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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The last two films by writer-director David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle, had 18 Oscar nominations between them. So anticipation is high for his new film, Joy.
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Star Wars: The Force Awakens takes place 30 years after Return of the Jedi. The evil Empire has been replaced by the even more ruthless First Order, and the Republic continues to fight the good fight.
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Directed by Adam McKay, and based on Michael Lewis' book about the economic meltdown, The Big Short stars Brad Pitt. The film contains so much information and comedy, it would be fun to see it twice.
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Paolo Sorrentino's film is set in a Swiss spa that functions as a landlocked "Ship of Fools" — allowing us to follow several characters during their stay. Youth stars Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel.
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Creed is billed as a Rocky spinoff but it's actually something more interesting. It's a spiritual remake of the 1976 film that retells the original story in an unexpected and involving way.
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Director Todd Haynes has adopted a 1952 Patricia Highsmith novel about a divorcing woman who meets a young shop assistant. It's a love story that stars Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara.
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The new movie Spotlight is about the team of investigative reporters at the Boston Globe that broke the story of sexual abuse in Boston's Catholic Archdiocese.
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The political comedy Our Brand Is Crisis stars Sandra Bullock as an American campaign strategist hired to work for a Bolivian presidential candidate. Critic Kenneth Turan has this review.
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The movie is based on Emma Donoghue's best-selling book about a woman who's been kidnapped and had to raise her son in captivity. Room is directed by Irish filmmaker Lenny Abrahamson.
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Another movie about Apple co-founder Steve Jobs is in theaters. It is inspired by the best-selling biography that came out in 2011. The new biopic is simply called Steve Jobs.