killing

Hello! I’m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.

It seems odd that the biggest news of the week was the fact that tickets for a movie went on sale, but apparently Christopher Nolan’s upcoming “The Odyssey” is no typical movie. Having already made tickets available for some shows a full year in advance, Universal put more of them on sale for the July 17 opening weekend of the Oscar-winning filmmaker’s ancient epic. There were reports of long online wait times, crashing ticketing systems and the kind of problems more often associated with pop stars than movie nerds.

“The Odyssey” will be playing in a variety of formats, with the Imax 70mm screenings among the most coveted. More venues than usual have also been announced as playing the film in 70mm, including the Village Theatre in Westwood. (A handy visual guide to the different fomats is on the film’s website.) While there is a hint of the ridiculous to some of this mania — popcorn buckets in the shape of Imax cameras and movie tickets going on the resale market for hundreds of dollars — there is no denying how exciting it is to see this kind of anticipation building around any movie.

Back to a ’90s phenomenon

Ewen Bremner, left, Ewan McGregor, Johnny Lee Miller and Robert Carlyle in the movie “Trainspotting.”

(Liam Longman / Sony Pictures Classics)

When it first came out in 1996, “Trainspotting” was an instant cultural phenomenon, capturing the vibes of the “Cool Britannia” moment with its sparkling soundtrack, inventive, high-energy style and cast that included up-and-coming talents such as Ewan McGregor and Kelly Macdonald. It was only the second feature directed by Danny Boyle, who would go on to be an Oscar winner, mount an Olympics opening ceremony and remain a reliably exciting filmmaker all the way to his recent “28 Years Later.”

“Trainspotting” is now back in theaters in a 4K restoration for its 30th anniversary, having lost none of its brash vigor. In his original review, Kenneth Turan said of the film, “Exuberant and pitiless, profane yet eloquent, flush with the ability to create laughter out of unspeakable situations, ‘Trainspotting’ is a drop-dead look at a dead-end lifestyle that has all the strength of its considerable contradictions.”

Appearing like magic

Kathy Najimy, left, Bette Midler and Sarah Jessica Parker in the 1993 comedy “Hocus Pocus.”

(Disney)

Directed by Kenny Ortega, “Hocus Pocus” is one of those movies that has seen its fanbase grow steadily over the years — it is now much more beloved than it ever was on initial release. (It even inspired a 2022 sequel.) Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimi play the Sanderson sisters, 17th century witches who find themselves inadvertently brought to modern day by a group of teenagers messing around with casting spells.

The film will play Saturday at the Gardena Cinema, featuring a live commentary from cast members Omri Katz, Thora Birch, Larry Bagby, Tobias Jelinek and Vinessa Shaw followed by a Q&A. This is a rare appearance by Katz in particular, who has retired from acting. Fans of the movie should make the effort to attend.

The Gardena, the last family-owned single-screen theater in Los Angeles, suffered a blow last weekend when a burst pipe flooded the venue. Though they are operational, a campaign has been started to help them recoup repair costs.

Examining the life of the mind

John Turturro in the 1991 movie “Barton Fink.”

(20th Century Fox)

Ranking the films of Joel and Ethan Coen has become a cottage industry of its own. Personally, I go back-and-forth on where to place 1991’s “Barton Fink,” which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, as well as prizes for director and actor. The movie is by turns funny, disturbing and inscrutable (all good things), with John Turturro in the title role as an intellectual New York playwright who goes to Hollywood to write screenplays — and slowly goes insane.

The movie will play Friday in 35mm at Vidiots with an introduction from Noah Segan, who directed Turturro in one of the breakout titles from this year’s Sundance, “The Only Living Pickpocket in New York.” Hopefully, this will turn into a year in which Turturro gets some long-deserved accolades.

Christmas in June

Elliott Gould on the set of 1978’s “The Silent Partner.”

(Anwar Hussein / Getty Images)

There is something particularly charged about watching a Christmas movie at other times of year — an odd sense of dislocation and maybe even something a little naughty, a circuit-scrambling frisson. So it is particularly notable that as part of their salute to the independent studio Carolco Pictures (behind such films as “Basic Instinct,” “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” and “Reservoir Dogs”), the Vista will be showing 1978’s “The Silent Partner.”

Just the kind of tight and gripping thriller that people pine for all year round, “The Silent Partner” has a screenplay by Curtis Hanson, who would go on to make “L.A. Confidential.” Elliott Gould plays a Toronto bank teller who tries to rip off the thief (Christopher Plummer) who robs his branch wearing a Santa costume as a disguise. Soon they are both scheming against each other.

In his original review of the film, Kevin Thomas called it “tense and ingenious.” In a reconsideration of the film some months later, Charles Champlin called it “a stylish crime-suspense story, a cat-and-mouse game between Christopher Plummer as a clever, sadistic bank robber and Elliott Gould as a bored bank teller who sees a way out of his boredom and into riches.”

So much beauty

Brooke Adams and Sam Shepard in the 1978 movie “Days of Heaven.”

(Criterion Collection)

Terrence Malick’s 1978 “Days of Heaven” is still strikingly singular: a love story told with a stirring visual style. The film’s beauty — aside from its impossibly good-looking lead actors, Richard Gere and Brooke Adams — in part comes from gifted Spanish cinematographer Néstor Almendros, who made his American debut after a career in Europe that saw him working with filmmakers such as Eric Rohmer and François Truffaut. Almendros would win an Academy Award for the film.

The New Beverly will show “Days of Heaven” in 35mm Tuesday through Thursday as a double bill with Truffaut’s 1970 “The Wild Child,” shot by Almendros in black-and-white. Writing about “Days” in 1978, The Times’ Charles Champlin called it “an extraordinary and original visual experience and a movie which is thrilling in its uncompromised purity.”

Perverse fun

Ha Jung-woo, left, and Kim Min-hee in the 2016 movie “The Handmaiden.”

(TIFF)

Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook was just president of the Cannes jury and has become a much-beloved figure on the international circuit for his wicked sense of humor and sharp sense of style. Nowhere is that on better display than his 2016 film “The Handmaiden,” which is somehow at once a period drama, a con-man thriller and an erotic lesbian romance. Vidiots will be showing the movie Sunday.

As Justin Chang wrote when the film was released, “Without sacrificing his taste for psychosexual perversity or his flair for violent grace notes, Park has given us a teasingly witty and elegant puzzle-box of a thriller whose pleasures are rooted not in visceral shock but in narrative surprise, and which wisely opts to seduce rather than pulverize its audience.”

In an interview at the time, Park said the film’s unpredictability was part of the project’s appeal. “That’s the exact kind of fun to be had with this film and the reason why I chose to make this film. Everything becomes a game of perception. Rather than to say it’s a difficult thing to navigate, it is fun to deal with. Not only for me as a filmmaker but for the audience to see that and engage in that game.”

New this week

• Amy Nicholson reviews the latest attempt to make a movie out of a popular Mattel toy with the lightly-tongue-in-cheek “Masters of the Universe.”
• Amy also reviewed the revival of the satirical “Scary Movie” franchise, with original stars Anna Faris and Regina Hall returning to make fun of such recent hits as “Sinners,” “Weapons” and “The Substance.”
• The documentary “Time and Water” looks at climate change through the life and work of Icelandic writer Andri Snaer Magnason as directed by Sara Dosa, who had a hit with her last film “Fire of Love.” Robert Abele reviews.

One last thing…

This week, our colleagues at De Los launched a podcast hosted by Fidel Martínez and Suzy Exposito. The interview-style video podcast will feature conversations with the people shaping Latino culture in the United States.

The first episode features singer and actor Leslie Grace, who talks about her experiences working on the film “In the Heights” as well as being the star of the canceled “Batgirl.”

When it comes to jetting away after long months of hard work and parenting, the idea of flopping down on a sunlounger in between trips to the all-inclusive buffet or bar is undeniably tempting

All-inclusive hotels and resorts are slowly killing one of the best parts about going away on holiday.

