Ed Rampell

Ed Rampell is an LA-based film historian and critic, author of "Progressive Hollywood: A People’s Film History of the United States," and co-author of "The Hawaii Movie and Television Book." He has written for Variety, Television Quarterly, Cineaste, New Times L.A., and other publications. Rampell lived in Tahiti, Samoa, Hawaii, and Micronesia, reporting on the nuclear-free and independent Pacific and Hawaiian Sovereignty movements.

LATEST ARTICLES BY Ed Rampell

Culture

“Tosca” explores themes of sexual harassment, right-wing politics
April 28, 2017 By Ed Rampell
Isn’t it clear how rightwing politics favoring the rich and powerful fits together with abusive treatment of women? It’s all of a piece.
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Arts

“King of the Road: The Roger Miller Story,” effective bioplay
April 25, 2017 By Ed Rampell
You’re likely to find delight in this bioplay about a guitar-strumming bard whose bulb burned briefly but brightly.
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Culture

Radical theatre tradition lives on in “Harlequino: On to Freedom”
March 28, 2017 By Ed Rampell
Harlequino’s playwright upends conventional notions of this epoch and its theater by making the protagonist, Harlequino, Black. The African slave trade had already begun and the comedy (albeit with serious undertones) contends something I’d never heard...
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Arts

Suspended animation: In Philip Glass’ “The Perfect American” Uncle Walt is Mickey Rat
March 22, 2017 By Ed Rampell
Glass’ repetitive music is often lovely and evocative, a sonic tapestry expressing Disney’s dilemmas and visions.
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Arts

Nostalgia and politics in Eugene O’Neill’s “Ah, Wilderness!”
March 17, 2017 By Ed Rampell
"Wilderness!" is a veritable showcase of his diverse talents, ranging from the comedic to the tragic.
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Culture

Native Women in Film Festival highlights anti-pipeline cause
March 7, 2017 By Ed Rampell
By presenting the usually overlooked female indigenous point of view onscreen, the filmmakers of this festival are pathfinders, blazing new trails in cinema and television.
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Culture

The not so “Great Wall”
February 21, 2017 By Ed Rampell
Put your 3D glasses on and your brains into neutral to watch this vapid but eye-popping big budget picture which, at $135-150 million, is reportedly the most expensive movie ever made in China.
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Culture

Totem and Taboo and Tanna: A Melanesian Romeo and Juliet
February 13, 2017 By Ed Rampell
"Tanna" dispels the simplistic notion that “primitive” people living in a state of nature inhabited problem-free paradises.
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