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Quendrith Johnson is filmfestivals.com Los Angeles Correspondent covering everything happening in film in Hollywood... Well, the most interesting things, anyway.
@Quendrith I Facebook I screenmancer.tv
by Quendrith Johnson Los Angeles Correspondent
Just when you had forgotten all about Ernest Hemingway? Nobody forgets this author, not for long anyway. At least he has not yet become a victim of cancel culture. Yet Hemingway's last novel "Across the River and Into the Trees" in 1950, from Charles Scribner & Sons in New York, was actually panned in some places by reviewers who felt perhaps it might be interpreted as a 'parody' of the spare, simple declaractive se...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
What can you say about Gloria Steinem that the (women’s) world doesn’t already know? One thing is her quote that echoes all through the hills, including the Hollywood Hills: “The Truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.” Steinem is now the subject of a new sort of adaptation of her autobiography “My Life on the Road,” a movie called THE GLORIAS. It is directed by the amazingly talented Julie Ta...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
If you watched Marion Cotillard as Edith Piaf, you have a sense of her volcanic range. Now Cotillard is headed for THE BRUTALIST with Joel Edgerton and Mark Rylance as headliners. Brady Corbet is the director, having come off his last film with Natalie Portman in VOX LUX. This third outing for Corbet looks promising, especially with a title so fitting for now...
From Screenmancer
LONDON: Golden Globe nominee Joel Edgerton (Boy Erased, Lo...
By Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Some have said Daniel Craig is the most bad@ss James Bond... few would disagree. Now the next trailer is out. This is the one hotly anticipated with Rami Malek as the ultra villain.
Coming in November. Enjoy!
Where We Left Our Hero... 007, Bond, James Bond
In No Time To Die, Bond has left active service and is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica. His peace is short-lived when his old friend Felix Leiter from the CIA turns up aski...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
When you tell this story, many people find it hard to believe, but occult filmmaker Harry Smith was at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics during my time there as the Ted Berrigan Award winner, and he was one interesting creature of cinema. Anyway, he and Stan Brakhage the experimental filmmaker were friends.
Some strange conversations ensued, mostly about when Harry pulled a fire alarm at a restaurant because an investor...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Something about this Pandemic is perfect for a Greek horror movie. Opening in theaters before a VOD North American release on Sept. 8 from Dark Star Pictures, ENTWINED is that movie. Why?
Because, for one thing, Pandemic is a Greek word, from ‘pan’ meaning “all” and ‘demos’ meaning “people.” More to the point, thousands of years ago, Greek tragedies paved the way for everybody else in W...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Hey so, Coronavirus marches in London? Well, in Hollywood, you get a different reaction. Okay, there is no segue there, except that the Pandemic makes people do weird things. Take beloved comedian Jack Black He looks like Rip Van Winkle lately. But? Not anymore, ps. Watch!
From Screenmancer
We stole this from the Upbraidy Bunch, who stole it first. That would be the Ferrell gang over at Funny Or Die. But is there something to b...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
How can we assess the work of an actor as powerful on screen as Anna Magnani, when mostly what we get are cartoon, caped-crusaders on screen? Good question, but here's a quick answer in this case. THE PASSION OF ANNA MAGNANI is a doc that screened at Cannes 2020 to much acclaim, and literally brings back the emotional exuberance of a gifted entertainer.
Once we, as global audiences, weren't afraid to be 'entertained' by strong e...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
“I just could not believe my mere existence was such a problem for people,” is how actor Ruth Negga explains her personal POV that is infused in the movie LOVING, co-starring Joel Edgerton. LOVING is screening now for free as part of AFI Movie Club’s “Black Stories Matter” series. Negga expands on her views, and mentions that only “in 1967” did it become legal for parents like hers to be wed. Here’...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Has anyone else ever had the thought that only Australians want to make, or star in, or direct, American TV shows and movies these days? Add your own el-oh-el to that one, but P*SS OFF, I LOVE YOU is a semi-zany series from an American who sounds like an Aussie, Jessie McCormack, that will stream at the upcoming Dances with Films (DWF) fest from Aug. 27 through Sept. 6. Hey, just for the record, for this reviewer? It is, well, act...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
With Céline Sciamma’s French movie PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE in 2019, some felt the stark same-sex love story, a period piece, was too ‘powerful’ for mainstream audiences. Thus, the film was passed over for worldwide competition even by home country France. Now there is another costume drama with Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan on offer that eerily parallels the love among outlier women.
Director Francis Lee’s tak...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Seven years ago, our lives were changed with a new movement inspired (sadly) by violence, and there are three women at the heart of what we now know as hashtag "Black Lives Matter" or #BLM, which is raging in the streets of America and around the world right now in media coverage. This is from the only real source: "In 2013, three radical Black organizers — Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi — created...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Sometimes it's difficult to figure out how to help, when to help, or even where to help for the most pressing social issues. But this is an easy one, an easy way in to assist in such a powerful way during these grim times. SummerStage Jubilee is coming on Sept. 17, with some glittery free talent on tap, including former Police frontman Sting, phenom Norah Jones, plus Trey Anastasio, Rufus Wainwright, Leslie Odom Jr., Rosanne Cash, ...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Academy Award nominee Diane Lane has been in the public eye since Coppola, even before THE COTTON CLUB, where she polished her star so brightly that the film still shines out today.
