When Drag City announced a couple of years ago that they were releasing a long-lost early ‘70s album by a band you never heard of, named Death, comprising three black brothers from Detroit who made punk rock years before anyone else, the knee-jerk reaction was to assume this was just hipster bait. But your (my) […]
Los Angeles Film Festival (LAFF)
LAFF Film Review: ‘Project Nim’
In 1973 Columbia University behavioral psychologist Herbert Terrace had an idea. What if a chimpanzee baby was taken from its birth mother and raised as a human child, in a human household? This idea would become a reality when he made arrangements with a Primate Center to take one of their newborn chimpanzees just days […]
LAFF Film Review: Senna
Formula One driver Ayrton Senna was a marvel to watch on the track. His instincts spot on, his ability to wow an audience guaranteed, and his off-track demeanor always one of composure and graciousness. Senna was not a proud champion, but a very proud man; one who would go on to break records on the […]
LAFF Film Review: The Bad Intentions (Las Malas Intenciones)
It is nearly impossible to ever pass up a film from Argentina (or partially in this case as Las Malas Intenciones is a combined effort of Argentina, Peru, and Germany). Why? Because they are more times than not excellent. The Bad Intentions keeps up the momentum of Argentinian cinema, and Germany and Peru as well, […]
LAFF Film Review: The Guard
Sgt. Gerry Boyle is an Irish Guard, aka policeman, in a small town in the West of Ireland. As the man in charge he takes little, if anything, seriously. When his newest recruit and he discover a dead body of a man they do not recognize it is with dark humor, and a general sense […]