Justin Chang
Justin Chang is a film critic for the Los Angeles Times and NPR's Fresh Air, and a regular contributor to KPCC's FilmWeek. He previously served as chief film critic and editor of film reviews for Variety.
Chang is the author of FilmCraft: Editing, a book of interviews with seventeen top film editors. He serves as chair of the National Society of Film Critics and secretary of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.
-
A young woman grows increasingly uncomfortable working for a movie mogul reminiscent of Harvey Weinstein. The drama explores how easy it is for powerful people to exploit absolute authority.
-
Sam Mendes filmed his suspenseful beat-the-clock thriller in what appears to be one continuous take. It's an impressive feat — but it makes the WWI movie feel like an overly polished one-shot wonder.
-
Gerwig gives us the warm, homespun pleasures of Louisa May Alcott's beloved novel, but she also holds the well-worn text up to the light to consider some of its flaws and compromises.
-
A tense and jittery new crime thriller features Adam Sandler as a fast-talking New York City jewelry dealer who becomes embroiled in various desperate schemes to get out of debt.
-
Writer-director Rian Johnson's deliriously entertaining comic detective story brings together an all-star cast and an ingeniously plotted crime story whose every twist catches you by surprise.
-
Director Marielle Heller's new film, starring Tom Hanks, casts a spell with the lightest of touches. Drop your skepticism; this film feels like an encounter with Fred Rogers himself.
-
Life doesn't go according to plan for the family at the center of this wrenching drama. But while Wavesdoesn't peddle easy redemption, it does offer what feels like a state of grace.
-
No one outside a marriage can know the truth of it, but actors Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson bring the audience awfully close in Noah Baumbach's devastating drama about splitting up.
-
Martin Scorsese's new film about the man who claimed to have killed Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa is a haunting story of loyalty, loss and power — with plenty of whackings.
-
Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson play 19th-century seamen stationed at a remote lighthouse in Maine. Shot in black and white, it's an exquisitely old-fashioned study of souls in isolation.