Straight Outta Boring

Compton Is an Icon of the West Coast Ghetto, But That May Be One of the Greatest Marketing Tricks of Our Time

Don’t believe all the hype around Straight Outta Compton.

Reading about the new hit movie about the groundbreaking rap group N.W.A., you might think the biggest problem facing Compton is its unfair and outdated reputation for the violence and gangs that were the subjects of N.W.A.’s music. But today, Compton may have a bigger problem: the reality that it’s boring.

The Compton depicted in the film, which topped the box office in its debut week, is scarily entertaining—a mix of menace and schemes and murder. In this, it fits decades …

Why Californians Are Such Suckers for Superheroes

From Onscreen Icons to Tech Stars, the State's Obsession With Larger-Than-Life Characters Is a Way to Avoid Inconvenient Truths

California faces a peculiar overpopulation problem: We have too many superheroes.

Missed this news in The Daily Planet? Fear not—your ignorance is understandable. California is not as closely associated with …

The Real Fault of San Andreas Is How It Maligns Californians

Even This Jaded Journalist Was Shaken By the Cynicism In Hollywood's Latest Disaster Movie

After sitting through a matinee of the new earthquake disaster movie San Andreas, I experienced my own dark seismic fantasy: as the Big One hits California, a giant hole opens …

Why I Won’t Wear War Paint and Feathers in a Movie Again

As a Navajo Actor, I’ve Learned Where Hollywood Likes to Stick Its “Indian” Roles—and Where to Find Real Native American Creativity Onscreen

At some point, every Native American actor comes to a career crossroads and has to answer the question: Do I participate in stereotyping or maintain my cultural integrity?

As a …

Ritchie Valens, Selena, and Filming the American Dream

Producer Moctesuma Esparza and Writer-Director Luis Valdez Talk About How to Tell Stories that Reflect the Reality of America Today

How can a movie with a Mexican-American theme tell the story of all America? Why aren’t there more movies that reflect the increasingly complex racial and ethnic demography of our …

The Dichotomy of ‘The Duke’

Onscreen, John Wayne Embodied the American Man at His Best and Worst

First, the backstory, which happens to be true.

In 1972, I was 21 years old, living in my native Ohio, and had come to the conclusion that if I wanted to …