A look at two of this week’s top high school football playoff games in the Southland:
FRIDAY
Leuzinger (8-1) at Crean Lutheran (10-0), 7 p.m.
Leuzinger, the Bay League champions, has a top offensive line and an aggressive, hard-hitting defense that will try to contain Crean Lutheran’s athletic quarterback, Caden Jones, who has 29 touchdown passes. This Division 2 opener is part of a division loaded with tough first-round matchups. The pick: Leuzinger.
Can Laguna Beach deal with Notre Dame’s huge offensive line? That’s the big question in this Division 3 playoff opener. Versatile quarterback Wyatt Brown has run for 19 touchdowns. If the Knights can throw around their weight, things will look good. Laguna Beach has talented junior quarterback Jack Hurst, who has 41 touchdown passes. The pick: Notre Dame.
A historic drought in the country has culminated in a ‘100 percent drop in precipitation’ in the Tehran region.
Published On 2 Nov 20252 Nov 2025
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The main source of drinking water for residents of the Iranian capital Tehran is at risk of running dry within two weeks, according to state media, due to a historic drought plaguing the country.
The Amir Kabir Dam, one of five that provide drinking water for Tehran, “holds just 14 million cubic metres of water, which is eight percent of its capacity”, the director of the capital’s water company, Behzad Parsa, was quoted as saying by the IRNA news agency on Sunday.
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At that level, it can only continue to supply Tehran with water “for two weeks”, he warned.
The announcement comes as the country experiences its worst drought in decades. The level of rainfall in Tehran province was “nearly without precedent for a century”, a local official declared last month.
The megacity of more than 10 million people is nestled against the southern slopes of the often snow-capped Alborz Mountains, which soar as high as 5,600 metres (18,370 feet) and whose rivers feed multiple reservoirs.
A year ago, the Amir Kabir dam held back 86 million cubic metres of water, Parsa said, but there had been a “100 percent drop in precipitation” in the Tehran region.
Parsa did not provide details on the status of the other reservoirs in the system.
According to Iranian media, the population of Tehran consumes around three million cubic metres of water each day.
As a water-saving measure, supplies have reportedly been cut off to several neighbourhoods in recent days, while outages were frequent this summer.
In July and August, two public holidays were declared to save water and energy, with power cuts an almost daily occurrence amid a heatwave that saw temperatures rise beyond 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in Tehran and exceed 50C (122F) in some areas.
“The water crisis is more serious than what is being discussed today,” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warned at the time.
Water scarcity is a major issue throughout Iran, particularly in arid provinces in the country’s south, with shortages blamed on mismanagement and overexploitation of underground resources, as well as the growing impact of climate change.
Iran’s neighbour Iraq is experiencing its driest year on record since 1993, as the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, which flow into the Persian Gulf from West Asia, have seen their levels drop by up to 27 percent due to poor rainfall and upstream water restrictions, leading to a severe humanitarian crisis in the country’s south.
STRANGER Things star David Harbour admitted he has “made mistakes” over the last 10 years just WEEKS before ex-wife Lily Allen released her bombshell album.
The couple, who split after a five year marriage in February this year, have had their relationship thrust into the spotlight after Lily’s blistering attack on her marriage on new album, West End Girl.
The 14-track album was dropped last week, but shortly before the release, Harbour briefly spoke about ‘regrets’ while promoting the upcoming final season of Stranger Things.
Talking to Esquire Spain, Harbour was asked to reflect on the past decade of his life in line with how long he has played burly cop Jim Hopper on the show.
He responded by calling it a “hard question” and, while not addressing Lily specifically, he said: “I would change either everything or nothing.
“You either accept your path completely and realise that even the pain and the slip-ups and the mistakes are all part of the journey, and that there’s truth and growth, wisdom and deeper empathy and connection in all that.”
“It’s kind of like a house of cards,” he added. “The minute you try to change one thing you kind of have to change it all.”
Ultimately he said he’d change “everything” and “just make his life happy and silly”, though it would “suck” not to be an actor.
West End Girl
On West End Girl, Lily chronicles her relationship with Harbour, starting with their whirlwind relationship after meeting on Raya in 2019 and setting up their life together in New York.
However, she notes things began to unravel after she landed a part in a West End production of 2:22 A Ghost Story, which required her to come back to London.
She then accuses him of getting close to a woman she names “Madeline”, despite them having an “arrangement” for him to sleep with other people.
Mentioning her on the track ‘Tennis’, fans were abuzz with the question: “Who the f**k is Madeline?”
Lily even dressed up as Madeline for Halloween – the moniker she gave David’s other womanCredit: GettyDavid is yet to make an official statement or response to Lily’s claimsCredit: GettyDavid and Lily announced their split in February this year after five years of marriageCredit: GettyThe West End Girl album makes claims of an ‘arrangement’ between them that he brokeCredit: UnknownLily and David first met on celeb dating app Raya back in 2019Credit: Getty
The return of winter has already claimed a life on the tallest mountain in the continental United States, with the death of a hiker on slippery Mt. Whitney, according to the Inyo County Sheriff’s Department.
Over the weekend, the hiker fell in the notorious “99 Switchbacks” section of the main trail, said Lindsey Stine, Community Outreach Coordinator for the Inyo County Sheriff’s Department. The switchbacks begin just above Trail Camp at almost 12,000 feet, where many hikers spend the night before making an early morning start for the 14,500-foot summit.
In the summer, when the trail is dry, the switchbacks section is a long slog, winding back and forth up two miles, and nearly 2,000 vertical feet.
When it gets a big snow, as it did earlier this month, the trail becomes buried and the whole slope becomes perilously steep.
Wes Ostgaard, who said he has climbed Mt. Whitney four times, posted on Facebook that conditions on Saturday were so treacherous he and his climbing partners decided to turn around.
“Winds were extremely intense, and with the recent snowfall, the wind was blasting snow in our faces,” Ostgaard wrote. The snow covered the trail and, in many places, rendered it “invisible,” he wrote.
When Ostgaard and his companions were descending the switchbacks they encountered the body of another hiker who had apparently fallen above a section of steel safety cables and then slid another 70 ft, or so.
“I believe it is highly unlikely he survived,” Ostgaard wrote of the hiker. “There was a fair amount of blood from [colliding with] the cables, and a lot of blood around a rock he made contact with.”
Ostgaard used Starlink to contact his father around 12:30 p.m., who then contacted emergency services. A helicopter arrived about four hours later, Ostgaard wrote.
Another hiker that day, Kirill Novitskiy, encountered the same conditions on the switchbacks on Saturday but made the “wrong decision” to keep climbing.