Now Focus Features has her set in this gem opposite another leading man of the period, Kevin Costner. The film is novel adaptation LET HIM GO, on deck for November release.
LET HIM GO, set in 1951 in Montana, revisits Western themes of family and isolation where t...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
If you’ve attended the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF), you’ll know that The Maltin Modern Masters Award in honor of legendary author/critic Leonard Maltin is a coveted prize in Hollywood. Leonard Maltin has dedicated his life to researching not only the cinema classics, but also the contemporary Best Pictures, actors, directors, and screenwriters as they emerge in the New Hollywood. That said, it is fitting that Or...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Introduction: Moonyeenn Lee (1944-2020), daughter of actress Shirley Hepburn, who became a casting powerhouse known for putting together actors in films such as BLOOD DIAMOND, the Oscar-nominated MANDELA: LONG WALK TO FREEDOM, as well as HOTEL RWANDA, has died. Moonyeenn was nominated for two Emmy Awards for “The Looming Tower” and “Roots;” her legacy continues with director daughter Cindy Lee and her son David Lee. She s...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
In American, or in a deeply divided America, right now, women sometimes appear to be split into "Karen" and "non-Karen" camps. But the reality is, the issues that divide are more complicated than the duality we are seeing right now.
That said, actor/activist Alfre Woodward from CLEMENCY is teaming up with others to take the #BLM discussion to another level using this NEON release from 2019 as a reference point. Read on...
N...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
If you grew up in any major East Coast metro area in the 1970’s, you kind of knew which streets were safe, or in the case of Boston’s North End, which were La Cosa Nostra (our cause). Say restaurants and shops fronted by Gennaro “Jerry” Anguilo of the Anguilo Bros. Plus you likely were aware that the Anguilo Family answered to the Patriarca’s who were allied with the Gambino Family. Which leads to the Five Families ...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
She played the "childlike empress" in 1984's THE NEVERENDING STORY, and now Tami Stronach is making a lead return in MAN & WITCH. Read on...
from Screenmancer
New York, NY : Tami Stronach, the Childlike Empress from timeless 80’s classic “The NeverEnding Story” has been announced to star in, and executive produce, a new children’s fantasy film titled “Man & Witch,” writt...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Even some women may not know as much as Allison Volk about how to handle this Pandemic and pandemonium we are living through, especially in the Age of Social Media. C’mon, have you ever checked your ex’s Facebook page? Perhaps thumbed through their Instagram, or hit them up anonymously on Snapchat? Of course not, who would do that? Volk, who is known for her films and working with City Shakespeare Company in Santa Monica, wrote and s...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Terrence McNally is likely most known for the 1991 adaptation of his play ("Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune") that became hit movie FRANKIE AND JOHNNY, starring Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer, that was directed by Garry Marshall. But McNally, born in 1939 and gone in March of 2020, cast a wide net of influence inside the work of many other creative artists, not just through his Pride ties, but as an originator of deeply though...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Pop quiz trivia, ready? What was the first band name of Lynyrd Skynyrd? Right: “My Backyard” for the Jacksonville-formed group until 1966, when they came up with the iconic slur of their gym teacher’s name. Don’t believe it? Proof comes later, but for now, Cleopatra Entertainment offers a biography about the band, and how they won big, lost big, and reshaped music culture all the same with their Southern Rock style. ...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Who else was a skateboarder in their misspent youth? Once a skater, always a skater, and this new Tony Hawk documentary set for 9/18 is "rad" as they used to say in the skate parks. If you don't know who Tony Hawk is, then a quick spin around any search engine will reveal the mystique of this self-made boarder. Hawk is also the guy who jumps off his kitchen counter on a custom-tuned skateboard for grins. Now this billion-dolla...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Did you ever see LOVE & BASKETBALL? In light of Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and the others who passed away this year, a movie like this just gives us a moment to reflect. Maybe even enjoy the good things about B-ball, and the hoopsters who have given us so much joy.
AFI Alum LaToya Morgan, a writer/producer, will tell you about it in this clip from AFI Movie Club, and let’s give this Phi Beta Kappa honoree a hand for such a g...
by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
Before you can say you knew him well, Carl Reiner (1922-2020), who left earth on June 29 for better comedic opportunities, will be feted by TCM for a life very well lived on July 28. Mr. Reiner was not only a funny, funny man, but once Garry Marshall told me that Reiner dismissed his writing as “one liner” comedy. Marshall (1934-2016), who has also left us for comedy heaven, never forgot those words, and said he incorp...
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Johnson Quendrith 
