The Matatu Film Festival opens Wednesday, ending the Bay Area's mid-summer film festival draught. A- Ealing Studios/Alec Guinness double bill: The Ladykillers & The Lavender Hill Mob, Castro, Sunday. In the early 1950s, Britain's Ealing Studios made several droll but wonderful comedies starring Alec Guinness, often about crime. In The Ladykillers, probably the darkest Ealing … Continue reading What’s Screening: July 11 – 17
Month: July 2014
Jewish Film Festival Preview
I've previewed five films that will screen at this year's San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. Here's what I thought of them, in order from best to worst. Curiously, the two best are also the least Jewish. I guess they were so good they had to be added anyway. A Swim Little Fish Swim Don't let … Continue reading Jewish Film Festival Preview
Boyhood: As Real as Fiction Gets
A Long-form drama Written and directed by Richard Linklater I'm a sucker for long films that take place over the course of several years. But I've never seen one as real as Richard Linklater's Boyhood. This isn't a story of an extraordinary person, or of a normal person going through an extraordinary experience. But it … Continue reading Boyhood: As Real as Fiction Gets
What’s Screening: July 4 – 10
Celebrate Independence Day! Don't go to a film festival! Actually, you have no choice. There are no film festivals in the Bay Area this week. Luckily, you can still go to a theater and see a movie. A- Life Itself, Embarcadero Center, Albany Twin, Rafael, opens Friday. This totally biased, yet entertaining and informative documentary … Continue reading What’s Screening: July 4 – 10
A Life Itself at the Movies
A- Documentary Directed by Steve James The first thing you have to understand about Life Itself, Steve James' biographical documentary about Roger Ebert, is that James is hardly a dispassionate observer. He was not a close friend to Ebert, but he owed a lot to the famous film critic. It was Ebert, and his partner … Continue reading A Life Itself at the Movies
