What’s Screening: January 12 – 18

~ Lincoln Spector

This week in Bay Area cinemas there’s Andrei Tarkovsky, the Coen Brothers, Stanley Kubrick, Sergio Leone, and a story about the birds (but not Hitchcock’s). But no festivals this week.

New films opening

A The Teachers’ Lounge: (2023), Opera Plaza, check days & times through the week

This exceptional German film follows the problems of a teacher in a public elementary school. It seems like hell. Most of the kids in her class are difficult…and the one brilliant math whiz is the worst. Leonie Benesch gives a great performance as the teacher – you can see her dedication and frustration. She discovers and proves that a staff member has been stealing–and somehow, it’s the teacher, not the staff member, who gets into trouble. It seems that the school is her life; there’s only one scene that’s not on school grounds. One problem: Sometimes the subtitles are white on white.

Theatrical revivals

A+ Stop Making Sense (1984), Lark
֍ Thursday, 5:00pm
֍ Sunday, 7:05pm
֍ Wednesday, 5:30pm

Great films can affect you in different ways. Some make you laugh, cry, or think. But the Talking Heads concert movie, Stop Making Sense, makes you want to jump out of your seat and dance. More than any other concert film I’ve seen, Stop Making Sense is a visual experience. The band is constantly dancing, moving in strange ways that look like nothing you’ve ever seen before. Read my A+ appreciation.

A Soul (2020), Grand Lake, through the week

My children are all grown, and I don’t have to go to every Pixar movie anymore, but I’m glad I saw this one. Soul is one of Pixar’s best, and in many ways one of its most adult. It’s about Jazz, New York, dreams, desires, teaching, the afterlife, why different babies have different personalities, and getting your soul into your body. Jamie Foxx voices the main character, a jazz pianist possibly on the brink of fame. But most important of all, it’s about enjoying life and caring for others. Technically and artistically, it’s damn near perfect. Tina Fey voices a soul without a body.

A Stalker (1979), Roxie, Sunday, 7:30pm

This slow, strange, allegorical fantasy from the great Andrei Tarkovsky gets under your skin. A guide, called a stalker, takes two other men on a journey into a strange place called The Zone. We never find out exactly what it is, and it looks pretty much like the world they already live in – except that The Zone is in color and their home is in black and white. But we learn that The Zone is dangerous, is constantly changing, and that those changes are caused by the emotions of the people who dare to enter it. I’ve only seen Stalker once, but I suspect that each screening will feel very different than the last.

B+ True Grit (2010 version), Balboa, Wednesday, 7:30pm

The Coen Brothers take on the most classic American genre and treat it with surprising reverence and respect. They allow only slices of their wry wit to invade the story, along with some barely PG-13 slices (literally) of their equally distinctive grotesque violence. Forget about Jeff Bridges as the alleged star. This movie belongs to then 14-year-old Hailee Steinfeld, who’s in every scene as a determined youngster willing to undergo any hardship to avenge her father’s death.

B+ Bullitt (1968), Orinda, Wednesday, 6:30pm

Age hasn’t been altogether kind to this once cutting-edge police thriller. It has its pleasures, such as Steve McQueen’s exceptionally cool charisma and the best car chase ever shot on the streets of San Francisco. To my knowledge, McQueen’s single use of the word bullshit marks the first time that word was heard in a Hollywood movie.

B+ The Shining (1980), Balboa, Thursday, 7:30pm

Stephen King’s novel is much better than the movie (and that’s more rare than people think). Stanley Kubrick, brilliant as he was, missed the main point of the story – that the protagonist loves his family, and is a good man struggling with his inner demons. Without that, it’s little more than a sequence of scares (all good scares, but just scares). Kubrick added some surprising and effective touches, but overall, he turned a brilliant novel into a simply very good horror flick. Read my longer article.

B+ Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), Elmwood, Saturday, 11:30pm

You don’t really need me to tell you about this one, do you?

B+ Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), New Mission, Saturday, 12 noon/

After The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Sergio Leone had a much bigger budget for his follow-up western. This time, he could afford Claudia Cardinale, Henry Fonda, Jason Robards, and Charles Bronson in the Clint Eastwood part. Leone even shot part of the film in Monument Valley. The movie starts with what is probably the best opening sequence in western history, followed by a scene where Fonda – the blue-eyed icon of decent America – murders an unarmed young boy in cold blood. With the bigger budget, Leone could create a sense of epic grandeur. But the story, which involves the coming railroad and who owns the land, is something of a mess.

B Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill (2003)
֍ Rafael, Sunday, 4:30pm, Filmmaker & film subject in person!
֍ Roxie, check with Roxie dates and times

This utterly charming documentary follows a good-natured San Francisco slacker who devotes his life to caring for a flock of once-domesticated, now feral parrots in the titular neighborhood. Loose and pleasant, the movie opens a window into the life of an unusual human being. But filmmaker Judy Irving never gets very deep. The story catches much of what is wonderful about the Bay Area and leaves you feeling good all over.

B Donnie Darko (2001) 4-Star, Friday, 7:00pm

MOViES FOR MANiACS w/James DUVAL IN – PERSON. How many alienated-teenager-in-suburbia-time-travel-science-fantasy comedies can you name? Okay – there’s Back to the Future and its sequels. Add the adjectives horrific and surreal to that description, and Donnie Darko stands alone. And how many alienated teenagers must deal with a slick self-help guru and a six-foot rabbit named Frank (think Harvey, only vicious). It’s not entirely clear what’s going on in this strange movie, but that just adds to the fun.

C+ Dark Passage (1947), Balboa, Sunday & 7:00pm
Not all Bogart/Becall movies are masterpieces. Consider this one: First, you don’t see Bogart’s face in the first 37 minutes, and it’s more than an hour before we see all of it. He’s been wrongfully convicted of murdering his wife, and Bogie changes his face through plastic surgery.

Continuing engagements

Movies I can’t review

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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.

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