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Released in 2022, East Bay is an intimate drama from writer-director Daniel Yoon that shines a light on life’s everyday struggles. At its center is Jack Lee, a 39-year-old Korean American man grappling with failure both personally and professionally.

As an aspiring filmmaker, Jack pours his heart into short movies yet has little to show for the efforts. Facing doubts from family and peers, he questions if he’s doomed to a dead-end job with dreams unfulfilled.

Jack’s worries are all too relatable for many trying to forge their way in a complex world. Through his eyes, we witness the anxiety of a crossroads where paths diverge between hopes and harsh reality.

Guiding the story is Yoon’s empathetic and perceptive lens, peeling back layers to reveal what gives life meaning amidst uncertainty. With wit and warmth, East Bay explores timeless themes of finding purpose, bolstering relationships, and embracing...

Jack Lee, part of the influential Los Angeles band The Nerves in the 1970s and later a hit songwriter, died May 26 in Santa Monica, Calif. at age 71. He died after a long battle with colon cancer.

Lee is best remembered for his song “Hanging on the Telephone,” which Blondie covered from The Nerves version. Lee also wrote Paul Young’s “Come Back And Stay.”

Lee was one of three singer-songwriters in the Nerves. The band started in San Francisco, then moved to Los Angeles in 1977 to ride the power pop trend of that moment. Lee, the guitarist, was joined by Peter Case on bass and Paul Collins on drums. Case went on to form The Plimsouls, while Collins was the founder of The Beat.

The group had just one self-titled EP released in 1976 on Bomp! After the Nerves breakup, Lee had two solo recordings.

A memorial is planned at the Echoplex nightclub in Echo Park,...

Jack Lee, the singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer with the 1970s West Coast band The Nerves who wrote the power pop trio’s “Hanging on the Telephone,” famously covered by Debbie Harry and Blondie, has died. He was 71.

Lee died May 26 in Santa Monica after a three-year battle with colon cancer, his family announced. “He never gave up on his music, to the very end,” they wrote in a statement. “His guitar, right by his side. He lived his songs. One by one they told the story of his life. Some dreams die. His never will.”

In 1976, The Nerves — Lee on guitar, Peter Case on bass and Paul Collins on drums — secured a $2,000 loan to record a four-song, self-titled, self-released EP in San Francisco that featured two Lee compositions, “Give Me Some Time” and “Hanging on the Telephone.”

After the band split in ’78, writer Jeffrey Lee Pierce — then-president of the...

Oft-remembered for soundtracking “Valley Girl” with the classic cut “A Million Miles Away,” singer-songwriter Peter Case has a worldwide following, but veteran followers of the Los Angeles music scene may have spent the last 40 years or so trying to solve a puzzle about him. The riddle: When Case was a master of Beatlesque power-pop in his role as frontman of the Plimsouls, one of the great L.A. bands of the early ‘80s, was that the real him? Or is he an ageless acoustic-folkie who accidentally got swept up in rock’s new wave on the way to the hootenanny? Because, even with decades of hindsight, fans may still have a problem reconciling these two primary identities as being the same guy.

This is where documentaries like “Peter Case: A Million Miles Away” become valuable, taking on performers who’ve gone through reinventions without attraction elaborate media attention. In Case’s case,...

'Henry V' Movie Actress Renée Asherson dead at 99: Laurence Olivier leading lady in acclaimed 1944 film (image: Renée Asherson and Laurence Olivier in 'Henry V') Renée Asherson, a British stage actress featured in London productions of A Streetcar Named Desire and Three Sisters, but best known internationally as Laurence Olivier's leading lady in the 1944 film version of Henry V, died on October 30, 2014. Asherson was 99 years old. The exact cause of death hasn't been specified. She was born Dorothy Renée Ascherson (she would drop the "c" some time after becoming an actress) on May 19, 1915, in Kensington, London, to Jewish parents: businessman Charles Ascherson and his second wife, Dorothy Wiseman -- both of whom narrowly escaped spending their honeymoon aboard the Titanic. (Ascherson cancelled the voyage after suffering an attack of appendicitis.) According to Michael Coveney's The Guardian obit for the actress, Renée Asherson was "scantly...

Above: 1978 re-release poster for Tabu (F.W. Murnau, USA, 1931)

I only recently came across the posters of German artist Boris Streimann (1908-1984)—who was known to also sign his work as B. Namir—and was immediately struck by both the dynamism and the color of his work. The author of hundreds, if not thousands, of posters from the late 20s through the late 60s, Streimann loved diagonals. All of the posters I have selected— the best of his work that I could find—work off a strong diagonal line, with even his varied and very inventive title treatments (which could have been the work of another designer) often placed on an angle. On top of the sheer energy and movement of his posters, his use of color is extraordinary: brash and expressionistic like his brushwork. I especially love the multi-colored accordion in Port of Freedom, the loin cloth in Tabu, and...

Actor, director, writer, producer, singer, cartoon character, action hero and all round good guy Jackie Chan returns to our screens this month in Stanley Tong’s action adventure The Myth, two movies for the price of one. Co-starring Tony Leung as the faithful sidekick, Kim Hee-Sun as a sumptuous love interest, Mallika Sherawat as the body to die for and, well, what can best be described as a high kicking, got to see it to believe it, kung-fu horse!?! Yes that’s right folks, a kung-fu horse. The Myth is a curious beast for sure, in which we are faced by both sides of the Jackie Chan coin. Firstly, Jackie stars as General Meng Yi, a warrior assigned to protect Korean princess Ok Soo (Kim Hee-Sun) from the advancing armies of General Choi in a Qin Dynasty-era action epic high on drama, low on traditional Jackie Chan comedy stylings. The...