C+ DramaWritten by Jeffrey CaineDirected by François Girard Jeffrey Caine and François Girard's new film starts with the runup to a big concert. The crowd have come to see the first major performance of a young violin virtuoso. But the new star doesn't show up. What happened to him? After that mysterious opening, almost everything … Continue reading The Song of Names
Month: December 2019
All Foreign Films – even the noir: The first Bay Area film festivals of 2020
What do you want? Foreign films with subtitles? Foreign crime movies, mostly with subtitles. How about foreign films without subtitles? That's what we get in three of the first film festivals of 2020. For Your Consideration Rafael, January 3 - 9 The Best Foreign Language Film Oscar is now called Best International Film. But it … Continue reading All Foreign Films – even the noir: The first Bay Area film festivals of 2020
What’s Screening: December 27 – January 2
How can you close 2019 and open 2020 in Bay Area movie theaters? The Lark has a major New Year's Eve Party, including a movie. But there's a whole week of good films, including works by Paul Thomas Anderson, Alfred Hitchcock, Louis Malle, Harold Lloyd, Ernst Lubitsch, Agnès Varda, and more. New Year's Eve Events … Continue reading What’s Screening: December 27 – January 2
New Thoughts on Fiddler on the Roof
How do Jews spend Christmas afternoon? This year, my wife and I attended the New Parkway's annual screening of Fiddler on the Roof. It was my third experience with the film (although my first at the Parkway), and it gets better every time. When I first saw the last of the big Hollywood roadshows, at … Continue reading New Thoughts on Fiddler on the Roof
The Last of Star Wars
For the first time in most of my adult lifetime, I don't have another Star Wars movie in my future. That doesn't bother me. I'm glad the story is finished. I just hope Disney doesn't decide to do a fourth trilogy; which they'll probably do just for the money. I have seen every Star Wars … Continue reading The Last of Star Wars
What’s Screening: December 20 – 26
This week in Bay Area movie theaters (aside from the final Star Wars flick): Agnès Varda says her goodbye. Bruce Willis and Gene Hackman go after bad guys. Sidney Lumet opens his big-screen career and Ingmar Berman closes his. You can even spend Christmas watching Fiddler on the Roof. And speaking of that happy holiday, … Continue reading What’s Screening: December 20 – 26
Miyazaki Mania: Another festival in 2019
Last month, I told you that the Another Hole in the Head Film Festival would be the last Bay Area film festival of 2019. I was wrong. Just this afternoon, I discovered another one. Five days after the Hole in the Head got plugged, Miyazaki Mania opens Friday and runs through Sunday at the Roxie. … Continue reading Miyazaki Mania: Another festival in 2019
Movies I’ve Recently Seen: He Ran All the Way, Once Upon a Time in the West, & The Aeronauts
I'm actually finding time to see movies again. A He Ran All the Way (1951), Criterion Channel I never heard of this short, cheap crime thriller until Saturday evening, and it blew me away. A violent robbery goes wrong, and a guard is dead. The killer (John Garfield) finds himself in the apartment of a very … Continue reading Movies I’ve Recently Seen: He Ran All the Way, Once Upon a Time in the West, & The Aeronauts
What’s Screening: December 13 – 19
Frank Capra's masterpiece. Cagney and Bogart. The movie that made Terry Gilliam famous and the one that created the word gaslighting. The creepy world of medieval Christianity. And remember, the family that runs an ambulance together struggles to make a living. All that and more on Bay Area movie screens this week. Festivals The last … Continue reading What’s Screening: December 13 – 19
Movies I’ve Recently Seen: Dark Waters, Summer Stock, & High Anxiety
I see a lot of films at festivals - always with a press pass. I screen movies before they're opened so I can review them. But I also see pictures like everyone else; buying a ticket or streaming at home. If I see the film that way, and have never written about before, it goes … Continue reading Movies I’ve Recently Seen: Dark Waters, Summer Stock, & High Anxiety
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