He made it up with just microspikes — little metal cleats that attach to the bottom of shoes and provide winter traction on flat ground — or on gentle slopes where falling would be no big deal.
But microspikes are notoriously inadequate for winter mountaineering, when a fall could be fatal.
As so often happens in the mountains, when Novitskiy returned to the steep switchbacks after a few hours traveling on relatively flat ground to and from the summit, he discovered conditions had deteriorated so much that he was in real danger and seriously under-equipped.
“I had a couple of dangerous places where the trail became a slope full of powdery snow, and it was very easy to slip off,” Novitskiy wrote on Facebook. “The worst part on the way back were the switchbacks. Almost all the trail was covered with powdery snow brought up with the wind, it was very hard to go with just microspikes.”
Near the cables he saw a pair of trekking poles with nobody around, and then encountered a group of five hikers at the bottom of the switchbacks who told him about the accident.
Anyone attempting to climb Mt. Whitney from this point on in the winter season should bring crampons — much larger spikes that attach firmly to mountaineering boots and dig deep into snow and ice to prevent falls – and an ice axe.
Experts also advise traveling in groups, and bringing a satellite communication device to contact help if anything goes wrong.
So far, the Inyo Sheriff’s Department has not released the identity of the hiker who died.
In January this year, a hiker from Texas died after attempting to climb Mt. Whitney in bad weather. His body was found at an elevation of 12,000 feet near North Fork Lone Pine Creek Trail.
A look at this week’s top high school football games in the Southland:
FRIDAY
Garfield (6-2, 4-0) vs. Roosevelt (4-4, 3-1) at East Los Angeles College, 7:30 p.m.
Throw out the records. Close the blinds. It’s East L.A. Classic week. Garfield should be a heavy favorite with running back Ceasar Reyes coming off a school-record 420 yards rushing performance. Roosevelt, though, has won three straight Eastern League games. Jason Moreno is Roosevelt’s version of Reyes. The pick: Garfield.
King/Drew (7-1, 3-0) at Crenshaw (7-1, 3-0), 7 p.m.
King/Drew has never won the Coliseum League title. This is the Eagels’ best chance behind top athlete Jayden Mitchell. Crenshaw has continued to improve behind receiver/defensive back Deance’ Lewis and quarterback Danniel Flowers. The pick: Crenshaw.
Hello! I’m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.
When news broke last weekend that Diane Keaton had died at age 79, it came as an extraordinary shock because so much of Keaton’s screen presence and persona was rooted in a vitality, a sense of of being very much alive and open to everything.
Revisiting Keaton’s Oscar-winning performance in “Annie Hall” this week, I was struck by how much humor she mined from a hyperawareness of self, often commenting on her own dialogue and behavior as she was still in the act of doing it. She brought a tremendous charge to everything she did.
Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson in the movie “Something’s Gotta Give.”
(Bob Marshak / Columbia Pictures)
In her appreciation of Keaton, Amy Nicholson called her “the icon who feels like a friend,” adding, “The contradiction of her career is that the things we in the audience loved about her — the breezy humor, the self-deprecating charm, the iconic threads — were Keaton’s attempts to mask her own insecurities. She struggled to love herself. Even after success, Keaton remained iffy about her looks, her talent and her achievements. In interviews, she openly admitted to feeling inadequate in her signature halting, circular stammers.”
There was a very genuine wave of emotion and affection after the news of Keaton’s death. One of the most heartfelt and moving tributes came from screenwriter and director Nancy Meyers, who worked with Keaton on four films, from “Baby Boom” to “Something’s Gotta Give.”
As Meyers said, “She made everything better. Every set up, every day, in every movie, I watched her give it her all.”
Meyers added, “She was fearless. She was like nobody ever. She was born to be a movie star. Her laugh could make your day and for me, knowing her and working with her changed my life.”
AMC Theaters have already announced limited showings of both “Annie Hall” and “Something’s Gotta Give.” Other screenings will certainly happen shortly.
Crispin Glover, still doing his own thing
Crispin Glover in “No! YOU’RE WRONG. or: Spooky Action at a Distance.”
(Volcanic Eruptions)
Still best known for the eccentric screen presence he brought to movies such as “River’s Edge,” “Wild at Heart,” “Charlie’s Angels,” “Back to the Future” and countless others, Crispin Glover is also extremely dedicated to his own filmmaking practice.
“No! YOU’RE WRONG” is the third feature Glover has made himself. He began developing the screenplay in 2007, started building the sets in 2010, began shooting in 2013 and didn’t commence editing until 2018. He goes at his own pace, though Glover is self-excoriating.
“None of this is acceptable,” he tells me during a recent video call from New York City following the film’s world premiere at the Museum of Modern Art. “I’m not happy that this has taken as long as it’s taken. Every step of this film just took ridiculously long.”
While Glover enjoys talking about the film, he struggles to explain what it’s actually about. Set across five time periods — 1868, 1888, 1918, 1948 and right now — Glover shot for the first time on 35mm and, for some scenes, used a hand-cranked camera that belonged to the Czech animator Karel Zeman. The negative was hand-processed, which can alter how it looks, with some sections then colored by hand to replicate early film techniques.
“It’s almost better for me to talk about the technical aspects because by talking about the the technical aspects, it sort of reveals things about the film itself,” Glover says. “All of my films on some level deal with surrealism in one aspect or another. And part of the way surrealism operates is to have either disparate pieces of information or withholding information so that the audience can make the correlations themselves and become a participant in the art.”
Bruce Glover in the movie “No! YOU’RE WRONG. or: Spooky Action at a Distance,” directed by his son Crispin Glover.
(Volcanic Eruptions)
Aside from Glover himself, the film includes his father, character actor Bruce Glover, who died in March 2025, as well as his mother, dancer Betty Glover, who died in 2016. Following the death of his father, Glover had to make some changes.
“I don’t want to say too much,” says Glover as he catches himself starting to clarify an aspect of the story. “You’d have to see the film. It’s not good for me to talk about it because the way the film is made and layered, it’s something that people will have different interpretations of. And if I say too much, then it will sway the interpretation. They’ll think, ‘Oh, it’s wrong because the filmmaker said this,’ but it isn’t wrong. What they’re thinking is what’s right for them.”
Points of interest
Cronenberg movies at Brain Dead
Léa Seydoux, left, Viggo Mortensen and Kristen Stewart in the movie “Crimes of the Future.”
(Nikos Nikolopoulos)
Brain Dead Studios has been running a program of David Cronenberg films through October and still has a few titles left to go. And while his films may not fit everyone’s strict definition of Halloween-style spooky, they are reliably unsettling in their examinations of the darker aspects of human existence.
