I really wish the Pacific Film Archive allowed eating. When you go to two movies, the first starting at 5:00, hunger can become a problem. And yet I managed it Sunday afternoon/evening. I saw two very different movies, both by filmmakers I respect. Both were in scope, and presented in 35mm prints. Other than that, … Continue reading Strauss, Powell, Leone, and Eastwood: Sunday evening at the Pacific Film Archive
Category: Comedy
Café Society and the Woody Allen Problem
My wife and I saw Café Society Saturday night. We both enjoyed it quite a bit. Of course, these days, whenever you watch a Woody Allen film, part of the problem is that it's a Woody Allen film. More on that later. Café Society is an entertaining but unsubstantial romantic (and unromantic) comedy set in … Continue reading Café Society and the Woody Allen Problem
Love, romance, and a whole lot of problems bubble up in The Intervention
B+ Comedy-drama, but mostly drama Written and directed by Clea DuVall All romantic relationships have problems, and those problems provide fodder for this very funny relationship drama (or maybe it's a very serious comedy). But according to Annie (Melanie Lynskey), only one couple is supposed to have problems here, and everyone else is supposed to … Continue reading Love, romance, and a whole lot of problems bubble up in The Intervention
The Phantom Boy doesn’t quite come together
C+ Animated family-oriented fantasy crime thriller Written by Alain Gagnol Directed by Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli Eleven-year-old Leo is very sick. He's in the hospital, will be for months, and he may not survive. But he has a superpower. His spirit can leave his body, fly through walls, and see and hear everything around … Continue reading The Phantom Boy doesn’t quite come together
A+ List: The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek
Has there ever been an ingénue with a more perfectly comical name than Trudy Kockenlocker? Or a code-era Hollywood movie that so deftly outwitted the censors of its time? There are funnier movies than The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, but not many, and none this funny that flew in the face of traditional morality with … Continue reading A+ List: The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek
A+ List: The world ends with a bang, a whimper, and a lot of laughs in Criterion’s Blu-ray of Dr. Strangelove
Stanley Kubrick's only out-and-out comedy, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, manages to terrify the audience, hold them in suspense, and trick them into rooting for people about to cause Armageddon, all the while generating side-splitting laughter. As the darkest of dark comedies, Dr. Strangelove earns its place … Continue reading A+ List: The world ends with a bang, a whimper, and a lot of laughs in Criterion’s Blu-ray of Dr. Strangelove
The New Buster Keaton Shorts Collection on Blu-ray
How can anyone describe the beauty, grace, and breathtaking hilarity of Buster Keaton in his silent film prime? An actor, an acrobat, and a brilliant filmmaker, he spent the 1920s making some of the funniest and technically sophisticated comedies ever preserved on film. Since I can't describe him, here's a highlight reel of some of … Continue reading The New Buster Keaton Shorts Collection on Blu-ray
Friday at the PFA
I caught two very different films, from two very different series, at the Pacific Film Archive Friday night. Both films were shown without an introduction. Bachelor's Affairs This was the second screening of the UCLA Festival of Preservation 2016 series, and the first in that series that I was able to attend. Before the feature, … Continue reading Friday at the PFA
Ascerbic comedy Jane Austin in Love & Friendship
A Period comedy Written by Whit Stillman, based on Jane Austen's novella, Lady Susan Directed by Whit Stillman Pretty much everything is played for laughs in this adaptation of one of Jane Austen's least known works. Nowhere near as romantic as most Austen adaptations, it centers on a manipulative horror of a human being--truly a … Continue reading Ascerbic comedy Jane Austin in Love & Friendship
New Zealand comedy & the horrors of war: Sunday at SFIFF
Passover kept me away from the movies on Friday and Saturday, so Sunday became my first regular day at this year's San Francisco International Film Festival. Here's what I saw: B Hunt for the Wilderpeople I caught this one at the New Mission's theater 5. The auditorium is short and wide; not the best configuration … Continue reading New Zealand comedy & the horrors of war: Sunday at SFIFF
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