Essential viewing for any Angeleno—whether native or new to the city—the now-legendary 2003 essay film Los Angeles Plays Itself is a nearly three-hour ode to the city of Angels. The work is one big supercut, comprised entirely of 200-plus clips featuring Los Angeles from an exhaustive list of films, from Rebel Without a Cause to The Big Lebowski to The Karate Kid III.
LACMA and the Autry are teaming up to present a watch party on Twitter (#LAonFilm) led by film critic Lindsay Behr and the Autry’s Tyree Boyd-Pates. Though the museums’ free links to the film are already all booked, you can still watch it for free with a library card via Kanopy.
In the film, CalArts professor and director Thom Andersen manages to tie all of the clips together with overarching themes and offers a thought-provoking and critical look at how movies typically portray Los Angeles—he resents the abbreviation “L.A.”—as a backdrop, character and subject.