Film

Steven Soderbergh, the director of "The Good German," has crafted a film that seems like a throwback to the hard-boiled B-movies that were popular during the 1940s. Shot entirely in black and white, the story is set in Berlin immediately after World War II. The city is a wreck, with piles of rubble strewn everywhere and every remaining wall riddled with bullet holes from the intense street fighting that had only ended a few weeks before. Unfortunately, the story ? developed from the 2002 novel written by Joseph Kanon ?

At this point, you either like Woody Allen?s films or you don?t. So, all the nonbelievers can stop reading now, as I?m here to tell you that Allen?s latest film, ?Vicky Cristina Barcelona,? is his best romantic comedy in almost two decades. Two New York City girls, Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) have taken up an offer from a family friend to spend their summer in Barcelona, hence the film?s title. One of the girls, Vicky, is engaged to a successful, rather boring businessman, and the other, the impulsive Cristina, can?

A Glendale man serving in Iraq is featured in a documentary film and book project that producers hope will give the public a better understanding of those who serve in the military. For Col. James D. McGinley of the U.S. Marine Corps, the film, “Warriors . . . In Their Own Words,” gave him the chance to talk about the challenges the troops faced in 2006 in Ramadi, which is in the Al Anbar Province in Iraq. “It was extremely dangerous,” he said, adding that it’s completely the opposite today, as shops are open and people are walking or driving freely.

Michael Lee Barlin was so determined to make his first film that he decided to charge it all on personal credit cards to make it happen. In 1998, after pitching a few of his films to no avail, Barlin took the matter into his own hands and put $65,000 on his credit cards to make “The Pig Farm.” The film is about a plot conceived by a hit man and a hick to bury bodies at a pig farm. The dark comedy received accolades by publications such as The Village Voice, in New York, but it never made it to the big screen — until Monday night.