The best movie theaters in L.A. and what to see this week

Hello! I’m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.

If we’re looking for things to be thankful for, high among them would be what a great time it is for going to the movies in Los Angeles. Yes, the Cinerama Dome and Arclight Hollywood complex remain closed, but on any given night there are wonderful and exciting things happening all over town.

We talk a lot around here about which movies are worth going to see, but we also give a lot of attention to where to go see them. The LAT movies staff, along with a few intrepid freelancers/friends, have come up with a new guide to movie theaters in Los Angeles.

Whether you are looking for independent operations, giant multiplexes, esoteric art-house programming or just the best place to zone out, we have got you covered.

Justin Chang wrote an essay on the pleasures of moviegoing in the current moment, as theaters emerge from their post-pandemic slump, trying to ride the wave of the “Barbenheimer” cultural phenomenon. As Justin wrote, “As we’ve seen in 2023 — a year of whiplash-inducing industry ups and downs, of renewed box-office plenty and extreme labor upheaval — a collective appetite for moviegoing persists. Some of us are trying, with perhaps a touch of wariness, to redevelop the habit. We’re figuring out how to love moviegoing again, and perhaps wondering if the movies themselves will sustain and prove worthy of that love.”

So let’s see what will be filling a few of those theaters in the weeks to come.

‘Maestro’

Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein in “Maestro.”

(Jason McDonald / Netflix)

Bradley Cooper has followed up his version of “A Star Is Born” with another intensely emotional portrait of an artist. In “Maestro,” he plays composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, with Carey Mulligan starring as his wife, actor Felicia Montealegre, in a story that covers some 40 years of Bernstein’s life.

The film is in limited theatrical release, including at L.A.’s restored Egyptian Theatre, and will begin streaming on Netflix on Dec. 20.

In his review for The Times, Justin Chang wrote, “Five years after his filmmaking debut, ‘A Star Is Born,’ the director has returned with another admirably complicated and generously balanced portrait of a tempestuous showbiz marriage, this one drawn from real life. With narrative elegance, formal brio and exquisite feeling, Cooper ushers Felicia into the spotlight and sometimes shunts the attention-hogging Lenny off into the wings. (It’s hardly an accident that the onscreen title appears over an image of Felicia, or that Mulligan receives top billing.) In doing so, the director offers up a subtle yet significant corrective to some of the dramatic oversights and patriarchal assumptions endemic to the great-man biopic.”

‘Broadcast News’

Holly Hunter as Jane Craig, left, and Albert Brooks as Aaron Altman in director James L. Brooks’ 1987 film, “Broadcast News.”

(20th Century-Fox)

I recently spoke to writer-director-producer James L Brooks for the 40th anniversary of “Terms of Endearment,” his debut feature as director that netted him three Oscars. We had this exchange:

I think of that tone as your trademark. It’s a little bit sad, a little bit funny —

Well, hopefully a lot sad and a lot funny.

What is it that you like about working in that register?

Life. I mean, that’s what real life is, isn’t it? Somewhere in there.

Brooks mined that sad-funny tone further in his follow-up to “Terms” with “Broadcast News.” Starring Holly Hunter, Albert Brooks and William Hurt, the film is a story of workplace drama and romance set in the world of broadcast journalism. It is a near-perfect film about deeply flawed people. As part of a celebration of Brooks’ career, the American Cinematheque will be showing “Broadcast News” on Friday and Saturday at the Los Feliz 3.

Other points of interest

‘Working Girl’: Speaking of near-perfect movies from the ‘80s, 1988’s “Working Girl” would certainly be on that list. Directed by Mike Nichols from a script by Kevin Wade, the movie had a raft of talent behind the scenes. Cinematographer Michael Ballhaus would shoot “Goodfellas” shortly after, and costume designer Ann Roth is still working at age 92. (She made a memorable appearance onscreen this year in “Barbie.”) In its depiction of a secretary from Staten Island (Melanie Griffith) trying to get ahead on Wall Street, the film delightfully punctures many of the myths of the go-go ‘80s, creating a class comedy with both fizz and bite.

In her original LAT review, Sheila Benson wrote, “The credits list her third, the ads show her peeking from behind co-stars Harrison Ford and Sigourney Weaver, but don’t be fooled for a minute. ‘Working Girl’ is the sparkling success that it is because of the sheer irresistibility of Melanie Griffith.”

The film is playing at Vidiots on Sunday with a conversation afterward between Griffith and Max Minghella. (It’s already sold out, but there will be a limited number of walk-up tickets available.)

‘Sunshine’ and ‘Red Eye’

A scene from the 2007 movie “Sunshine,” directed by Danny Boyle.

(Alex Bailey / 20th Century-Fox)

The New Beverly is saluting actor Cillian Murphy this week, first with screenings of “Oppenheimer” on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. But even more exciting is the double bill on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of Danny Boyle’s 2008 film “Sunshine” and Wes Craven’s 2005 “Red Eye.” (All will screen in 35mm.)

“Sunshine” is a heady sci-fi epic in which an international crew played by the likes of Murphy, Hiroyuki Sanada, Rose Byrne, Benedict Wong, Cliff Curtis and Michelle Yeoh are sent into space to jump-start the sun, which seems to be dying billions of years before scientists had predicted.

John Horn wrote an exhaustive story on the difficult production of “Sunshine” at the time of its release. Writer Alex Garland, who of course would soon become a director himself, explained the story’s origins by saying, “I knew it was a mission to the sun, and that it was going to belong to the strand of science-fiction movies of the 1960s and ‘70s — ‘2001,’ ‘Silent Running,’ the original ‘Solaris.’ … You go into deep space and you encounter your subconscious.”

“Red Eye” is a tight thriller set largely on an airplane starring Murphy and Rachel McAdams. In his original LAT review, Kevin Thomas wrote, “‘Red Eye’ is the work of a filmmaker in command of the full resources of the camera in telling a story visually and with economy.”

‘Smoke Signals’ at 25

The Academy Museum will celebrate the 25th anniversary of Chris Eyre’s 1998 “Smoke Signals” with the screening of an archival 35mm print on Thursday. At a moment when Indigenous representation in film and television is on the rise (think “Killers of the Flower Moon” or “Reservation Dogs”), it is smart to reflect on what was at the time a breakthrough project. Based on Sherman Alexie’s screenplay adapted from his own collection of stories, Eyre’s film is an endearing road trip dramedy starring Adam Beach and Evan Adams.

For The Times, Kevin Thomas wrote, “It is unlike most other films about Native Americans in that it is neither earnest nor indignant. … Instead, it is a warm film of friendship and reconciliation, and whenever it refers to historic injustices or contemporary issues in Native American culture, it does so with wry, glancing humor. ‘Smoke Signals’ is indeed poignant, but above all it’s pretty funny.”