In Festival news, Cinema by the Bay continues through Monday, while Silicon Valley Jewish Film Festival just keeps going. Not Necessarily Noir II opens today (Friday) and runs through Tuesday. The 3rd i South Asian Film Festival opens its five-day run on Wednesday. On Thursday, the Animation Festival opens. Winchester '73, Stanford, Wednesday through next … Continue reading What’s Screening: November 4 – 10

The United Nations Association Film Festival wraps Sunday. French Cinema Now continues through Wednesday, and Silicon Valley Jewish Film Festival keeps going through this week and beyond.. Cinema by the Bay opens Thursday. And, of course, there are a lot of Halloween events this week. I’ve placed them at the end of this newsletter. B+ … Continue reading What’s Screening: October 28–November 3

A lot of festivals going on. Berlin & Beyond continues through Wednesday, and Docfest continues through the end of the week. Both the Children's Film Festival and the Petaluma Film Festival open Friday and run through the weekend. United Nations Association Film Festival also opens Friday, but continues through the end of the month. French … Continue reading What’s Screening: October 21 – 27

Do you ever get the feeling that the Bay Area has too many film festivals? Neither do I, except when I try to cover them in any meaningful way for this blog. So I’ll just let you know that they’re happening: The Mill Valley Film Festival is still running, although it closes Sunday. Both the … Continue reading What’s Screening: October 14 – 20

The Mill Valley Film Festival continues through this week and beyond. My festival reviews are at the end of this newsletter. A+ The Third Man, Castro, Sunday. Classic film noir with an international flavor. An American pulp novelist (Joseph Cotten) arrives in impoverished, divided post-war Vienna to meet up with an old friend who has … Continue reading What’s Screening: October 7 – 13

The Berkeley Video and Film Festival opens Friday and runs through Sunday. The much bigger Mill Valley Film Festival opens Thursday. A The Mill and the Cross, Embarcadero, Shattuck, opens Friday. Painting with the wide palette that 21st century cinema allows, Lech Majewski creates a masterwork about Bruegel creating one of his masterworks, The Way … Continue reading What’s Screening: September 30–October 6

The Irish Film Festival, the Latino Film Festival, and Hong Kong Cinema all continue through Sunday. B+ Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975, Embarcadero, Shattuck, Piedmont, opens Friday. The nature of the civil rights movement changed dramatically in the mid-to-late 1960’s, and this American/Swedish documentary tracks the black power movement from Stokely Carmichael’s heyday until heroin ravaged … Continue reading What’s Screening: September 23 – 29

The Santa Rosa International Film Festival continues through Tuesday.  From Britain with Love continues at the Rafael through Sunday. The Irish Film Festival opens Thursday. B- Connected: An Autoblogography about Love, Death and Technology, Embarcadero, Shattuck,opens Friday. Tiffany Shlain had Tree-of-Life-level ambitions for her documentary about life, human evolution, networking, her father’s terminal cancer, and … Continue reading What’s Screening: September 16 – 22

The Brainwash Movie Festival runs tonight and Saturday night. The Iranian Film Festival runs Saturday and Sunday.  From Britain with Love just keeps going at the Rafael. And the Santa Rosa International opens Wednesday. B+ Shaolin, 4-Star, opens Friday. The Buddhist monks in Benny Chan’s new period piece hate bloodshed, but they still get to … Continue reading What’s Screening: September 9 – 15

The very unusual Brainwash Movie Festival starts Saturday night, then doesn’t come back until next week. From Britain with Love continues at the Rafael. It’s not really a festival, but the Castro is running a week-long Cary Grant celebration. I’m discussing four of those double bills, which I’m moving to the end of this newsletter. … Continue reading What’s Screening: September 2 – 8