When it comes to jetting away after long months of hard work and parenting, the idea of flopping down on a sunlounger in between trips to the all-inclusive buffet or bar is undeniably tempting.

However, it’s this very action that is threatening something we all love. Food.

A recent poll of 2,000 holidaymakers found that cuisine is the main reason for choosing a holiday destination for 19 percent, with 25 percent even returning to the same place because of it. Nearly four in 10 always research restaurants and dining experiences, and 17 per cent will put together a wish list of foods they want to try.

But according to the responsible travel firm Intrepid, local delicacies, bars and restaurants are under threat because holidaymakers are increasingly staying in all-inclusive resorts run by large multinational companies, rather than exploring and spreading their cash around.

A survey of 2,000 Brits conducted on behalf of Intrepid by Censuswide found:

• 51% won’t travel beyond their accommodation to find authentic food
• 25% eat at a global fast-food chain within 48 hours of arrival
• 55% of Gen Z say they find comfort in familiar brands like McDonald’s and Starbucks when travelling
• Over two-thirds of Brits (67%) admit to packing food from home, with tea bags (32%), the most commonly packed item

Award-winning author, food and travel writer, Yasmin Khan, who collaborated on the research, told the Mirror what we risk losing if we stick to the hotel buffet.

“When a traditional dish disappears, we don’t just lose a recipe; we lose a piece of history and heritage,” she said.

Yamin believes that travellers have a responsibility to support the food cultures that make places distinctive and that “when we choose the safety of the familiar over food rooted in local tradition, we can inadvertently contribute to the loss of irreplaceable flavours, techniques and ingredients.”

“As someone who is a tired mum of a toddler, all-inclusives have their place. But I would push back on this idea that they’re the most affordable way to experience a holiday. While some have good food, the majority of the time you’re divorced from where you’re visiting. It could be anywhere. You feel disconnected,” she continued.

“So many of the local bakeries, or the lovely cake shops, the lovely tapas bars, if people aren’t leaving the hotels, they’re under threat. Some of my favourite meals abroad have been some of the spontaneous ones, you’ve eaten something you’ve not heard of before. I also make a point of asking for local recommendations.”

Intrepid has also partnered with Time Out to launch a series of immersive cookery workshops in London, giving people the chance to cook and experience a selection of the ‘endangered dishes’ firsthand. Tickets are on sale now.

Dan Saladino, author of Eating to Extinction, is concerned that less well-known dishes are being wiped out, in part due to the habits of holidaymakers.

“The research identified three primary threats including environmental loss from climate change, cultural dilution due to overtourism, and the disappearance of traditional artisanal skills. We chose dishes like the New York bagel and sushi from Japan because they are, in culinary terms, global icons, yet most people don’t realise the authentic versions of these are actually on the brink of vanishing due to modern shortcuts and mass-market pressures,” he said.

“Food is the most profound link we have to our history, our land, and our identity, yet we are currently witnessing a global collapse of culinary diversity.”

Noel Josephides, the chairman of family‑owned tour operator Sunvil, believes that all-inclusive hotels don’t just threaten food culture, but the very foundations of the sunny destinations loved by Brits.

He refuses to work with all‑inclusives “on principle” and argues that they suck money out of local communities and funnel it towards large multi‑nationals. Local, independent business owners simply can’t compete with the buying power of the big chains, which encourage holidaymakers to stay on‑site rather than going out into the community to spend their cash.

This is not only a major cause of resentment among locals, but it keeps holidaymakers from truly experiencing the destination they’re in, Mr Josephides argues.

“It’s a product that doesn’t really encourage access to local facilities. We know in places like Cyprus and Greece, restaurants have shut down because of all‑inclusives,” he told the Mirror.

“It is not the way to see a country like Greece, but it is perfect for mass‑market tourism from the company’s perspective. In Corfu, there’s a village called Dassia, which has a big all‑inclusive. If you go to that village, it’s dead. Small hoteliers in Paphos have told me, hundreds of restaurants have closed. It is not the right way to do tourism.”

Brian Carrigan has been travelling to sunny destinations such as Menorca, Grand Canaria, and Marjoca each year for the past quarter of a century. In his mind, the biggest problem is the rise of all‑inclusives.

“They starve the local economy of holiday spending. We have never done all‑inclusive due to the fact that the food is substandard and not as good as a locally prepared meal in a nice restaurant,” Brian said.

When I visited Rhodes in 2023 to see how the island was recovering from wildfires that had evacuated thousands of holidaymakers, a number of independent hoteliers and restaurateurs told me how hard times had come in the past decade. While they cited numerous factors, the biggest one in their minds was the arrival of several large all‑inclusive hotels.

The history of the wrap‑around holiday type stretches back to the 1950s, when Belgian sportsman Gerard Blitz pioneered the concept by using army surplus tents to house visitors in Majorca. He was the founder of Club Med, now one of the biggest travel brands in Europe.

The all‑inclusives of today are much more complex and provide so much more to guests than Mr Blitz’s straw hut village that opened in 1952 in Corfu. When I visited Club Med Tignes, I was amazed by not just the ski‑in, ski‑out nature of the property, but the staff on hand to get kids dressed and ready for a day on the slopes, and the incredible buffet on offer three times a day. We’re not just talking chips and pizza, we’re in the world of raclette, fresh fish, and omelets made to order as you watch on.

While Club Med may no longer be a bargain option, many brands offer such good deals that it’d be financially mad not to go all‑inclusive. At least, from the holidaymaker’s perspective.

According to Responsible Travel, all‑inclusive resorts are “usually owned by an overseas company,” and they “sequester most of the tourists’ cash, leaving little behind in the local community, which is impacted by the presence of the resorts.”

“Holidaymakers also use vast quantities of energy and water (significantly more per person than local people) and create large amounts of waste, which some feel is a high price to pay for little commercial return.”

Harold Goodwin, professor of Responsible Tourism at Manchester Metropolitan University, believes all‑inclusives can be forces for good, so long as they work alongside independents, rather than against them. That means building a loyal and skilled local workforce, reducing energy costs and waste, sourcing fresh local produce, and offering an exciting range of sensitively planned excursions.

“An impressive all-inclusive resort can provide employment for local people with a genuine chance of progression – with the right support and training – into managerial roles that are better paid. Indeed, an all-inclusive resort in a developing country could employ far more people locally than several ecolodges ever could,” he told Responsible Travel.

“Notorious for not sourcing locally, there is no reason why a responsible, sustainable all‑inclusive resort cannot support an ‘adopt a farmer’ scheme, or similar – sourcing delicious, fresh, quality produce for its catering needs at a local level.”

Muhammed Kaumi had just stepped out of the mosque when his phone rang on the evening of Friday, May 29. He had recently returned from Dikwa, a town in Borno State, northeastern Nigeria, and assumed the call was from a relative checking on his journey home. Instead, the voice on the other end delivered news that left him numb.

“Bulama has been killed,” the caller said. “They have killed Bulama.” Muhammed felt his chest tighten. “I instantly felt a sharp pain in my heart,” he recalled.

Bulama Ali was his cousin, a farmer, a father of five, and one of thousands, like him, who have been displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency that has scarred the region for more than a decade.

Within minutes, Muhammed was on his way to the Custom House Internally Displaced Persons’ Camp in Muna, on the outskirts of Maiduguri, where Bulama had lived with his family for nearly a decade.

As he rushed there, questions flooded his mind: “What had happened? Who had killed him? Why?”

When he arrived, residents told him that Bulama had allegedly been beaten by men they identified as “repentant Boko Haram fighters”, locally known as “Hybrids”.

For many residents of Maiduguri, the allegation struck a painful nerve.

For years, former insurgents who surrendered to authorities have passed through government rehabilitation and reintegration programmes such as Operation Safe Corridor and the Borno Model, before returning to civilian communities. However, some have bypassed both interventions completely. 