Friday will see a screening of 2022’s “Crimes of the Future,” starring Viggo Mortensen, Kristen Stewart and Léa Seydoux, Monday will be Cronenberg’s 1991’s adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ “Naked Lunch,” Thursday brings 1979’s low-budget horror film “The Brood” and Saturday, Oct. 25 will have 1996’s controversial “Crash.”
I spoke to Cronenberg around the release of “Crimes of the Future,” which at the time felt like something of a summation of the director’s ongoing interests in technology and the body, though he claimed it wasn’t intentional.
“It’s not a self-referential film because I’m not thinking that when I’m writing it or directing it,” Cronenberg said. “But the connections are there because my nervous system, such as it is including my brain, is the substrate of everything I’m doing. So I might even say in the Burroughsian way that all of my work and all of my life is one thing. In which case, it now makes perfect sense that there should be these connections.”
David Fincher’s ‘The Game’
Michael Douglas in the movie “The Game.”
(Tony Friedkin / Polygram Films)
David Fincher’s 1997 thriller “The Game” is somewhat easy to overlook in his filmography, landing between the provocations of “Seven” and “Fight Club” and before fully-formed works like “Zodiac” and “The Social Network.” However, the movie, in which a wealthy man (Michael Douglas) finds his life turned upside in what may be a live-action role-playing game, is strange and unpredictable and among Fincher’s most purely pleasurable movies. It plays at the New Beverly on Friday — a rare chance to catch it in a theater on 35mm.
In his review of the film, Jack Matthews wrote, “Douglas is perfectly cast. Who else can blend moneyed arrogance, power and rank narcissism with enough romantic flair, intelligence and self-deflating humor to make you enjoy his defeats and his victories? What other major star is as much fun to watch when he’s cornered?”
A look at this week’s top high school football games in the Southland:
THURSDAY
Los Alamitos (7-0) vs. Edison (5-2) at SoFi Stadium, 5 p.m.
The Alpha League begins with a terrific matchup. Los Alamitos hasn’t played since Sept. 26, so the Griffins might start slow, but their offensive line has been key for quarterback Colin Creason and running back Kamden Tillis. Edison needs a big game from quarterback Sam Thomson, who has nine touchdown passes with one interception. The pick: Los Alamitos.
FRIDAY
St. John Bosco (7-0, 2-0) vs. Santa Margarita (5-2, 2-0) at Trabuco Hills, 7 p.m.
The Trinity League title could be decided in this game. Few teams this season have been able to deal with St. John Bosco’s high-scoring offense and aggressive defense. Santa Margarita showed last week in a 7-6 win over Mater Dei that it has an elite defense. The Eagles will need offensive improvement under first-year coach Carson Palmer. The pick: St. John Bosco.
Hello! I’m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.
This has turned into one of those weeks when there are just way too many movies opening. From titles that premiered earlier in the year, to films that popped up only recently, distributors have decided that today is the time to drop them in theaters. It can make for some tough calls as a moviegoer but hopefully ones with pleasant returns. Here’s some intel.
Mary Bronstein’s “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” was a standout at Sundance in January and remains one of the most powerful films of the year. Rose Byrne gives a knockout performance as Linda, a mother struggling to hold onto her own unraveling sense of self as she cares for her ill daughter.
Rose Byrne in the movie “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.”
(Logan White / A24)
In his review Glenn Whipp said, “Linda makes dozens of bad decisions in ‘If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,’ many of them seemingly indefensible until you realize that just how utterly isolated she feels. … Bronstein demands you pay attention to her, and with Byrne diving headfirst into the character’s harrowing panic, you will find you have no other choice.”
Speaking to Esther Zuckerman for a wide-ranging feature, Byrne said of the part: “Anything dealing with motherhood and shame around motherhood, whether it’s disappointment, failure — she’s got this line in the movie, ‘I wasn’t meant to do this’ — these are pretty radical things to say. People aren’t comfortable with that. So performance-wise, that was the hardest part because it was like a tightrope, the tightrope of this woman.”
Another Sundance premiere hitting theaters this week is director Bill Condon’s adaptation of “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” starring Diego Luna, Tonatiuh and Jennifer Lopez. Already a novel, a movie and a Broadway show, the story involves two men imprisoned in an Argentine jail for political crimes during the 1980s, with Lopez playing a fantasy film star who exists in their imaginations — a reverie to which they can escape.
Tonatiuh in the movie “Kiss of the Spider Woman.”
(Roadside Attractions)
For our fall preview, Carlos Aguilar spoke to Tonatiuh, a native of L.A.’s Boyle Heights, whose performance is a true breakout.
“When I first met Jennifer, I was like, ‘Oh, my God — that’s Jennifer Lopez. What the hell?’ ” he recalled, with the enthusiasm of a true fan. “I must have turned left on the wrong street because now I’m standing in front of her. How did this happen? What life am I living?”
After praising both Lopez and Tonatiuh in her review of the film, Amy Nicholson wrote, “Still, my favorite performance has to be Luna’s, whose Valentin is at once strong and vulnerable, like a mutt attempting to fend off a bear. He’s the only one who doesn’t need to prove he’s a great actor, yet he feels like a revelation. Watching him gradually turn tender sends tingles through your heartstrings.”
Robert De Niro, left, and Martin Scorsese in an undated photo from Rebecca Miller’s documentary series “Mr. Scorsese.”
(Apple TV+)
The American Cinematheque is celebrating filmmaker Rebecca Miller this weekend with a four-title retrospective plus a preview of her documentary series “Mr. Scorsese,” a five-part portrait of the life and career of Martin Scorsese.
Miller will introduce a Saturday screening of her 2023 rom-com “She Came to Me,” starring Anne Hathaway and Peter Dinklage, then do a Q&A for the first two episodes of the Scorsese project on Sunday. Also screening in the series will be 2016’s “Maggie’s Plan,” starring Julianne Moore, Ethan Hawke and Greta Gerwig; Miller’s 2002 Sundance grand jury prize winner “Personal Velocity”; and 2005’s “The Ballad of Jack and Rose,” starring Miller’s husband Daniel Day-Lewis, screening with an introduction from co-star Camilla Belle.
Ethan Hawke and Greta Gerwig in “Maggie’s Plan,” written and directed by Rebecca Miller.
(Sony Pictures Classics)
I spoke to Miller this week about the retrospective and her new Scorsese project, which premieres Oct. 17 on Apple TV+. Along with extensive interviews with Scorsese himself, the series includes insights from collaborators such as Robert De Niro, Paul Schrader and longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker as well as childhood friends, Scorsese’s children, ex-wives and fellow filmmakers such as Steven Spielberg, Brian De Palma, Ari Aster, Benny Safdie and Spike Lee.
