Cinema Junkie

Ryan Coogler's "Sinners" has been dominating the box office the last two weeks. One of the reasons is that people don't just want to see it once, they want to see it multiple times. That's because the film is not just an action packed vampire tale but it is also a deeply personal film for Coogler and it is packed with both history about his Southern roots and with Black culture. To unpack the film Cinema Junkie has combined Midday Movies with interviews featuring authors John Jennings and David F. Walker. Get ready for an illuminating look at "Sinners." You can watch the video podcast here: https://youtu.be/eYli1Y-G1-w

Cinema Junkie celebrates Walpurgisnacht with Joe Bob Briggs, host of Shudder's "The Last Drive-In."

Cinema Junkie Beth Accomando speaks with PacArts artistic Brian Hu and filmmaker Jota Mun about some Asian cinema classics as well as bold new work.

Cinema Junkie once again hosts Midday Movies. Hit the dark alleys of film noir with the usual suspects from the Midday Movies gang to find some Dark City Dames to die for. With KPBS Cinema Junkie Beth Accomando, Moviewallas' podcaster Yazdi Pithavala, and Midday Edition's Andrew Bracken.

To close out Black History Month, Cinema Junkie presents Midday Movies as critics create a suggested viewing list to celebrate Black women on screen and behind the camera. AND to remind people that celebrating Black film does not have to end on February 28th. Once again KPBS Midday Edition host Jade Hindmon welcomes KPBS Cinema Junkie Beth Accomando and Moviewallas' podcaster Yazdi Pithavala. WARNING: Clips contain explicit language and violence.

Cinema Junkie welcomes back David F. Walker but this time to discuss his new graphic novel "Big Jim and the White Boy," a clever reimagining of Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."

Check out what our critics and San Diego Cinephiles think about the 97th Academy Award nominations plus what to look forward to in 2025.

Check out what our critics and San Diego Cinephiles think about the 97th Academy Award nominations plus what to look forward to in 2025.

Cinema Junkie presents a Christmas Smackdown between KPBS Midday Movies critics Beth Accomando and Yazdi Pithavala. They face off in a battle between Christmas action/horror and feel good holiday fare. The Christmas Smackdown is refereed by KPBS Midday Edition host Jade Hindmon. You can also watch the video podcast: https://youtu.be/vAeH9g34gis.

Film programmers Matt Rotman of Bonkers Ass Cinema and Eddie Gurrola of Popcorn Reef join Cinema Junkie to sing the praises of grindhouse cinema.

A cinephile's dilemma of having two film festivals happening at the same time: TCM Film Festival and San Diego Asian Film Festival's Spring Showcase.

Cinema Junkie is doing another Crew Call edition, this time to speak with Laurent Sénéchal whose fine work on 'Anatomy of a Fall' just garnered him a Best Film Editing Oscar nomination. He'll explain what a film editor actually does and discuss the fine art of building tension, suspense, and a sly sense of ambiguity.

Cinema Junkie's Beth Accomando and Moviewallas' Yazdi Pithavala go shopping for the best films to watch this holiday season... and the lumps of coal to avoid.

Apple TV Plus recently launched Season 3 of Slow Horses starring Gary Oldman as the disheveled, flatulent, and often drunk Jackson Lamb. It is also midway through its Monarch Legacy of Monsters show that expands Legendary's Monsterverse. I had an opportunity to speak with some of the creative folks behind both shows. First, I'll be speaking to Oldman and co-star Jack Lowden about where their characters are in this latest season of Mick Herron's espionage tale. Then I will talk to the people behind the camera who are bringing Godzilla to the small screen.

Cinema Junkie speaks with Fil-Am filmmaker H. P. Mendoza about human flight, ghosts on the set, and 'grief release.'

Cinema Junkie wants to extend the spooky season to 365 days a year with some home haunting and scary movies.

Cinema Junkie speaks with filmmaker Errol Morris about his new documentary "The Pigeon Tunnel," which explores the life and work of David Cornwell, better known by his pen name of John Le Carré.

Cinema Junkie invites Moises Esparza to look back on ten years of programming for the San Diego Latino Film Festival and Digital Gym Cinema to curate a list of film recommendations for Hispanic Heritage Month.

In the early Twentieth Century, Anna May Wong was deemed too Chinese to play white roles and too American to play Chinese roles but that did not stop her from becoming an international icon. Cinema Junkie speaks with Yunte Huang, author of a new biography on the Asian American Actress.

Get ready for some intoxicating cocktails as well as hard drinking as TCM Noir Alley host Eddie Muller invites you to the Noir Bar on the latest Cinema Junkie.

Ben Model has dedicated himself to creating music scores to bring silent films back to glorious life. This month marks a special anniversary for Model since it was ten years ago that he created Undercrank Productions to produce and distribute quality DVD and now Blu-ray releases of rare silent films featuring scores he has created. He discusses the process to creating these scores and his passion to save these films and share them with new audiences.

Cinema Junkie takes a film noir road trip to Shanghai and the Old West by way of the Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival in Palm Springs. Can't make it? Then just use this as a roadmap for your own noir journey.

