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DocFest continues this week and beyond. You’ll find my totally non-fiction festival recommendations and warnings at the bottom of this newsletter.

A On the Town, Cerrito, Thursday, 7:00. Three sailors arrive in New York for a 24-hour leave. That’s precious little time to see the sights, drink in the atmosphere, and fall in love. What makes On the Town so special–beyond the great songs, terrific choreography, and witty script–is the prevailing sense of friendship and camaraderie. These three sailors and the women who fall for them all seem to genuinely like each other. The movie also treats sexuality in a surprisingly upbeat and positive way for a 1949 Hollywood feature. The women in the story (Vera-Ellen, Ann Miller, and the infinitely funny Betty Garrett) are as motivated by lust as the men (Gene Kelly, Jules Munshin, and Frank Sinatra). It’s just too bad that screenwriters Adolph Green and Betty Comden updated their own wartime stage musical to the post-war period, losing the urgency that came from not knowing if the sailors would come back alive. Unfortunately, the Cerrito will be screening On the Town off of a DVD; no over version is available.

Rossellini double bill: Journey to Italy & Stromboli, Castro, Sunday. I haven’t seen either of these important films, both of which star Ingrid Bergman (Rossellini and Bergman became lovers while shooting Stromboli). But their reputations proceed them, and I suspect they’re worth catching. (Whether I’ll have the time is another matter.) They’ve both been newly restored, and will be screened off DCPs–which will upset some people but not me.

B+ Belle de Jour, Castro, Thursday. About as close as one gets to a Luis Buñuel commercial hit, for reasons that probably had more to do with  sex than art. Catherine Deneuve–stunningly beautiful as ever–plays a bored housewife who starts working in a brothel. Why? That’s never explained, but she certainly doesn’t need the extra cash. At least I think she starts working in a brothel; I’m not sure because a lot of the story takes place in her imagination. Although not as profound as it thinks it is, it’s funny and charming and sexy and playful in ways unlike any other movie. On a double bill with Roman Polanski’s early thriller Knife in the Water, which I still haven’t seen.

C- Popeye, Balboa, Saturday, 10:00am. Robert Altman’s one attempt at a big-budget family musical manages to be both extremely odd and utterly mediocre. The story is a mess, the gags are too outrageous to be funny (there are some things that only work in animation), and Harry Nilsson’s songs are utterly forgettable. The only real joy is watching actors who are both recognizable as themselves as near-perfect physical embodiments of the cartoon characters–especially Shelley Duvall’s amazing likeness to Olive Oyl. Part of the Balboa’s Popcorn Palace series of kiddie matinees.

B+ The Source Family, New Parkway, Tuesday, 7:00. Not what you’d expect from a documentary about an early 70s LA-based cult and hippy commune. Told almost entirely from the point of view of former commune members, the film paints a largely nostalgic picture of early new age spirituality and anti-materialistic idealism. But while it presents leader Jim Baker as a truly holy man whose insights improved the lives of his followers, it also shows how his megalomania and libido compromised and hurt the family. Read my full review. Note: When I first wrote about this film, it was called simply The Source.

A+ Raiders of the Lost Ark, various CineMark theaters, Sunday & Wednesday; Kabuki, Wednesday. Steven Spielberg directed it, and the bad guys are Nazis, but it’s as far from Schindler’s List as a great movie can get. But then, it’s great in an entirely different way. There’s absolutely nothing to take seriously in Raiders of the Lost Ark, and no message to help uplift you. The story is fundamentally preposterous, and the hero, Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is no more an archeologist than I am a butterfly. But the energy is so high, the action scenes so brilliantly choreographed and edited, and the whole story told with such enthusiasm and wit, that the rest of it just doesn’t matter. If you object to mindless, escapist action flicks on principle, you won’t see it anyway. If you don’t, you probably already love it. Part of CineMark’s month-long Steven Spielberg series.