“It feels like such an honor and so weird in a way,” said Miller of the notion of having a retrospective. “You feel like you’re just in the middle of making everything, but then you realize, no, I’ve been making these films for 30 years. And it’ll be really interesting to see how the films play now for people. It’s exciting to have them still be sort of alive.”
When you look back on your own movies, what comes to mind for you?
Funnily enough, there is a connection between “Personal Velocity” and Martin Scorsese, which is that when I was about to shoot personal “Velocity,” I was in Rome, on the set of “Gangs of New York,” and I was watching the snack trolley go by and thinking my entire budget is probably the same as their snack budget. And thinking: What am I doing? What was I thinking? How am I going to do this? But talking to [“Gangs” cinematographer] Michael Ballhaus, I told him how long we had to shoot everything, and he said, “Oh, I envy you. We shot ‘The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant’ in 10 days.” He was looking back on his days with Fassbinder as the good old days.
Then Marty gave me some advice on films with voiceovers to watch, and he ended up watching “Personal Velocity.” It was the first of my films that he saw, which then led probably to this [doc series] because he knew my films quite well. He watched them as time went on.
What interested you in Scorsese as a subject?
I knew that he was Catholic, that there was a strong spiritual element to his films. But I was interested in how that Catholicism kind of jogged with his fascination, or apparent fascination, with violence. Who is that person? How do those two things go together? And I thought that could be part of my exploration. I had a sense that all his work has a spiritual undercurrent in it, which I think it does. And I think that’s one of the things that I try to explore in the documentary. I felt I had something a little bit different to offer, for that reason.
The big questions that he’s asking: Are we essentially good? Are we essentially evil? And his immense honesty with himself about who he really is, the darkness of his own soul. I don’t think that people are usually that honest with themselves. And you realize that part of his greatness has to do with his willingness to look at himself.
Martin Scorsese in an undated photo from Rebecca Miller’s documentary series “Mr. Scorsese.”
(Apple TV+)
As much as we think we know about Scorsese, he seemed so candid about some of the darkest moments of his life, especially when he talks about his drug overdose and hospitalization in the late 1970s or about some of his issues with Hollywood, especially around “The Last Temptation of Christ.” Were you ever surprised that he was so willing to go there with you?
Oh, yeah, I was. I really didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t have an agenda. I had the scaffolding of the films themselves and a strong sense that this was a man that you can’t separate from the films. So the thing is like a dance, it’s like a permanent tango between those two things. You’re not going to pry them apart. I didn’t know about the addiction. I didn’t know a lot of these things. My questions are totally genuine, there’s no manipulation. It’s all me. I was very prepared in terms of the films. But in terms of the chronology and the connective tissue of his life, I was really right there discovering it.
Martin Scorsese at work on his film “Killers of the Flower Moon,” as seen in Rebecca Miller’s documenary series “Mr. Scorsese.”
(Apple TV+)
You’re catching him such a remarkable point in his life and career. He seems very happy and settled in his personal life and yet he still makes something like “Killers of the Flower Moon,” full of passion and fire. What do you make of that?
[Screenwriter] Jay [Cocks] says he’s learned that he can be selfish in his art, but he doesn’t have to be selfish in his life. Even if your outside is regular, your inside can be boiling. And I think Marty’s inside is always going to be boiling. The seas are not calm in there and never will be.
‘They Live’ and ‘Josie and the Pussycats,’ together at last
Roddy Piper in John Carpenter’s 1988 thriller “They Live.”
(Sunset Boulevard / Corbis )
There’s a real art to putting together a double bill. Sure, you can just program movies that have the same director or share the same on-screen talent. But what about deep, thematic links that might not otherwise be noticed?
The New Beverly has put together an inspired double bill playing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday of John Carpenter’s 1988 “They Live” and Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont’s 2001 “Josie and the Pussycats.” Though one is a rough-and-tumble sci-fi action picture and the other a satirical teen-pop fantasia, they both use the idea of subliminal messages to explore how consumer culture can be a means of control.
In “They Live,” wrestler-turned-actor “Rowdy” Roddy Piper plays a drifter who lands in Los Angeles and discovers a secret network fighting against an invasion of aliens living among us.
In Michael Wilmington’s original review, after joking the movie could be called “Invasion of the Space Yuppies,” he adds, “You can forgive the movie everything because of the sheer nasty pizzazz of its central concept. … The movie daffily mixes up the paranoia of the Red Scare monster movies of the ’50’s with a different kind of nightmare: the radical’s belief that everything is tightly controlled by a small, malicious ruling elite. Everything — the flat lighting, the crazily protracted action scenes, the monolithic beat and vamp of the score — reinforces a mood of murderous persecution mania.”
Rosario Dawson, from left, Rachael Leigh Cook and Tara Reid in the movie “Josie and the Pussycats.”
(Joseph Lederer / Universal Studios)
In “Josie and the Pussycats,” a small-town rock ‘n’ roll band (Rachael Leigh Cook, Tara Reid and Rosario Dawson) are plucked from obscurity when they are signed to a major record label and all their dreams of stardom seem to come true. But they come to realize the company’s executives (a brilliant pairing of Parker Posey and Allan Cumming) are using them for their own nefarious purposes.
Aside from some very hummable songs, the film has a truly epic amount of corporate logos and branding that appears throughout. Many reviewers at the time brought this up, including the L.A. Times’ own Kenneth Turan, who noted, “It’s a potent reminder that no matter how innocent a film may seem, there’s a Hollywood cash register behind almost every frame.” In subsequent interviews, Kaplan and Elfont confirmed these were not instances of paid product placement and, in fact, the production had to fight to get them all on-screen.
Points of interest
‘Eight Men Out’ in 35mm
Charlie Sheen, center, in a scene from the film “Eight Men Out.”
(Archive Photos / Getty Images)
Writer-director John Sayles has been so consistently good for so long that it is easy to take his work for granted. Case in point: 1988’s “Eight Men Out,” which tells the story of the infamous “Black Sox” scandal, when players from the Chicago White Sox were accused of intentionally throwing the 1919 World Series in league with underworld gamblers. The movie is playing on Sunday at Vidiots in 35mm.
The film captures much of what makes Sayles so special, particularly his unique grasp of the interplay between social and economic dynamics — a sense of how things work and why. He also fully grasps the deeper implications of the forces of greed and money setting themselves upon such an unassailable symbol of wholesome Americana as baseball. It’s also what makes the movie particularly worth a revisit now. With a phenomenal cast that includes John Cusack, David Straithairn, D.B. Sweeney, Charlie Sheen, John Mahoney, Christopher Lloyd, Michael Lerner and Sayles himself, the film was a relatively early effort from cinematographer Robert Richardson, who would go on to work repeatedly with Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino.
