My Days in L.A.<\\/h3>\\n \ I\\u2019ve lived in Los Angeles for 20+ years now, and in my job as an entertainment journalist, I have visited locations all over the vaunted 30-mile-zone that encompasses greater Hollywood (and gave TMZ<\\/em> its name, BTW).<\\/p>\\n \ So, having spent days in such places as behind a bank in Van Nuys, in the frozen-food section of a supermarket in Reseda, down on the docks in Long Beach, at a empty bus stop in Santa Clarita, in the halls of CalTech in Pasadena, outside a warehouse in downtown LA, on the streets of Boyle Heights, and in an abandoned hospital in Inglewood \\u2014 along with every studio lot and whatever else passes for soundstages \\u2014 I have earned my opinion.<\\/p>\\n \ As a city, L.A. is a mess \\u2014 and that goes for Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Culver City and all the other municipalities that make up the greater metropolis. To be fair, it\\u2019s hardly the only American city with problems. But, like a true Hollywood production, L.A.\\u2019s woes are on a grand scale and, if nothing else, colorful.<\\/p>\\n

{"id":17289,"date":"2024-07-06T11:08:36","date_gmt":"2024-07-06T19:08:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kateohare\/?p=17289"},"modified":"2024-07-06T20:38:56","modified_gmt":"2024-07-07T04:38:56","slug":"l-a-los-angeles-movies-chinatown-speed-volcano","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kateohare\/2024\/07\/l-a-los-angeles-movies-chinatown-speed-volcano\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Movies That Prepared Me for Life in L.A."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

"Los <\/a><\/p>\n

God knows I grumble a lot about life in L.A. \u2014 and I know of which I speak. But it\u2019s not like the movies didn\u2019t warn me before I arrived here.<\/p>\n

My Days in L.A.<\/h3>\n \ I\u2019ve lived in Los Angeles for 20+ years now, and in my job as an entertainment journalist, I have visited locations all over the vaunted 30-mile-zone that encompasses greater Hollywood (and gave TMZ<\/em> its name, BTW).<\/p>\n \ So, having spent days in such places as behind a bank in Van Nuys, in the frozen-food section of a supermarket in Reseda, down on the docks in Long Beach, at a empty bus stop in Santa Clarita, in the halls of CalTech in Pasadena, outside a warehouse in downtown LA, on the streets of Boyle Heights, and in an abandoned hospital in Inglewood \u2014 along with every studio lot and whatever else passes for soundstages \u2014 I have earned my opinion.<\/p>\n \ As a city, L.A. is a mess \u2014 and that goes for Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Culver City and all the other municipalities that make up the greater metropolis. To be fair, it\u2019s hardly the only American city with problems. But, like a true Hollywood production, L.A.\u2019s woes are on a grand scale and, if nothing else, colorful.<\/p>\n

But \u2026<\/h3>\n \ On the other hand, Southern California is richly blessed with beauty \u2014 mountains, beaches and sea \u2014 and a ridiculously salubrious climate, which is what drew the movie industry here in the first place.<\/p>\n \ As I sit today at lunchtime in West L.A., with much of the country (including parts of California) baking in record heat, it\u2019s overcast and 74 degrees outside, and I have only used my A\/C briefly a couple of times so far this summer.<\/p>\n \ Fear not, it\u2019s coming \u2014 and the worst is September and October. Fall is crisp here, and the hills are often ablaze, but not for the same reasons as back East.<\/p>\n \ To one degree or another, I suppose L.A. has always been complicated and contradictory, especially since the film industry moved in. Every now and then, Hollywood cranks out a movie about the city that is its titular (if not always actual, these days), home town.<\/p>\n \ Here are a few that, to me, exemplify Los Angeles, for good or ill, and prepared me for what I would find here.<\/p>\n Chinatown<\/em> (1974)<\/h3>\n Mulholland is a very familiar name in L.A., attached to a winding drive through the Hollywood Hills. It\u2019s named after Irish-immigrant civil engineer William Mulholland<\/a>, one of the early water barons whose ruthless manipulation of the area\u2019s rivers and aquifers made the modern city possible.<\/p>\n Written by the recently late Robert Towne (more or less, if you read producer Robert Evans\u2019 excellent autobiography, The Kid Stays in the Picture<\/em><\/a>), and directed by Roman Polanski (who makes a cameo), it\u2019s ostensibly about private eye Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) investigating an infidelity that turns into a murder that turns into a mystery.<\/p>\n But, really, it\u2019s a fictionalized (and sensationalized) account of Mulholland and Los Angeles\u2019 water wars<\/a> in the early decades of the 20th Century.<\/p>\n Water is the lifeblood of a desert city, and a lot of blood (and treasure) have been spent to obtain it.<\/p>\n Set in the late 1930s, Chinatown<\/em> covers the complexity of a city that has both exploited and warred with nature since its beginning. It can be rented\/purchased in multiple places, and streamed on Max and Paramount+.<\/p>\n