{"id":250531,"date":"2026-04-03T20:42:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T20:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/250531\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T20:42:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T20:42:14","slug":"rediscovering-the-black-pack-plus-the-best-movies-in-l-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/250531\/","title":{"rendered":"Rediscovering the Black Pack, plus the best movies in L.A."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hello! I\u2019m Mark Olsen<\/a>. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.<\/p>\n

This is another strong week for new releases. By now you have likely heard something about \u201cThe Drama,\u201d<\/a> which has become inescapable thanks to the tireless promotion<\/a> of its two stars, Zendaya and Robert Pattinson.<\/p>\n

In a movie written and directed by Norwegian provocateur Kristoffer Borgli (\u201cDream Scenario\u201d), the pair play Emma and Charlie, an engaged couple who find their wedding week thrown into disarray by the revelation of a deep secret from the bride-to-be.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

Robert Pattinson and Zendaya in the movie \u201cThe Drama.\u201d<\/p>\n

(A24)<\/p>\n

As Amy Nicholson put it<\/a> in her review, \u201cTo another screenwriter, \u2018The Drama\u2019 would be an intimate study and a more emotionally wrenching film. But Borgli forces us to parse the mushy stuff from the mess and analyze the pending nuptials as an impersonal problem: What comes after a public shaming for the guilty and the inquisitors? That\u2019s one of the most important (and unresolved) questions of the modern era, so I\u2019ll forgive the filmmaker for being no more interested in writing Emma and Charlie as complex human beings than if they were character names in a math quiz about two people on two trains speeding toward a crash.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Tim Grierson spoke to Shira Small<\/a>, the folk artist whose sole 1974 album features a song heard in an early scene of \u201cThe Drama.\u201d Small, a delightful interview, goes into the music career she left behind a long time ago \u2014 one which may be reigniting now thanks to the movie.<\/p>\n

Also opening in Los Angeles this week is Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid\u2019s \u201cYes,\u201d<\/a> a guaranteed conversation-starter. Ariel Bronz stars as a musician who, in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks, decides to say yes to composing a vicious new political anthem..<\/p>\n

Reviewing the film, Joshua Rothkopf said<\/a>, \u201cIt\u2019s a movie about a citizenry at war with itself, hoping to keep the plates spinning for one more night. You watch it and think how easy it would be to envision an American remake \u2014 and wonder, too, if a filmmaker like Lapid even exists here.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of my favorite films from SXSW 2025, \u201cFantasy Life,\u201d<\/a> is finally coming to theaters. Written and directed Matthew Shear, the movie is an affectionate nod to the chatty dramedies of Noah Baumbach (some of which Shear has acted in). Here he plays Sam, a troubled law school dropout who takes a job looking after the children of a Brooklyn couple (Amanda Peet and Alessandro Nivola) and finds himself in an emotional affair with the wife.<\/p>\n

\"NEW <\/p>\n

\u201cFantasy Life\u201d actor-writer-director Matthew Shear and star Amanda Peet bond in New York.<\/p>\n

(Justin Jun Lee \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n

I recently spoke to Shear and Peet<\/a> about their collaboration on the film. Peet\u2019s character in the film is also an actor and, though much of the film\u2019s anxieties felt familiar to her, one scene in particular is drawn from Peet\u2019s own experience: She is often mistaken in public for Lake Bell, including once on a red carpet.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a weird thing because you\u2019re like, what do I do here?\u201d said Peet with a laugh. \u201cWhat\u2019s the least douchey way to get out of this?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Black Pack\u2019s resistance humor \"A <\/p>\n

Robert Townsend in the 1987 movie \u201cHollywood Shuffle.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Samuel Goldwyn Company \/ Photofest)<\/p>\n

Curated around a new book by Artel Great, the UCLA Film and Television Archive is launching the series \u201cThe Black Pack: Rewriting American Comedy,\u201d<\/a> to spotlight a moment in the 1980s and \u201990s when a small group of Black creators reached the very heights of Hollywood.<\/p>\n

