Adam's Apples, Lumiere, Shattuck, and Rafael, opens Friday. The plot sounds like vapid, Hollywood, feel-good drek: A hate-filled neo-Nazi fresh out of prison (Ulrich Thomsen) learns to help and care for others--thanks to the help of a minister who sees the good in everyone and a couple of oddball eccentrics. But Adam's Apples is no … Continue reading Films for the Week of May 11, 2007

I may or may not get to more festival events, but yesterday was clearly my last full day devoted to this year’s San Francisco International Film Festival. I started the afternoon with Peter Morgan, winner of The Kanbar Award for excellence in screenwriting. A respected writer of British television dramas, Morgan was unknown in this … Continue reading Festival Report, Part 4: Second Saturday

Once again, I'll start with the San Francisco International Film Festival presentations . San Francisco International Film Festival La Vie en Rose, Castro, Thursday, 7:00. Early in this Edith Piaf biopic, a hunched, aged-before-her-time Piaf walks up to a recording studio microphone. She looks bored and mildly annoyed. When she starts singing in that incredible … Continue reading Films for the Week of May 4, 2007

I just watched The Last Days of Yasser Arafat, and I give it a C. Sherine Salama conducted Yasser Arafat’s last interview, then she made this documentary about it. Her film’s power comes from the sense of immediacy, of being an eyewitness to history, but that’s a sense that can only go so far. It … Continue reading One More SFIFF Microreview

If you're trying to decide what to see San Francisco International Film Festival, don't go to far out of your way to catch Reprise, which has three more scheduled screenings as I write this. But then, if you happen to be at the right theater at the right time, you could do worse. If that … Continue reading Another SFIFF Recommendation

The bay area is in danger of losing yet another single-screen movie house--one that at least occasionally varies its Hollywood/indiewood fare with the classic and the unusual. I'm speaking of the Lark, a restored, classic single-screener in Larkspur run by a non-profit. A theater like the Lark doesn't make economic sense these days, so it's … Continue reading The Lark in Trouble