Science Fiction
I never was a Trekkie (or a Trekker), but I enjoyed the original show for some years, and became a big fan of The Next Generation and some of the first movies (especially II, III, and IV–which I always thought of as a trilogy). That put me in a good place to enjoy [...]
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A Drama
Written and Directed by Atom Egoyan
Atom Egoyan makes small films about people grieving the dead and relearning how to relate to the living, yet such works as Exotica and The Sweet Hereafter never feel like simple chamber pieces. Perhaps its the open, majestic, yet cold Canadian landscape, or maybe the original ways he [...]
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A Drama
Written by Suha Araf and Eran Riklis
Directed by Eran Riklis
A lifetime of movie-going leads to expectations. We watch two people onscreen begin to fall in love despite society’s disapproval, and we expect triumph or tragedy. Decent people on opposites sides of a conflict will eventually meet and have a heart-to-heart talk. The protagonist [...]
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Animated Family Film
Written by Evan Spiliotopoulos
Directed by Aristomenis Tsirbas
It’s a wonder no one thought of this before: an alien invasion movie where we are the alien invaders. (Well, someone might have thought of it before, but I don’t know about it.)
The gentle creatures of an apparently unnamed planet (the invaders name it Terra) [...]
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I finally got to the San Francisco International Film Festival yesterday. I saw three movies there.
One major concern–not surprising considering the economy: The place wasn’t as crowded as in past years. The first film I saw played to a near-empty house, and there was no waiting at the concession stand.
Here’s what I saw:
Confessional. The [...]
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Teenage Comedy/Drama
Written by Eric J. Adams, David Lee Miller, Jordan J. Miller, Gabriel Sunday
Directed by David Lee Miller
As far as I know, the San Fran International Film Festival will be your only chance to see this thoughtful, sad, funny, entertaining, and thoroughly unique motion picture. Catch it if you can.
A video- and movie-obsessed teenage [...]
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These two films aren’t scheduled for theatrical release after the San Francisco International Film Festival, so if you don’t catch them at the Festival, you may never get another chance.
But with one of them, that’s not a bad thing.
For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism, Kabuki, Sunday, May 3, 3:45 [...]
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Period Drama
Written by Sharman MacDonald
Directed by John Maybury
The Edge of Love is very lovely to look at, and not only because three of its four stars are exceptionally good-looking. Director John Maybury has clearly fallen in love with the look of war-time London (or his imaginary equivalent), and gives us every [...]
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Animated documentary sounds like an oxymoron, but I’m not sure what else to call Waltz With Bashir. The bulk of the film consists of actual interviews that writer/director Ari Folman had with other veterans of Israel’s 1982 Lebanon war, as he tries to reconstruct his own traumatic memories of the front line. But the interviews, [...]
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Woody Allen has Little Children disease, and I’m not talking about his sex life.
My wife and I finally caught his latest film last night, and like the Kate Winslet sex-in-suburbia drama from a few years back, it suffers from way too much narration. An experienced and arguably great filmmaker like Allen should know that when [...]
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