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L.A. Confidential (movie)
Review: 'Los Angeles Plays Itself' ★★★★
Review: 'Los Angeles Plays Itself' ★★★★

Thom Andersen's beautiful, mordant 2003 cine-essay, "Los Angeles Plays Itself," screens at the Music Box Theatre for one night next week, Wednesday. It's finally coming to cable and home-viewing formats at the end of the month, 11 long years after its premiere, but the big screen really is the ideal way to soak up Andersen's inspired ruminations about his city as a filming location and as a repository for other filmmakers' daydreams and nightmares. "Los Angeles Plays Itself" is lavishly illustrated with wall-to-wall film clips hitting various self-mythologizing highlights ("Chinatown," "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," "L.A....