The Irish Film Festival, Latino Film Festival and Isle of Wight 40th Anniversary Film Festival (which is not about people the Isle of Wright ethnicity) are all currently running and will all close this weekend. Both the Berkeley Video and Film Festival and the International Children’s Film Festival open their three-day runs today.
Red Vic Benefit, Joxer Daly’s, Sunday, 6:00-10:00. Party to help keep the Red Vic alive. Free admission, free food (how will this raise money?), raffle (that’ how), surfer movies, and music.
A- Howl, Kabuki, Elmwood, Rafael; opens Friday. What did you expect–a
conventional biopic? Would that do justice to the Allen Ginsberg epic poem with which the film shares its title? Like the poem, Howl is challenging, cutting-edge, and unconventional. By weaving together an extended interview with Ginsberg (James Franco), scenes from publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s obscenity trial, and an illustrated reading of the titular poem, Howl gives an overview of Ginsberg’s early life, celebrates the work itself, and cherishes the freedom that made the poem possible. I’ve never read Ginsberg’s poem; this film makes me want to read it. And you might want to read my full review.
A+ 8 1/2, Red Vic, Sunday. Funny, exhilarating, perplexing, and tragic, 8½ is not only the greatest film ever made about writer’s block and the ultimate cinematic statement on the male midlife crisis, it’s also a movie about making a movie, where the movie being made appears to be 8½. Filled with one memorable and unique scene after another, Fellini’s autobiographical surreal comedy lacks nothing except a coherent plot, and it has no use for that. One of only eight films to meet my Criteria for the Very Best Films of All Time.
Chaplin at Keystone, Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum, Friday, 8:00. In 1914, his first year in films and his only one at Mack Sennett’s 
Keystone Studio, Charlie Chaplin became the most beloved entertainer the world had yet seen. The year’s output has just undergone a massive restoration, with a new DVD coming out on October 26. But if you can’t wait that long, or if you prefer a theatrical experience, the Museum will screen seven of the short movies Friday night. David Shepard will be on hand to discuss the films and their restoration. The music scores are from some of the best in the business, such as the Mont Alto Silent Film Orchestra and Robert Israel, but they will not, alas, be live.
A Metropolis, Castro, Saturday through Wednesday. The first important science fiction feature film still strikes a considerable visual punch, and with the latest restoration, tells a compelling story, as well. 
The images–workers in a hellish underground factory, the wealthy at play, a robot brought to life in the form of a beautiful woman–are a permanent part of our collective memory. Even people who haven’t seen Metropolis know them through the countless films it has influenced. Recently-discovered footage elevates the story of a clash between workers and aristocrats from trite melodrama to a tale of real people in an artificial world. Read my longer report. The presentation will be off a Blu-ray disc, but I can tell you from personal experience that it looks great. Unfortunately, the accompaniment will not be live, but also off of the disc. Be sure to check the times; it’s only a matinee on Saturday and only an evening show on Sunday. (Note: When you click the Metropolis link above, it will take you to a Twilight Saga Marathon. Scroll down for information on Metropolis. I can’t control what the Castro provides links to.)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Pacific Film Archive, Sunday, 6:45. It’s been a very long time since I’ve seen this 1988 comic fantasy about animated characters and flesh-and-blood people living side by side in late 1940’s Hollywood. I remember it being funny, outrageous, and delightful for anyone who loves old cartoons. The special effects were cutting edge for their day, but still based on pencil, ink, and an optical printer. Today, of course, they’d be digital, and would lose a lot of their old-time charm. Part of the series Drawn from Life: The Graphic Novel on Film.
C+ Grace Kelly VistaVision Double Bill: To Catch a Thief & High Society, Castro, Thursday. To Catch a Thief is more like a vacation on the Riviera 
than the tight and scary thriller one expects from the master of suspense. Not his best work by a long shot, but it has a few good scenes and thus sufficient fun. Besides, 106 minutes of Cary Grant and Grace Kelly in Monaco, photographed in the beauty of VistaVision, can’t be all bad. And speaking of Grace Kelly and VistaVision, the music-laden Philidelphia Story remake High Society, also has its charms, especially with Louis Armstrong playing himself (and his horn).
Bayflicks 