I've heard a lot of good things lately about Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, a small chain of movie theaters that screen independent and Hollywood fare, classics, and cult movies. The chain has a reputation for first-class projection, excellent food, a strictly enforced no-talking or texting policy, and (as the name Drafthouse suggests) good beer. I've been … Continue reading A trip around the San Francisco’s newly-restored New Mission Theater, to be run by Alamo Drafthouse
Month: December 2015
Hitchcock/Truffaut: From film to book to film
B+ Documentary Directed by Kent Jones We start with narrative, fiction film--not one film, but the body of work from one of cinema's great masters. Then a brilliant young filmmaker, influenced by the master, turns that body of work into a book--a study of filmmaking. It becomes a classic. Decades later, long after both filmmakers … Continue reading Hitchcock/Truffaut: From film to book to film
A+ List: It’s a Wonderful Life
A lot of people hate Frank Capra's most famous film, It's a Wonderful Life. They find it cloying, manipulative, and unbearably sentimental. After all, it finishes with what's probably the happiest happy ending in the history of Hollywood happy endings. But I disagree. Yes, that ending lays on the Christmas cheer and milk of human … Continue reading A+ List: It’s a Wonderful Life
My Saturday: A whole lot of silent films at the Castro
I spent this Saturday at the Castro, where the San Francisco Silent Film Festival ran a one-day festival called--appropriately enough--A Day of Silents. They showed five programs, each with live musical accompaniment. The Black Pirate The festival got off to a slow start due to technical problems. The first movie, The Black Pirate, started more … Continue reading My Saturday: A whole lot of silent films at the Castro
What’s Screening: December 4 – 10
Only one festival this week, and it's only a one-day festival: A Day of Silents. I plan to be there. A Janis: Little Girl Blue, Rafael, Roxie, opens Friday Janis Joplin's voice seemed to come out of nowhere. But in reality, it came out of the pain and joy and despair and sexuality of a … Continue reading What’s Screening: December 4 – 10
Too much history in The Girl King
B Historical drama Written by Michel Marc Bouchard Directed by Mika Kaurismäki Few screenwriters can effectively boil down a monarch's career into 106 minutes. To do it right, you have to decide on what is important, create composite characters, and rearrange the order of events. In other words, you have to turn fact into fiction. … Continue reading Too much history in The Girl King
New Janis Joplin doc captures a little piece of her heart
A Music documentary Written and Directed by Amy Berg I'm giving Janis: Little Girl Blue an A, but I'm not sure if I'm praising filmmaker Amy Berg or the subject of her documentary, Janis Joplin. I think it's a little of both. If nothing else, Berg should be praised for concentrating on a great artistic and … Continue reading New Janis Joplin doc captures a little piece of her heart
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