Ed Rampell

Ed Rampell is an L.A.-based film historian and critic, author of Progressive Hollywood: A People’s Film History of the United States, and co-author of The Hawaii Movie and Television Book. He has written for Variety, Television Quarterly, Cineaste, New Times L.A., and other publications. Rampell lived in Tahiti, Samoa, Hawaii, and Micronesia, reporting on the nuclear-free and independent Pacific and Hawaiian Sovereignty movements. Rampell’s novel about the Native Hawaiian Sovereignty Movement for Indigenous rights, The Disinherited: Blood Blalahs, is being published this year.

LATEST ARTICLES BY Ed Rampell

Culture

Hoagancamp’s heroes: ‘Welcome to Marwen’
December 21, 2018 By Ed Rampell
Although it’s flawed, I commend Zemeckis, his cast and crew for not only taking on such daunting subject matter, but for doing so in such an original way.
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Culture

Defective defectors don’t hit trifecta in new Polish film ‘Cold War’
December 21, 2018 By Ed Rampell
Cold War’s virtue is that, to some extent, it does allow Westerners to take an insider peep into the pluses and minuses of life under Soviet-style socialism.
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Culture

Brandli does Brontë in ‘Sisters Three’
December 19, 2018 By Ed Rampell
There have also been various biopics about the Brontës, but Brandli’s Sisters Three is probably the most original —- and wackiest.
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Culture

‘The Weekend,’ ‘Roma,’ ‘The Favorite,’ ‘Stan & Ollie,’ capsule reviews from AFI
November 28, 2018 By Ed Rampell
The American Film Institute’s annual film festival, which took place Nov. 8-15, is arguably Los Angeles’s premier annual fete of cinema.
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Culture

‘I Am the Night’ and ‘Non-Fiction’ capsule reviews from AFI
November 27, 2018 By Ed Rampell
The American Film Institute’s annual film festival is arguably Los Angeles’s best and most comprehensive annual fete of feature, documentary, short, animated, domestic and foreign cinema.
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Culture

The opera ‘Hansel and Gretel’ bewitches the coven of the oven
November 21, 2018 By Ed Rampell
Hansel and Gretel may be the most enchanting, optically opulent opera ever seen at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, with its stellar stagecraft, stagemanship and eye-popping, jaw-dropping scenery.
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Politics

Politicon 2018: Socialism without socialists, free speech for the few?
November 9, 2018 By Ed Rampell
Politicon is to politics what San Diego’s annual Comic-Con is to comic books and superheroes.
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Culture

‘Satyagraga’: Philip Glass’s colossal Gandhi epic is activist opera at its best
November 7, 2018 By Ed Rampell
With Satyagraha Philip Glass transports us to the higher realms of cosmic consciousness. It’s a lot more enlightening to ride in one of Krishna’s chariots than in a yellow cab.
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