With its famous traffic, ubiquitous smog, and abhorrent city planning, Los Angeles tends be a bit of a punching bag for the rest of the country, from the Midwest to New York City.  While one could argue the cultural and aesthetic value of the city all day, it is without a doubt the premiere city in America for moviegoing.  There are, of course upscale theaters like the Arclight or the Landmark, and there are unparalleled revival houses such as the New Beverly, the Aero, and the the Silent Movie Theater. 

In addition to this embarrassment of riches, there's the cinematic programming at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Wilshire Boulevard.  Film Independent, the very same non-profit organization that puts on the annual Independent Spirit Awards celebrating the best in independent film, has a year-round weekly film series curated by critical luminary and KCRW's The Treatment host Elvis Mitchell.

More than maybe any other genre, contemporary horror tends to be dominated by passing fads and formulaic stories that rely on cheap jump scares and one-dimensional hardbodied coeds who are nothing more than victims-in-waiting.  Right now, found footage titles are impossible to miss, and the shaky cam aesthetic has become so common that old-school horror fans are doubtless feeling burned out.

For anyone looking to mainline a more simultaneously old-fashioned and daring vision, though, there is an antidote to all these shaky cam stylings.  It's The Theatre Bizarre, an anthology horror film that uses one woman's venture into a seemingly derelict theater as a framing device for seven individual tales directed by seven different horror luminaries (Richard Stanley, Tom Savini, Douglas Buck, David Gregory, Buddy Giovinazzo, Jeremy Kastain, and Karim Hussain).

Taken as a whole, The Theatre Bizarre is an audacious, phantasmagoric Grand Guignol trip that surprises, amuses, digusts, and generally rewards any daring viewer.  Though every featured director contributes something unique, the project's primary architect is David Gregory, who conceived of the film, as well as wrote and directed the final segment, "Sweets," a singular portrait of strange addiction.  Gregory is the co-founder and CEO of Severin Films, and is known for his directorial debut Plague Town and having directing literally over a hundred making-of documentaries.

The film has earned big reactions on the festival circuit, including screenings at  Fantasia International Film Festival, Frightfest, Sitges Festival De Cine Fantastic, Toronto After Dark.  With midnight showings starting this Friday, the loquacious, funny, and knowledgeable Gregory engaged in an exclusive interview with IAR.  Read on for Gregory's thoughts on anthology movies, the beauty of resourceful low budget filmmaking, combining beauty and revulsion, as well as the eventual The Theatre Bizarre sequel.

Opening in theaters on November 11th is a new science fiction film from acclaimed Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier (Breaking the Waves) called Melancholia. The film features an Oscar worthy performance by actress Kirsten Dunst (Spider-Man), as well as an impressive supporting cast that includes Kiefer Sutherland (TV's 24), Charlotte Gainsbourg (I'm Not There), Alexander Skarsgard (TV's True Blood), Stellan Skarsgard (Thor), John Hurt (Alien), Charlotte Rampling (Swimming Pool), Jesper Christensen (Quantum of Solace), and Udo Kier (Armageddon). 

IAR's managing editor Jami Philbrick recently had a chance to sit down and talk with Kirsten Dunst about her work in Melancholia. The talented actress spoke about the new film, its abstract story, working with Lars von Trier, her character's strength, her own acting process, and how director Paul Thomas Anderson helped her get the role.

No matter how lavish and well-attended, a wedding can be said to have gone quite wrong if longstanding familial tensions come embarrassingly to the fore on what's meant to be a happy celebration.  If said wedding also involves the bride noticing for the first time a celestial object that happens to be a previously-unseen planet on an inevitably collision course with Earth, then it's probably not going well and is also in a Lars von Trier movie. 

That movie is Melancholia, and as a new UK trailer will shortly inform you, Kirsten Dunst plays the bride, with Alexander Skarsgard as her groom, Charlotte Gainsbourg as her sister, and Kiefer Sutherland as her brother-in-law.  The new, apocalypse-bearing planetoid is, naturally called Melancholia.  Check out the trailer, and even if it's not your speed, at least you can enjoy the idea of a planetary disaster movie that doesn't involve Will Smith punching aliens or Jake Gyllenhaal somehow outrunning a cold front.

If you've seen any films written and directed by Lars von Trier, such as Dancer in the Dark and Antichrist, then you know he doesn't mess around.  Today saw the debut of the first trailer for his latest effort, Melancholia, starring Kirsten Dunst, Alexander Skarsgard, Charlotte Gainsbourg, John Hurt, Kiefer Sutherland, Udo Kier, and Stellan Skarsgard.  As the title suggests, Melancholia appears more restrained and low-key than the all-out assault of crazy that was Antichrist, but it also contains a previously unseen planet about to collide with Earth, so it's no slouch, either.  Check out the singularly strange trailer, but be advised that it is slightly NSFW, with a smattering of nudity.