L.A. Escapes — LACMA Tuesday Matinees

The Red Balloon, 1pm Tuesday, July 1 @ LACMA

I did a piss-poor job of planning out this summer break. Waited too late to sign up for most of the camps and classes, dragged my feet until their was no more decent air fare, neglected to book rooms in time. As such, it's been a long, languorous few weeks since school let out. (Our regular library-park-mall triangulation has grown tired as hell.) On the bright side, I'm not too bad at unearthing little local distractions to help us bide our time until summer comes to an end. (And, lucky for you, I'm down to share with all my fellow slack-asses out there.)

For instance, LACMA is hosting a month full of family-friendly movies every Tuesday in July. In between checking out the "Fútbol" exhibit and the Calder and Expressionist special collections, you can pop in for 1pm screenings of "The Red Balloon," "My Neighbor Totoro," (a forever favorite!) and Chaplin's "The Kid." Tickets are $2 for members, $4 for non-members. Check out the full line-up here. Oh, and, by the by, if you need more to eat something more substantive than a frou-frou handpie from C+M, you can usually find an embarrassment of food trucks parked along Wilshire Blvd., just across from the restaurant.

This Weekend — A $5 Ticket Takes Kids Around The World

"Papa Cloudy" by Akiko McQuerrey.

The annual REDCAT International Children's Film Festival heads into its second week, with screenings all day tomorrow and Sunday. My daughter and I checked out a screening last weekend and were glad we did…parking nightmare notwithstanding (street parking was nonexistent, due to an event being held at nearby Grand Park, Disney Concert Hall parking is $9 cash, up front, and the lot leads you on a labyrinthine quest as you attempt to find the REDCAT lobby entrance).

Each screening is comprised of about six to 10 kid-centric shorts culled from all over the world. They range from animation, to stop-motion, to live action. Some are in English, some are subtitled and a few are wordless. 

In previous years, we've checked out the younger kid fare — cute creatures embarking on silly adventures, or modern-day takes on age-old fables. This year, we opted for a more "big kid" selection. The assortment of shorts in the "Dare to Dream" screening was designated for ages 10 and up. We watched docs about the rigorous daily schedule of a working-class Indian student, a boy in The Netherlands who's bullied for being a ballroom dancer and a selfless Taiwanese boy who's devoted to rescuing and nurturing his country's neglected dogs and cats. There were also two charming animated pieces, courtesy of NPR's StoryCorps, via The Rauch Brothers. Perhaps the most gut-wrenching of all the stories we watched was a bittersweet feature about a gang of homeless kids in Mozambique who are desperate to have a little bit of fun, just for a day. It was the kind of authentic global flavor kids don't typically get from the big screen. For the $5 admission price, I was able to give my kid (and myself) quite a bit of food for thought. 

As the festival continues, there are options for preschoolers, 8+/9+, as well as, All Ages screenings. You and your kids can check out films from Korea, Belgium, Brazil and beyond. It's totally possible to make a day of it, checking out multiple screenings. There's a gourmet snack bar and plenty of seating in the lobby for waiting in between shows. Or, you can take your snacks to the Concert Hall rooftop garden and munch amidst the iconic building's curves and angles. 

Tickets are available online, but theater seating is pretty ample (kids can opt for pillows on the floor) and I was able to buy tix right from the box office without any fuss. 

REDCAT is located on the bottom level of the Roy and Edna Disney Concert Hall

631 W. 2nd St.

Downtown Los Angeles

213.237.2800

Bonus...

Here are a few me-approved, kid-friendly eateries nearby:

Lemonade (walkable)

Grand Central Market (walkable)

Chego (a short drive)

Pie Hole (a short drive)

Guisados (a short-ish drive)

Watch This — (After clicking the link, that is)

Follow this link to watch the trailer for "Waiting For Superman." Maybe I didn't have enough coffee, but embedding seems beyond me this morning.

The new documentary on how poorly our nation's schools are doing may not be groundbreaking material. Still, the trailer choked me up even more than "Babies," the life-affirming doc I'd gone to the theater to see. In particular, my eyes started stinging when I spotted the school featured at 1:07...it's right down the street from my childhood home.

New Hayao Miyazaki!(?)

I have no idea what the above says...but I'm still pretty stoked.

From what I understand, this is the official blog for the new Ghibli Studios film coming down the pike. According to the GhibliWorld site, it's based on the book, "The Borrowers."