The Nigerian authorities have involved some of these deserters in security operations, where they help troops with intelligence gathering, their knowledge of terrorist-held terrain, and even operational activities. The arrangement has remained controversial among many survivors of the conflict and among security analysts. 

Now, residents in these communities say their fears have been justified. 

They brought him back dead

Bulama’s final hours began shortly before the Friday Muslim congregational prayers.

Muhammed was told by relatives and eyewitnesses that “[Bulama] was on his way to the mosque on his bicycle when he received a phone call. He stopped by the roadside [close to Muna, on the Maiduguri-Gamboru highway] to answer it.” Behind him was a vehicle carrying armed men dressed in black uniforms. “They honked at him to move,” Muhammed said. “But he was speaking on the phone and did not hear them.”

Abbas Shettima, who witnessed the incident, said the confrontation, which occurred between 1:15 p.m. and 1:30 p.m., quickly escalated. 

“We were all heading to the mosque when we saw them beating him,” Abbas recounted. According to him, the group consisted of about ten men carrying guns and sticks. “They said he was blocking their way,” he said.

Bulama tried to explain. He apologised repeatedly, but his pleas fell on deaf ears. 

“He kept begging them to spare him,” Abbas said. “He crouched down and covered his head with his hands while they beat him.” When bystanders attempted to intervene, the armed men threatened them. Residents watched helplessly. Eventually, the men forced Bulama into their vehicle and drove away.

No one knew where he had been taken.

At the time, witnesses said they believed the group were members of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) because of their uniforms.

Hours later, shortly after 3 p.m., the vehicle returned. “They brought him back severely wounded,” Abbas recounted. “He could barely move.”

Residents rushed toward him to help, but within ten minutes, he died.

The incident was immediately reported to the soldiers stationed at the camp’s entrance. According to Muhammed, the soldiers said they had seen the vehicle dropping Bulama but did not know what had transpired. “They were the ones who told us the men were Hybrids and that they had come from the Maiwa axis,” he said.

Residents later learned that Bulama had allegedly been taken to Maiwa Kura, a remote village in Mafa Local Government Area, Borno State, where the group was reportedly stationed. 

Although “Hybrids” are often perceived as operating independently, they are typically attached to military formations and work alongside security forces, according to a member of a local volunteer security outfit involved in counterterrorism operations who spoke to HumAngle.

“The commanding officer of the military base gives instructions to the ‘Hybrid’ commander attached to that formation, who then relays orders to his men,” the source explained. “During broader operations involving multiple locations, they also have a state commander from whom they receive directives.”

However, this does not necessarily imply military involvement in the attack that claimed Bulama’s life, as Hybrid patrols sometimes operate independently.

Bulama’s family subsequently reported the matter to the police. 

Muhammed said that soldiers, police officers, and members of the CJTF later travelled to Maiwa, where they arrested three suspects, including a commander. “They told us the others had travelled to Mafa for an operation,” he said.

The suspects were taken into custody and transferred to the Borno State Criminal Investigation Department for further investigation.

According to family members, the suspects claimed Bulama died after jumping from the back of a moving Hilux vehicle. But the relatives remain unconvinced. “The doctors told us he had been severely beaten,” Muhammed said. “His hands were tied, and he had internal bleeding.”

The family retrieved the body on Saturday morning and buried him later that afternoon. When the body was prepared for burial, he said, blood continued to seep from his eyes, ears, and nose. “It stained the white shroud.”

When HumAngle contacted the Borno State Police Public Relations Officer, Nahum Kenneth Daso, he said he was not aware of the case and would make inquiries. As of publication, no official update had been provided.

The men known as ‘Hybrids’

In many communities across Borno State, the word “Hybrid” carries different meanings depending on who defines it. 

To security officials, they are a practical asset in a war that has stretched for more than 15 years. For many residents, they are former terrorists trying to rebuild their lives. To others, especially those who lost relatives, homes, farms, and livelihoods during the conflict, they are a constant reminder of wounds that have never fully healed.

The term is commonly used to describe some former Boko Haram members who surrendered and passed through official rehabilitation and deradicalisation programmes, and later became attached to security operations in various capacities.

Since they possess intimate knowledge of terrorist operations and hierarchy, security agencies have increasingly relied on some of them to help in identifying former colleagues, navigating difficult terrain, and providing information that security forces may otherwise struggle to obtain.

For authorities, the arrangement is often viewed as a necessary component of the counterterrorism campaign. However, many civilians find it deeply unsettling.

That is why, for some residents, the sight of former terrorists carrying weapons or working alongside security forces can be difficult to accept.

Bulama’s death has reopened those anxieties. Yet, the resentment many residents express today did not begin with his killing. It has been building for years.

In August 2021, as thousands of terrorist deserters began surrendering from the Sambisa Forest and the Lake Chad region, the Borno State Government convened a high-level stakeholders’ meeting at the Government House in Maiduguri. Government officials, security agencies, traditional rulers, religious leaders, civil society organisations, journalists, and community representatives gathered to discuss the reintegration of former insurgents into society.

At the end of the meeting, participants agreed in principle to forgive and accept these deserters back into their communities. Their acceptance, however, was not unconditional. The stakeholders insisted that surrendered terrorists must be thoroughly screened before reintegration. They also warned against the release of hardened extremists into the communities. They further called for meaningful reconciliation between victims and former terrorists.

The gathering was widely presented as a collective endorsement of reconciliation.

But beyond the conference hall, acceptance has proved far more complicated.

Many residents who had survived the violence felt they had not been part of that conversation. Some had lost parents, spouses, siblings, and/or children. Others had spent years moving between displacement camps, uncertain whether they would ever return home. For them, forgiveness was not a policy decision that could be reached through consensus among stakeholders. It was an intensely personal choice shaped by trauma, memory, and loss.

“The people making these decisions are not always the people who suffered directly,” Abba Gana told HumAngle.

Over the years, some residents have complained of harassment and intimidation by former terrorists and their families. Others say they simply feel the reintegration process has moved faster than community healing.

The debate became even more sensitive as some former terrorists began assisting security operations. To many survivors, the transformation can be difficult to reconcile: people who once arrived as attackers returning as neighbours and protectors, and in some cases, as men carrying authority.

Some government officials have repeatedly defended the reintegration policy. Recently, General Olufemi Oluyede, the Chief of Defence Staff and chairperson of the Operation Safe Corridor National Steering Committee, likened terrorist deserters to the biblical Prodigal Son, arguing that they deserve rehabilitation because they remain Nigerian citizens. 

Those concerns were further amplified by reports that not all former terrorists were passing through official rehabilitation channels. In 2025, a HumAngle investigation documented allegations that some defectors were quietly leaving the forest and reintegrating into communities without participating in formal deradicalisation programmes, raising questions about screening, accountability, and oversight.

Over the years, several incidents involving terrorist deserters have also contributed to public unease. In April, a former Boko Haram member allegedly shot and killed a CJTF member during an argument in the Mafa LGA. According to reports, the victim was rushed to the hospital but was confirmed dead on arrival, while the suspect was later arrested and handed over to the police.

Two years earlier, some deserters reportedly stormed a police station in Maiduguri in an attempt to secure the release of their colleagues arrested over alleged drug-related offences. In another case that generated public outrage in 2023, a deserter was accused of killing his wife at the outskirts of Maiduguri.

Concerns about the reintegration programme are not new. As far back as 2020, Ali Ndume, the senator representing Borno South Senatorial District, publicly criticised aspects of the government’s amnesty efforts, recounting the case of a deserter whom he alleged killed his father and later absconded with his property. The senator argued that the victims and survivors’ concerns were not receiving the same level of attention as the rehabilitation of the deserters.

Taken individually, the circumstances surrounding these incidents differ significantly from Bulama’s case. Collectively, however, they have helped shape public perceptions of the reintegration programmes and deepened anxieties among some residents about the monitoring, supervision, and accountability of deserters, particularly those involved in security-related activities.

