Judy

This fourth “The Conjuring” movie claims to be “Last Rites” and let’s hope that’s a promise.

While it’s highly likely the wildly successful Conjuring Cinematic Universe will itself continue — whether via scary nun, creepy doll or some other cursed object — the story of Ed and Lorraine Warren has been thoroughly wrung dry at this point and there’s no juice left to squeeze, as demonstrated in the dirge that is this final movie.

Credit where it’s due: The horror franchise has turned in some spectacularly scary and entertaining entries, anchored by performances from Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as the married paranormal investigators the Warrens, based on an infamous real-life couple. Thanks to their presence, these films have been the best of the Conjuring series, exploring themes of faith and seeing as believing when it comes to both God and the Devil. These films have also offered portrayals of the Warrens that skirt any of their personal controversies, presenting them as blissfully married, heroic figures. Onscreen text might indicate that they were polarizing figures, but the films itself never engage with the scandals.

The first two films, directed by James Wan, ingeniously engaged with many variations on the idea of vision: physical, psychic and through a camera’s lens. Bravura cinematography aligned the audience point of view with Lorraine’s terrifying otherworldly dreams of hauntings, possessions and demonic presence. Michael Chaves, who directed the spinoff “The Nun II” and “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It,” has mostly upheld these requirements, though his approach is more bombastic than Wan’s elegant style.

Chaves is once again behind the camera for “The Conjuring: Last Rites,” with a script by Ian B. Goldberg, Richard Naing and David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick that promises to deliver a final Warren case that devastated the family and ended their careers on a dark note. Instead, “Last Rites,” is merely a sluggishly routine send-off for the Warren family.

If you’ve seen a “Conjuring” movie, you’ll know what to expect and “Last Rites” doesn’t break with formula. While the film starts in 1964 with the harrowing birth of the Warren’s beloved daughter Judy, the plot largely takes place in 1986, an annus horribilis for the misbegotten Smurl family from West Pittstown, Penn., haunted by an antique mirror adorned with three carved baby heads, picked up from a swap meet. After a series of unfortunate eventsand increasingly violent visitations, a media frenzy surrounds them and the Warrens turn up to rid the house of creepy crawlies.

This time there’s the added complication of wedding planning: Judy (Mia Tomlinson) is about to get married, but she just can’t shake those pesky psychic flashes she inherited from her mother. Judy is the one who ventures to the Smurl household first. Then her parents, who had been hoping to hang up their ghost-hunting spurs, reluctantly join her for one last ride. Ax-swinging ghouls, terrifying baby dolls and demonic possessions ensue.

In “Last Rites,” the thematic metaphor for seeing is the mirror itself, suggesting that we need to look at the darkest, most terrifying parts of ourselves and not shut them out. Lorraine has tried to protect her girl from the life she has led, facing down the most terrifying demons, ghosts and spooks, but she can’t stop Judy’s destiny and the only way out is to not look away.

“Last Rites” extends the concept of a new generation by incorporating Judy’s fiancé, Tony (Ben Hardy), as a fresh member of the family business. His function in the story is a bit awkward and random, but required for the Warren plotline to end on a high note (that opening bit about the family devastation never seems to come to pass).

The heart of these movies has always been Wilson and Farmiga, and without them, the “Conjuring” movies wouldn’t be worth it. With this fourth movie, the Warren lore has been so thoroughly picked over, the tropes and rhythms now so ingrained, the jump scares end up feeling routine at best. Enduring the dour drudgery of “Last Rites,” it’s never been clearer that it’s time to give up the ghost.

Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.

Actor Kate Beckinsale is mourning the loss of her “dearest friend,” her mother British actor Judy Loe.

The “Underworld” star announced Thursday that her mother died Tuesday evening, writing in an emotional Instagram post that Loe died “in my arms after immeasurable suffering.”

Though Beckinsale in her post did not disclose a cause of death, she announced last year that her mother had been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. Loe was 78.

The “Pearl Harbor” actor, 51, said she felt compelled to announce her mother’s death because she had to register the “Space Island One” actor’s death certificate. She shared a carousel of photos and videos of her mother from over the years, including snaps of Loe in her youth and with granddaughter Lily Mo Sheen, whom Beckinsale shares with ex Michael Sheen.

