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Only good movies
Get the Indie Focus newsletter, Mark Olsen's weekly guide to the world of cinema.
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Your host
I’m Mark Olsen and I write about all kinds of movies for the Los Angeles Times. Nothing gets me quite as excited as being knocked out by a movie for the first time and in turn passing that enthusiasm on to readers and audiences. In short, I am a nerd turned pro.
What to expect
Because life is short, time is tight and people have more options than ever on what to watch and how to watch it, I hope you think of this as your field guide. Or as I have long secretly held the motto/worldview/motivating principle of Indie Focus to be: Only Good Movies.
This weekly newsletter will spotlight my work as well as that of my intrepid colleagues on the movie team here at the Los Angeles Times as a starting point for what’s going on in the wild world of cinema.
This will also serve as headquarters for the Indie Focus Screening Series, a year-round program that I curate and host. About once a month, we bring you a movie before it opens along with a post-screening Q&A with the filmmakers. The events are free to Los Angeles Times subscribers.
The term “Indie” in this context is intended as a catch-all, an umbrella that can cover anything from one-time screenings to wide-release movies. Is it worthy enough to me to be worthy to all of you?
Nonstop movies. Movies nonstop.
Latest Indie Focus Newsletters
This week: 15 years of the TCM Classic Film Festival, Sergei Parajanov’s “The Color of Pomegranates,” Milestones of 1984, screenwriter A.I. Bezzerides and more.
This week: The American Cinematheque launches a new documentary festival, AGFA celebrates 15 years of genre madness, David Lynch’s “Eraserhead” in 35mm and more
The UCLA Festival of Preservation uncovers a lost film by Charles Burnett, the first Los Angeles Festival of Movies is underway and two of the year’s best arrive in theaters: ‘The Beast’ and ‘La Chimera’
This week: The screenwriters of “Legally Blonde” on how comedies make life better, Karina Longworth on 10 years of “You Must Remember This,” plus “Yentl.”
A weekend of Nancy Meyers movies, plus a tribute to programmer Doug Jones, the Safdie Brothers’ ‘Heaven Knows What,’ sapphic desire in early Hollywood and ‘The Rockford Files’
This week: A screening of “Showgirls” with star Elizabeth Berkeley, Oscar winners at the Academy Museum, a Claude Sautet tribute and Robert Altman’s “Short Cuts.”
This week: Rose Glass’ “Love Lies Bleeding,” plus a celebration of 1974 at the Egyptian with “A Woman Under the Influence” and “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.”
This week, Claire Denis’ ‘Beau Travail,’ plus a Peter Medak tribute with ‘Romeo Is Bleeding,’ ‘But I’m a Cheerleader’ and a double-bill of ‘The Outsiders’ and ‘Foxfire.’
This week, a series explores new Black horror films such as “Us,” “Master” and “Nanny”; plus the western “Buck and the Preacher” and a Stephen Chow double-bill
Screenings of nitrate films are a rare chance to share in Hollywood history, plus ‘Hollywood 90028,’ ‘Bushman’ and a double-bill of ‘Uptown Girls’ and ‘New York Minute’