For many survivors of the conflict, such incidents reinforce a lingering fear that rehabilitation alone may not be enough. Bulama’s death has now brought those long-simmering concerns into sharper focus. 

“The community is deciding on an action,” Abbas said.

Residents gathered after Bulama’s burial to discuss possible legal steps. Some suggested pooling money to hire a lawyer. Others proposed approaching human rights organisations.

“We are thinking of contributing money and hiring a lawyer,” Abbas said.

Justice and unfinished wounds

For Muhammed, grief and anger now coexist. His cousin survived displacement and years of uncertainty. He, however, did not survive a short journey to the mosque.

When asked what justice would look like for his family and the displaced community, Muhammed replied, “The law does not play by sentiments; it follows laid-down rules. I hope they will do what is right. If it is by my sentiments, I would not want them to be free. I would want them imprisoned for life.”

He paused.

“I don’t care about compensation. I don’t care about apologies. Justice for me is their imprisonment.”

A family left devastated 

Bulama was only 30 years old. He left behind two wives and five children.

He earned a living as a farmer. And before displacement forced the family from Boboshe in 2016, his father was killed. His elderly mother remains alive and still lives with them at the displacement camp.

The survival of his family, which was Bulama’s responsibility as the breadwinner, hangs uncertainly over relatives, who are also struggling to survive. “We are not rich people,” Muhammed said. “Caring for five children in addition to our own children will be difficult.”

Around the camp where he lived for over a decade, residents gather beneath makeshift shelters to rest, but the conversations about Bulama’s death remain on their lips. 

What remains immediate is his nuclear family, and the space left by a man who left home for Friday prayers and never returned.

Hello! I’m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.

Both made by 20-something directors who emerged from the world of YouTube, the horror movies “Obsession” and “Backrooms” are dominating the conversation. They could come to represent a pivotal moment for how Hollywood engages with young talent and audiences alike.

I saw Curry Barker’s “Obsession” this week at a packed holiday matinee and Kane Parsons’ “Backrooms” is on track for a huge opening weekend — maybe the largest in A24’s history. The fact that audiences are responding to these films is exciting and one has to hope that Hollywood takes the right message from their successes: to give young filmmakers the space to create the projects they want to make, rather than shoehorn them into preconceived notions of what people want. Audiences right now seem to be proving themselves to be adventuresome when given the opportunity to try something new.

Marilyn at 100

Marilyn Monroe in the 1953 classic “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.”

(Academy Museum)

When Marilyn Monroe’s death was first reported in The Times on Aug. 6, 1962, the news read, “Marilyn Monroe, a troubled beauty who failed to find happiness as Hollywood’s brightest star, was discovered dead in her Brentwood home of an apparent overdose of sleeping pills.”

That intertwining of the glamour and sex appeal of her public persona with an air of doomed tragedy would permanently attach itself to her image, making her one of the most unforgettable stars Hollywood has ever created.

Monday marks the 100th anniversary of Monroe’s birth in L.A.’s Boyle Heights, where she was born Norma Jeane Mortenson. In celebration of Monroe’s centennial, the Academy Museum will open a new exhibition on Sunday, “Marilyn Monroe: Hollywood Icon,” featuring hundreds of objects including personal materials never before displayed and a number of her most memorable costumes.

The museum will also launch a 17-film series spotlighting Monroe’s remarkable career, including her versatile talent as both a comedian and a more dramatic performer. Highlights include the 1953 thriller “Niagara,” 1950’s backstage drama “All About Eve” in a new 35mm print with an introduction from journalist Lorraine Nicholson and 1955’s “The Seven Year Itch” with writer Kim Morgan introducing. Elsewhere, “Some Like It Hot” from 1959 and Monroe’s final completed film, “The Misfits,” will both show in 4K.

On Sunday, “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” will play in the Academy’s David Geffen Theater in 4K. There are also other Monroe screenings and events around the city, including multiple shows of “Gentlemen” at the Gardena Cinema on Saturday.

Marilyn Monroe and photographer Bruno Bernard backstage at the Hollywood Bowl in 1953.

(Bernard of Hollywood Foundation Archive)

Authors Mark A. Fortin and Joshua John Miller have collaborated on a new book, “The Marilyn Monroe Century: From Norma Jeane to Icon — A Story in Photographs.” The culmination of a seven-year-long research process, the book unearths original negatives of pictures of Monroe taken by Miller’s grandfather, acclaimed photographer Bruno Bernard. Bernard, who died in 1987, shot with her before she had even adopted the name Marilyn Monroe and took the best-known images of her, standing on a subway grate with her white dress billowing up while in production on “The Seven Year Itch.”

“One of the stories I’m trying to tell with a lot of these pictures is to counter the narrative that Marilyn didn’t have agency in the creation of her persona,” says Miller in a recent Zoom call from a room at the Chateau Marmont. “The truth is she was very much instrumental in constructing her image. And Bruno was a big part of that. Photographers at that time were not only the photographer — they were the best friend, the therapist, the agent, the stylist. I think it’s really important to have context for these pictures because this kind of history gets lost.”

The book does a remarkable job of providing additional atmosphere around images that might already be familiar, giving a fuller sense of what was going on both inside and outside of the frame. The notorious subway-grate scene was actually shot twice, first in New York and again in Los Angeles.

“I think what I’ve been trying to do is not rewrite the narrative, but thread [Bruno] correctly back into the stitching of Marilyn’s mythology,” Miller says. “He is one of the only photographers who deeply knew both Norma Jeane and Marilyn. I know everyone says they know the ‘real Marilyn,’ but he was part of the construction with her to create that.”

The joy of sadness with ‘Bleak Week’

Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Brady Corbet in the movie “Mysterious Skin.”

(Tartan Films)

“Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair” has become the signature program of the American Cinematheque, expanding beyond its L.A. footprint for editions at other theaters not just around the country but around the world. Turning sadness, depression and defeat into group activities to be enjoyed together has been an ingenious masterstroke of programming.

Now in its fifth edition, this year’s highlight will be a series with Isabelle Huppert, who will be present for screenings of such downbeat fare as “The Piano Teacher,” “Le Cérémonie,” Violètte Noziere,” “Elle,” “Time of the Wolf” and “Heaven’s Gate.”

Filmmaker Ari Aster will also be present for a complete retrospective of his four features. Other guests include Denis Villeneuve with “Incendies,” Allen Hughes with “Dead Presidents,” Al Pacino with “The Godfather Part II,” Gregg Araki with “Mysterious Skin,” Robert Englund with “Buster and Billie,” Werner Herzog with “Heart of Glass” and Theresa Russell with “Bad Timing.”

I will be introducing the U.S. theatrical premiere of a 4K restoration of Carlos Saura’s 1966 “The Hunt” and moderating Q&As with filmmaker Richard Kelly for the 20th anniversary of the Cannes cut of “Southland Tales” and actor Haley Joel Osment for a 25th anniversary 35mm screening of “A.I. Artificial Intelligence.” And The Times’ Joshua Rothkopf will moderate a Q&A with Aster for “Eddington,” while Amy Nicholson will talk to Aster for “Midsommar.”

UCLA’s Festival of Preservation

Leslie Uggams in 1972’s “Black Girl.”

(UCLA Film & Television Archive)

The UCLA Festival of Preservation is one of the city’s most-longstanding and venerated events for film lovers, celebrating revered classics and rediscovered obscurities alike. This year’s edition, the 22nd, opens with the West Coast premiere of a new restoration of Ossie Davis’ 1972 “Black Girl,” an adaptation of J.E. Franklin’s successful play about thee generations of Black women.

Jose Luis Ruiz’s groundbreaking 1975 documentary on Latino immigrants, “The Unwanted,” will have a restoration world premiere. The restoration of Budd Boetticher’s 1955 melodrama “The Magnificent Matador,” starring Anthony Quinn and Maureen O’Hara, brings back the film’s stunning look in Cinemascope and Eastmancolor.

