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 movie is based on the 2010 nonfiction book by Laura Hillenbrand about a U.S. Olympic track star who survives a plane crash during World War II only to be taken prisoner by the Japanese.
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Begin Again is the latest effort by John Carney. This film and his previous Once have so much in common that you can't help asking yourself, "Can lightning strike twice?"
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Formula 1 racing is having its moment in the sun on American movie screens. The new movie Rush attempts to combine Hollywood style with an independent film's sensibility. Rush is directed by Ron Howard.
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Wadjda tells the story of a 10-year-old Saudi girl determined to have a bicycle in a culture that frowns on female riding. Writer-director Haifaa al-Mansour says she wanted to put a human face on the situation of women in Saudi Arabia, where driving is not permitted.
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In 1947, April 15 was the first day Jackie Robinson played baseball as a Brooklyn Dodger. The new movie 42 tells the story of how he integrated Major League Baseball.
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Director Danny Boyle is best known for the Oscar winning Slumdog Millionaire. His latest film is called Trance. Critic Kenneth Turan says the film's overall coldness means there isn't anybody you care to identify with or any outcome you want to see.
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Bill Murray plays Franklin D. Roosevelt in the new movie Hyde Park on Hudson. Critic Kenneth Turan says Murray's work beautifully conveys the notion of the chief executive as seductive star performer who counts on his charm to get his way.
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In Trouble with the Curve, Clint Eastwood plays Gus Lobel, a venerable scout for the Atlanta Braves who finds it increasingly difficult to mask the creeping ravages of old age. Gus is a cantankerous coot who trips over furniture because he is on the way to going blind, a condition he understandably tries to hide from his boss Pete, played by John Goodman.
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To expand Dr. Seuss' slim volume to theatrical feature length, a whole lot of plot and heaping handfuls of characters needed to be invented. These new individuals are for the most part unpleasant, and the new aspects of the story are forced.
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The new film Act of Valor blurs the line between the real and the unreal something fierce. The movie shot genuine SEAL training exercises, but the script couldn't be more generic.