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Playing with Fire: An Ecosexual Emergency is an artistic response to California’s destructive wildfires

Playing with Fire: An Ecosexual EmergencyWhat’s it rated? Unrated When? 2025 Where’s it showing? Cuesta College Performing Arts Center, Wednesday, Jan. 28 (5:30 to 7:30 p.m.; reserve your free spot at eventbrite.com) Directed by Bay Area queer icons Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens, this 2025 documentary is their artistic response to the devastating 2020 CZU […]

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The Life of Chuck is a poetic rumination on life, consciousness, and death

Writer-director Mike Flanagan (The Haunting of Hill House, Doctor Sleep) brings Stephen King’s 2020 novella of the same name to the big screen in this story about an ordinary man, Charles “Chuck” Krantz (Tom Hiddleston), and his largely unremarkable life. (111 min.) The Life of ChuckWhat’s it rated? R What’s it worth, Anna? Full price […]

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The Lowdown is a gritty crime dramedy with a compelling central character

The LowdownWhat’s it rated? TV-MA When? 2025 Where’s it showing? Hulu Created by Sterlin Harjo (Reservation Dogs), this comedy crime drama set in Tulsa, Oklahoma, follows bookstore owner and investigative journalist Lee Raybon (Ethan Hawke), who calls himself a “truthstorian” and works to root out local corruption. Raybon has a code of honor but operates […]

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Avatar: Fire and Ash is visually stunning but nothing new plot-wise

Avatar: Fire and AshWhat’s it rated? PG-13 When? 2025 Where’s it showing? Regal Edwards RPX Santa Maria, Movies Lompoc, Regal Arroyo Grande Director and co-writer James Cameron returns with this third installment in his Avatar franchise, and I’ll start by saying it’s absolutely visually stunning but absolutely derivative in its storytelling. All three Avatar films—Avatar […]

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Down Cemetery Road pits a wily private investigator against government conspiracy

Down Cemetery RoadWhat’s it rated? TV-MA When? 2025 Where’s it showing? Apple TV+ Based on Mick Herron’s novel of the same name, this British TV series follows wily and resourceful private detective Zoë Boehm (Emma Thompson) as she unravels a government conspiracy and searches for a missing child. The case centers on Sarah Trafford (Ruth […]

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Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is another worthy entry into the whodunit franchise

Writer-director Rian Johnson (Brick, The Brothers Bloom, Looper, Star Wars: Episode VIII—The Last Jedi) returns with the third installment of his Knives Out franchise about private detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig). This time around, the droll Southern investigator is brought in to solve the murder of Catholic Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin), stabbed in the […]

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You Got Gold—A Celebration of John Prine plays The Palm Theatre of San Luis Obispo on Dec. 20 and 21

You Got Gold: A Celebtration of John PrineWhat’s it rated? Not ratedWhen? 2025Where’s it showing? The Palm Theatre in SLO on Dec. 20 (4 p.m.) and Dec. 21 (1 p.m.) Michael John Warren (Shrek the Musical) directed this concert documentary shot over two nights in Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium in October 2022, two years after Prine’s […]

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