Andre de Toth’s 1948 thriller “Pitfall,” starring Dick Powell and Lisbeth Scott, will have a world premiere restoration. The series concludes with De Toth’s stylish romantic drama “The Other Love” from 1947 starring Barbara Stanwyck. The restoration reinstitutes the original ending of the film unseen by audiences since the 1940s.

Former Times critic Keneth Turan has made his own picks for what not to miss.

A tender coming-of-age romance

Vincent Spano and Rosanna Arquette in the movie “Baby, It’s You.”

(Paramount Pictures)

Produced by Amy Robinson and Griffin Dunne between their work on Joan Micklin Silver’s “Chilly Scenes of Winter” and Martin Scorsese’s “After Hours,” the 1983 movie “Baby It’s You” captures a number of rising talents at just the right moment. Only the third feature written and directed by John Sayles (and still his only movie made at a Hollywood studio), the film is a particularly smart take on the coming-of-age romance, with a sharp sense of time and place. It’s even shot by cinematographer Michael Ballhaus, fresh off his collaborations with Rainer Werner Fassbinder but before his long collaboration with Scorsese.

Set in late-1960s New Jersey, the story involves a good-girl high schooler preparing for college (Rosanna Arquette, who lights up the screen) who falls for a bad boy with few future prospects (Vincent Spano). The film will show on Wednesday in a 4K restoration at the Academy Museum with Arquette and Spano both scheduled to attend.

In a 1983 Times review, Shelia Benson said the film “explores questions of class and unequal opportunity with humor and tender insight,” adding that Spano and Arquette “together conjure up every improbable, love-struck couple who ever dazzled us ordinary mortals in the halls or at the senior prom.”

New this week

• Kane Parson’s horror film “Backrooms” stars Renate Reinsve and Chiwetel Ejiofor in an adaptation of Parson’s own popular YouTube videos. As Amy Nicholson wrote, “Given that backdrop, ‘Backrooms’ would be one of the year’s most significant releases even if the movie itself was merely fine. But it’s better than fine — it’s a work of honest-to-goodness art.”
• Katie Walsh reviews the crime thriller “Tuner,” starring Leo Woodall as a piano tuner who gets in over his head with the wrong people. The film is the fiction feature debut from Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Daniel Roher.
• The latest music-themed film from Irish writer-director John Carney, “Power Ballad” is about a failed-to-launch songwriter (Paul Rudd) trying to get credit for the tune he co-wrote with a boy band star (Nick Jonas). Amy Nicholson reviews.

Hello! I’m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.

There are, it goes without saying, a lot of movies out there. And so even for someone like myself, whose job is just to stay on top of them, sometime a title slips by. I had not taken much notice of “Is God Is” before it opened last week without playing any festivals in advance, but the reviews and conversation around it grabbed my interest. Once I realized that Tessa Thompson and Janicza Bravo were involved as producers, I made sure to carve out time to see the movie this week. And am I ever glad I did.

The debut as writer-director for Aleshea Harris (adapting her own play), “Is God Is” is among the most exciting movies released so far this year. Kara Young and Mallori Johnson are absolutely electric as twin sisters who set out to find the estranged, abusive father who abandoned them after leaving them and their mother horribly scarred in a fire. There is a volatile unpredictability to the storytelling that gives it a fresh energy. I saw it at a more-or-less empty matinee, but I’m glad I did. Catch this in theaters while you can.

35 years of ‘T2’

Linda Hamilton in the movie “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.”

(Rialto Pictures)

As far as I’m concerned, James Cameron’s 1991 “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” is the quintessential summer movie. You can pay close attention or not, the special effects and action are amazing, the villains are sentient machines (shades of our AI-addled present) and it has a song by freaking Guns N’ Roses.

The main cast of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Robert Patrick, Edward Furlong and Joe Morton are all perfectly tuned into the movie they are making, full of chaos, mayhem and just the right amount of thoughtfulness. (Morton and Hamilton in particular give the film an unexpected soulfulness.)

To celebrate the film’s 35th anniversary, the American Cinematheque is screening the film in 70mm, 35mm, 3D and DCP at different venues on different days. (Check carefully, as there have already been some schedule changes.) The Academy Museum will show the film on Wednesday in 4K with visual effects supervisor Dennis Muren and special effects creator Shane Mahan present. The film is also playing the Vista in 70mm June 6 and 7.

In his original 1991 review, Kenneth Turan wrote, “Most of all, what makes ‘Terminator 2’ come alive in a major way is Cameron’s intuitive understanding of the mechanics and psychology of action films. Unlike many of the wanna-bes who find themselves in charge of pictures these days, this is one director who really knows how to direct. … Cameron flamboyantly underlines, for those who may have forgotten, why the pure adrenaline rush of motion is something motion pictures can’t live for very long without.”

Lena Dunham before ‘Girls’

David Call and Lena Dunham in the movie “Tiny Furniture.”

(Joe Anderson / IFC Films)

Lena Dunham recently published her second memoir, “Famesick,” a portrait of her rise to cultural prominence and media ubiquity and subsequent retreat from it, which makes this a perfect moment to revisit a key component of her initial ascent, the micro-budget 2010 feature “Tiny Furniture.” Made when Dunham was in her early 20s, the film is a deadly accurate portrait of post-collegiate ennui, shot partly in her parents’ NYC apartment, and remains fresh and startlingly insightful.

The Eastwood Performing Arts Center will be screening the film Friday and Saturday. The film is showing along with the “Welcome to Bushwick a.k.a The Crackcident” episode of Dunham’s series “Girls.”

I profiled Dunham at the time, having first encountered her at SXSW the year before when she was there with her film “Creative Nonfiction.”

“That movie is so personal,” Dunham said of “Tiny Furniture” during an interview from the New York production office of the pilot for what would become “Girls.” “It’s like I wrote it, I directed it, I star in it — if you don’t like the movie you don’t like me.”

With the lacerating self-awareness that made her a star, she added, “And I also understand there is something essentially unappealing about ‘girl makes movies about being a loser and then gets un-loserly things to happen to her.’ It’s a little absurd.”

More onscreen Bob Dylan

Rupert Everett, Fiona Flanagan and Bob Dylan in a production still for 1987’s “Hearts of Fire.”

(Skinner / Mirrorpix / Getty Images)

It was just a few weeks ago that we wrote about a program of Bob Dylan live concert footage. In honor of his 85th birthday, the American Cinematheque will be putting on another program of two oddball rarities from his long career.

Rarely screened in theaters, the 2021 film “Shadow Kingdom,” directed by Alma Har’el, was originally released to a pay-per-view streaming site. Though it purports to be a performance at the Bon Bon Club in Marseille, France, the film was actually shot on a soundstage in Santa Monica. The musicians on screen are not playing live and are not even the same musicians who played on the prerecorded tracks.

The whole thing is very confusing in a very Bob Dylan way, but also kind of incredible. With its Dust Bowl “Twin Peaks,” last-nightclub-on-Earth vibes and spare, haunting arrangements of many Dylan classics that he rarely plays at his own concerts anymore, it is a truly one-of-a-kind document.

The same could be said of the 1987 film “Hearts of Fire,” directed by Richard Marquand (who also helmed “Return of the Jedi!”) and screening in 35mm. In a rare acting turn, Dylan plays a reclusive musician who takes a young singer (Fiona) under his wing, only to have her fall for a pop star played by Rupert Everett. Let’s charitably call Dylan’s performance singular as he delivers every line as if he isn’t sure why he is in the movie. It’s still fascinating.

Kurosawa’s late masterpiece

Mieko Harada in Akira Kurosawa’s 1985 epic “Ran.”

(Rialto Pictures)

One of the highlights of the Academy Museum’s ongoing series on Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa will be this weekend’s 35mm showing of 1985’s “Ran,” a retelling of Shakespeare’s “King Lear” shifted to 16th century Japan. Playing in 35mm in the big David Geffen Theater, it’s a chance to see a truly epic-scaled film under ideal conditions.