In a review at the time, Sheila Benson wrote, “ ‘Eight Men Out’ is not a bad movie for an election year. Everything that politicians cherish as ‘old-fashioned’ and ‘American’ is here. The Grand Old Game. Idealistic little kids. Straw hats and cat’s-whisker crystal sets. And under the slogans and the platitudes, a terrifying erosion and no one to answer for it. No wonder Sayles, hardly an unpolitical animal, found it such a relevant story nearly 70 years later.”
‘The Sound of Music’ in 70mm
Julie Andrews, center, in the 1965 musical “The Sound of Music.”
(20th Century-Fox)
On Sunday the Academy Museum will screen Robert Wise’s “The Sound of Music” in 70mm, a rare opportunity to see this classic in the premium format on which it was originally released. Based on the stage musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein , the film would eventually win five Oscars, including director and best picture.
Starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, it’s the story of the singing Von Trapp family, eventually forced to flee their native Austria as the Nazis take power.
In a Times review from March 1965, Philip K. Scheuer wrote of Wise and his collaborators, “They have taken this sweet, sometimes saccharine and structurally slight story of the Von Trapp Family Singers and transformed it into close to three hours of visual and vocal broilliaance, all in the universal terms of cinema. They have invested it with new delights and even a sense of depth in human relationships — not to mention the swooning beauty of Salzburg and the Austrian Alps, which the stage, of course, could only suggest.”
Even notorious gossip columnist Hedda Hopper liked the movie, presciently writing, “The picture is superb — dramatically, musically, cinematically. Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer were born for their roles. … All children — from 7 to 90 — wil love it. The following morning I woke up singing. Producer-director Bob Wise did a magnificent job and 20th [Century Fox] will hear nothing but the sound of money for years to come.”
REALITY TV star Olivia Bowen has wowed the crowds in a striking outfit – just weeks after giving birth.
Mum-of-two Olivia looked sensational as she posed on the red carpet ahead of a screening for her and husband Alex’s new reality TV show.
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Olivia looked striking in the black mini dress just weeks after giving birthCredit: Shutterstock Editorial
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Olivia and husband Alex Bowen looked dressed to kill at their reality TV screeningCredit: Shutterstock Editorial
The formerLove Island star dazzled in a short black dress and diamond-encrusted heels for the special occasion.
With her hair pinned up and sporting glamorous make-up, she accessorised with a black designer handbag and big smile as she posed alongside her husband.
She wrote on social media: “Not. Over. It. Our very special evening for our very special new show with @itv@itvxofficial.
“Thank you so so much to everyone who came & watched & supported our launch – we are so grateful & loved spending the evening with you all.
“And a huge thank you @angeleyemedia & our amazing sponsor @glade_uk.
“We had the most fabulous evening & are feeling so lucky – I just cannot wait for you guys to watch the first ep on Sunday.”
The mum shares three-year-old son Abel and daughter Siena, who wasborn in August,with husbandAlex.
The series will offer intimate access to the couple’s real-life journey as they grow their young family from three to four, whilst dealing with the emotional aftermath of losing one of their twins during early pregnancy.
Love Island 2016 star Alex told heatworld what to expect from the new series.
The Watch List with Rod McPhee
He said: “Before, being on Love Island, I was the serious one, and that’s really not me.
“Hopefully the new series will change people’s perception.”
He added: “When I’m on my Instagram, I’m quite serious when it comes to all my coaching and stuff and all that kind of jazz.
“I’m actually really immature and just daft. I’m quite a jokey person.”
He admitted it came to an end “because the bickering became too much”.
He also said: “When a girl leaves you, you feel abandoned and lost.”
Dani previously confessed that she and Reiss had known each other for a while and were an item before she started seeing Towie co-star Roman.
Shock moment MAFS UK groom squirms as he’s grilled by ‘turned on’ bride seconds after walking up the aisle
She told The Sun: “I am seeing someone else now to be completely honest.
“We knew each other before the whole me and Roman situation, we were kind of seeing each other.
“I called it off with him because I started seeing Roman – then this whole stuff happened off camera since we’ve been filming that stopped me and Roman from speaking again and then I started seeing the boy that I started seeing before.”
Now, afterReiss has married31-year-old Leishaon the reality series, it has been claimed the painter and decorator told Dani she was “the One” – and that he was heading on holiday rather than filming for the programme.
MailOnline claims Reiss told the beauty they would rekindle their romance after he had gone travelling – with scenes showing him getting hitched now leaving her “hurt.”
A source told the publication: “Dani had been dating Reiss from early 2023 until May 2024, when they briefly split because she feared he was more interested in fame than their relationship.
“Despite the split, they continued seeing each other in secret and were still together in March 2025, when, without Dani knowing, he began filming Married At First Sight UK.
“Reiss told Dani he was going travelling and promised they would reconnect and become official again.
“Dani now feels hurt and betrayed; they had been in a long-term relationship, and Reiss had led her to believe they had a future together.
“In reality, he was filming a dating show and would go on to marry another woman.”
A source told us of the relationship timeline and said: “Reiss and Dani have had an on/off relationship and were close for a while.
“They had split up last year, way before Married at First Sight started, and he was single at the time he signed up to the show.”
Reiss then told The Sun: “Dani is a great girl but it didn’t work out for us romantically.
“I will always think a lot of her and wish her the best, but when I signed up for Married at First Sight I was single and ready for commitment.”
Mafs couples that have stood the test of time
Loved-up Tayah Victoria and Adam Aveling of series six fame had the first Mafs baby.
The pair couldn’t keep their hands off each other on the programme and quickly found their feet in the outside world, moving into Adam’s Doncaster home.
Just 18 months after meeting, the couple welcomed their daughter Beau.
Season five couple Michelle Walder and Owen Jenkins also managed to make their marriage work away from the cameras and had their first child in December.
Teacher Michelle, 29, has no regrets about taking part in the experiment. She told us: “I just feel very lucky and thankful that it has worked out – and excited for everything to come.”
Michelle and Owen were both sick of dating apps when they applied in 2019.
Owen recalled: “I had been out for some drinks with a friend after work.
“While he was out for a cigarette I was scrolling on Instagram waiting for him to come back in.
“The MAFS advert was the last thing I saw, and I joked, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if I signed up?’
“A few beers later when I was back at home I sent in the application, and the rest is history.”
Another couple to make Mafs UK history is Zoe Clifton and Jenna Robinson.
Despite a slight rocky start, where they clashed over Jenna’s vegan lifestyle, the show’s first same sex pairing are still going strong.
They even have a successful podcast together called Life With a Pod.
