Okay, the San Francisco International Film Festival is over for the year. But today (Friday), the Roxie opens its annual festival of Noir, often crossed with other genres,  I Wake Up Dreaming. And the Playground Film Festival continues at various locations. And then there are these: A+ Powell & Pressburger Technicolor Double Bill: The Red … Continue reading What’s Screening: May 10 – 16

The San Francisco International Film Festival and the Playground Film Festival continue through the week. You'll find my SFIFF recommendations and warnings at the bottom of this newsletter. A The Last Picture Show, Castro, Friday. This film put director Peter Bogdanovich on the map (as well as Jeff Bridges and Cybill Shepherd), and he never … Continue reading What’s Screening: May 3 – 9

The big one…well, one of the two big ones…opens Thursday: the San Francisco International Film Festival. And although it's not officially a festival, the Lark will screen four classics in 4K digital this week . I discuss three of them below. (I haven't seen the fourth, Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion.) A- Blancanieves, Embarcadero, … Continue reading What’s Screening: April 19 – 25

We've got two international festivals running in the North Bay right now. Sonoma ends Sunday, while Tiburon's festival continues through the week. A Best of Looney Tunes Cartoons, Sebastiani Theatre, Saturday, 9:30am. For much of the mid 20th century, Warner Brothers' cartoon division ran wild, making some of funniest and cleverest seven-minute shorts ever drawn. … Continue reading What’s Screening: April 12 – 18

The Oakland International Film Festival, which I failed to list here last week, continues through Sunday. The Sonoma International Film Festival opens Wednesday, then the Tiburon International Film Festival opens Thursday. A+ Seven Samurai, Alameda, Tuesday and Wednesday. If you think all action movies are mindless escapism, you need to set aside 3½ hours for … Continue reading What’s Screening: April 5 – 11

The Food and Farm Film Festival opens today and runs through Sunday. B+ Don’t Stop Believin’, New Parkway, opens Friday. I’m not a Journey fan, but this music documentary made me a fan of the band’s new lead singer, Arnel Pineda. He’s charismatic, energetic, down-to-earth, and funny. He also has a great set of pipes.Ramona … Continue reading What’s Screening: March 29 – April 4

CAAMFest continues through Monday. And that's the only festival this week. B+ On the Road, Embarcadero, Shattuck, Aquarius, Rafael, opens Friday. Jose Rivera and Walter Salles came maddeningly close to making a great film out of Jack Kerouac’s highly-regarded, biographical  novel. The sense of time and place are letter-perfect. The characters are rich, surprising, believable, … Continue reading What’s Screening: March 22 – 28

Only one festival going on this week: CAAMFest, formerly known as the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. It's already going, and continues through  the week and beyond. B+ Don't Stop Beleivin', Kabuki, opens Friday. I’m not a Journey fan, but this music documentary made me a fan of the band’s new lead singer, … Continue reading What’s Screening: March 15 – 21

In festival news, Cinequest continues through Sunday. Rendez-vous with French Cinema opens today and runs through the week. And CAAMFest, formerly known as the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, opens Thursday. Also, there's so much Hitchcock going on this week that I've moved all of his films to the end of the newsletter. … Continue reading What’s Screening: March 8 – 14