Reviewing the movie on its initial release, Kevin Thomas wrote, “‘Ran’ is a heroic saga of human destiny, a war movie with some of the greatest battle scenes in the history of the cinema, a costume drama of the utmost magnificence — and a crackling good samurai movie chock full of swordplay and palace intrigue.”

David Fincher’s secret soft heart

Gary Oldman and Amanda Seyfried in the movie “Mank.”

(Netflix)

The last couple months have been a real feast for Fincher-heads out there, with high-profile screenings of “Seven,” “Fight Club” and “Zodiac.” Now, David Fincher’s 2020 film “Mank” will be playing this weekend at the Vista. Because it came out during the pandemic (and was launched by Netflix), the film has only ever played a limited number of theaters, let alone in 35mm, which should do wonders for its black-and-white photography.

From a screenplay by Fincher’s father Jack, the film stars Gary Oldman as writer Herman J. Mankiewicz, working on the script for “Citizen Kane” with Orson Welles. Amanda Seyfried gives a vibrant performance as actor Marion Davies, who attempts to save Mankiewicz from his own worst instincts when it comes to her own paramour, mogul William Randolph Hearst.

In his review Justin Chang called the movie “very much a story about class divides and clashing egos, outsiders and insiders, striving and ambition, creation and authorship, and the thrill and loneliness of being the smartest guy in the room. … The off-kilter rhythms feel both immersive and agitated, as if Fincher were trying to both hypnotize you and jolt you awake with his lustrous Old Hollywood homage.”

New this week

Director Boots Riley, photographed in Los Angeles in May.

(Ian Spanier / For The Times)

• Amy Nicholson and Joshua Rothkopf finished out their time at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. (The awards will be announced over the weekend.) Amy took a look at what many have felt to be a weak program this year, while Josh spoke to Korean filmmaker Na Hong-jin, whose sci-fi action film “Hope” has a cast that includes Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander as space aliens.
• I spoke to Boots Riley, a musician and political activist turned filmmaker whose new movie is “I Love Boosters.” Riley maintains a deep sense of political commitment in his work, one which he does not feel he has to betray by also making things that are entertaining and enjoyable.
• The first new “Star Wars” movie in theaters since 2019, Jon Favreau’s “The Mandalorian and Grogu” is now playing. As Robert Abele put it in his review, “The brand is back together for ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu,’ which is a movie, a hoped-for franchise revival, a fourth season of sorts and an affable throwback. But it’s never quite riveting enough as canon or fodder to supplant anyone’s memories of [insert favorite “Star Wars” film here].”

President Zelenskyy says rescue operations continue after Russia used ‘more than 1,560 drones’ during its overnight attacks.

Russia launched a barrage of missiles and drones targeting Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, killing at least three people and wounding 40 others, Ukrainian authorities have said.

The Ukrainian military said on Thursday that the overnight strikes hit six districts of Kyiv and another six in the surrounding areas. Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Kuleba said attacks had targeted ports in the southern Odesa region and railways.

In a post on X, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said rescue operations were continuing following an attack on a nine-storey building in Kyiv after Russia launched “more than 670 attack drones and 56 missiles against Ukraine”.

“In total, since midnight yesterday, Russia has used more than 1,560 drones against our cities and communities. These are definitely not the actions of those who believe the war is coming to an end,” he wrote on Thursday.

“It is important that partners do not remain silent about this strike. And it is equally important to continue supporting the protection of our skies,” Zelenskyy added.

The mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, said 40 people were wounded in the attacks, including two children, while Ukrainian emergency services said three people had been killed.

Reporting from Kyiv, Al Jazeera’s Audrey Macalpine said people are still feared trapped under the rubble of the building.

Macalpine said it was one of Russia’s largest attacks of the war, “in a single 36-hour period just by sheer number of drones”.

The attack comes as a setback for efforts to end the war after United States President Donald Trump raised faint hopes for peace by brokering a three-day ceasefire between Kyiv and Moscow last week, and Russian leader Vladimir Putin suggested the war could be winding down.

The truce – put in place as Putin presided over a scaled-down military parade in Red Square to mark the anniversary of World War II victory – was marred by allegations of violations by both sides.

Ukraine and Russia launched long-range drone attacks immediately after it ended on Tuesday.

The Kremlin has poured cold water on the idea that Putin’s vague comments, issued Saturday, about the war “heading to an end” could mean a softening in Moscow’s position.

On Wednesday, it repeated its demand that Ukraine fully withdraw from the eastern Donbas region before a ceasefire and full-scale peace talks can take place.

Kyiv has rejected such a move as tantamount to capitulation.

In the fragmented mysteries of the great Argentine filmmaker Lucretia Martel, her explorations always start with sensory flashes: faces, spaces, objects, sounds in transfixing procession. The language is its own, resulting in disorienting but undiluted depictions of the worlds of modern elites (“La Ciénega,” “The Headless Woman”) and 18th century colonists (“Zama”) alike.

But now, with her first feature documentary, “Our Land (Nuestra Tierra),” Martel unravels a political crime and the larger offenses behind it with a vital clarity. The film is centered on the 2009 murder of Javier Chocobar, an Indigenous Chuchagasta man from Argentina’s northwestern Tucumán province, who was shot while defending his ancestral homeland from a thuggish incursion. The weight of the issue at hand — stolen land, territorial rights and the overdue recognition of a colonized country’s original peoples — brings out a tantalizing lucidity from the typically elusive Martel on a serious subject that requires discipline.

In one sense, she’s dealing with a rights issue too painful to be aggressively aestheticized, but she’s also exploring a blood-soaked injustice that can’t be treated conventionally. She begins, in fact, with rolling satellite images from space — as if to say: This appropriation of nature is the world’s problem, not just Argentina’s.

What follows, toggling between a courtroom and vast, contested land (filmed with dreamlike urgency by cinematographer Ernest de Carvalho), is a righteous, visually arresting swirl of fact and feeling, past and present. It’s also anchored by the stories of a community desperate to claim territory they’ve cultivated for centuries. “Our Land” is as honorable a documentary as you’re likely to encounter this year about what fighting looks like in today’s era of grab-what-you-can thievery.

First, we hear from the defendants, captured by Martel’s cameras at their 2018 trial in Buenos Aires (an unconscionable nine years after the shooting). The three accused men — a businessman and two ex-cops — flounder at positioning themselves as the true victims when their own handheld video of the incident shows otherwise: The confrontation with the Chuchagastas only escalated because they brought a gun. Their lawyers obnoxiously push a narrative of ownership versus trespassers, backed by reams of documents and tossed-around historical dates.

But as Martel patiently unfolds the Chuchagastas’ perspective — personal narratives that come to life in intimate photos, atmospheric sound design and warm home footage — we begin to understand that documents and files are a bogus battleground given their hundreds of years of careful tending. One community member distrusts dialogue to begin with, calling it a means to “give up something.”

“Our Land” is the work of a director whose attention is rigorous, whose care is genuine, but who is also conscious of her outsider’s perspective. It’s an ally’s respect. There’s no better proof of that than in her drone shots of this embattled community’s sun-soaked valley: elegant, purposeful, even awkward (a bird hits one) visitations from the air. They’re a reminder that she’s the filmmaker, surveying a story that belongs to others. Documentaries don’t get much more honest than that.

Hello! I’m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.

This newsletter is about going to the movies, of course, but it’s about writing and reading about movies, too. And so it was exciting news this week that Film Comment, the venerable but shuttered publication that helped foster cinephilia in America, would return as a quarterly online publication.

A complete archive is now available online, going all the way back to the earliest issues in 1962. Looking for landmark writings by Manny Farber, Paul Schrader, Richard Corliss, Amy Taubin, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Kent Jones or countless others? It’s all there and well worth digging into. I began my career as an intern at Film Comment, publishing some of my own earliest pieces, and still consider it a North Star for writing about movies. Its return is most welcome.