A- From Up on Poppy Hill, New Parkway, opens Friday. Warm, sweet, and nostalgic, this whimsical dramatic comedy from Studio Ghibli focuses on a teenage girl falling on love for the first time. Set in the early 1960s, it tells its love story against a backdrop of students trying to save an old, rundown clubhouse. But first love never runs smooth, and family histories threaten to derail it before it begins. A rare animated feature without talking animals, fantasy creatures, magic, or broadly caricatured human beings. I don’t know whether the New Parkway will screen the subtitled or dubbed version. For more on this picture, see Friday Night Report: Rare Hitchcock and New Studio Ghibli

B+ Ghostbusters, New Parkway, Friday, 4:00; Saturday, 12:30. Comedy rarely gets this scary or this visually spectacular. Or perhaps I should say that special-effects action fantasies rarely get this funny. Either way, it’s not a bad way to pass an afternoon.

DocFest

A- Public Sex, Private Lives, Roxie, Saturday, 9:01 and Wednesday, 9:00. Skip this movie if you’re simply looking for titillation. But if you’re really curious about the performers who make a living (and apparently a good one) having sex–kinky sex, actually–on camera, this is a must. It follows the lives of three porn stars–Lorelei Lee, Princess Donna, and Isis Love–all of whom have gone from merely performing to taking significant part in the creative process. This sympathetic documentary looks at prejudice, how relationships work in the adult film industry (yes, people get jealous), what it’s like to be a porn star’s parent–or child, and the dangers of obscenity trials and Child Protective Services. All three subjects come off as intelligent and thoughtful.

B- Edible City, Roxie Saturday, 5:00 and Monday, 7:00. Talk radio may belong to the right in this country, but the left controls documentaries. This piece of agitprop (or perhaps I should say agriprop) tells you why we should all support the movement to grow edibles in urban environments, and let the people take control of their own food sources. I’m in complete sympathy with these goals, and agree that for many reasons we need to shorten the space between food creation and consumption. But I would have liked more numbers on land available and how many people that land can feed, varied diet, and other issues. I would also have appreciated the thoughts of well-meaning people (not corporate hacks) willing to discuss the downsides (I assume there are some).

C- The Pirate Bay Away From The Keyboard, Aquarius Sunday, 9:00. This Swedish fly-on-the-wall cinéma vérité documentary examines the the controversial file-sharing Web site Pirate Bay, and the lawsuit against it. The stakes are high–copyright laws versus freedom of the Internet. The legal and moral issues are complex and thought-provoking. Unfortunately, director Simon Klose seems more interested in simple personalities and hero worship than  complex issues and moral ambiguity. The movie has its moments–a discussion of WikiLeaks, a drunken tirade–but mostly it’s just people being self-righteous. Although the film gives everyone a chance to defend their view, it’s clearly on the side of the pirates. I expect a lot of youthful cheers and applause when it’s screened. And yet, despite a request in the credits to "Please share this film online," I had to enter a password to preview it for review.

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The Green Film Festival continues through Wednesday. Charlie Chaplin Days takes over not just the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum but the whole neighborhood of Niles. DocFest opens Thursday.

And here’s something heartening. The CineMark Classic Series has been so successful that they’re expanding it, adding a Sunday matinee to the existing Wednesday afternoon and evening shows. This month, they’re doing Spielberg.

A Before Midnight, Embarcadero, Shattuck, Guild, opens Friday. In this threequel to Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) have been living together for nine years, and they might as well be married. They have twins, a life together, and bodies transitioning into middle age. Like the previous films, this one takes place in a single day, but this time, they’re vacationing in Greece, and they drive, share a talkative dinner with six other people, and spend considerable time in a hotel room. And they fight. Hard. They still love ach other, but you’re not sure if the relationship will last. The result is both sad and sexy. Read my full review.

B+ Charlie Chaplin Shorts, Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum, Saturday, 7:30. This collection of four Chaplin shorts contain some of his best and some of his not-so-best. “Shoulder Arms,” which at four reels was nearly a feature in 1918, is delightfully silly, despite its serious subject matter–a war that was still going on when the film was shot. “Making a Living” was his first movie, and therefore historically significant, but it’s not really very good. “A Night at the Show,” where he plays two characters, was a huge hit in 1915, but I never cared for it. “Easy Street,” on the other hand, is one of his best shorts. Bruce Loeb will provide the piano accompaniment. Part of the Charlie Chaplin Days weekend.