“I am paralysed,” Beckinsale wrote in her caption. “Jude was the compass of my life, the love of my life, my dearest friend.”

Loe, born March 6, 1947, in Manchester, enjoyed a versatile career that began in the 1970s and earned her dozens of credits, mostly on British TV series. She broke out on the ITV fantasy series “Ace of Wands” in 1970s and went on to appear in numerous other programs for the network including “The Chief,” “Crown Court,” “Let There Be Love” and “Goodnight and God Bless.”

Throughout her career — her most recent credit was a minor role in the TV miniseries “Fool Me Once” in 2024 — Loe took on a variety of roles ranging from a magician’s assistant in “Ace of Wands” to a much sought-after divorcée in “Singles” to a spacecraft commander in “Space Island One.”

Prior to taking on screen roles, Loe pursued a career on the stage, including repertory theater in northern England’s Crewe, where in 1968 she met fellow actor Richard Beckinsale, whom she would marry in 1977. Though they split after two years of marriage, they welcomed daughter Kate in 1973. Richard Beckinsale died at age 31 from a heart attack.

Loe remarried in 1997 to television director Roy Battersby, who died in January 2024 after a brief illness. He was 87.

In her announcement, Kate Beckinsale praised her mother for her legacy, “huge heart” and courage in the final year of her life.

Beckinsale continued: “She has been brave in so many ways, forgiving sometimes too much, believing in the ultimate good in people and the world is so dim without her that it is nearly impossible to bear.”

Loe is survived by six stepchildren in addition to her daughter, according to the Guardian.

Rep. Judy Chu first went inside the immigrant detention center in Adelanto in 2014, and conditions were bad.

When she made it back inside the privately run facility in the Mojave desert last week, things weren’t much better.

“It is just scandalous as to how it has not improved,” she told me.

Truth be told, conditions are likely to get worse, if only because of sheer numbers and chaos. Which makes it all the more important to have elected leaders like Chu willing to put themselves on the front lines to give a voice to the truly, really voiceless.

As tens of thousands of immigrants are chased down and incarcerated across the United States, oversight of their detention has become both increasingly difficult and important.

Shortly after the unannounced visit to Adelanto by Chu and four other members of Congress a few days ago, ICE announced new rules attempting to further limit access by lawmakers to its facilities — despite clear federal law allowing them unannounced entrance to such lockups. While Chu and others have called these new curbs on access illegal, they are still likely to be enforced until and unless courts rule otherwise.

The narrow, fragile line of the judicial branch is holding, for now.

But families and even lawyers are struggling to keep track of those who vanish into these facilities, many of which — including Adelanto — are operated by private, for-profit companies raking in millions of dollars from the government.

GEO Group, the publicly traded company that runs Adelanto, has reported more than $600 million in revenue so far this year and projects $31 million in additional annualized revenue from Adelanto at full capacity. Maybe DOGE wants to look into the fact that GEO often gets paid a “guaranteed minimum,” according to a report by the California Department of Justice — regardless of how many detainees are in a facility. Sounds like waste.

When the Trump administration started its attack on Los Angeles a few weeks ago, Chu started receiving calls from her constituents asking for help. She represents Altadena, Pasadena and other areas where there are large populations of immigrants, and as the daughter of an immigrant, she relates.

Her mom came here from China as a 19-year-old bride. Chu’s dad was born in the United States.

“I feel such a heavy responsibility to change things for them, to change things for the better,” she said. “I am surrounded by immigrants every day. This is a district of immigrants. My relatives are immigrants. My friends are immigrants. Yes, my life is immigrants.”

A few days ago, she tried to visit the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, where many of the recent protests have been focused, and where many of the people detained in Los Angeles have reportedly been held at first. She’d heard that even though it’s not meant to be more than a stopover, folks have been staying there longer.

“The fact that these raids are so severe, so massive, it just seems very obvious to me that they would not be treating the detainees in a humane way. And that’s what I wanted to find out,” she told me.

But no luck. Authorities turned her away at the door.

