Los Angeles Plays Itself

Thom Anderson is a born-and-bred Angeleno with a big inferiority complex. In his perception, L.A. don’t get no respect. I can see his points, here and there, but frankly, some of the things he asserts strike me a sheer paranoia. For instance, when filmmakers use real modernistic houses in the Hollywood hills as the abodes of loathsome gangsters, he feels they are insulting the architects. Huh? Despite all this, he does a good job of showing us a lot of L.A. (and believe it or not, he sees the very abbreviation “L.A.” as insulting; I obviously don’t) locations. We have visited many of these locations, which is a fun thing to do if you’re in … oh, all right … Los Angeles with nothing else to do. If you’re downtown, I’d recommend the Bradbury Building, one of the finest buildings anywhere, and the site of filming of everything from Good Neighbor Sam to Bladerunner.