Jenna shed light on being involved in the show earlier this year when she told us: “We’re not legally married, and I never felt like we were. I definitely feel the process makes you take the relationship a lot more seriously and having the help of the experts… if you can survive that process it sets a firm foundation for a long-lasting relationship.”
A look at three of this week’s top high school football games in the Southland:
THURSDAY
Leuzinger (4-1, 1-0) vs. Palos Verdes (4-2, 1-0) at SoFi Stadium, 8:30 p.m.
It’s going to be a late night in Inglewood as these two schools vie for what could be the decisive game to determine the Bay League championship. Both have outstanding quarterbacks, Ryan Rakowski for Palos Verdes and Russell Sekona for Leuzinger. Both schools have played challenging schedules. A field goal could decide it. Loyola plays Gardena Serra at 5 p.m. The pick: Leuzinger.
FRIDAY
Santa Margarita (4-1, 1-0) vs. Mater Dei (4-1) at Santa Ana Stadium, 7 p.m.
If first-year coach Carson Palmer of Santa Margarita doesn’t know about the physicality of the Trinity League, he’s about to find out. Mater Dei’s defense will be coming after quarterback Trace Johnson. If the Eagles can put together a running game, that would help. Santa Margarita has an outstanding secondary to test Mater Dei’s talented receiving group. The pick: Mater Dei.
Palisades (6-0, 1-0) at Venice (3-3,1-0), 7 p.m.
It’s a Western League showdown featuring Venice’s stingy defense against a Palisades offense that hasn’t been held below 35 points this season. Quarterback Jack Thomas of Palisades has 23 touchdown passes with two interceptions. Venice has the speed to prevent big plays. The pick: Venice.
1. The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman (Pamela Dorman Books: $30) Members of the Thursday Murder Club plunge back into action after a wedding guest disappears.
2. What We Can Know by Ian McEwan (Knopf: $30) A genre-bending love story about people and the words they leave behind.
3. Katabasis by R. F. Kuang (Harper Voyager: $32) Two rival graduate students journey to hell to save their professor’s soul.
4. The Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown (Doubleday: $38) Symbologist Robert Langdon takes on a mystery involving human consciousness and ancient mythology.
5. Alchemised by SenLinYu (Del Rey: $35) A woman with missing memories fights to survive a war-torn world of necromancy and alchemy.
6. Heart the Lover by Lily King (Grove Press: $28) A woman reflects on a youthful love triangle and its consequences.
7. The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (Crown: $28) A lifelong letter writer reckons with a painful period in her past.
8. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai (Hogarth: $32) The fates of two young people intersect and diverge across continents and years.
9. We Love You, Bunny by Mona Awad (S&S/Marysue Rucci Books: $30) The follow-up to the campus satire “Bunny” goes on a journey into the heart of dark academia.
10. Culpability by Bruce Holsinger (Spiegel & Grau: $30) A family drama about moral responsibility in the age of artificial intelligence.
…
Hardcover nonfiction
1. 107 Days by Kamala Harris (Simon & Schuster: $30) The former vice president tells her story of one of the wildest and most consequential presidential campaigns in American history.
2. Good Things by Samin Nosrat (Random House: $45) The celebrated chef shares 125 meticulously tested recipes.
3. We the People by Jill Lepore (Liveright: $40) The historian offers a wholly new history of the Constitution.
4. The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins (Hay House: $30) How to stop wasting energy on things you can’t control.
5. Poems & Prayers by Matthew McConaughey (Crown: $29) The Oscar-winning actor shares his writings and reflections.
6. Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy (Scribner: $30) The acclaimed novelist’s first memoir takes on the complex relationship with her mother.
7. I’m Just a Little Guy by Charlie James, Paige Tompkins (illustrator) (Quirk Books: $15) The comedian offers a softer, sillier, sunnier way to walk through life.
8. All the Way to the River by Elizabeth Gilbert (Riverhead Books: $35) The bestselling author’s memoir about an intense and ultimately tragic love.
9. Lessons From Cats for Surviving Fascism by Stewart Reynolds (Grand Central Publishing: $13) A guide to channeling feline wisdom in the face of authoritarian nonsense.
10. Truly by Lionel Richie (HarperOne: $36) The music legend tells his story.
…
Paperback fiction
1. I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman (Transit Books: $17)
2. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (Ballantine: $20)
3. Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar (Vintage: $18)
4. The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali (Gallery Books: $19)
5. Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout (Random House Trade Paperbacks: $18)
6. The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon (Vintage: $18)
7. Intermezzo by Sally Rooney (Picador: $19)
8. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper Perennial: $22)
9. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (Ecco: $20)
10. All Fours by Miranda July (Riverhead Books: $19)
…
Paperback nonfiction
1. On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder (Crown: $12)
2. The Art Thief by Michael Finkel (Vintage: $18)
3. Revenge of the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell (Back Bay Books: $22)
4. The Body Keeps the Score by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk (Penguin: $19)
5. The Wide Wide Sea by Hampton Sides (Vintage: $19)
6. The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron (TarcherPerigee: $24)
7. The White Album by Joan Didion (Farrar, Straus & Giroux: $18)
8. All About Love by bell hooks (Morrow: $17)
9. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer (Milkweed Editions: $22)
10. All the Beauty in the World by Patrick Bringley (Simon & Schuster: $19)
1. Alchemised by SenLinYu (Del Rey: $35) A woman with missing memories fights to survive a war-torn world of necromancy and alchemy.
2. What We Can Know by Ian McEwan (Knopf: $30) A genre-bending love story about people and the words they leave behind.
3. The Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown (Doubleday: $38) Symbologist Robert Langdon takes on a mystery involving human consciousness and ancient mythology.
4. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai (Hogarth: $32) The fates of two young people intersect and diverge across continents and years.
5. Katabasis by R. F. Kuang (Harper Voyager: $35) The deluxe limited edition of a dark academia fantasy about two rival graduate students’ descent into hell.
6. This Inevitable Ruin by Matt Dinniman (Ace: $39) Carl and Princess Donut are ready for battle in the seventh book of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series.
7. We Love You, Bunny by Mona Awad (S&S/Marysue Rucci Books: $30) The follow-up to the campus satire “Bunny” goes on a journey into the heart of dark academia.
8. My Friends by Fredrik Backman (Atria Books: $30) The bond between a group of teenagers 25 years earlier has a powerful effect on a budding artist.
9. The Wedding People by Alison Espach (Henry Holt & Co.: $29) An unexpected wedding guest gets surprise help on starting anew.
10. Culpability by Bruce Holsinger (Spiegel & Grau: $30) A family drama about moral responsibility in the age of artificial intelligence.
…
Hardcover nonfiction
1. 107 Days by Kamala Harris (Simon & Schuster: $30) The former vice president tells her story of one of the wildest and most consequential presidential campaigns in American history.