So a few days later she decided to show up unannounced — which is her right as a federal lawmaker — at Adelanto.

Guess what: No luck.

Officers there chained the gate shut, she said, and wouldn’t even talk to her.

“To actually just be locked out like that was unbelievable,” she said. “We shouted that we were members of Congress. We held signs up saying that we were members of Congress, and in fact, there was a car parked only a few feet away inside the facility. The job of that person was just to watch us. Wow.”

Wow indeed.

Undeterred, she came back a few days later when the gate was unlocked. This time, she drove straight inside, not asking permission.

Her staff “deliberately dropped me off inside the lobby before they knew that we were there,” she said.

She got out at the front door and was granted entry.

“The ICE agent said, ‘Oh, well, we thought you were protesters the time before,’” she said. “And that cannot be true, you know, considering all of our yelling and signs. But anyway.”

She was armed with the names of people from her district who had been detained, and she asked to see them. She got to speak to some of them, but everyone wanted her help. At the start of the year, Adelanto held only a handful of people, having been nearly closed by a court order during COVID-19. Now it holds about 1,100, and can take up to about 1,900.

“These detainees were jumping up and down trying to get our attention,” she said. What they told her was disturbing, and casually cruel. No ability to change clothes for 10 days. Filthy showers. No access to telephones because they need a PIN number and no matter how many times they request one, it never seems to materialize. No idea how long they would be held, or what would happen next.

“It could be weeks,” she said. “It could be years.”

Vanished.

“It is horrendous,” she said. “And it is ripping our communities apart,”

Indeed it is, especially in Southern California, where immigrants — documented and not — are entwined in the fabric of our lives and our communities.

Which is why people like Chu are so vital to what happens next. Not enough of our lawmakers have spoken up, much less taken action, against the erosion of civil rights and legal norms currently underway. Chu has spent a decade trying to bring accountability to immigration detention and knows this sordid industry better than any. It’s work that many never notice but that matters to the families whose loved ones are scooped up and disappeared into a system that, even in its best days, is convoluted.

“These are not the criminals and rapists that Trump promised he would get rid of,” Chu said. “These are hard-working people who are trying to make a living and doing their best to support their families. These are your friends and neighbors, and as we’ve seen, U.S. citizens have also been arrested. So next it could be you.”

Or her. Other lawmakers have been arrested and charged for attempting to enter detention centers on the East Coast, and Sen. Alex Padilla was knocked over and handcuffed recently for interrupting a news conference by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

We are in the era when questions are often met with mockery or silence — or even violence — from authorities, and everyday champions are vital. Propaganda and lies have become the norms, and few have the ability to bear witness to truth inside places of state power such as detention centers.

So it’s also an era when having people who will stand up in the face of increasing fear and chaos is the difference between being vanished for who-knows-how-long and being found.

Even if it’s inside Adelanto.

Chances are, you’ve seen (or heard) Judy Greer in one of her many roles over her prolific, multidecade career. She’s played Maggie Lang in “Ant-Man,” voiced Cheryl Tunt in the long-running animated adult sitcom “Archer,” and appeared as Jennifer Garner’s bestie in the 2004 rom-com classic “13 Going on 30” (the two are friends IRL too). She’s also joining the cast for the second season of Garner’s Apple TV series “The Last Thing He Told Me.”

In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.

Streaming now is Apple TV+’s heartfelt new golf comedy, “Stick,” in which Greer plays Amber-Linn — not a best friend, but the ex-wife of former professional golfer Pryce Cahill, played by Owen Wilson. You don’t have to be a fan of the sport to watch. “Honestly, I’m not a golfer and I love it,” she says.

As for her perfect Sunday, she’ll stick close to Larchmont, where she’s lived for 20 years. “I travel a lot for work, so I don’t always like to go far and wide on my weekends,” she says. “My dream Sunday is to not actually exit the threshold, but today I’m going to.” And she’ll get a lot done, from reading a’plenty to hitting up the farmers market and Dodger Stadium, taking in a movie and getting quality time with her husband, Dean Johnsen, her stepkids and her terrier mix, Mary Richards.

