Imagine Bill Murray navigating the opening scene of “Scream” every single day. That’s what director Christopher Landon’s latest film feels like. Combining the heartfelt moments of “Groundhog Day” and brutal deaths of “Scream,” “Happy Death Day 2U” attempts to balance its predecessor’s blood-curdling homicide with poignant mother-daughter moments. The sequel makes a fine addition for […]
Category Archives: Film & TV
Weekend-long film festival features preservation of classic Hollywood films
Some films released in the early 20th century have never been seen again because they were damaged by water, lost in a fire or simply deteriorated over the course of time. But from Friday to Sunday, the 2019 UCLA Festival of Preservation will screen films that are rarely seen anymore, said festival programmer Paul Malcolm. […]
Q&A: Filmmaker Astra Taylor explores democracy in documentary to be shown at UCLA
Astra Taylor discovered that democracy takes on different meanings depending on whom you ask. The Regents Lecturer and filmmaker of the documentary “What is Democracy?” will showcase her work to UCLA students at the Broad Art Center on Tuesday. Taylor said she used her background in political activism against student debt as her inspiration for […]
Movie review: ‘The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part’ builds upon wit, heart of predecessor
There aren’t too many films that can say they boast Gandalf the Grey, three Wonder Womans and a T-Pain musical number – but “The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part” finds a way to make it all work. Before it even hit theaters, its predecessor, “The Lego Movie,” was a joke – a film based […]
Alumna seeks social justice through film, owns charitable wine company
This post was updated Feb. 7 at 2:18 p.m. Francis Ford Coppola’s career as a notable filmmaker and winemaker inspired Eunice Chiweshe Goldstein. Like Coppola, Goldstein is a UCLA alumna, actor, screenwriter, director and producer. As of November, she is also the first African-American female owner of a winery in Oregon. The eponymous Eunice Chiweshe […]
Event analyzes roles of race, gender in testimonies against Supreme Court nominees
The rage of vulnerable populations is often stoked when injustice is made visible, said author Rebecca Traister. Such was the case with the congressional testimonies of Anita Hill and Christine Blasey Ford. Tuesday night, the Hammer Museum hosted “Speaking Truth to Power: From Thomas to Kavanaugh,” which featured a screening of the documentary “Anita,” followed […]
Second Take: When fans don’t distinguish actors from characters, they start swooning over criminals
A dozen roses used to be a romantic gesture. But they no longer seem to be the way to a girl’s heart. Instead, recent trends in television and film suggest that menacing stalkers, and even killers, might constitute modern romance. Some young fans are fueling such notions, swooning online over the conventionally attractive men portraying […]