the stories of people who go about their lives as anyone else would, with happiness, fear and determination, but in ways that separate […]
arTistic Attention: TA Dahlia Schweitzer brings background of experience to classroom
It’s easy to become disenchanted by weekly discussions, typically made mandatory by participation grades. But here in A&E;, we want to help UCLA students realize that teaching assistants are not only students themselves. Outside the classroom, they are also people with backgrounds ranging from musical festival ring leaders to comic strip satirists. With the new […]