6:30 a.m.: A pot of coffee and reading in bed

I get up at 6, 6:30, and not on purpose. My husband likes to sleep, so if the sun’s out, I can read in bed. If not, sometimes I’ll come downstairs and read and have coffee, and then when he wakes up, I’ll go back up and we’ll have coffee in bed together. I love to start my day with a pot of coffee in bed.

The coffee maker, it’s like a basic bitch, a Cuisinart coffee maker. We get this brand called Punk Bunny. That’s our favorite kind of coffee. We did recently try the dark roast, but we both have decided it’s too much for us. We’re going back down to the medium dark roast. And I just put soy milk in it.

Whenever I’m traveling for work and staying in these Airbnbs and apartments and stuff, there’ll be a cappuccino maker, and we’ll always be like, should we get one of those? and then we never end up doing it. If I go out to a cafe, like Lamill or Go Get ‘Em Tiger on Larchmont, I’ll get a cappuccino, but I don’t need to be making cappuccinos in my house.

9 a.m.: Two loops around the Silver Lake Reservoir

Then I would drive to the Silver Lake Reservoir, and I would walk around it twice, which is probably just under five miles. I would take my sweet dog — she’s a really good walker, even though she’s tiny. After my walk, I would make a parfait for myself at home. I also like to go and get the protein pancakes at Cafe Gratitude. That would be a really big treat. I don’t love getting breakfast on Larchmont on Sundays because it’s so crowded.

11 a.m.: Hit up the Larchmont Village Farmers Market

My husband and I, we’re not cooks or chefs or anything. We have a couple go-tos at the farmers market: There’s the soup guy who has the frozen soup, and I like to get flowers and usually berries. We don’t really eat meat, but once in a while we’ll treat ourselves to salmon. My husband will make salmon on the grill, so he’ll get fish from the fishmonger and sometimes those Parmesan crisps he really likes (and then I eat them, even though he is like, they’re for me). If we’re thinking of making a big salad or something, we’ll get salad stuff. But again, we’re not those people, even though we really want to be those people.

Noon: Stop at Chevalier’s Books

Then I would walk down to Chevalier’s, our little local bookstore, and say hi to everyone who works there and wander around a bit. I have so many books and it’s a problem, but then there’s usually something there that just came out that I’m really excited about, and so I’ll get it. I’ve lately been buying hardcovers because it’s kind of fun to have a first edition of something that could potentially win the Nobel Prize or Pulitzer.

My husband was like, “The thing about you is you buy a lot of books, but you do read them.” So I’m not just randomly buying books. I’m reading a book by Barbara Kingsolver right now called “Unsheltered.” That one I think I probably swiped out of a little library on a dog walk because it’s definitely not brand new. I just finished “Martyr!” [by Kaveh Akbar] and I was so blown away that I almost didn’t even want to read another book for a while.

1 p.m.: A quick dip in the pool, some shopping and Dodger Stadium

Now, we’re coming home, and we’re going to rinse off in the pool, which is gross, but I don’t care. And then we’re decking ourselves out in our Dodger gear and we’re going to go to Dodger Stadium and we’re going to watch the Dodgers win at Dodger Stadium. We would meet my stepkids there and the four of us would watch the Dodger game and they would have some beers and probably some nachos. I’d sit with my peanuts and Diet Coke, and we would watch the Dodgers. I love Sundays at the ballpark because it’s fun, it’s chill, it’s tons of families.

Dodger Stadium has really become one of my favorite places in Los Angeles. It’s just a really beautiful place. Sometimes I’ll walk around the whole loop of the stadium, just get my steps in, wander around and see everybody, and see all the food.

4 p.m.: An afternoon movie and the best popcorn

Mann Chinese [TCL Chinese Theatres] is where my husband and I mostly go to the movies because it’s weirdly closer to our house, but kind of a pain in the ass because it’s really touristy. But now we know where to park and how to get in and out really quickly. So we’ve got it down.

I’m probably going to get myself into a lot of trouble now, but we pop our own popcorn. This is husband territory; he makes it on the stovetop with kernels and coconut oil. We’re an Orville Redenbacher family. I’m not ashamed to say we have tried all the fancy popcorn kernels, but honestly, I feel like Orville gives you the best pop, so that’s what we buy.