A Shrek, New Parkway, Friday, 4:00; Saturday, 12:30. Enough bad sequels can make us forget how much we loved the original, and in the case of Shrek, the original was very lovable indeed. This story of an ogre on a reluctant quest to save a princess turns both traditional fairy tales and their Disneyfied adaptations inside out. The evil prince’s castle looks like Disneyland, familiar characters make odd cameos, and that old song “Have You Seen the Muffin Man” gets turned into something like Guantanamo Bay. But it isn’t all just for laughs. In the third act, it rips apart one of the worst lessons that children can pick from these old stories, providing a happy ending that neither Grimm nor Disney could have imagined. The computer animation–ahead of the curve in 2001–still impresses today.

A- Blancanieves, New Parkway, opens Friday. Could The Artist have started a trend in new silent films–all in narrow screen and black and white? But while The Artist looked to Hollywood silents for its inspiration, Blancanieves–a loose and very Spanish adaptation of Snow White–follows the more expressionistic silent film of Europe. The result is a story that could not possibly have worked as well with sound and color. Dark and atmospheric, Blancanieves holds you as it finds new twists in the old story. Major kudos for Maribel Verdú, who plays the evil stepmother with a relish that’s a joy to watch. The story is familiar, but writer/director Pablo Berger provides plenty of surprises. In the end, he stands the whole Prince Charming thing on its head. See my full review.

A+ Singin’ in the Rain, Stanford, Saturday and Sunday. In 1952, the late twenties seemed like a fond memory of an innocent time, and nostalgia was a large part of Singin’ in the Rain’s original appeal. The nostalgia is gone now, so we can clearly see this movie for what it is: the greatest musical ever filmed, and perhaps the best work of pure escapist entertainment to ever come out of Hollywood. Take out the songs, and you still have one of the best comedies of the 1950′s, and the funniest movie Hollywood ever made about itself. But take out the songs, and you take out the best part. On a double bill with Brigadoon–one of the first Cinemascope musicals; which I saw long ago and didn’t care for it.

A+ Jaws, various CineMark multiplexes, Sunday, 2:00; Wednesday, 2:00 & 7:00. People associate Jaws with three men in a boat, but the picture is more than half over before the shark chase really starts. For that first half, it’s a suspenseful, witty variation of Henrik Ibsen’s classic play, An Enemy of the People, but with a central character more conflicted and less noble (Roy Scheider). Then the three men board the boat and the picture turns into a more exciting version of Moby Dick. Jaws‘ phenomenal success helped create the summer blockbuster, yet by today’s standards, it’s practically an art film–albeit one that could scare the living eyeballs out of you. For more on Jaws, see my Blu-ray review and Book vs. Movie article.

B Something in the Air, Roxie, Saturday and Sunday, 2:30. Youthful innocence takes strange forms. For Gilles, a French high school student in 1971, those forms are radical activism and artistic ambitions. Sometimes those drives support each other in Olivier Assayas’ loose tale, and at other times they conflict. Something in the Air doesn’t grab you like a great film; you often have to force yourself to stay involved. But the effort is worthwhile. As Gilles grows beyond his radical idealism–even if he never quite renounces it–you’ll find yourself appreciating how we all mature and find ourselves. And yes, the esoteric Marxist arguments are intended to sound ridiculous. Read my full review.

B The Big Lebowski, New Parkway, Thursday, 9:30. Critics originally panned this Coen Brothers gem as a disappointing follow-up to their previous endeavor, Fargo. Well, it isn’t as good as the Coen’s masterpiece, but it’s still one hell of a funny movie. It’s also built quite a cult following; The Big Lebowski has probably played more Bay Area one-night stands in the years I’ve maintained this site than than any three other movies put together.

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