Here's what Miyazaki, himself, has to say about it:

The project of the feature length animation Chiisana Arrietty is based on Mary Norton's The Borrowers. Its location has been moved from England 1950s to Japan 2010 though. To be more exact, its specific detail location is around Koganei where things are familiar to us. A family of tiny people live under the floor of the kitchen of an old house; the fourteen year old Arrietty and her parents. They are "borrowers"; to live they borrow everything they need from the humans above them. They can't use magic, nor are they fairies. Instead, they fight against mice, suffer from termites, dodge pesticide spray attacks, escape from cockroach traps and live cautious in order not to be seen. There still remains a classical family image though. The father has enough bravery and patience to go hunting for his family, the mother is responsible for keeping the house with creative thinking and the daughter Arrietty is a curious girl with a rich sensibility. With this, seen by 10cm tall tiny people, a world familiar to us will be restored with freshness. The story starts from the tiny people's life. Arrietty meets a boy, makes a fellowship and separates. Finally, they escape from the storm blown up by callous humans and go into the field. The wish for this film is to comfort and encourage people who live in this chaotic and anxious time.

This was all the way back in 2008, though. IMDB has nothing but a July Japanese release date, so it's really unclear if/when this will release here in the States. Until then, we'll keep wearing out our Totoro/Ponyo/Kiki DVDs and I'll cross my fingers that the new one isn't too "Spirited Away"-intense for five-year-olds.

Watch This — Aww Shucks!

This morning, I crafted and watched "The Courtship of Eddie's Father."

Little Ron Howard's "Eddie" made my face go into one of those crumpled little grins in every scene he graced. This one, in particular, made my eyes hurt for all the stinging.

Get a single tissue and skip to 6:40...

Watch This — A Movie Worth Getting a Baby-Sitter For...

First thing this morning, I learned about a new Jean-Pierre Jeunet film releasing stateside. Unlike my usual stance of "initial excitement followed by gradual ambivalence, ending in complete obliviousness" (e.g., "The Informant!," "Fantastic Mr. Fox," "The September Issue," etc.) here's an upcoming film that I will actually go to the theaters to see.

In general, movies are a waste of a date night. The effort of setting up a sitter, putting on grown-up clothes and stopping for that last minute vivifying cup of pre-screening coffee seldom pays off a suitable reward.

But this is a whole 'nother story. "Delicatessen" is one of my all-time favorites and it kinda goes without saying that my husband (then, boyfriend) and I had a magical date seeing "Amelie," back when it came out. Now, Jeunet is back, with "Micmacs," and I'm already wondering what going-outfit I will don.

Edit: Mon ami, Daniel, informed me that the last video I posted was cut off on the right. So here, I posted a different version (with cheesy French narration) and it's happening again. Anybody know why?

Of course, the film — which has only played at festivals thus far in the U.S. — will have limited screening when it comes out May 28. And, given that I'm currently in the sticks, it may take a bit more doing to find a theater. Worth it, though!

For the Love of Lists — Dance to the Music

This time, I'm taking it easy on myself and letting someone else do all the work. Flavorwire has posted their list of "The 35 Best Dance Sequences in Film." It hits all the right notes for me because I've been absolutely obsessed with hack-y old musicals on TCM lately. In fact, I'm watching a cheese-tastic oldie starring Bob Fosse as I type. In general, I'm not a fan of schmaltz, but it's an odd phase I can't seem to shake (plus, impersonating Ginger Rogers does make doing the dishes seem like less of a chore).

The list spans seven decades and includes personal favorites such as Footloose, West Side Story and Gene Kelly tap dancing on roller skates in (the otherwise whatever-ish, as I learned just yesterday) "It's Always Fair Weather."

The list and its accompanying clips is a fun way to pass the time and you get the same light-hearted feeling of watching the movies without having to actually sit through the talking bits. It does, however, have a few hiccups. For instance, where the hell is Cyd Charisse? Oh, and I winced through Freida Pinto's lousy dancing throughout the otherwise exhilarating "Slumdog Millionaire" finale (their #35). And let's not forget the omission of the following greatness:

Maybe they dissed "The Wiz" because YouTube won't seem to let you to embed decent clips of "Ease On Down the Road."

Here's the most recently released cuteness...

"Twist and Shout" from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"

The hilarious inappropriateness of a little girl dancing to Rick James

You can't front on Rosie! She worked it so hard!

And how could you ever forget Corky's dance from "Waiting for Guffman"?

What did I miss?