Independent Series to Show Talkative ‘Love & Sex, Etc.’

By and large the American Independent Film series at the Grande 4-Plex has been worthwhile, but beware of Daniel Yost’s “Love & Sex, Etc.” (opening Friday for one week) in which a self-described “king of the one-night stands” (Sal Landi) meets a woman (Marie Caldare) with whom he spends the night talking about rather than having sex. It’s an OK actors’ exercise for Landi and Caldare, but their conversation is a tedious compendium of cliches and banalities. Information: (213) 617-0268.

The Imax Theater in Exposition Park is opening two new 40-minute films, “Survival Island” and “The Great American West,” on Friday. Written and narrated by Sir David Attenborough and directed and photographed by David Douglas, “Survival” has got to be one of the best Imax movies ever--a lyrical, understated, unpreachy, lovingly observed celebration of the cycle of life on South Georgia, an island in the south Atlantic Ocean. It is an unspoiled refuge for elephant seals, albatrosses and two varieties of penguin. It’s as enthralling as “The Great American West” is trite and dull, a travelogue of national parks--this is gorgeous visually--strung together with a standard, brief historical overview. Information: (213) 744-2014.