Chinatown (movie)

WGA list: Why are TV comedies embraced but movies dissed?

2013-06-03 17:15:00

If you’ve been on the Web or social media the past 24 hours, you no doubt have caught some of the arguments about the Writers Guild list of the 101 best TV shows of all time. “The Wire” should be higher! “Seinfeld” over...

Newport Beach and L.A. Children's Film Festival among highlights

2013-04-25 06:00:00

The TCM Classic Film Festival, which takes place Thursday through Sunday in Hollywood, isn't the only high-profile fest this weekend. The 14th annual Newport Beach Film Festival kicks off Thursday evening at the Edwards Big Newport with the West Coast...

'I'll Eat You Last' chronicles Sue Mengers' old Hollywood

2013-04-24 05:30:00

A Hollywood striver in the 1970s would have learned oodles from Sue Mengers — how to woo a client, sass a studio exec, host a dinner party, smoke a joint. And, had she pulled up a seat in Mengers' Beverly Hills living room one particularly gloomy...

In search of 'The Searchers' and the history behind the western

2013-03-01 11:00:00

The bigger the fight between a screenwriter and a director, the better the picture. It's an arrant generalization but not necessarily an errant one. Look at Budd Schulberg's battles with "On the Waterfront," or Robert Towne's over the ending of...

Steve Schapiro's photos in 'Then and Now' offer a mix of emotions

2013-02-24 06:00:00

When photographer Steve Schapiro first arrived on the Lower East Side set of "The Godfather" in 1971, there were rumors floating around that Marlon Brando was not well. Moving closer to the action, he noticed an old man in an overcoat and hat talking to...

Richard Collins dies at 98; onetime blacklisted screenwriter

2013-02-15 00:00:00

Richard Collins, a screenwriter during the McCarthy era who was blacklisted for several years before he cooperated with the Communist-hunting House Un-American Activities Committee, died Thursday in Ventura. The onetime Communist Party member was 98...

'Gangster Squad' a stylish but shallow noir tale, critics say

2013-01-11 14:47:00

Taking its name and inspiration from a real LAPD operation that battled organized crime during the 1940s and '50s, the new film "Gangster Squad" dramatizes the story of�Sgt. John O'Mara (played by Josh Brolin) and his squad's crusade against the...

Justin Bieber pays $6.5 million for Calabasas home

2012-05-27 00:00:00

The price that first-time homeowner Justin Bieber paid for his new digs in Calabasas has wended its way into the public record: $6.5 million. Set on 1.3 acres in a gated community, the 10,000-square-foot main house is described as "transitional French"...

The greatest L.A. movies? We have 140, and shrinking...

2011-12-04 06:00:00

PASSINGS: Uan Rasey, Hanan Porat

2011-10-05 00:00:00

Uan Rasey Trumpet player in 'Chinatown' and other films Uan Rasey, 90, a first-call trumpet player for MGM and other studio orchestras best known for his evocative solo in Roman Polanski's 1974 film "Chinatown," died Sept. 26 at Kaiser Permanente...

Movie review: 'Rango'

2011-03-04 00:00:00

A marvelous mash-up of Old West and newfangled, "Rango" rewrites the animation playbook with its eye-popping critters and varmints, and its hero's tale (tail?) of a chameleon desperate for a SAG card and a town desperate for a sheriff. What fun. In a...

Broadway: Bette Midler serves up Hollywood dish in 'I'll Eat You Last'

2013-04-24 21:28:00

NEW YORK — Almost none of us would have been invited to one of the famous parties at Sue Mengers' swishy pad in "The Hills of Beverly." Those networking opportunities — wherein Faye Dunaway could get cast in "Chinatown" between appetizer and...

Director Gore Verbinski borrowed elements from films as diverse as "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and "Chinatown," but the heart of this animated romp about a chameleon trapped in a dried up desert town belongs with the western. It also features some of the ugliest-looking characters ever seen in

2011-07-28 11:59:52