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.

A year ago, it looked unlikely that World War Z would get made.  The adaptation of author Max Brooks's fictitious oral history of a nearly-apocalyptic global zombie infestation was stuck in development with a price tag big enough that Paramount Picture wasn't willing to roll the dice, even with bestselling source material, Brad Pitt attached to star and produce, and Marc Forster set to direct.  Now, with the film in post-production for a release in December of this year, it looks like Paramount is keen on turning the film it almost didn't make into a franchise, with the World War Z story spanning three films.

As an actress, Angelina Jolie certainly doesn't need much introduction.  One of the most famous and bankable stars in contemporary film, Jolie won an Academy Award for her incendiary supporting turn in 1999's Girl, Interrupted and was nominated almost a decade later based on her work in Changeling, directed by Clint Eastwood.  Her credits include performances in films as varied as A Mighty Heart, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Wanted, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Salt, and The Good Shepherd.  As a fixture on the covers of magazines adorning supermarket checkout aisles, she arguably needs even less introduction, thanks to being one-half of one of the most famous couples on the planet.

Already a multi-hyphenate, Jolie is adding writer and director to her her resume, as her first produced screenplay is also her feature directorial debut.  In the Land of Blood and Honey, which opens in limited release on December 23rd, is reflective of Jolie's well-documented global humanitarian efforts, particularly her status as a Goodwill Ambassador United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.  The takes place in Sarajevo during the Bosnian War of 1992-1995.  The film centers on two fictitious characters, a Bosnian solider played by Goran Kostic and Zana Marjanovic as a Bosniak woman with whom he had a connection before the war.  While chronicling the brutality of war and ethnic cleansing, the story shows how these two characters and their relationship are changed by the incredible and horrific circumstances surrounding them.

With the release of In the Land of Blood and Honey imminent, Angelina Jolie is promoting the feature extensively.  IAR's managing editor Jami Philbrick recently had the rare opportunity, along with other select members of the press, to sit down and speak with the Jolie about her directorial debut.  Jolie discussed how the film came about, directing for the first time, the difficulties of making a modern war movie in two different languages, and the responsibility to depict these events with the appropriate honesty and force.

Several months from now, when we're totally tired of talking or thinking about movie awards while cancer researchers go unheralded, we'll look back on the days before awards season began.  Those days were pretty much yesterday, as today seemed to mark a shift into full-on awards craziness.  There were last night's Gotham Awards (The Tree of Life and Beginners both received Best Picture adulation), then this morning, Film Independent announced its 2012 Independent Spirit Award nominees.  Now, we have the full list of New York Film Critics Circle winners for 2011.

Love letter to silent film The Artist, which is also a Best Picture nominee at the Spirit Awards and seems destined to be an Academy Award favorite, won the top prize, and its writer and director Michel Hazanavicius took home the prize for Best Director.  Brad Pitt nabbed the actor award for his work in both Moneyball and The Tree of Life, while prestige-machine Meryl Streep was similarly recognized for playing Margaret Thatcher in the upcoming The Iron Lady.  The supporting categories were more interesting, with Albert Brooks deservedly winning based on his menacing turn in Drive and Jessica Chastain continuing The Year of Chastain with a win for The Tree of Life, Take Shelter, and The Help.

In 2008, Warner Bros snagged up the rights to Katsuhiro Otomo's legendary manga and with it, the right to make a live-action version of his even more well-regarded 1988 anime Akira.  The studio envisioned the futuristic dystopian tale, thoroughly rooted in cyberpunk coolness, Japanese post-WWII psychology, and general weirdness, as a big Americanized tentpole action film.  In the three years since, however, they've had plenty of trouble getting Akira off the ground.  It would seem those troubles have been sorted out, as Akira has reportedly been given the green light under Spanish helmer Jaume Collet-Serra, and both studio and director are already keen on an actor to play one of the leads.

