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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Ron Howard's latest film Cinderella Man tells the story of James Braddock -- but doesn't share the boxer's confidence. The real Braddock believed enough in himself to accomplish miracles in the ring, notes Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan. But the movie lacks faith in the audience, which undercuts its ability to deliver complete satisfaction.
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Has the power of the dark side been underestimated? Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan reviews Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, the final chapter of the Star Wars series. He says it's easily the best of the trio of Star Wars prequels.
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Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan reviews Kingdom of Heaven. Gladiator director Ridley Scott's take on the Crusades features actor Orlando Bloom as a young blacksmith who saves the people of Jerusalem.
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Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan reviews Alex Gibney's award-winning documentary, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. Gibney adapted a book that chronicles the fantastic rise and demise of the company that was engulfed in scandal when its outrageous accounting practices were exposed.
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Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan reviews director Sydney Pollack's The Interpreter. The complex political thriller, which stars Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn, is the first movie the United Nations has ever allowed to film at its headquarters in New York.
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Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan reviews the re-release of Major Dundee. The 40-year-old Western has been re-edited to more closely reflect director Sam Peckinpah's vision.
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Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan reviews Lipstick & Dynamite, a new documentary about women wrestlers of the '40s, '50s and '60s. -
Los Angeles Times movie critic Kenneth Turan reviews the new French film Look at Me, directed by director Agnes Jaoui from a screenplay written by her husband. They are both actors who got so frustrated with the roles offered to them, they decided to make their own movies.
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Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan says director Rebecca Miller's life with her famous father, the late playwright Arthur Miller, has given her a deft hand for the story she tells in her latest film. The Ballad of Jack and Rose centers on an enigmatic father, a precocious daughter and an island retreat.
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Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan first saw Best of Youth, which was originally made for Italian television, two years ago at Cannes. He's been waiting to review the movie -- which intertwines one family's story with 40 years of post-war Italian history -- ever since. It was, he says, worth the wait.
