Glenn Lovell
CINEMADOPE.COM is a site dedicated to movie news and reviews by film critic – instructor Glenn Lovell.
Lovell is a nationa
lly known entertainment writer. He has been published in the Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald, Philadelphia Inquirer, The Hollywood Reporter and Daily Variety. He was entertainment editor at the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel and film critic at the San Jose Mercury. He has also reviewed for radio (KARA, KOME and KGO).
You name the director, Lovell has probably interviewed him or her.
With Capra in Richmond, Va.
He has sat across the table from Howard Hawks, Frank Capra, Clarence Brown, Billy Wilder, George Cukor, King Vidor, Henry Hathaway, Andre De Toth, David Lean, Stanley Kramer, Jerry Lewis, Richard Brooks, Phil Karlson, Robert Wise, Mark Robson, Richard Fleischer, Robert Aldrich, Don Siegel, John Frankenheimer, Philip Kaufman, Brian De Palma, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Milos Forman, William Friedkin, Jack Clayton, John Schlesinger, Tony Richardson, Costa-Gavras, Bernardo Bertolucci, Louis Malle, Claude Chabrol, Sidney Lumet, Spike Lee, James Cameron, Nora Ephron, Alexander Payne, Bryan Singer, the Coen brothers and — phew! — Quentin Tarantino, to name more than a few.
In the realm of horror and sci-fi, two specialties, Lovell has interviewed John Carpenter, Roger Corman, Bob Clark, Wes Craven, Tobe Hooper, George A. Romero, David Cronenberg, and Victor Salva.
Lovell’s critically acclaimed biography “Escape Artist: The Life and Films of John Sturges” was published in 2009 by University of Wisconsin Press. It is based on his interviews with the director of “Bad Day at Black Rock,” “The Magnificent Seven,” “The Great Escape” and “Ice Station Zebra.” He has also contributed to numerous books, including “Tender Comrades: A Backstory of the Hollywood Blacklist,” “The International Dictionary of Film,” “Intro to Mass Communications,” and “The Pop Culture Zone: Writing Critically about Popular Culture.”
Lovell teaches film studies at De Anza College in Cupertino and Cogswell College in Sunnyvale, CA. He has also taught at San Francisco State University and San Jose State University.
CinemaDope 
08/13/2014 at 1:26 PM |
Cool! Loved your Guardians of the Galaxy review, that movie is terrible!
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08/27/2014 at 7:36 PM |
Glenn I owe you an apology, I took my daughter back to see Guardians of the Galaxy a second time and have to admit that it wasn’t quite the 2 hours of joy that it was the first time I watched it.
I didn’t say anything nasty in my first comment directed to you, I just mentioned that I thought you’d missed the boat on this one, but in retrospect maybe not.
So no, I don’t think you’re a troll looking for ‘click’ bait, in fact when looking at the side bar of the movies you’ve reviewed I’d have to say that you’re pretty much spot on, at least the movies that I’ve seen.
Take care,
Watchtower
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06/24/2016 at 7:50 AM |
Just finished “Escape Artist”. Excellent book. I’m forty-eight years old and some of my clearest memories from childhood are of watching “The Great Escape, The Magnificent Seven”, “The Eagle Has Landed, McQ”and “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral” with my father. When I learned of your book it immediately went on my Amazon list. I received it as a gift this past Father’s Day and read it in three days. Excellent.
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06/24/2016 at 11:39 AM |
Thanks much, Jeff — glad to meet another fan of the underappreciated action auteur. Like you, I’ll always remember where I was when I first saw “Gunfight” and “Mag 7.”
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06/24/2016 at 1:14 PM |
Saw “The Eagle Has Landed” on the big screen in my home town in the summer of 1977. The theater was packed. Checked with dad and he confirmed my memory. So even in the mid-seventies Mr. Sturges was still making movies that appealed.
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08/05/2020 at 3:42 PM |
Hi, Glenn. We corresponded briefly about John’s son, Michael. Just got a reminder about him. Almost 8 years.
The world has changed, and it’s just gotten weirder.
But I’m still here. Hope you are.
Gregg
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09/24/2023 at 8:49 PM |
Glenn, thanks for your insightful and courageous article about Parkinson’s and the movies in the LA Times (September 23), I just read it. Note: You deserve more attentive editors. There’s a caption of a photo from Midnight Cowboy that says it was directed by Scorsese. Wrong. Plus, the caption misspells his name and lists it as Scorcese. I think you should slap the editor’s laptop and scream “I’m writin’ here! I’m writin’ here!” Dan Baron, Evanston, IL
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09/29/2023 at 8:48 AM |
tet
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10/02/2023 at 7:56 AM |
Glenn – I to want to thank you for your Sept. 23rd article in the L. A. Times entitled “How Parkinson’s disease made me lose my taste for movie masterpieces.” As someone who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s 7 years ago at age 63, your words hit very close to home. No, I’m not a well-known film critic, but I share the same “welts on the psyche” (your colorful and accurate phrase) for how one feels when subjected to films or tv shows that feature intense or confrontational scenes. Yes, once I too could easily handle such films, but now, as with you, they “make me feel worse than uncomfortable”. And while your focus was on edgy stress-induced movies, our popular culture lacks no shortage of other triggers that are tailor- made to send one into a tailspin. Glenn thanks again for sharing your story. As someone (and I’m sure there are others) suffering from these same Parkinson symptoms, it is helpful to know we’re not alone. Thank you!
Dick Eastman
Antioch, IL
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01/09/2024 at 2:29 PM |
Hi Mr
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01/09/2024 at 2:33 PM |
hi Mr. Lovell,
I read your essay “How I lost my taste for great films” in the LA Times and I enjoyed reading it. I can relate but in my case it is because of age and injury, not Parkinson’s (although I do have a motor neuron disease that keeps me from playing guitar well among other things).
I’d love to know how everyone needs to know about film is in Psycho. Sounds interesting.
Cheers,
Daniel Landau
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02/07/2024 at 5:57 AM |
Dear Glenn Lovell,
I remember walking out of the middle of the film “The Wire” I thought Joseph Gordon-Levitt was masterful in the film, capturing the edge of zeal with such finesse, maybe he was too masterful. Even though I knew the story, I just couldn’t watch it. This made no sense to me, but nothing about PD ever had.
I took a break from the movies for a while, a few years in fact.
Lately, I’ve come back.
My experience with PD is that the symptoms roam around a bit, intensifying in one realm and easing in another, only to switch around again years later.
Of course, that might just be me.
I’ve seen about half of the Oscar nominated best picture films this year, quite the feat for me. I too, skipped ‘Killers of the Quiet Moon.” It took me three days to get through “Oppenheimer” which, upon reflection, I’m not sure was worth the effort.
The gentler films go better with me. Emotion is fine but intensity is not. The parki-verse could sure use a film screener, someone who could rank a film with an edge of your seat meter or a squirm rating.
Anyway, I very much appreciated your thoughts on PD at the movies. Keep sharing the journey, they need to know we are out here.
I hope this message finds you…
Respectfully,
A
Davis Phinney Foundation for Parkinson’s Disease, Ambassador
Lineage Performing Arts Center, Board Member
Life’s like a movie, write your own ending, keep believing, keep pretending… – Kermit the Frog
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