We didn't really need any further confirmation, but this weekend provides even more proof that America loves its cinematic robots, particularly when they're fighting each other.  After Transformers: Dark of the Moon showcased an almost fetishistic dedication to robot-combat over the summer, Fall has its own robo-pummeling film with Real Steel.  One of only two wide releases over the weekend, the family-oriented, science fiction-tinged boxing drama debuted in first place, almost tripling the estimated gross of the weekend's other new release, George Clooney's considerably more low-key political drama The Ides of March.

You know what everybody loves?  Dolphins.  You know what else everybody loves?  Heartwarming tales of individuals overcoming seemingly unconquerable afflictions.  Put those together, add a helping of 3D, a dollop of cute child actor, a pinch of Morgan Freeman, along with a side of Harry Connick Jr. and Ashley Judd, and you've got yourself an unexpected hit movie.  Dolphin Tale debuted in third place last weekend, but good word of mouth and an agreeably four-quadrant story allowed the film to jump to first place in its second weekend, a rare feat accomplished not too long ago by bona-fide hit The Help.

It was a bit of a surprise last weekend when The Lion King managed to lead the box office, but that it managed to hold on to the top spot for a second consecutive weekend despite the presence of four heavily promoted new releases proves that you can't argue with beloved, well-made cinematic comfort food.  Seventeen years after its initial theatrical run, The Lion King's 3D re-release grossed an estimated $22.1 million over the weekend, placing it ahead of Moneyball starring Brad Pitt, family-friendly 3D story Dolphin Tale, and the actioners Abduction and Killer Elite, both of which contain an almost excessive amount of punching.

Every once and a while, in between the sequels and prequels, the reboots and remakes, super hero films, computer animated children’s movies, and R-rated comedies, Hollywood will produce a socially important film.

In fact, there is actually a long tradition in Hollywood of making socially responsible movies going all the way back to 1962's To Kill a Mockingbird, which dealt with racism in America. Since then we’ve seen Tinseltown concentrate its energy on illuminating such important social issues as AIDS (Philadelphia), slavery (The Color Purple), abortion (The Cider House Rules), the environment (Erin Brockovich), the Holocaust (Schindler’s List), and the impact of war (The Deer Hunter). But seldom has Hollywood taken a long look at the troubles that affect human rights in Africa.

With the exception of the 2004 film Hotel Rwanda, the problems in eastern and southern Africa have gone greatly ignored in popular motion pictures. Only thanks to the actions of Hollywood movie stars like George Clooney, Angelina Jole, and Brad Pitt do most Americans even know about the difficulties surrounding African areas such as Sudan. But now two new films are shining a spotlight on the human rights issues plaguing East African countries. First, Golden Globe-nominated director Marc Forster’s feature film Machine Gun Preacher, which chronicles the life and times of drug dealing criminal turned activist Sam Childers and his work defending Sudanese orphans. The movie stars an all-star cast of exceptional actors including Gerard Butler (300), Michelle Monaghan (Gone Baby Gone), Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road), Kathy Baker (Clean and Sober), and Souleymane Sy Savane (TV's Damages). The second film is a documentary entitled Bouncing Cats, which takes a look at how dancing and hip-hop is empowering youth in war-torn Uganda. 

If an endlessly compelling, Oscar-caliber movie can be made about the founding of facebook, then why can't a movie about baseball statistics be dramatically involving and even inspiring, especially when one of the writer is Aaron Sorkin, who won his first Academy Award for his The Social Network screenplay?  Oh, and the other writer is Schindler's List Oscar winner Steve Zaillian?  For Moneyball, that high profile combination is buoyed the presence of Brad Pitt, playing real-life Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane, who championed a new statistical system for evaluating ballplayers and assembling rosters.

The UK trailer for the film, which is inspired by a true story, sticks to the tried-and-true formula established by the first and second domestic trailers, but throws in some new footage and drops a reference to Fabio.  But seriously, it's a damn fine piece of trailer-making, just like its predecessors, and it might even just make the film appealing to the cricket-loving Brits.  Maybe.