Agnès Varda’s bruising brilliance

Sandrine Bonnaire in the 1985 movie “Vagabond.”

(Criterion Collection)

Though she became better known for her free-spirited, pixie-ish persona later in life, French filmmaker Agnès Varda was also capable of the bruising emotions of 1985’s “Vagabond,” arguably her greatest fiction feature and winner of the Golden Lion at Venice and the César for best actress for star Sandrine Bonnaire. Opening with the lead character found dead in a ditch, the film flashes backward to piece together her life from the memories of others, creating a fragmented portrait of an enigmatic young woman’s life.

Mezzanine will screen the film on Saturday at 2220 Arts + Archives, followed by a conversation between art critic Megan O’Grady and former Times staffer Carolina Miranda. Writing about the film in 1986, Sheila Benson said, “Just how Agnes Varda has kept ‘Vagabond’ from being a monumental downer is interesting, but she has. It is haunting. It is melancholy … but ultimately, beyond its central tragedy, it is an exhilarating film, the sort you leave burning to talk about with friends.”

A cartoon comes to life

Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall in the 1980 movie “Popeye.”

(Paramount Pictures / Getty Images)

It is one of the most deranged credit blocks imaginable: an adaptation of “Popeye” directed by Robert Altman, produced by Robert Evans, with a screenplay by Jules Feiffer, music by Harry Nilsson and starring Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall. When it was first released in December 1980, it was seen as too weird for kids and too naive for adults, but it has since been reconsidered as a unique snapshot of intersecting talents — a strange, wonderful, one-of-a-kind movie.

Vidiots will screen the film on Saturday afternoon with actors Paul Dooley and Donovan Scott, who played J. Wellington Wimpy and Castor Oyl. In our original 1980 review that is more positive than one might expect, Charles Champlin wrote, “Its difficulties arise not from a lack of ambition and innovation but from excesses of them.”

Neil Young + Devo = gloriously weird

Neil Young in the 1982 movie “Human Highway.”

(Shakey Pictures)

Neil Young’s place as a singer-songwriter and musician is unassailable — he’s an irascible, restless troubadour. But his sidebar work as a filmmaker, typically under the name Bernard Shakey, has had more sporadic and unpredictable output.

Young’s 1982 film “Human Highway” is probably the pinnacle of his work as a director, starring Young himself in an offbeat story of a small community in the shadow of a nuclear power plant. Dennis Hopper, Dean Stockwell, Devo and even former Times music critic Robert Hilburn all appear. Now Instant Image Hall will be screening the film on Saturday and Sunday along with a selection of Devo music videos in celebration of an exhibition at the MutMuz gallery.

After Young premiered a new cut of “Human Highway” a decade or so ago, I somehow found myself sitting across from him at a diner on a rainy midnight in downtown Toronto. (This job does have its moments.)

“My films are not super commercial, but they mean something to me,” Young said.

An Oscar-winning debut

Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger and Jack Nicholson in the 1983 movie “Terms of Endearment.”

(Paramount Pictures)

Part tearjerker, part family drama and part comedy, 1983’s “Terms of Endearment” trademarks a certain bittersweet tone that is still just pure magic. The story of a mother (Shirley MacLaine) and daughter (Debra Winger) across many years of ups and downs in their relationship, the film was the feature debut for James L. Brooks as writer-director and won five Oscars, including three for Brooks. The Academy Museum will play the film in a new 35mm print on Sunday afternoon.

When the movie came out on 4K disc in 2023, I spoke to Brooks about it. He talked about how even though it does have moments of great emotional weight, it was intended to play with a lighter tone overall.

“The whole thing was to make it as a comedy,” Brooks said. “The whole thing was to clock laughs. You had to, in order to do it right. And of course, once the audience leaves and it has its afterlife, it’s a drama because people are watching it alone. But I swear to you, in the theaters it was a comedy.”

A ’90s noir ripe for rediscovery

Jason Patric, left, Bruce Dern and Rachel Ward in the 1990 movie “After Dark, My Sweet.”

(Kino Lorber)

Set in the Coachella Valley with the woozy feel of a day drunk and a sense of uneasy menace, 1990’s “After Dark, My Sweet” is an adaptation of the novel by pulp icon Jim Thompson, directed by James Foley.

Jason Patric, then only 23, stars as Kevin Collins, known as Collie, a former boxer who escapes from a mental institution and is now just drifting. He falls in with Fay (Rachel Ward), an enigmatic, lonely alcoholic widow, who in turn introduces Collie to a shady man known as Uncle Bud (a delightfully sleazy Bruce Dern). Soon Collie is ensnared in a plot to kidnap a sickly rich boy that immediately goes off the rails.

On Tuesday at Vidiots, there will be a screening of Patric’s personal 35mm print of the film — a gift he received some 20 years ago and has never watched before. (It is said to be in pristine shape.) Along with a video introduction from actor and filmmaker Alex Winter, there will be a Q&A afterward with Patric moderated by critic and scholar Travis Woods, who contributed a commentary track to a recent Australian Blu-ray release of the film.

Patric organized the screening as a tribute to director Foley, who died in May 2025 at age 71. “After Dark” landed in between Foley making “Who’s That Girl” with Madonna and the David Mamet adaptation “Glengarry Glen Ross.” Among his other credits are “At Close Range,” “Fear” and the last two “Fifty Shades” movies.

“He was a good friend of mine at the time,” says Patric on a recent phone call from Santa Monica. “I know this was his favorite movie and it was closest to him. It’s the only movie that he had actually written that he directed. And I thought the best way to do that is just to show the movie.”

Patric, who says Collie is his favorite character in a career that also includes “The Lost Boys,” “Rush” and “Your Friends & Neighbors,” was first given the script and in turn gave it to Foley; developed it further together, trying to retain the language of Thompson’s novel. (The screenplay is credited to Foley and Robert Redlin.)

“It’s really a subjective piece of filmmaking,” says Patric. “So as Collie’s figuring things out, the audience is figuring things out.”

In her original review of the film, Sheila Benson wrote that “Collie is one of those roles actors lust after, the damaged dreamer, maybe dumb, maybe dangerous, and Patric demolishes the conventions of the role with breathtaking skill.”

“After Dark, My Sweet” landed just ahead of the Tarantino-inspired crime movie boom of the mid-’90s, alongside such noir-influenced precursors as Dennis Hopper’s “The Hot Spot,” John Dahl’s “Kill Me Again” and Stephen Frears’ Thompson adaptation “The Grifters.”

“This is just such an exciting film to want to reintroduce to audiences,” said Woods in a call. “And to get the opportunity to see this film on the big screen, which most people haven’t had that opportunity for 36 years, it’s just one of those really cool, really only in Los Angeles cinematic moments.”

New this week

Argentinian director Lucrecia Martel, photographed at the Sunset Marquis in April.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

• The unlikely duo of James Cameron and Billie Eilish co-directed a 3D concert film drawn from Eilish’s 2025 tour, “Billie Eilish — Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D).” Film critic Amy Nicholson and pop music critic Mikael Wood traded their thoughts on the movie.
• Argentinian director Lucrecia Martel is among the world’s most accomplished filmmakers and the true crime tale “Our Land (Nuestra Tierra)” is her first documentary. Carlos Aguilar spoke to Martel about it.
• “Mad Bills to Pay” expands to multiple Laemmle venues after a weekend run in the Vidiots microcinema. Carlos Aguilar spoke to director Joel Alfonso Vargas about portraying the Dominican American community in the Bronx.

Prosecutors charge Florida served as central hub in 2021 assassination of Moise, which sparked ongoing political crisis.

Four people have been convicted in the United States in connection with the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise.

Arcangel Pretel Ortiz, Antonio Intriago, Walter Veintemilla and James Solages were found guilty on Friday of conspiring to kill or kidnap Moise, whose assassination left a political vacuum in the Caribbean nation that has compounded overlapping security and humanitarian crises.

They were also convicted of providing material support for the plot in violation of US law. All four face possible life sentences.