Eddie Murphy, Paul Mooney, Robert Townsend, Keenan Ivory Wayans and Arsenio Hall were friends and collaborators who, from 1987 to 1994, created the work showcased in the series. The Black Pack is a name they gave to themselves, partly in response to the John Hughes-affiliated Brat Pack.<\/p>\n

Things begin tonight with a 35mm screening of Townsend\u2019s essential 1987 satire \u201cHollywood Shuffle.\u201d<\/a> Great will be there for an introduction and a Q&A with cast member Anne-Marie Johnson and Spring Mooney, daughter of late actor Paul Mooney, who also appeared in the movie.<\/p>\n

\"Several <\/p>\n

The cast of \u201cIn Living Color,\u201d to be celebrated as part of the UCLA screening series \u201cThe Black Pack.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Fox \/ Photofest)<\/p>\n

Other events include an evening of episodes of Wayans\u2019 sketch comedy series \u201cIn Living Color,\u201d 1988\u2019s \u201cComing to America,\u201d starring Murphy and Hall, a 35mm screening of Townsend\u2019s 1991 \u201cThe Five Heartbeats\u201d<\/a> and a 35mm screening of 1989\u2019s \u201cHarlem Nights,\u201d the only movie starring, directed, written and produced by Murphy, then at the height of his cultural capital.<\/p>\n

This series is a terrific example of why smart programming matters. Here is a group of films (and a TV show) that might seem only related in a vague way, but when put together under a specific theme or idea, they are suddenly transformed into something revelatory.<\/p>\n

Each evening of the series is designed to make the case for a different aspect of the Black Pack\u2019s work and influence. The series as a whole puts forward a larger concept Great has coined a term for.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m arguing through the series that the Black Pack\u2019s cultural material is connected to a longstanding tradition that I call Black resistance humor,\u201d says Great, now an associate professor at San Francisco State University, in an interview this week. \u201cThis idea of Black resistance humor is really a cultural practice where Black cultural workers are using political wit, irony, satire, parody, absurdity to challenge corrupt authority, to give voice to racial trauma and also attach themselves to re-imagining what freedom can really look like.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"For <\/p>\n

From left, Arsenio Hall, Eddie Murphy, James Earl Jones and Madge Sinclair in the movie \u201cComing to America.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Paramount \/ Photofest)<\/p>\n

There are plans for Black Pack programs in other cities, including Atlanta, San Francisco and Chicago, bringing this fresh look at their specific moment to venues around the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hopeful that the series will allow communities and audiences to see the Black Pack as cultural strategists who are using this idea of Black resistance humor to address very serious issues of power, identity and race,\u201d says Great. \u201cBut also as a way of thinking, as a way of seeing and as a way of building alternative systems. Because that\u2019s what they were able to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Points of interest<\/p>\n

\u2018The Birthday Party\u2019 in 35mm<\/p>\n

\"An <\/p>\n

Actor Robert Shaw, left, with director William Friedkin on the set of \u201cThe Birthday Party\u201d in 1968.<\/p>\n

(Larry Ellis \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

As part of its series celebrating the legacy of actor Robert Shaw<\/a>, the Academy Museum will screen 1968\u2019s \u201cThe Birthday Party\u201d<\/a> in 35mm on Sunday. One of the earliest features directed by William Friedkin (who would go on to such classics as \u201cThe Exorcist\u201d and \u201cTo Live and Die in L.A.\u201d), the film\u2019s screenplay was written by Harold Pinter, adapting his own play. Shaw, Friedkin and Pinter make for a combustible intensity.<\/p>\n

Shaw plays Stanley, the lone boarder at a seaside inn. When two mysterious men (Dandy Nichols and Sydney Tafler) arrive, they engineer a party for Stanley that becomes increasingly ominous.<\/p>\n

In his original review, Charles Champlin lauded Shaw, saying he gives \u201cone of the total and totally engrossing movie performances,\u201d adding that Friedkin \u201cas a director is everything a dramatist, and an audience, could want. The sense of loving care and artistic sureness which characterizes every aspect of the movie is extremely tonic. Pinter may be an acquired taste, but it is easy to acquire.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018He Got Game\u2019 in 35mm<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

