Letters to Calendar

Silver screen is still magic

I often wonder just why some people go to the movies [Feedback, June 21]. Personally, I want to escape and laugh and forget about how crazy the world has gotten lately, and a movie like “Spy” is perfect.

I think William Hurt got it right in “The Big Chill” when his character said, “You’re so analytical! Sometimes you just have to let art ... flow ... over you.”

Lighten up.

M Wauson

Westminster

Movie review missed the mark

For about 40 years, I have been going to the movies two to three times a week. The only thing that stops me is if there is nothing to see. I liked the trailer for “Aloha” and like everyone involved in it but didn’t go for two weeks because the reviews made it seem like the worst film ever made. But then I did go see it, and I loved the film. [“Timing Is Everything in Comedies,” June 21].

I thought Emma Stone was great in it, and it was more than respectful to Hawaiians. It had problems, but what comedy doesn’t these day? I did see “Spy,” which was terrible. Then I realized that the reviews came from critics who had read the stolen email from a studio boss who hated her own film. Films with bad reputations going in get bad reviews.

Steve Yohe

Montebello

Cost of informed critic’s opinion

Most of us who call ourselves theater critics don’t make a living writing such criticism [“Jeers, Cheers Over Paid Reviews,” June 21]. For me at least, the payoff is not in having my livelihood dependent on my writing — being a college teacher provides for that.

Rather, I enjoy the experience of theater. Writing about it deepens that experience. Moreover, such word-working serves to mirror my thoughts — thoughts I want to reflect onto others who are passionate about this venerable art form. Nevertheless, we pay for the opinion of accountants, contractors, doctors and lawyers, so what’s so wrong about paying for an informed opinion when it comes to a theatrical production?

Ben Miles

Huntington Beach

Miles is a theater critic for the Beachcomber Newspaper in Long Beach and online at showmag.com

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Colin Mitchell is addressing a real problem. Attention for local theater is fading despite the volume and the quality of the work. It doesn’t help to open the L.A. Times to reviews of La Jolla Playhouse or the Old Globe in San Diego. Your heading on every page is the Los Angeles Times. Can we please read about Los Angeles theater?

Brian Raine

North Hollywood

Scott Caan deserves slack

I feel compelled to show my gratitude to the Calendar section for taking the time to spotlight the complex mind of one of Los Angeles’ most groundbreaking up-and-coming “playwrights” ... Scott Caan [The Sunday Conversation, June 21]. While coming off as somewhat inarticulate about the actual craft of writing and admittedly one who has trouble “making things up,” we can forgive Caan because in many ways he’s still an innocent on his way to figuring out how to be his “own dude,” still the same young-at-heart artiste who was enticed into acting because of the offer of simulated sex “with a girl in a bathroom.”

Some might quibble that this shameless piece of PR has everything to do with nepotism and little to do with deserving talent, but to those critics I would say that all artists today should be so “pumped” about expressing their vision, even if it involves strippers and cocaine on a coffee table.

Stan Evans

Glendale