Saturday brought me to “Ernest & Celestine,” the most adorable children’s movie I’ve seen in, well, ever, and “Life of a King,” a not-at-all cute but equally lesson-oriented film on the true story of Eugene Brown, who started a widely adopted inner-city chess program. Read more...

Another day at the L.A. Film Festival brings me to remarkable debut film “Concussion,” a subtle, almost European in temperament film about lesbians and transgression, and “The Spectacular Now,” the much anticipated new film by the writers of “500 Days of Summer.” Miraculously, they manage to work the magic of “500 Days” again with “The Spectacular Now,” bringing the same sort of cliche-busting honesty to a genre (high school romance) chock full of eye-rolling formula. Read more...

The fourth day of my coverage of the LA Film Fest brings me to two very different films: “Casting By,” a fairly by-the-numbers documentary on the unsung heroes (casting directors) of the film industry, and “Only God Forgives,” a purposefully button-pushing gorefest by provocateur Nicholas Winding Refn, working again with “Drive” buddy Ryan Gosling. Read more...

My third day at the fest brings two not completely satisfying movies: the sci-fi “Prometheus” miniature “Europa Report” and the literary adaptation “Winter in the Blood.” As both were rather uninnovative, I was unimpressed, but depending on your affinity for genre film or literary fiction they could both plausibly please the right crowd. Read more...

My second day of L.A. Film Festival coverage seems to continue the template of seeing one comedy and one “serious” movie, this time with Michael Cera drug movie “Crystal Fairy” and Jordanian movie “When I Saw You,” respectively. Read more...