Comedy Shorts, Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum, Saturday, 7:30. The Silent Film Museum screens four short comedies by the best: Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, and Laurel & Hardy. I can't speak for the others, but the Keaton selection, "The Goat," is one of his best. Body Heat, Castro, Friday, 8:00. It's been many years since I've … Continue reading This Week’s Movies
Month: May 2008
Two June Festivals
What could be scarier than another film festival starting less than a month after the San Francisco International festival closes? How about two film such festivals? And one of them sounds very scary, indeed. Let’s start with the festival that won’t give you a fright (although judging from recent exit polls, it might scare people … Continue reading Two June Festivals
How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer
Drama Written and directed by Georgina Riedel I’ll gladly watch any movie staring Elizabeth Peña. Even when she plays a character whose motivations seem more inspired by plot necessities than human emotions, she manages to convey all the depth, warmth, and confusion of real human life. And she’s hot. How the Garcia Girls Spent Their … Continue reading How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer
Iron Man
Superhero Action Movie Written by a whole bunch of people Directed by Jon Favreau After 15 days of documentaries, serious dramas, and dark comedies at the San Francisco International Film Festival, nothing cleanses the palette like a well-made, big-budget Hollywood entertainment. Iron Man fit the bill perfectly. While not up to the quality of Spiderman … Continue reading Iron Man
This Week At the Movies
I posted a lot this week--no surprise. Go to the site and you'll find short reviews and festival reports on Time to Die, Stranded, Orz Boyz, The Art of Negative Thinking (the best movie I saw at the festival), Wonderful Town, Shadows in the Palace, Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans, and … Continue reading This Week At the Movies
You Know You’re Spending Too Much Time at a Film Festival When…
You start every conversation with “Seen anything good?†Your spouse asks what you want for dinner, and you answer “The usual--popcorn.†You step outside on a beautiful afternoon and run immediately back into the theater. You see people on the street talking in a foreign language, and your eyes automatically drop down for the subtitles. … Continue reading You Know You’re Spending Too Much Time at a Film Festival When…
Standard Operating Procedure
Political Documentary Directed by Errol Morris We all know Lynndie England--or we think we do. She's the young, seemingly carefree soldier photographed taunting prisoners in those infamous Abu Ghraib prison photos. In other words, she's the very bad apple that ruined the worldwide image of the brave American soldier. Errol Morris want you to see … Continue reading Standard Operating Procedure
SFIFF: Up the Yangtze
Tuesday evening I caught Up the Yangtze, a documentary by Canadian director Yung Chang. China’s Three Gorges Dam, still under construction, may be the largest hydroelectric project ever attempted, and Chang’s film takes an unusual but effective approach to examining the project’s repercussions. He focuses his camera on two teenagers working a cruise ship that … Continue reading SFIFF: Up the Yangtze
SFIFF: Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans
I just caught Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans. It’s a basic, PBS-style documentary without anything truly creative or exciting technically or artistically. But the subject matter--an integrated New Orleans neighborhood which might have been the largest community of free Blacks in the pre-Civil War south. It follows the neighborhood through it’s … Continue reading SFIFF: Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans
SFIFF: Shadows in the Palace
Having missed it in theaters, I took home a press screener DVD of Shadows in the Palace and watched it last night with my wife. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I can’t recommend it, but I wouldn’t want to sit through it again. A mystery set in the Korean royal court at … Continue reading SFIFF: Shadows in the Palace
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