LA Movies

Play it As it Lays

Director Frank Perry's fearless adaptation of Joan Didion's LA opus, stars Tuesday Weld as model-cum-actress-cum-brutalized has been. Often described as a scathing show biz indictment, the numbing monotony of desert landscapes and freeway drivescapes are stunningly juxtaposed in this rich textural work, magnificently photographed by Jordan Cronenweth (previously noted for the Nickel Ride and most celebrated for another dystopian LA flix Blade Runner).

Sidenote: I realized after watching Play it As it Lays, that in just 35 years, L.A. looks utterly different from its freeways: sound walls have been built, connections have been added or altered (like the 105 or the 110 carpool fly lanes), and in some places (along the 405 for example) massive development has taken place.

This Thursday, the Egyptian theatre is screening a good L.A. cop film, The New Centurions (1972, director Richard Fleischer). Chinatown screens at the Aero Saturday night.