Oh, I’ll show you something dorky. Hold on. [Greer disappears and returns with a large Ziploc bag.] I usually sneak it in my tote bag. I love having popcorn in the movies, but the movie popcorn is usually not super good for us. Sometimes I will also sneak in some dried mangoes, and usually I’ll still buy a Diet Coke. I feel guilty not buying anything.

I love that big theater. It’s just so beautiful. There are such great movie theaters in L.A., such old theaters, and that one is so historical. I’ve been to a bunch of movie premieres there too. But probably I prefer it when I’m just like a citizen watching a movie.

7 p.m.: Pasta for dinner

I would finish my day by going to dinner at Osteria Mamma and getting — I don’t want to get in trouble for this, because they took it off the menu — their pasta pomodoro. Sometimes I’m just like, “Can you just make me the pasta pomodoro?” It’s just so good. My husband gets the cacio pepe, which they make tableside in this huge cheese wheel, which is bananas, and I like their tricolore salad. We usually split that. Yeah, we’d have a nice little cozy dinner and not have to cook on a Sunday night. We didn’t really buy much at the farmers market anyway, let’s be honest.

8 p.m.: Watch a little TV or read in bed

Sometimes we’re watching a show and we’ll watch an episode, or we’ll just go to bed and read in bed. I like to ascend around 9. This week, I’ve been really tired, so I’ve been going up at 8:30. I’m like, the sun is still out. But by the time I’m done with all my ablutions and the flossing and all the things, it’s definitely almost dark. I get cuddly with my dog and read for a little while, and then, yeah, lights out by 10, but that’s even sometimes a little bit late. On a Sunday, I want to get a really good night’s sleep before Monday morning.

Federal agencies must do more to house struggling victims from January’s Eaton Fires, Rep. Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park) and advocacy groups argued Tuesday.

Chu hosted a roundtable at the Altadena Library with officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services and other agencies, where a dozen organizations assisting fire survivors pleaded for more assistance.

Even with the availability of federal vouchers and other housing aid, thousands of people remain bouncing between hotel rooms, living out of their cars or in other unstable housing situations, advocates said.

“Survivors of the Eaton Fire are slipping through the cracks,” Chu said at a press conference following the event.

Chu is urging FEMA to authorize a housing program called Direct Lease where FEMA directly rents apartments for disaster survivors who cannot find somewhere to live on their own. The Times reported this month that FEMA hasn’t implemented Direct Lease in Los Angeles even though it’s commonly made available after natural disasters nationwide, including the 2023 wildfires in Maui.

Nearly 13,000 homes were destroyed in January’s wildfires with more than half the losses in Altadena and surrounding areas.

FEMA and CalOES officials have said that their data shows thousands of rental units available across L.A. County, making the program unnecessary.

“We know from anecdotal evidence that that cannot be true,” Chu said. “It is far from the truth.”

Fire survivors have faced numerous barriers to finding permanent housing while they decide on rebuilding their homes, advocates said. Landlords’ income requirements are too high. Potential tenants’ credit scores are too low. Some landlords aren’t accepting the vouchers FEMA is providing survivors. And the agency is including apartments in the Antelope Valley and other areas far from Altadena in its assessment of L.A.’s rental market.

By not taking these factors into account, FEMA officials are ignoring needs on the ground, advocates said.

“There is a huge gap between availability and vacancy and accessibility,” said Jasmin Shupper, president of Greenline Housing Foundation, a local nonprofit.

The push for additional housing aid comes amid widespread cuts to FEMA and resistance from the Trump administration for disaster spending nationwide. On Tuesday, the president threatened to strip federal funds from California if the state continued to allow transgender athletes to compete in girl’s sports.

Chu said that FEMA already has provided $132 million in assistance, including $40 million for help with housing.

She said that money for Direct Lease was available through the existing federal disaster allocation following January’s wildfires. She noted that she supported the state’s request to Trump and Congress for $40 billion for long-term recovery efforts.

FEMA and CalOES didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on Chu’s request. After Times reporting earlier this month, state emergency officials said they were reevaluating an earlier decision not to advocate for Direct Lease.