Most people know the name of football player Jim Brown. But not even sports fans may be familiar with the name of Ernie Davis, the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy. The new film The Express (opening October 10 throughout San Diego) chronicles his brief, bright career.You can listen to my radio feature or watch a video of my interview with Dennis Quaid who came to San Diego last month to talk about the film.

Greg Kinnear stars as Dr. Robert Kearns in Flash of Genius (Universal)

After seeing the film Flash of Genius (opening October 2 throughout San Diego) you may never look at your windshield wipers in the same way. In the film, Greg Kinnear plays Dr. Robert Kearns, a Detroit engineer who invents the intermittent windshield wiper and then has the idea stolen by Ford. It's based on a true story and on a New Yorker magazine article by John Searbrook. It's a classic David versus Goliath as Kearns decides to take on Ford in their town of Detroit. Greg Kinnear says that the film is resonating with audiences.

Brad William Henke and Sam Rockwell in Choke based on Chuck Palahniuk's book. (Fox Searchlight)

Choke (opening September 26 at select theaters including Landmark's Hillcrest Cinemas, AMC La Jolla, Edwards Mira Mesa, and Regal Parkway Plaza) is a new film based on a novel by Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk. So right off the bat, you know it's bound to be provocative. Throw in the fact that the main character played by Sam Rockwell is a sex addict and it only gets more interesting. I spoke with actor Clark Gregg about making his feature writing and directing debut with challenging material like Choke. You can listen to my KPBS Radio feature or read the review.

Director S. R. Bindler and star-producer Matthew McConaughey on the pool deck at the San Diego Hard Rock Hotel (Beth Accomando)

Matthew McConaughey is sitting on the pool deck at the Hard Rock Hotel looking much like the character he plays in his new movie Surfer, Dude (opening September 12 at Reading Gaslamp, AMC Fashion Valley, Regal Rancho Del Rey, AMC Palm Promenade, and Edwards Mira Mesa). Casually attired in a surf tee and shorts and eager to conduct the interview out in the sun, McConaughey cuts a relaxed figure. He and director S. R. (Robb) Bindler came out to San Diego because Surfer, Dude is a personal film that they were eager to promote. The film marks the first project completely produced under McConaughey's company Just Keep Livin' and his enthusiasm was clearly evident.

Ben Kingsley and Penelope Cruz star in Elegy, the adaptation of Philip Roth's The Dying Animal (Red Envelope Entertainment)

Elegy (opened August 22 at Landmark's Hillcrest Cinemas) is based on Philip Roth's book The Dying Animal and focuses on aging academic David Kepesh and his affair with a student. The character of Kepesh has appeared in two other Roth works: The Breast and The Professor of Desire. As with most of Roth's books, the focus and the perspective are distinctly male. But what gives the new film adaptation of The Dying Animal a fresh spin is that it has been brought to the screen thanks mainly to a pair of women: actress Penelope Cruz and director Isabel Coixet.

When a high school threatens to cut drama from the curriculum, a teacher puts on a show to save the department. Unfortunately, the play involves Shakespeare and a Jesus who dances like Elvis. If that sounds politically incorrect, it is in the new comedy Hamlet 2 (opening August 22 in select San Diego theaters). You can listen to my interview with British comedian Steve Coogan and director Andrew Fleming about pushing the envelope in comedy. I spoke with them right after they presented a panel on the film at Comic-Con.

Director Alexandre Aja (center) and Kiefer Sutherland (right) on the set of Mirrors (20th Century Fox)

Mirrors was not screened for critics and as of yet I haven't managed to get out to see it. But as a fan of horror I did want to let people know that the film was out. Not screening a horror film for the press does not necessarily mean that the studio thinks the film is bad (although that is often the case with other kinds of films that go unscreened). The reason is that horror films have such a built in audience that studios sometimes just don't see a benefit to pre-screening their product. (Plus directors like Eli Roth claims he doesn't like press screenings because too much info leaks out and ruins the scares.) As someone who liked Alexandre Aja's French film Haute Tension, I was looking forward to Mirrors and am hopeful that it will contains some solid scares. The director and cast members Kiefer Sutherland and Amy Smart did hold a press conference at the Hard Rock Hotel during Comic-Con (studios now try to piggyback onto Comic-Con, tapping into the vast number of press people there, even if they don't present a panel at the convention itself). Aja showed a few gore-soaked scenes in a room that had been beautifully draped in thick curtains and adorned with a multitude of mirrors (the backdrop reminded me of the Night Gallery show). But he didn't show enough to really give a sense of whether a level of tension and scares could be maintained. The clips only proved that he is unafraid of delivering gore to his horror fans.

The 1985 poster for The Breakfast Club and the initial poster designed for American Teen (Paramount Vantage)

The new documentary American Teen (opening August 8 at select theaters) is something of a real life Breakfast Club (you remember that John Hughes film about "a brain, a beauty, a jock, a rebel, and a recluse..."). American Teen focuses on five teens representing such school cliques as jocks, geeks, and the popular set. I spoke with director Nanette Burstein about capturing contemporary teen life for her film. You can listen to my radio feature or read the extended interview.

We all remember that iconic and epic film The Breakfast Club. Either you were born watching it or your parents got you into it or even the latest fad of being retro required you to have a large knowledge of whether you were a princess, a brain, a criminal, etc. So when you walked down the theatre aisle and saw this new movie poster for the latest documentary directed by Nanette Burstein, American Teen, you probably had to take a second look, to make sure that it isn't a remake. This documentary has been compared to the most famous 80s movie, but this film is most definitely not a remake. This movie, being a documentary, takes a world that has been displayed in fiction, and in over-dramatic television "reality" shows, and it offers a more in depth and sincere look at the lives of the modern high school teen. The film includes the cliques, struggling to graduate, and teen heartbreak. Overall this film is a great model of what preteens have to look forward to, what teenagers have to live through, and what adults have successfully survived. After I had seen this film I had the great opportunity of meeting and interviewing the director, Nanette Burstein. In the way she spoke of her subjects, I saw the love she had for them and it assured me that this director only had the truest intentions in what that life is like, and I was grateful that this woman chose to deliver this message.

-- Candace Kavanagh just graduated from Mount Miguel High School. She spends her life absorbing celluloid images. She loves every type of film from so-called "chick flicks" such as My Fair Lady and Legally Blonde, to mind bending thrillers like Mulholland Drive and Hard Candy -- with every zombie movie, action flick, musical, and comedy in between.

Serial killer or funny guy? Baghead (Sony Pictures Classics)

When Mark and Jay Duplass were shooting their first indie film The Puffy Chair, they had to make long drives back and forth from the set late at night through the woods. On one of those dark nights the discussion turned to what's scary.

Mark Duplass recalls, "Somebody piped up from the back of the van, ‘I think if you are sitting in your living room and you look out the window and a dude with a bag on his head is looking back at you that would be pretty terrifying.' Everybody started laughing but that night everybody was totally freaked out. The next morning that sensation that it's really funny and its kind of creepy too got us inspired to try and make some kind of horror comedy hybrid that had the most low-fi, stupidest villain ever." And so Baghead (opening August 1 at Landmark's Hillcrest Cinemas) was born.

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