by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent One of the most successful actors to transition from child-to-adult star is Oscar-winner Natalie Portman. #AFIMOVIECLUB just got her to reveal Portman's personally most watched film of all time. Now you’ll get to see her in a home-setting, complete with Swiss Coffee wall backdrop and dark beige curtains in the background. We can’t tell you if it’s her actual primary residence, but Portman, who has literally re...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent NASA might want to get a group rate for the new Fox Searchlight movie LUCY IN THE SKY, starring Natalie Portman and Jon Hamm. Not just that this space-triangle love story is ripped from the 2007 archives over at Johnson Space Center, but because Portman delivers a kind of codified performance that real-life astronaut Lisa Nowak, on whom the plot is based, deserves. Natalie Portman in the film LUCY IN THE SKY. Photo by Hilary B. Gayle. © 20...

Avengers, Endgame: Thanostradamus As star casts go, Avengers: Endgame runs up a mind-boggling score. Like in theatrical performances, where all characters come on to the stage after the performance to take a bow, Endgame brings them all on screen, even resurrecting the dead, in a show of ultimate strength, before their nemesis is vanquished. Just as it takes two lives to conquer the dark force, the dark force itself needs to be conquered not once but twice. It is ingenious writing, to lay out...

By Maria Esteves – July 21, 2017 THE PULITZER AT 100, is a powerful must see documentary for the 21st Century journalists, based on the history of American journalism and the life of legendary Hungarian Jewish immigrant Joseph Pulitzer (1847 – 1911) founder of urban Yellow Journalism, the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, New York, and the amazing Pulitzer Prizes honoring excellence in American Journalism and the Arts. It captures investigative journalism with ...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent   When most of us caught the Presidential Tweet in late May that included a fake word, #covfefe, that has become the American Typo Heard Around the World, it really mattered that this misspelled rant was aimed at the media. The 45th President of the United States was, as they say in street fights, ripping all newsrooms a new one. And Mr. Trump has literally gone to town on what he, @realdonaldtrump, and his Trump Administration call the...

Knight of cups, dir. Terrence Malick - Berlinale 2015 Competition  by Martin I. Petrov “No one cares about reality anymore.”  Realist or not, Terrence Malick seems to have sliced the cake in two, once again. For some, Knight of cups was worth the waiting and for others was two hours of an image flow, that - if we need to be exact - is his way of storytelling.  And let’s face it, no one goes to see a film from the American indie representative and ...

  Knight of cups, dir. Terrence Malick - Berlinale 2015 Competition    “No one cares about reality anymore.”  Realist or not, Terrence Malick seems to have sliced the cake in two, once again. For some, Knight of cups was worth the waiting and for others was two hours of an image flow, that - if we need to be exact - is his way of storytelling.    And let’s face it, no one goes to see a film from the American indie representative and expects...

By Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent   If you wonder what people inside the industry are thinking tonight, get this: The 83rd Annual Oscar presentation was very... independent. In fact, while many derided the indy-minded Spirit Awards for cold weather and water-logged press tents, the Oscars were roundly applauded for their brave indie choices... warm green rooms, and great Wolfgang Puck food, of course. Here's proof from our friends at IFTA:  INDEPENDENT FILMS...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent Robert Osborne: Keeper of OSCAR's secrets When the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences award show premiered in 1928, the industry was barely 31 years old. For this year's Oscar build-up, Robert Osborne will host his annual much-watched "31 Days of Oscar" on Turner Classic Movies, Feb. 1, at 10 PM (ET/USA). Known as The Official Biographer of The Academy Awards, as well as the honorary red-carpet greeter for the A...

With a slate of 300 films over 11 days, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) which successfully wrapped on Sunday September 19th, is positioned as the second most important film festival in the world (behind Cannes). Like children in a candy store, the festival attracts 3,000 industry and press representatives from around the world, all eager to see the hotly anticipated fall Oscar contenders and the newest art-house offerings. In this report, Carol Coombes looks back at some of th...

It's easy to see how V, as a letter, as a symbol, can represent and inspire an uprising of citizen revolt. Victory. Vindication. Valour. These are the codes that the depressed people of a future totalitarian society aspire to and they also define the title character who stirs them to action. The graphical quality of the letter itself can resemble two arms, defiantly reaching for the heavens. But a revolution can live or die by the double-edged sword it employs; violence can pollute a cause and ...