Cinema Junkie

"Bone Tomahawk" gets a one-time screening in San Diego on Feb. 21 at the Digital Gym Cinema. Writer-director S. Craig Zahler talks about ramping up his slow-burn horror western.

Film Struck is showcasing eight classics of Blaxploitation Cinema so it's time to revisit the Cinema Junkie Podcast featuring David Walker, writer of the "Shaft" comic books. Walker loves the Blaxploitation films of the 1970s and says we're due for Blaxploitation 2.0.

With "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" reanimating on screens this weekend, the time seems ripe to speak with Doctor of the Dead Arnold T. Blumberg about a recent strain of the undead — the self-aware zombie.

On the heels of Oscar snubbing black actors and filmmakers again, and on the eve of Black History Month, Cinema Junkie sits down with a pair of black San Diego independent filmmakers to talk about some under-appreciated African-American directors whose works are worth seeking out.

The San Diego Black Film Festival reveals the diversity of contemporary black filmmaking.

The screening of a documentary about the Black Panthers at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival this weekend seems oddly appropriate on the heels of the very white Academy Award nominations. Would the Black Panthers be boycotting the Oscars?

Cinema Junkie Podcast is back from a holiday break with a three-part show all about the Oscars.

Awards season is in full swing so it must be time to make a Ten Best List and hand out some awards.

For some, "Star Wars" is a way of life and the arrival of a new movie set in a galaxy far, far away is cause for both great excitement and great concern. A group of "Star Wars" fans rent a van and drive up to Los Angeles for the opening night of "Episode VII: The Force Awakens."

After much anticipation and build up, J.J. Abrams "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" has finally screened and fans can breathe a big sigh of relief.

Kent Jones dropped out of film school but then started working in Martin Scorsese's office. That led to a series of documentaries on movies. Now Jones talks about "Hitchcock/Truffaut" (opening at Landmark's Ken Cinema).

This year is turning out to be a good one for older actresses. Cynthia Nixon talks about her role in the new independent film “James White” (opened Dec. 4 at Arclight La Jolla).

John Waters – the self-proclaimed "Pope of Trash" and "People’s Pervert" – returns to San Diego (Nov. 30 at The Observatory North Park) for the John Waters Christmas Tour 2015.

Italian film composer Fabio Frizzi made his first tour of the U.S. this year with a tribute concert to director Lucio Fulci called Frizzi 2 Fulci. I saw the concert in L.A. last month and caught up with Frizzi in Wales for my first overseas Cinema Junkie podcast.

In a year when I was breathlessly awaiting a new Bond film and a promising "Star Wars" installment, "Trumbo" (opening Friday throughout San Diego) was the film that in some ways I was most excited about because it combined so many elements I love.

The San Diego Asian Film Festival celebrates its sweet 16 this year. Artistic director Brian Hu talked about programming the festival and highlights some festival offerings.

Bond. James Bond. My obsession with 007 began as a child and I continue to thrill at the new films, including the latest "SPECTRE."

Last week I gave you a tease of my Cinema Junkie podcast about the first film people remember scaring them, now listen to more memories including some horror celebrities.

Feminist western barely qualifies as a subgenre since there are so few entries but "The Keeping Room" offers a strong entry.

This week's horror-themed October Cinema Junkie podcast pays tribute to "Re-Animator The Musical."

It's all about obedience and madness with reviews of "The Experimenter" and National Theatre Live's "Hamlet" with Benedict Cumberbatch.

This week's horror-themed edition of the KPBS Cinema Junkie Podcast looks at "The Babadook" through the eyes of a psychoanalyst.

Guillermo del Toro returns to the realm of ghosts for his gothic romance, "Crimson Peak."

If you have ever had the secret desire to look through medical books with their explicit photos of disease, deformities and medical science, then I have the perfect thing for you.

This week's Cinema Junkie podcast looks to the new horror film "Goodnight Mommy" that hails from Austria.