Something very funny is coming to the Bay Area the first weekend in October. If you're a fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (and regular readers know I'm one), you're going to love The Found Footage Festival. Nick Prueher and Joe Pickett collect the garbage of our video-saturated culture. Rummaging through garage sales, dumpsters, and … Continue reading The Found Footage Festival

Lawrence of Arabia, Castro, Saturday and Sunday. Lawrence isn't just the best big historical epic of the 70mm roadshow era, it's one of the greatest films ever made. Stunning to look at and terrific as pure spectacle, it's also an intelligent study of a fascinatingly complex and enigmatic war hero. T. E. Lawrence--at least in … Continue reading Lebowski of Arabia

I started Bayflicks.net almost three years ago when my business was in a slump. Now business is doing pretty well. That’s good, but it’s giving me less time to maintain this site. Since I can’t afford to turn down paying work, Bayflicks has been eating into my recreational time. In other words, it’s keeping me … Continue reading Taking Less Time

Some interesting events coming up, none connected to the Mill Valley Film Festival. First, in honor of its 90th birthday, Oakland’s Piedmont Theater will celebrate its 90th birthday with a week of classic cinema. The movies include Lawrence of Arabia, Safety Last, His Girl Friday, and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. All films will … Continue reading Interesting Events–Not In Mill Valley

Sorry I'm a bit late with the newsletter this week. Rosh Hashanah. I've also changed my weekly newsletter (what you're reading). I now list ongoing engagements of reviewed films at the bottom, without repeating the reviews. Delirious, Lumiere and Shattuck, opens Friday for one-week run. It's official: Low-budget independent films can be as slick and … Continue reading This Week’s Recommendations

1977 must have been some year from Marin County cinemaphiles. First, a film made by one of their own broke box office records and redefined the Hollywood blockbuster. Then the Mill Valley Film Festival debuted--fated to become the other big festival in the Bay Area. The Mill Valley Film Festival turns 30 this year, and … Continue reading Mill Valley Turns 30

Seems like a good deal. Two documentaries about '60s British rock 'n' roll for the price of one. But since the two movies combined only run 101 minutes, it's more like one movie for the price of one. And since only one of the two is even remotely worth seeing, it's more like half a … Continue reading All My Loving & The Pink Floyd and Syd Barret Story

San Francisco Indiefest used to hold its Documentary Film Festival (called DocFest for short) in late spring--just after the San Francisco International Film Festival. Now they have it in late summer/early fall, just before Mill Valley. This year, DocFest occupies the Roxie from September 29 through October 10. I haven't seen any of the films … Continue reading Documentaries and Hand-Colored Silents

Cruising, one-week engagement starts Friday. Now that the controversy has passed, we can see William Friedkin's 1980 gay S&M murder mystery for what it is: a mess. While it may offer nostalgia for older gay men who miss their wilder days, it has little to offer the rest of us. As a study of a … Continue reading This Week’s Movies

William Friedkin's Cruising earned nothing but controversy and bad reviews when it came out in 1980. The controversy came from a gay community that had only recently won a modicum of political respectability. Openly homosexual images and characters were almost unheard of in Hollywood films of those days, and a knife-wielding murderer preying on the … Continue reading Cruising for a Bruising