Kenneth Turan
Kenneth Turan is the film critic for the Los Angeles Times and NPR's Morning Edition, as well as the director of the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes. He has been a staff writer for the Washington Post and TV Guide, and served as the Times' book review editor.
A graduate of Swarthmore College and Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, he is the co-author of Call Me Anna: The Autobiography of Patty Duke. He teaches film reviewing and non-fiction writing at USC and is on the board of directors of the National Yiddish Book Center. His most recent books are the University of California Press' Sundance to Sarajevo: Film Festivals and the World They Made and Never Coming To A Theater Near You, published by Public Affairs Press.
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Sound City is a documentary that came out of the Sundance Film Festival about a legendary recording studio in Van Nuys, California. It's a mash note to the Neve soundboard in the Sound City studios.
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The Sundance Film Festival is underway in Park City, Utah. Fruitvale is based on an incident in which a young man was shot and killed by a BART police officer. His death triggered riots thorughout Oakland, Calif.
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Daniel Day Lewis is a two-time Oscar winning actor, but he surpasses himself and makes us see a celebrated figure in unanticipated ways in Steven Spielberg's Lincoln. The movie unfolds during the final four months of the president's life as he focuses on getting Congress to pass the 13th Amendment outlawing slavery despite fierce opposition.
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Robot and Frank is a movie that makes us believe that a serene automaton and a snappish human being can be best friends forever. It deftly uses elements from both science fiction and classic caper films to tell its futuristic tale. Frank Langella's sensitive portrayal of a geriatric career thief carries this sci-fi story.
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The Odd Life of Timothy Green is a "when you wish upon a star" fable in the old school Disney style. Though the film's heart is pure, its execution is so cloying and contrived, it brings on tears of frustration.
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Kenneth Turan reviews the film Total Recall, based on a story by Philip K. Dick and a remake of another film from the 1990, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.
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A Chilean, a Swede and a Serbian cartel collide in a taut actioner set amid the Swedish drug trade. Kenneth Turan says the impressive skills of director Daniel Espinosa, who has a gift for building audience tension, make for a great summer thriller. (Recommended) -
Director Ridley Scott has made two of the best science fiction films of modern times, Alien and Blade Runner. Prometheus is more involving than this year's summer blockbuster competition, but by the standards of the director's earlier films, it's a disappointment.
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The movie being talked about the most at this year's Cannes Film Festival in the south of France is Michael Haneke's Amour. It's the 65th anniversary of the festival.
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Stop motion animation, where physical objects are manipulated literally frame by frame to give the illusion of movement, is one of the oldest movie techniques, but it's being used in a brand new film called The Pirates! Band of Misfits.
