Mon. Dec 23rd, 2024
Occasional Digest - a story for you

How exactly do you rank the 101 best tacos in L.A. when, almost no matter where you live, you can walk out your door and find half a dozen tacos that might merit the list?

I’ve read the methodology and my mind still reels. Plus, Stephanie Breijo ate 21 tacos in a single day? I’d have to be really hungry — or really drunk — to be able to beat that number. Anyway: Goals.

I’m Glenn Whipp, columnist for the Los Angeles Times, host of The Envelope’s Friday newsletter and the guy heading to El Barrio Taco to see what Daniel Hernandez’s choices as L.A.’s “homiest potato taco” tastes like.

Where have you been, my blue-eyed son?

Timothée Chalamet is a movie star in a time when such things are in short supply. And Bob Dylan is Bob Dylan. Which means we should be at least a little bit intrigued about “A Complete Unknown,” James Mangold’s upcoming look at Dylan’s early years in New York as a folk singer and his gradual transformation into the artist who went electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.

Do we need a Dylan biopic after Todd Haynes’ kaleidoscopic 2007 masterpiece “I’m Not There”? I think you know the answer, my friend. But it’s coming and Mangold did give us the dutiful and sometimes delightful Johnny Cash biopic “Walk the Line,” a movie that earned Reese Witherspoon an Oscar and inspired the ultimate evisceration of the genre, “Walk Hard.” I’m definitely interested. It beats dreck like “Deadpool & Wolverine.”

Joan Baez and Bob Dylan perform during a 1963 civil rights rally in Washington, D.C.

Joan Baez and Bob Dylan perform during a 1963 civil rights rally in Washington, D.C.

(AP)

Angelina Jolie and Pamela Anderson lead TIFF world premieres

The fall film festivals are right around the corner (shouldn’t pumpkin spice lattes already be on menu boards?) and my good friend Mark Olsen rounded up the 63 films in the Gala and Special Presentations programs of the upcoming Toronto Film Festival.

Among films having their world premiere at the festival are Mike Leigh’s “Hard Truths,” starring Marianne Jean-Baptiste and returning the filmmaker to a contemporary setting after a number of period films, and Gia Coppola’s drama “The Last Showgirl,” starring Pamela Anderson as a 50-something dancer who finds her life at a crossroads. (I can relate. Well, except for the part about being a 50-something dancer.)

Other world premieres, Mark writes, include Edward Burns’ drama “Millers in Marriage,” starring Julianna Margulies, Gretchen Mol and Minnie Driver, and David MacKenzie’s thriller “Relay,” starring Riz Ahmed, Lily James and Sam Worthington. Also world premiering at TIFF will be Sydney Freeland’s sports drama “Rez Ball,” with a screenplay co-written by “Reservation Dogs” co-creator Sterlin Harjo, and Rachel Morrison’s “The Fire Inside,” a boxing drama with a screenplay by Barry Jenkins.

Pamela Anderson stands outside looking down with a cigarette in her mouth.

Pamela Anderson in Gia Coppola’s ‘The Last Showgirl.’

(Goodfellas)

Village and Bruin theaters closed for now

The headline on my pal Meg James’ story reads “Beloved historic movie theaters Westwood Village and Bruin to close this week.” Whoever wrote that (Meg?) got the “beloved” part right. If you love movies and have lived in L.A. for any length of time, you probably have a few cherished memories of seeing a first-run film in these gorgeous palaces.

The Bruin’s fate remains unclear. The Village was sold last year to a group of filmmakers and actors, led by director Jason Reitman. There hasn’t been any update since the sale, but the invaluable L.A. movie theater blog Los Angeles Theatres reported that the Village would likely become a four-plex, with three additional screens added to the existing theater. That could be a viable plan, preserving the palace and making the site more of a destination. As for timing, who knows? It’s L.A. You’ll probably make your way through the whole taco list before it opens.

A tall white tower atop a movie theater

The Village Theatre in Westwood.

(AaronP / Bauer-Griffin / GC Images)

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