Justin Humphreys is a writer, film historian, and curator based in Los Angeles. He has published five books. His most recent, Taschen’s LIFE Hollywood, was included in The New York Times’s 2024 Holiday Gift Guide and the L.A. Times’s list of 17 Best Books for Angelenos.
When we asked our Screens columnist, Justin Humphreys to do a round-up of the year’s movies, he made his feelings clear: “I’m going to have to be very honest and […]
Australian director George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga traces the origin story of the hit Mad Max: Fury Road’s heroine, Imperator Furiosa (with Anya Taylor-Joy in the role originated […]
Director Sam Taylor-Johnson’s Back to Black details the short, volcanic life of pop star Amy Winehouse. It’s a by-the-numbers music biopic that is mostly unremarkable, with the exception of the […]
Alex Garland’s newest film Civil War presents a vision of a war-torn, near-future United States that taps into many Americans’ fears of the worst-case endgame of ever-growing political divisiveness. It’s […]
Longtime Albemarle County resident Jack Fisk ranks among movie-making’s greatest production designers. His current Academy Award nomination for Best Production Design for Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon is […]
Director Zelda Williams’ horror comedy Lisa Frankenstein is a mediocre pastiche of older films with an uneven storyline stitched together from overly familiar macabre material. The film will appeal mainly […]
Director-co-screenwriter J.A. Bayona’s Society of the Snow is a well-made, engrossing story of survival told straightforwardly and conventionally. The film deftly depicts a horrifying, real-life tragedy and, although it is […]
Writer and director Takashi Yamazaki’s Godzilla Minus One is easily among 2023’s most engaging, exciting, and poignant films. This isn’t some pulp monster movie to be casually dismissed by snobs—it’s […]
Ridley Scott’s historical epic Napoleon covers the well-worn territory of the titular French emperor’s monumental military conquests and eventual downfall. Scott’s battle sequences are undeniably extraordinary, and it’s gorgeous overall, […]
Director Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers is a love letter to 1970s cinema. An avowed cinephile, Payne affectionately evokes the era’s character-driven and frequently dark films with this wry comedy-drama. Payne’s […]