2. All the Way to the River by Elizabeth Gilbert (Riverhead Books: $35) The bestselling author’s memoir about an intense and ultimately tragic love.
3. Faithonomics by Jerry Lopez (Jerry Lopez: $29) Biblical wisdom is paired with modern-day financial strategies.
4. Good Things by Samin Nosrat (Random House: $45) The celebrated chef shares 125 meticulously tested recipes.
5. Poems & Prayers by Matthew McConaughey (Crown: $29) The Oscar-winning actor shares his writings and reflections.
6. Lessons From Cats for Surviving Fascism by Stewart Reynolds (Grand Central Publishing: $13) A guide to channeling feline wisdom in the face of authoritarian nonsense.
7. Replaceable You by Mary Roach (W. W. Norton & Co.: $29) An exploration of the remarkable advances and difficult questions prompted by the human body’s failings.
8. Art Work by Sally Mann (Abrams Press: $35) The artist explores the challenges and pleasures of the creative process.
9. When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows … by Steven Pinker (Scribner: $30) How the hidden logic of common knowledge can make sense of many of life’s enigmas.
10. Separation of Church and Hate by John Fugelsang (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster: $30) The comedian uses the writings of the Bible to highlight Christian hypocrisy while calling for compassion and clarity.
…
Paperback fiction
1. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (Ballantine: $20)
2. The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami (Vintage: $19)
3. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (Ecco: $20)
4. I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman (Transit Books: $17)
5. All Fours by Miranda July (Riverhead Books: $19)
6. The Best Short Stories 2025 by Edward P. Jones (editor) (Vintage: $19)
7. The Life Impossible by Matt Haig (Penguin: $19)
8. Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar (Vintage: $18)
9. The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon (Vintage: $18)
10. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (Penguin: $18)
…
Paperback nonfiction
1. Alignment by Katie Keller Wood (Page Two: $19)
2. All About Love by bell hooks (Morrow: $17)
3. The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron (TarcherPerigee: $24)
4. Didion and Babitz by Lili Anolik (Scribner: $20)
5. Autocracy, Inc. by Anne Applebaum (Vintage: $18)
6. The Art Thief by Michael Finkel (Vintage: $18)
7. The White Album by Joan Didion (Farrar, Straus & Giroux: $18)
8. Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey (Crown: $20)
9. The Friday Afternoon Club by Griffin Dunne (Penguin Books: $21)
10. Catching the Big Fish by David Lynch (Tarcher: $20)
French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu has stepped down, blaming deep divisions in parliament where parties acted “as if they all had an absolute majority”. His departure comes less than a month after taking office, throwing France into renewed political uncertainty.
Hello! I’m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.
Among the week’s new releases is “The Smashing Machine,” written and directed by Benny Safdie and starring Dwayne Johnson as Mark Kerr, an early mixed-martial-arts fighting champion who saw his career flame out before the sport became a lucrative cultural phenomenon.
Safdie is known for the movies he made with his brother Josh, such as “Good Time” and “Uncut Gems,” and more recently created the series “The Curse” with Nathan Fielder. Safdie won the directing prize at the Venice Film Festival for “The Smashing Machine,” his first solo feature.
Dwayne Johnson in the movie “The Smashing Machine.”
(A24)
In her review of the film, Amy Nicholson wrote about Safdie and Johnson, noting, “These two high-intensity talents, each with something to prove, seem to have egged each other on to be exhaustingly photorealistic. Johnson, squeezed into a wig so tight we get a vicarious headache, has pumped up his deltoids to nearly reach his prosthetic cauliflower ears. And Safdie is so devoted to duplicating the earthy brown decor of Kerr’s late-’90s nouveau riche Phoenix home that you’d think he was restoring Notre Dame.”
I spoke to Safdie earlier this week. He explained how he and Kerr held each other’s hands during the film’s emotional premiere screening at Venice and what it has meant for them to go through the process of seeing through the project together.
“I wanted him to feel some kind of ownership of the movie and his life. And it was very meaningful to me,” says Safdie of Kerr. “Now I hear him talk about it and it’s very interesting because he can say, ‘Oh, I see where I made mistakes in that relationship.’ And he can take ownership of them. And part of it is I wanted to make a movie about somebody’s perspective on life changing.”
A celebration of Jafar Panahi
A scene from the movie “It Was Just an Accident.”
(Neon)
The American Cinematheque is launching a tribute series to Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi this week. Winner of the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for the dramatic thriller “It Was Just an Accident,” Panahi has become Iran’s most high-profile dissident filmmaker, having been repeatedly jailed, placed under house arrest and officially banned from making films.
Yet none of that has stopped him. Panahi is now one of only four filmmakers ever to win the Palme d’Or, Berlin’s Golden Bear and Venice’s Golden Lion, alongside such giants as Michelangelo Antonioni, Robert Altman and Henri-Georges Clouzot. And “Accident” has been selected to be France’s entry for the international feature Oscar race.
Panahi was scheduled to appear at three events in Los Angeles next week as part of the tribute, but he may not make it. His appearances at the New York Film Festival (now in progress), including a scheduled talk with Martin Scorsese, had to be canceled due to a delay in Panahi receiving his visa to enter the country, reportedly a result of the federal government shutdown.
Even if Panahi does not make it to L.A., his films will play on and deserve to be seen. “Accident” will screen in a double-bill with 2003’s “Crimson Gold” at the Aero on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Panahi’s 1995 debut feature “The White Balloon,” co-written with Abbas Kiarostami, will play in 35mm at the Los Feliz 3. Later on Wednesday at the LF3, Panahi’s 2000 drama “The Circle” will screen in a 35mm print from the Yale Film Archive, along with the 2010 short “The Accordion.”
In 1996, Kenneth Turan had this to write about “The White Balloon”: “A completely charming, unhurried slice of life, it is both slow and sure-handed as it follows a small but fearsomely determined little girl on her amusing search for just the right ceremonial goldfish for her family’s new year’s celebration.”
Discussing “The Circle” in 2001, Turan said, “Restrained yet powerful, devastating in its emotional effects, ‘The Circle’ is a landmark in Iranian cinema. By combining two things that are relatively rare in that country’s production — unapologetically dramatic storytelling and an implicit challenge to the prevailing political ideology — this new film by producer-director Jafar Panahi creates a potent synthesis.”
With or without Panahi in attendance, these are deeply necessary films that speak to their respective moments — and all too much to our current one.
‘All the President’s Men’ and remembering Robert Redford
Robert Redford, right, and Dustin Hoffman in the movie “All the President’s Men.”
