Ed Rampell

Ed Rampell is an LA-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.

LATEST ARTICLES BY Ed Rampell

Arts

“Summer and Smoke”: Tennessee’s waltz and the blindness of neighbors
March 14, 2016 By Ed Rampell
Tara Battani's is among the finest acting I've ever seen on the L.A. boards, and is by itself worth the price of admission.
Read more
Arts

Last tango in Kabul? “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” and the embedded reporter
March 10, 2016 By Ed Rampell
"Tango" perpetuates that age-old Hollywood tradition of setting stories in the "exotic" Third World.
Read more
Arts

Progies honor transsexuals, feminists, card-carrying Communists and more in film
February 29, 2016 By Ed Rampell
The Progies honor films that stand up for human, worker, and women's rights, gay rights, minority rights, peace, the environment, and against fascism.
Read more
Arts

“Hail, Caesar!” A specter haunts Hollywood in new goofball comedy
February 4, 2016 By Ed Rampell
Hot on the heels of the Oscar-nominated Trumbo, another 1950s-set movie about Hollywood Reds has been released.
Read more
Arts

“Candide”: The best of all possible shows?
January 27, 2016 By Ed Rampell
It's at all times innovative, witty and charming, full of puppetry, pageantry, imaginative stagecraft and Voltaire's waggish sensibility.
Read more
Arts

“Aferim!”: The wild, wild East in film
January 22, 2016 By Ed Rampell
It has a number of genre conventions of the Western, though one could argue that the Romanian-set film should be called an "Eastern."
Read more
Arts

Quintessential Quentin: “The Hateful Eight” reviewed
December 25, 2015 By Ed Rampell
It's worth seeing because of its scorching onscreen examination of racism -- then and now -- but it completely squanders the big screen process.
Read more
Arts

Where there’s a Weill, there’s a way; Julia Migenes review
December 8, 2015 By Ed Rampell
Fans of Kurt Weill and cabaret-style music who won't trip over the language barrier are likely to enjoy Julia Migenes' bravura performance.
Read more