The Bay Are hosts three film festivals this week, along with a Studio Ghibli retrospective and a great Orson Welles/John Ford/Gregg Toland double bill. Festivals The Oakland International Film Festival closes Saturday The Tiburon International Film Festival opens today and runs for a week and a day. The Green Film Festival opens Thursday It's not … Continue reading What’s Screening: April 8 – 14

This week opens two new weekly series that bring you poetry on Sunday and dark despair on Wednesday. We've also got four film festivals, long-lost Shakespeare, and 70mm. Festivals A whole bunch of small film festivals either just opened or are opening today. Sonoma International Film Festival opened last Wednesday. It closes Sunday USF Human … Continue reading What’s Screening: April 1 – 7

No film festivals this week, but we have Les Blank, Ernst Lubitsch, and Freaks. Promising events A Life Well Spent: 16mm Films of Les Blank, Roxie, Sunday, 2:00 Bay area-based filmmaker Les Blank documented American culture like no other, finding the corners of our society where people came together and enjoyed life. The Roxie will … Continue reading What’s Screening: March 25 – 31

We've got two film festivals this week, both closing Sunday. Also, chances to wallow in James Bond, Muppets, and 35mm exploitation. Festivals CAAMfest continues through Sunday. The small and relatively young Albany Film Festival is the only festsival that I can easily walk to (and, as luck would have it, I can't make it). It … Continue reading What’s Screening: March 18 – 24

Welcome to the new and--I hope--improved Bayflicks newsletter. The old newsletter format became unwieldy, discussing as many as 20 films a week, each with a photo and a paragraph. It was taking up too much of my time and--in the unlikely chance that you read it all--too much of yours. So from here on in, … Continue reading What’s Screening: March 11 – 17

This week's film festivals: The on-going Cinequest continues through this week and beyond. CAAMfest opens Thursday. B The Wave, Embarcadero Center, Shattuck, opens Friday A horrifically deadly tsunami crashes into a popular tourist resort in this Norwegian disaster movie. It starts strong and slow, as the geologist hero (Kristoffer Joner) tries to convince his co-workers … Continue reading What’s Screening: March 4 – 10

The San Francisco's Jewish Film Institute's one-day WinterFest opens and closes Saturday. And for those of you in the south bay, Cinequest opens Tuesday. The Oscars screen Sunday evening. If you want to watch the silly extravaganza with other people in a movie theater, here are your options. (For what it's worth, the Academy is … Continue reading What’s Screening: February 26 – March 3

We have two film festivals this week. Both the SF IndieFest and the Mostly British Film Festival close Thursday. Festival screenings are at the end of this newsletter. A Anomalisa, New Parkway, opens Friday This animated drama about a one-night stand could not possibly have worked with live action. Animation helps us experience the world … Continue reading What’s Screening: February 19 – 25

In festival news, SF IndieFest continues through this week and beyond. And the Mostly British Film Festival opens Thursday. C- Where To Invade Next, Alamo Drafthouse New Mission, Piedmont, California (Berkeley), opens Friday No, Michael Moore is not attacking American imperialism. Instead, he visits the sort of countries we don't go to war with–wealthy democracies … Continue reading What’s Screening: February 12 – 18

Only one festival this week. SF IndieFest opens it's two-week run Thursday. The Roxie's Mad Men Weekend--four films over three days--doesn't quite qualify as a film festival, but it comes close. The films, all made in the 50s and 60s, allegedly influenced Matthew Weiner's television drama. Serena Bramble, author of Mad Men Carousel: The Complete Critical Companion, will … Continue reading What’s Screening: February 5 – 11