(Sunset Boulevard / Corbis via Getty Images)
Screenings have already begun to pop up in tribute to Robert Redford, who died recently at age 89. On Friday, Vidiots will screen Alan J. Pakula’s 1976 political thriller “All the President’s Men” in 35mm along with Phil Alden Robinson’s 1992 caper comedy “Sneakers.” On Sunday, Vidiots will also show Sydney Pollack’s 1973 romantic drama “The Way We Were.” (The Academy Museum will screen “The Way We Were” on Oct. 26.)
The American Cinematheque will also be a launching a Redford tribute series starting on Monday with a screening of Tony Scott’s 2001 thriller “Spy Game.” Other films currently scheduled include “Jeremiah Johnson,” “The Sting,” “Three Days of the Condor,” “Indecent Proposal,” “Sneakers” and a 35mm showing of “All the President’s Men.” That barely scratches the surface of Redford’s work as an actor, let alone as a director, so more events are likely to come.
Redford was deeply involved in bringing “All the President’s Men” to the screen as quickly as possible following the Watergate scandal. Writing about “All the President’s Men” in 1976, Charles Champlin said the film has “a clarity born of historical perspective but also a newly quickened feeling of national concern. The central drama and suspense of ‘All the President’s Men’ is a reminder of the narrow margin of our safety and how close the coverup came to working. … The film invites no comfort. It was a narrow and almost accidental escape and the weight of a corrupted government had been tilted against the truth as never before. But never again? The movie makes no preachment but you are bound to think anew that forgiveness and forgetfulness ought to be two starkly different commodities.”
Points of interest
‘Rosemary’s Baby’ in 35mm
Mia Farrow in the 1968 horror landmark “Rosemary’s Baby.”
(Criterion Collection)
“Rosemary’s Baby,” a 1968 adaptation of the novel by Ira Levin written and directed by Roman Polanski (and produced by exploitation impresario William Castle), is still considered one of the creepiest movies of all time. The film stars Mia Farrow as Rosemary Woodhouse, who has moved into a grand old apartment building in New York City with her actor husband, Guy (John Cassavetes). After she becomes pregnant, it begins to seem as if her nosy neighbors have been part of a coven of witches scheming to give birth to the son of Satan. Ruth Gordon won a supporting actress Oscar for her role as one of the neighbors. The movie plays in 35mm Tuesday through Thursday at the New Beverly.
Even back in 1968, the film touched off a nerve with reviewers, including our own. In his original June 1968 review, Champlin wrote, “Having paid my critical respects, I must then add that I found ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ a most desperately sick and obscene motion picture whose ultimate horror — in my very private opinion — was that it was made at all. It seems a singularly appropriate symbol of an age which, believing in nothing, will believe anything. … It is also all so sleazy and sick at heart. And the horror is that it presumes we are too indifferent to perceive what its horrors really are.”
‘The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie’
An image from Luis Buñuel’s “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie.”
(Rialto Pictures)
Winner of the Oscar for international feature film and nominated for original screenplay, 1972’s “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie” was directed by Luis Buñuel, who wrote the script with Jean-Claude Carrière. Screening at the Academy Museum as part of a series dedicated to Buñuel, the film is a bold satire of societal conventions — one that still largely holds up, as a group of friends meets for a series of meals.
In a November 1972 review, Charles Champlin wrote, “Watching a Buñuel film is a special experience because he creats a special world, somewhere west of hard reality but dealing — mockingly — with social reality and always reflecting Buñuel’s almost puritanical rage at any misuse of power, fiscal, political, ecclesiastical, military, social. … The surrealist attack sometimes makes him sound more formidable that he is. In fact he’s a sly humanist who has here created one of his most easily enjoyable works.”
In other news
PTA, ranked
Joaquin Phoenix in the movie “Inherent Vice.”
(Wilson Webb / Warner Bros.)
Last week, we mentioned Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another,” which Amy Nicholson declared “fun and fizzy.” So this week, I set about the popular task of placing the new film within a ranking of Anderson’s 10 feature films, from his 1996 feature debut “Hard Eight” onward.
As I noted in the introduction, “More so than with other directors, it’s always tempting to overly psychologize Paul Thomas Anderson’s films, looking for traces of his personal development and hints of autobiography: the father figures of ‘Magnolia’ or ‘The Master,’ the partnership of ‘Phantom Thread,’ parenthood in the new ‘One Battle After Another.’ Yet two things truly set his work apart. There’s the incredibly high level of craft in each of them, giving each a unique feel, sensibility and visual identity, and also the deeply felt humanism: a pure love of people, for all their faults and foibles.
“Anderson is an 11-time Academy Award nominee without ever having won, a situation that could rectify itself soon enough, and it speaks to the extremely high bar set by his filmography that one could easily reverse the following list and still end up with a credible, if perhaps more idiosyncratic ranking. Reorder the films however you like — they are all, still, at the very least, extremely good. Simply put, there’s no one doing it like him.”
Would you have a different title at No. 1? Let us know in the comments.
A look at two of this week’s top high school football games in the Southland:
THURSDAY
Eastvale Roosevelt (3-2) at Corona Centennial (4-1), 7:30 p.m.
Centennial tries to give coach Matt Logan his 300th career victory. Roosevelt is on a three-game winning streak, but the Huskies are headed to another Division 1 playoff berth. The pick: Centennial.
FRIDAY
Dorsey (2-3) at Crenshaw (4-1), 7 p.m.
Playing without coach Robert Garrett (administrative leave), Crenshaw continues to show resilience behind quarterback Danniel Flowers. This is a key Coliseum League opener because the winner figures to face King/Drew to decide the league title. Dorsey needs to get the ball to its playmakers, led by Stafon Johnson Jr. The pick: Dorsey.
Pixie said: “I will have two on tour. It’s going to be wild. It is going to be rock and roll.
“I’ll just make sure I will rest until then and then just take my time with it and bring the baby with me and be breastfeeding and see what happens.”
Pixie said the couple have found out the gender of their baby but are keeping it a surprise for fans.
She said: “The first time round I knew from day one it was a boy. I was like: ‘100 per cent it is a boy.’
“This time round, there was no clear indication, I had no idea. I really wasn’t sure when we were undoing the letter but it was very exciting.”
Of being a mum in the music industry, Pixie said: “I would say that you can do it.
“It is definitely a juggle and I’m very lucky because I have my mum and dad who will help me out.
“I know not everyone has a village around to help. So it all depends on your circumstance and what you can do.”
Pixie, who released her single Coming of Age last month, is also preparing to headline a show at London’s Union Chapel on December 17.
She said: “I love going to concerts at Christmas with all the candles everywhere and the magic of it – I have never done my own show at Christmas before.”
