LA Weekly

5 days ago | laweekly.com | Kalyn Corrigan

Death is impossible. It’s a door that you keep waiting to swing open, announcing the entrance of a dinner date who never arrives, or the recurring dream of a person whose prolonged absence makes their face appear fuzzy. For director David Cronenberg, death is a muse, and his grief is the driving force behind his latest masterpiece. The Shrouds is a movie that seeks solace through modern technology, and hopes to provide an answer to the timeless question: can art serve as an act of catharsis?

6 days ago | laweekly.com | Michael Atkinson

One of world cinema’s most pungent brands, now in his seventh decade of filmmaking, David Cronenberg is beyond caring what we think of him, particularly if we decide, as many still do, to take him as merely a genre dynamo, the mad scientist inventor of “body horror.” (As if it hasn’t been over 40 years since the exploding heads of Scanners, and as if that reductive label by itself doesn’t obscure the man’s unique obsessions and the gnarly ways he’s metaphorized them from film to film.) Why...

1 week ago | laweekly.com | Kalyn Corrigan

Don’t try to outrun your pain: It will come back to haunt you, and it will most likely happen while you’re wearing a shirt adorned with your own face. That’s the moral of The Ballad of Wallis Island, a charming British dramedy in the same vein as Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Juno and John Carney films like Sing Street and Once. Based on co-writers Tom Basden and Tim Key’s own 2007 short, “The One and Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island,” the feature length version sticks to a modest scale.

1 week ago | laweekly.com | Mark Stefanos

Under a refreshing cloud of mist, shaded from the scorching sun and the whines of influencers, you’ll find Coachella’s most consistently fun, ongoing dance party, the Do LaB. Originally set up as an art installation with a few speakers at Coachella 2005, the Do LaB has grown over the past 20 years into a stage and much more. It’s a beautifully constructed, fully immersive oasis, known for its exquisite music lineup, superstar surprise guests, and nonstop wet and wild PLUR vibes.

2 weeks ago | laweekly.com | Michele Stueven

The two-day California Wine Festival returns to Dana Point for a weekend of world-class wines, gourmet bites, and live entertainment on Friday, April 25, and Saturday, April 26 at the Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort & Spa and the Sea Terrace Park, set above the  Dana Point Harbor.The festivities begin with the Sunset Rare and Reserve Tasting, with samples of limited-edition wines from  Napa Valley, Sonoma, and Paso Robles.