US prosecutors have said that the south of Florida, the closest US state to Haiti, served as a central hub for planning and funding Moise’s assassination.

During the trial, which began nearly two months ago, the defence argued that the defendants were scapegoats.

They claimed they had instead been involved in a plan to serve Moise an arrest warrant, amid a dispute about whether the president had overstayed his term.

They further maintained that Colombian mercenaries involved in the assassination were meant to accompany Haitian police to execute the warrant, but that Moise was killed by his own security forces before they arrived.

“This is a Haitian plot, and it is ⁠a Haitian conspiracy,” defence lawyer Emmanuel Perez said, as reported by the Miami Herald.

US prosecutors, in turn, charged that the men initially sought to remove and replace Moise, but the plan eventually escalated to assassination.

A fifth defendant, Christian Emmanuel Sanon, a Haitian-born doctor who allegedly wanted to be named president after Moise was killed, was set to be tried at a later date due to health issues.

Eight other individuals accepted plea deals as part of the US investigation.

No national elections have been held in Haiti since Moise’s assassination, although a provisional council was appointed in September 2024 to organise new polls.

The council has since been replaced by US-backed Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime, who has said elections will be held by the end of the year.

The UN has said a stable government is essential to restoring order in Haiti, which has been beset by a series of natural disasters and rising violence, with criminal gangs controlling large swaths of territory.

At least 8,100 gang killings were documented in 2025, with insecurity displacing about 1.5 million people, according to the UN.

INVESTIGATORS think Towie star Jake Hall died from a horror chest injury caused by broken glass.

Jake, 35, suffered head wounds after allegedly turning aggressive and trying to harm himself during a party at the £200-a-night Majorcan villa he was renting.

Sources close to the investigation said the worst injury the reality star suffered was a chest wound from a shard of glass after smashing into a door.

The insider said: “The thorax injury was the one emergency responders at the scene felt was the most traumatic one and most likely to have been fatal.”

Jake’s autopsy is expected to take place today in the Majorcan capital Palma, but the results will not be publicly released.

The CPJ says the ‘lack of concrete progress’ in the FBI investigation represents a failure by the US government.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has demanded a “public progress update” from United States authorities on the FBI probe into the Israeli military’s killing of Palestinian-American Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, 51, who was shot dead in the occupied West Bank in 2022.

In an open letter to the Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI chief Kash Patel, the CPJ said on Thursday evening that “the effectively stagnant status of this case is inconsistent with ensuring the security of US citizens anywhere in the world.”

It said the “lack of concrete progress” represents a failure by the US government to respond to the “killing of one of its citizens by a foreign military”.

It noted that there had been no formal interviews with witnesses, “despite the willingness of multiple witnesses to cooperate”, and no signs of FBI activity to gather evidence in Israel or Palestine.

Longtime TV correspondent for Al Jazeera Arabic, Abu Akleh, was covering Israeli army raids in the West Bank city of Jenin when she was killed by Israeli forces on May 11, 2022. She was wearing a clearly marked press vest when she was shot dead.

Israel initially accused Palestinian fighters of her death, but the Israeli military later released a statement saying “it is not possible to unequivocally determine the source of the gunfire which hit” Abu Akleh. It added that there was a “high possibility” that she was hit by Israeli gunfire.

Many independent investigations conducted by CNN, The Associated Press news agency, and The Washington Post concluded that Abu Akleh was deliberately targeted, the CPJ letter noted.

‘Justice remains elusive’

The CPJ asked for a public update on the status of the investigation, a commitment to a timeline for the investigation, and the public release of its findings. It also said the investigation needs to be “impartial and independent, free from political considerations”.

Abu Akleh’s family said in a statement on Thursday, “despite the passage of time, justice remains elusive,” adding that the lack of justice “sends a dangerous message that journalists can be targeted without consequence”.

Abu Akleh’s death became a symbol of the wider Palestinian struggle. Murals of her have adorned the cities of the occupied territory as people remember her for her fearless reporting.

Since her killing, Israel has killed 258 journalists and media workers, the CPJ reported. Israel has acknowledged killing a number of journalists, alleging they had links to armed groups, accusations their employers deny and the CPJ calls “deadly smears”.

“The prevailing culture of complete impunity enjoyed by Israel is a direct factor in the continued targeting of journalists without deterrence,” said Sara Qudah, CPJ’s regional director. “Without an independent investigation and real accountability, such attacks will only continue to escalate, emboldening those who seek to silence the truth through violence.”

A small plane carrying five people crashed into a residential building in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, shortly after takeoff, killing three and leaving two others hospitalised. The aircraft went down minutes after departing Pampulha Airport, with no injuries reported among residents on the ground.

More than 20 years after Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC was shot to death in a New York recording studio, a man admitted to his role in the killing.

Jay Bryant, 52, pleaded guilty to a federal murder charge, telling U.S. Magistrate Judge Peggy Cross-Goldenberg that he helped others gain access to the building where the hip-hop icon, born Jason Mizell, was shot in 2002.

“I knew a gun was going to be used to shoot Jason Mizell,” Bryant told the judge, per the Associated Press. “I knew that what I was doing was wrong and a crime.”

Bryant didn’t name the people he helped, but in 2024, Karl Jordan Jr. and Ronald Washington were convicted of Mizell’s murder in a case that prosecutors had been working for decades.

“Y’all just killed two innocent people,” Washington yelled at the jury at the time of the verdict.

Jordan Jr., Mizell’s godson, won an appeal last year to overturn his conviction, with a judge finding that the prosecutors’ case against him didn’t add up. The judge said the evidence didn’t support the contention that he was motivated by anger after he was cut out of a $200,000 drug deal. Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge LaShann DeArcy approved Jordan Jr.’s $1-million bond package.

Washington has challenged his conviction as well.

According to Courthouse News, prosecutors claimed that Washington and Jordan both confessed to the murder, based on witness testimony that both men discussed being involved in Mizell’s shooting while they were in prison.

As for Bryant’s role in the murder, his uncle Raymond Bryant testified in 2024 that his nephew confessed to killing Mizell, saying he “did it.”

Additionally, a hat with Bryant’s DNA that law enforcement officers found in the recording studio placed Bryant at the scene of the crime.

Bryant told the court Monday that he was in cahoots with people who were wrapped up in a drug deal with the DJ and that he played a part in the killing by helping them gain entry to the recording studio. According to the Associated Press, Bryant flashed a thumbs up to a person in the courtroom before leaving.

Bryant faces 15 to 20 years in prison for his role in the murder, as well as separate narcotics trafficking and firearms charges to which he already pleaded guilty.

“More than two decades after the cold-blooded, execution-style killing of Mr. Mizell, an exhaustive investigation revealed Bryant’s role and today he finally admitted his guilt,” stated U.S. Atty. Joseph Nocella in a news release.

“Justice in the murder of Jam Master Jay has been pursued with determination and resolve for more than two decades. The defendant’s role in facilitating access for the killers was integral to this crime,” added Bryan DiGirolamo, special agent in charge for ATF New York field division.

Although Mizell’s public persona as the “master of the disco scratch” promoted the wholesome side of hip-hop and encouraged a drug-free lifestyle, officials said he turned to dealing after the group’s heyday had come and gone. According to prosecutors, Mizell became involved in arranging the sale of kilogram-size quantities of cocaine.

In August 2002, Mizell was fronted 10 kilos of cocaine from a supplier. Prosecutors alleged that Jordan Jr. and Washington planned to deal the drugs in Maryland, but a dispute led to the men being cut out of the $200,000 deal.

On Oct. 30, 2002, Mizell was playing video games with a friend inside his Queens, N.Y., recording studio, 24/7. According to prosecutors, around 7:30 p.m., Bryant entered the building containing the recording studio and opened a locked fire escape exit door to allow others to slip in without being seen by Mizell.

Two shots were fired and Mizell was hit once in the head, killing him. The second shot struck another individual in the leg.