IndieFest continues all this week and most of next, mostly at the Roxie.
Academy Award Nominated Animated Short Films and Academy Award Nominated Live Action Short Films, Embarcadero, Rafael, Shattuck, opens Friday. The name says it all.
Christmas in July, Stanford, Friday. “If you can’t sleep at night, it’s not the coffee, it’s the bunk.” In this charming yet bitter comedy of the American Dream, writer/director Preston Sturges manages to make even this extremely lame joke funny (actually, a funnier joke wouldn’t have been anywhere near as funny in context). Curiously, Sturges appears to have borrowed some plot points and themes from King Vidor’s masterpiece, The Crowd. The two films are separated in time by the Great Depression, and perhaps that’s why Sturges turned his version into a comedy. On a double bill with The Man Who Came to Dinner, which I haven’t seen for a great many years. I do, however, carry a strong fondness for the original play.
Manhattan, Castro, Wednesday. Made immediately after Annie Hall, Manhattan doesn’t measure up to its predecessor, but it’s still one of Woody Allen’s best. A group of New Yorkers fall in and out of love, cheat on their significant others, and try to justify their actions, all in glorious widescreen black and white and accompanied by Gershwin. In light of Allen’s personal history since Manhattan was made, his character’s relationship with a 17-year-old girl feels both unsettling and more revealing than he originally intended. On a double bill with My Winnipeg, which I haven’t seen.
Shanghai Express, Pacific Film Archive, Thursday, 6:30. Set in a China that could only exist on a Hollywood soundstage, Shanghai Express is a dull melodrama raised to almost a fine art by glorious camerawork and art direction, and the entertaining performances of Marlene Dietrich and Anna May Wong. Part of the PFA’s Josef von Sternberg: Eros and Abstraction series.
Happy-Go-Lucky, Red Vic, Sunday and Monday. There’s no excuse for Mike Leigh’s upbeat comedy working as well as it does. This movie has no real plot, no significant conflict, and not all that many laughs. But it has a bubbly, upbeat, outgoing, loving, caring and extremely happy protagonist named Poppy (Sally Hawkins in a glowing performance). Nothing truly horrible happens to her in the course of the entire film, aside from a few sessions with a truly obnoxious driving instructor (Eddie Marsan). Leigh’s films have always observed everyday life, and this one observes the everyday life of a very happy person. Read my full review.
Bayflicks 