Former TCM programmer Millie DeChirico talks about her new book, "TCM Underground: 50 Must-See Films from the World of Classic Cult and Late-Night Cinema."

In the final episode of Cinema Junkie's three-part series focused on Black Com!x Day's Get Shooked! New Masters of Horror panel, Kevin Grevioux talks about his latest projects, owning your own IPs, and monsters.

Cinema Junkie continues its three-part series talking with the Get Shooked panelists coming for Black Comix Day. In this episode, John Jennings talks about cosmic superheroes, a crowd-funded horror anthology, and getting hooked on comics.

Cinema Junkie speaks with three of the new masters of horror contributing stories to the new comics anthology "Shook." In Part One, Rodney Barnes talks about vampires, real world horror and juggling a career in TV, film and comics.

At 68, Japan's Godzilla is nowhere near ready for retirement. Toho's iconic monster was born out of an atomic blast in 1954 and now is poised for a live action series called "Godzilla and the Titans" as well as a cinematic rematch with Kong set for 2024 . Plus the famous kaiju is the topic of a new coffee table book that makes a perfect gift. Cinema Junkie talks with author Graham Skipper about "Godzilla: The Official Guide to the King of the Monsters."

Author Luis Reyes explores the legacy of Latin and Hispanic artists in American film in his new TCM book "Viva Hollywood."

For Thanksgiving Moviewallas' Yazdi Pithavala joins Cinema Junkie to give thanks for the film "TÁR."

What makes someone feel driven to tour around with a film projector in tow and screen films on 16mm? Find out on this Bonus edition of Cinema Junkie.

Get ready for slow burn horror of "Speak No Evil.” I got to see “Speak No Evil” at virtual Sundance earlier this year. It was my favorite film of the festival and it's in my top ten for 2022. It's intense and anxiety inducing but executed with such an elegant, subdued style that I was completely riveted from opening frame to last. It takes a left turn that shocked me in a way similar to Bone Tomahawk and it made me uncomfortable in the same way Michael Haneke's films make me feel. So I can't wait to dive into the horrors of “Speak No Evil.”

VICE TV's Icons Unearthed Star Wars and Disney Plus' Light and Magic serve up a wealth of interviews and behind the scenes materials that will dazzle and delight not just Star Wars fans but anybody who loves movies and the creative process. Icons Unearthed boasts the first on camera interview with Lucas's ex-wife and the Oscar winning editor of A New Hope, Marcia Lucas, while Light and Magic was made by Lawrence Kasdan with the full support of Lucasfilm and access to its archives. Both shows take a deep dive into the Star Wars franchise and into what Lucas had to do to get his vision on the screen.

Get ready for a bonkers ass ride through the wildest and most extreme horror and exploitation cinema as Greg Dohler and author Matt Rotman take the wheel to kick a new season of Cinema Junkie into high gear.

Cinema Junkie is on a season break but serves up this Bonus Podcast on the bold visionaries behind "Mad God" and "Neptune Frost."

TCM Classic Film Festival is back in person in Hollywood. TCM host Alicia Malone and TCM programmer Scott McGee will both be at the festival to sign copies of their new books. Cinema Junkie speaks with both authors.

Cinema Junkie speaks with actors Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas and Jack Lowden as well as director James Hawes about bringing Micke Herron's acclaimed spy novel "Slow Horses" to the small screen. The Apple Original series is currently streaming.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather." Actor Robert Duvall played Tom Hagen and talks about working on the classic film.

Joel Coen's "The Tragedy of Macbeth," currently streaming on Apple TV+, came in at number three on my ten best list for 2021. It's breathtakingly cinematic and delivers Shakespeare's play in a kind of stripped down, minimalist fashion that removes all excess props, scenery and even color. For a play whose language is soaked in blood, Coen boldly renders it in stark black and white. His adaptation is strikingly clean and crisp even as it is shrouded in fog and darkness. Coen, making his solo directing debut sans his usual collaborator and brother Ethan, gives us a version of the play that feels surprisingly fresh. So I'm excited to dive into the making of the film with two of its actors: Corey Hawkins and Alex Hassell. Cinema Junkie is on a season break but when something this good comes my way I will share a bonus podcast like this. I jumped at the opportunity to interview two actors from the film in part because Coen seems a bit of a mystery in terms of how he works. He doesn't give a lot of interviews and when he does, I often feel like he's pulling a con and can't be trusted to be telling the truth. But these actors offered some insights into Coen's process as a director and how he brought Shakespeare's play to vivid life on the screen. "What he's done is pack these visual images into the film; they sort of scorch your retinas," Hassell said. "But they are all born out of this thematic or subconscious level of the play, in a way that folds constantly back into the play and the tension of the play and the interior world of the play or the story rather than the language in a way that I think just thrums with tension."

