Kenneth Turan
Kenneth Turan is the film critic for the Los Angeles Times and NPR's Morning Edition, as well as the director of the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes. He has been a staff writer for the Washington Post and TV Guide, and served as the Times' book review editor.
A graduate of Swarthmore College and Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, he is the co-author of Call Me Anna: The Autobiography of Patty Duke. He teaches film reviewing and non-fiction writing at USC and is on the board of directors of the National Yiddish Book Center. His most recent books are the University of California Press' Sundance to Sarajevo: Film Festivals and the World They Made and Never Coming To A Theater Near You, published by Public Affairs Press.
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Film commentator Kenneth Turan talks to Renee Montagne about yesterday's premier of The Da Vinci Code at the Cannes Film Festival. He says the movie sacrifices excitement as it strives to remain true to the book.
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Tom Cruise is good as the hero. Oscar-winner Philip Seymour Hoffman is great as the villain. But in the end, Mission Impossible III is a movie that adds up to two pretty good one-hour TV shows about a battle for a doomsday machine.
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United 93, a movie about passengers who fought for control of a hijacked plane on Sept. 11, is hard to get out of your mind, no matter how hard you try, according to Los Angeles Times and Morning Edition film critic Kenneth Turan.
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Los Angeles Times and Morning Edition film critic Kenneth Turan reviews American Dreamz, directed by Paul Weitz. It stars Hugh Grant as a Simon Cowell-like host of an American Idol knockoff. It's is satire that takes on pop culture and politics.
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The Notorious Bettie Page is a movie based on the life of the pinup girl whose legendary poses transformed her into an icon. Los Angeles Times and Morning Edition film critic Kenneth Turan calls it an "empty film."
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Nicole Holofcener's Friends with Money is a "modern comedy of manners," according to Morning Edition and Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan. The film features Catherine Keener, Jennifer Aniston, Frances McDormand and Joan Cusack as four Los Angeles women who have issues with love and money.
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A new documentary follows Indie singer-song writer Daniel Johnston's decline into mental illness. It combines standard documentary fare with Johnston's own recordings, taped over the course of 20 years. Los Angeles Times and Morning Edition critic Kenneth Turan reviews The Devil and Daniel Johnston.
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Los Angeles Times and Morning Edition film critic Kenneth Turan says Spike Lee's Inside Man is a terrific heist movie with a plot that unfolds on a need-to-know basis. Denzel Washington plays a New York City policeman, Clive Owen a brilliant criminal and Jodie Foster a Manhattan power broker.
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Los Angeles Times and Morning Edition film critic Kenneth Turan reviews Thank You For Smoking. It is a satirical film about a super-lobbyist for the tobacco industry.
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Dave Chappelle's Block Party is a mix of Dave Chappelle's sketch comedy and musical interludes. It's a movie inspired, in part, by the 1973 documentary Wattstax. The movie is a fun mix of music and Chappelle at his best.