I spent Saturday at the Castro, where I caught two double bills in the Noir City festival. The theme this year is "'Til death do us part," examining the thin line between marriage and murder. It was a lot of fun. All of the films were in 35mm, and for the most part were excellent … Continue reading Joan Fontaine, Poison, Marriage, and Murder: Saturday at Noir City
Month: January 2015
What’s Screening: January 16 – 22
The holiday season film festival drought is officially over. Noir City opens tonight the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival Winterfest offers a six-film, one-day marathon Saturday SF Sketchfest (not really a film festival) starts Thursday. C Appropriate Behavior, , Roxie, opens Friday. There’s nothing really wrong with Desiree Akhavan’s tale about a twenty-something, bisexual, Iranian … Continue reading What’s Screening: January 16 – 22
Bisexual Iranian Immigrant Comedy Not Great–But Appropriate
C Comedy Written and directed by Desiree Akhavan There's nothing really wrong with Desiree Akhavan's autobiographical tale about a twenty-something woman trying to find her place--professionally but mostly romantically and sexually--in Brooklyn. But there's nothing really right about it, either. The concept is very much like Girls, but the execution lacks the HBO series' humor … Continue reading Bisexual Iranian Immigrant Comedy Not Great–But Appropriate
Even More Upcoming Film Festivals
On Thursday, I told you about the upcoming Noir City and SF Sketchfest festivals. I also promised to tell you about some other upcoming festivals. Here they are: Berlin & Beyond, January 29 - February 3 The Bay Area's German language festival returns with a modest selection of movies from Germany, Austria, and the German-speaking … Continue reading Even More Upcoming Film Festivals
What’s Screening: January 9 – 15
Still no film festivals, but that will change next week. B+ Agnes Varda: From Here To There, Roxie, Friday through Sunday. The concept is simple: Legendary filmmaker Agnès Varda travels the world, visiting old friends and making new ones. But this is more than just a five-part, 225-minute home movie. The friends she visits are … Continue reading What’s Screening: January 9 – 15
Upcoming Film Festivals
The end-of-the-year film festival drought is coming to an end. New festivals are on the way. Here's two that we can look forward to in the coming weeks: Noir City, January 16 - 25 Film noir festivals have become a dime a dozen, but Eddie Mueller's two-week wallow in the dark side of escapist cinema … Continue reading Upcoming Film Festivals
My Thoughts on The Imitation Game
The Imitation Game takes considerable liberties in dramatizing the life of Alan Turing. But the result is an effective, entertaining, and sympathetic tragedy about a man who played important roles in both winning World War II and in laying the groundwork for computer technology, and who was hounded to suicide by an intolerant society. The basic … Continue reading My Thoughts on The Imitation Game
What’s Screening: January 2 – 8
No festivals this week. In fact, there's almost nothing coming out this week that I can tell you about. Just these two: B Tillie's Punctured Romance, Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum, Saturday, 7:30. This reasonably funny comedy from 1914 packs considerable historic interest. To my knowledge, it's the first American feature-length comedy. It was Marie … Continue reading What’s Screening: January 2 – 8
My top 12 movie-going experiences of 2014
As usual, I didn't see anywhere near as many movies last year as I would have liked. But when it came time to make my list of best movie-going experiences, I had a tough time getting it down to 10. So I settled for 12. After all, what does the number of fingers I have … Continue reading My top 12 movie-going experiences of 2014
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