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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It's taken 7 years for the best-selling literary thriller Child 44 to make it to the screen. It's set in the Soviet Union in the last days of Josef Stalin and stars Tom Hardy and Noomi Rapace.
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Director Denny Tedesco began filming in 1996 when his father, Wrecking Crew guitarist Tommy Tedesco, was diagnosed with cancer. Many of the people he talked to, including his father, have since died.
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Chappie is the new film from director Neil Blomkamp about a robot that becomes humanity's last hope. It echoes everything from Dr. Frankenstein's creation to the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz.
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The film depicts Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1971. It was a year when the Troubles, the bitter conflict between the Catholic IRA and the Protestant Loyalists, turned violent.
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McFarland USA is an apologetically inspirational Disney sports movie. Kevin Costner plays a coach who starts a high school cross-country team of Mexican-American kids in California's Central Valley.
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Fifty Shades of Grey is an R-rated fairy tale, a kind of Cinderella tale with restraints. It's about as believable as Jack and the Beanstalk but considerably kinkier in intent.
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If you know science fiction filmmaking, you know the name Wachowski. Siblings Larry and Lana Wachowski have been working in that field since The Matrix in 1999.
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The new documentary is not a film about Soviet-era military machines. It is the story of the legendary Soviet hockey team of the 1970s and 80s — one of the greatest dynasties in all of sports.
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Michael Mann's new cybercrime thriller stars Chris Hemsworth. Mann's skill as a director holds the audience's attention as the team follows lines of electronic breadcrumbs in pursuit of the evil one.
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Song of the Sea by Irish director Tomm Moore is a wonder to behold. It's a stunning example of hand-drawn animation, steeped in Irish myth, folklore and legend.