Marvin Miranda

Leave her to heaven? Russia's genre-bending Elena opens in LA

A fascinating, complex portrait of a sixty-something woman, Elena is nifty little thriller in the guise of a domestic drama. Not exactly what immediately comes to mind when you think of a "gripping, modern twist on the...

Korean is the future of cinema: Look East Korean Film Festival hits LA

For over a decade, a wave of Korean cinema has been slowly but forcefully reshaping the Hollywood landscape. From the deliciously over-the-top violence of The Vengeance Trilogy to the newfangled creature feature The Host to dramas with...

Some kind of wonderful: Norway's Turn Me On, Dammit! drops by, U.S. tune in!

Leave it to Norway to come up with a coming of age teen movie that's one part sugary John Hughes sweetness and one part laugh out loud broad sex comedy bordering on Porky's raunch, albeit with...

It's only a movie, only a movie: The real horror. The real horror of Kill List

There's a quote from former Los Angeles Times chief film critic Charles Champlin in New York Times comedy critic Jazon Zinoman's wonderful, insightful, pithy new book on the creation of Hollywood's modern horror, Shock...

Cold war kids: It's hip to be in the Soviet Bloc

No history lesson needed to enjoy director Valery Todorovsky's immensely entertaining Hipsters, a vibrant, red velvet curtain of a musical torn from the grey pages of an Iron Curtain primer. Not that you'd be looking...

Gardens in the sand: The Desert of Forbidden Art opens March 18

Good, old-fashioned documenting wins the day in co-directors Amanda Pope and Tchavdar Georgiev’s The Desert of Forbidden Art, the incredible account of how a failed Russian painter went on to amass one of Russia’s...

Small performance, big twist: Oscar winner Melissa Leo in Dear Lemon Lima

With a small but memorable performance by this year’s Oscar winner for Best Supporting Actress, Melissa Leo, 2009’s Dear Lemon Lima is finally making its Los Angeles theatrical premiere. Not that she’s the...

Odd woman out: When We Leave opens Fri., 1/28

First time Austrian director, producer and writer Feo Aladag takes on a worthy subject with her debut, When We Leave, namely, the horrifying and unimaginable practice of honor killings (an oxymoron of a term if there ever...

Battle scars on display: documentary Marwencol’s war outside, war within

It’s World War II and the SS have entered a French town located outside of L’Enfer. They capture Captain Hogancamp and in the town’s church torture him for information. Tired of waiting...

Art of the giallo: A Q&A with Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani, Amer directors

With Oscar winner Adrien Brody causing a stir by suing the producers of his straight to DVD release, Giallo, and The Silent Movie Theater playing gialli all month long, this seems to have been a banner month of...

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