There will be no August

~ Lincoln Spector

You’ve already seen Oppenheimer and Barbie, of course. But what else will you see in theaters in the new month?

I can’t tell you much about the movies playing in theaters this month. For personal reasons, I’m taking the month of August off. But I can give you some suggestions:

I didn’t have the time to list the days and times of the films. Click the title of a movie, and you’ll get the needed information.

Berkeley Art Museum Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA)

BAMPFA is running several enjoyable series this month. Best of all, there’s Preston Sturges: More Than Comedy. Sturges was the great comic auteur of the 1940s. The Archive will screen such comedy masterpieces as Christmas in July, The Palm Beach Story, Hail the Conquering Hero, and Sullivan’s Travels.


Preston Sturges’ The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek

Sturges seems tame compared to Luis Buñuel’s Magnificent Weapon. His comedy (if it is comedy), burns deep with a desire to destroy civilization. Some of his films are The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The Phantom of Liberty and That Obscure Object of Desire.

Animation changed cinema in this century, with such films as Ratatouille, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Spirited Away, Finding Nemo, My Life as a Zucchini, The Incredibles, and adult fare like Waltz with Bashir and Persepolis. Some of those films will be screened free outdoors.

The 4-Star, the Balboa, and the Vogue

CinemaSF runs three theaters in San Francisco. Along with new movies, they show a lot of oldies.


Blood Simple at the 4-Star

In August these three theaters will play such works as Blood Simple, A Streetcar Named Desire, Tampopo, La Dolce Vita, The Wicker Man,Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, The Howling,  Ghost in the Shell, Tampopo, Repo Man, The Big Lebowski. And for Louis Armstrong’s birthday, there is a screening of High Society along with live music by The Edelman Family Band.

The Roxie

This theater has been a movie theater, and a repertory cinema, for a very long time. In August, the theater will screen Midnight Cowboy, Twilight, Lost Highway, Eraserhead, Wise Blood, and more.

See you in September.

Published by Lincoln Spector

Lincoln Spector writes about cinema, technology, and cinema technology. From 1986 through 2008, he wrote Gigglebytes, the first technology-oriented humor column. From 1977 through 2016, he wrote PC World's Answer Line column and blog.