Denzel Washington in 1998\u2019s \u201cHe Got Game.\u201d<\/p>\n

(David Lee \/ Touchstone Pictures)<\/p>\n

Spike Lee\u2019s prolific career is now studded with movies that maybe didn\u2019t quite get their due in their day but deserve renewed attention. Screening in 35mm on Sunday at Brain Dead Studios<\/a> is Lee\u2019s 1998 \u201cHe Got Game,\u201d<\/a> which is just that kind of movie: stuffed with ideas and ambitions even if it doesn\u2019t totally all come together for everyone. I particularly like his use of composer Aaron Copland\u2019s music, which gives many of the images an epic quality they might not otherwise fully achieve, challenging preconceived notions of what can be thought of as Americana.<\/p>\n

The movie stars a particularly electric Denzel Washington as Jake Shuttlesworth, a once-promising basketball player whose life took a turn. Now he\u2019s in prison. His son, Jesus (played by NBA star Ray Allen), is a promising prospect and Jake is given an offer of a reduced sentence if he can convince his son to attend a certain college. The mixture of two of Lee\u2019s own personal preoccupations, basketball and family, makes for a potent combination.<\/p>\n

Reviewing the movie<\/a> when it was released, Kenneth Turan wrote, \u201cGiven that writer-director Lee is one of the most visible of the New York Knicks\u2019 celebrity fans, what\u2019s surprising is not that he made a film about the sport he cares so much about but that he waited so long. \u2026 Though \u2018He Got Game\u2019 is periodically awkward and unruly, it benefits, as many of Lee\u2019s films do, from the director\u2019s determination to connect with the troublesome issues of the real world. Too few American directors work with Lee\u2019s kind of social immediacy, and that makes his films, flawed and didactic though they sometimes are, essential viewing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harmony Korine\u2019s \u2018Gummo\u2019<\/p>\n

\"Jacob <\/p>\n

Jacob Reynold, left, and Nick Sutton in Harmony Korine\u2019s \u2018Gummo\u2019<\/p>\n

(Criterion Collection)<\/p>\n

Harmony Korine\u2019s first feature as director, 1997\u2019s \u201cGummo,\u201d<\/a> will screen at Vidiots <\/a>on Monday. The event is co-presented by the Cinegogue<\/a>, a group perhaps best known for their limited-edition movie-themed clothing drops, but who describe their mission thusly: \u201cOur goal: make movies cool again through concert-like experiences and fanfare. \u2026 Because even though a movie might end, cinema is forever.\u201d (And that\u2019s a sentiment we here can get behind.)<\/p>\n

The film finds Korine attempting to bring elements of experimental film and video to a nominally more mainstream context. It\u2019s both confrontational and playful. Using a collage-like structure, the film follows a few kids as they make their way around their small town in Ohio after a tornado. Mostly featuring non-actors, the cast also includes Linda Manz and Chlo\u00eb Sevigny, who is also credited as the film\u2019s costume designer.<\/p>\n

Writing about \u201cGummo\u201d and Korine\u2019s subsequent \u201cjulien donkey-boy,\u201d Kevin Thomas made special note of<\/a> \u201cthe intensity of Korine\u2019s compassion for individuals who have so little going for them and so much going against them, yet at times are capable of experiencing an exhilarating freedom of spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hello! I\u2019m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[9628,9629,9631,2790,2242,9630,9632,5686,48,52,51,47,50,49,63,9626,4287,425,9627,1791,8074],"class_list":{"0":"post-250531","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-angelina-jolie","9":"tag-barry-jenkins","10":"tag-david","11":"tag-dead","12":"tag-drama","13":"tag-evil","14":"tag-good-work","15":"tag-killing","16":"tag-la","17":"tag-la-headlines","18":"tag-la-news","19":"tag-los-angeles","20":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","21":"tag-los-angeles-news","22":"tag-los-angeles-times","23":"tag-lovers","24":"tag-movie","25":"tag-series","26":"tag-short-film","27":"tag-times","28":"tag-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}