Cinema Junkie extends Noir-vember because one month was not enough time to explore the spectrum of women found on the shadowy streets of film noir. Nora Fiore, the Nitrate Diva, returns for part two of Noir Dames, a look beyond the usual suspects of femme fatales to check out such intriguing female characters as the Lady Sleuth, The Glamorous Victim and the Good Girl. Yes, believe it or not film noir offers up some admirable dames who challenge expectations by providing, as Fiore says, "a guiding light for men in dark places."

Noir dames. None were sassier, sexier or more lethal than the women of film noir. They lied, stole, cheated, murdered and more importantly just refused to conform to any standard notions of femininity. They might not have been positive role models but they were fascinating and they had agency. Cinema Junkie celebrates Noir-vember by continuing its discussion of film noir with a look to Noir Dames with Nora Fiore, The Nitrate Diva. We explore such favorite femme fatales as Jane Greer in "Out of the Past" and Lizabeth Scott in "Too Late for Tears" but also look past these usual suspects of film noir women to explore the diversity of female characters you can find in these seductive, shadowy tales. In Part One of Noir Dames, we consider the femme fatale as well as The Self Reliant Performer. Then in Part Two we will continue to point out the wide spectrum of female roles and actresses as we consider The Lady Sleuth, The Long Suffering Wife and The Glamorous Victim.

Femme fatales, private dicks, wooden kimonoes... welcome to the world of film noir. The term was coined by French film critics to describe a style of cinema rooted in hard-boiled crime fiction of the 1940s. It revealed a darkness and cynicism that challenged audiences with something new — a world where women used sex to get what they wanted, where betrayal and deceit were to be expected, and murder was a given. Classic noir is usually defined as films made between 1941 and late 1950s. It's marked by a visual style rich in shadows, cigarette smoke, and dimly lit streets. The term literally means black film and the darkness comes not just from the visual look but also from the dark motives of the characters. To explore this shadowy, treacherous terrain, Cinema Junkie has invited The Czar of Noir Eddie Muller, host of TCM's Noir Alley and the founder and president of the Film Noir Foundation. He has just revised and expanded his book “Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir” and we'll be discussing that as well as all things noir as Cinema Junkie dives into Noirvember.

Cinema Junkie takes on another mission, this time to explore the world of spies presented in the film and television adaptations of John Le Carré's books. Previously on Cinema Junkie we looked at the fantasy world of Ian Fleming's James Bond and now we move on to the grittier, more realistic world of John Le Carré's spies of the Cold War and beyond. Joining Cinema Junkie once again are spy aficionados Gary Dexter and Jeff Quest, both are regular contributors to Shane Whaley's Spybrary Podcast . Quest also runs spywrite.com, which is dedicated to spy fiction and non-fiction. We look to the early attempts of depicting what spies do in Hitchcock films such as "The 39 Steps" and later the film adaptations of Graham Greene's novels such as "Our Man in Havana." Then we discuss the many adaptations of Le Carré's books, and how he put his real world experiences working in intelligence to a different use than Fleming did. Also listen to Cinema Junkie Bond. James Bond. Part One and Part Two.

Cinema Junkie speaks again with espionage aficionados and Spybrary Podcast contributors Gary Dexter and Jeff Quest (of spywrite.com) to look at the evolution of female characters across nearly six decades of films, and to assess what makes a good Bond and what each of the six actors in the Eon Productions' official 25 007 movies have brought to the role. We also discuss producer Barbara Broccoli's contribution to the franchise and where it might go after "No Time To Die." Please check out part one of the podcast where we have a spoiler-free review of "No Time To Die." And check out Cinema Junkie Presents Geeky Gourmet where you can learn how to make food themed to "No Time To Die" and cakes with the gun barrel logo. Plus download files for the perfect 007 party.

Cinema Junkie Beth Accomando goes on a special mission with spy aficionados Gary Dexter and Jeff Quest to explore the cinematic and literary universe of James Bond 007. Get a spoiler-free review of "No Time To Die" and then enjoy part one of an in-depth and geeky exploration of the fantasy spy world of Ian Fleming's James Bond.

Earlier this month Marvel delivered its first Asian superhero in its cinematic universe with "Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings." But it's been a long hard road getting to this point in Hollywood. For the latest episode of Cinema Junkie, I speak with Brian Hu, artistic director of the San Diego Asian Film Festival, about the evolution of Asian images on screen from the stereotypes of yellow peril to Shang Chi. Hu will take us on a tour through early negative stereotypes of Fu Manchu to characters like Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto to the breakthrough stardom of Bruce Lee and finally to Shang Chi. I'll play lots of clips and Hu offers some exciting film recommendations to check out. Plus enjoy the decidedly eccentric rants and raves of Awkward San Diego's Ryan Bradford and Horrible Imaginings' Miguel Rodriguez on the latest Cold Turkey and Share Your Addiction. And check out the latest Geeky Gourmet video where I'll show you how to make Asian treats to eat with the films we discuss: https://bit.ly/CJGeekyGourmet I'd like to acknowledge the talented folks who make Cinema Junkie happen: podcast coordinator Kinsee Morlan, technical director Rebecca Chacon, and director of sound design Emily Jankowski.