I'm afraid I didn't post much this week. Just a news item about The Film Society and the Kabuki, and one about Another Local Movie Calendar. Jazz & Silent Films, Castro, Saturday, all day. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Club Foot Orchestra provided many of the best music for silent films in … Continue reading This Week At the Movies

I'm back, and I'm posting again. In fact, I've posted four articles since Tuesday: I'm Back! This Year's San Francisco Film Festival Officially Announced United Artists at the Castro More on the San Francisco International Film Festival I've even got a new calendar online--not as ambitious as the old one, but hopefully still of use. … Continue reading Return of This Week’s Movies

I'm sure there are plenty of great movies playing in the Bay Area this week. Unfortunately, I don't have time to see them, let alone write about them. So no newsletter this week. Hopefully next week.

Cinequest continues and the Irish Film Festival plays its full run this week. See below for comments. Around the Bay. Sparse and utilitarian, Alejandro Adams’ low-key drama gets right to the point, then tells its dysfunctional family story without pyrotechnics. Single dad Wyatt (Steve Voldseth) is so remote and disconnected from his five-year-old son (Connor … Continue reading This Week At the Movies

The big news this week: The Oscars. Several Bay Area theaters will host their own Oscar telecasts, with comic commentary, costume contests, and other frivolity. See Oscars Away from Home for details. Wednesday night the Balboa celebrates its 81st Birthday with a screening of Douglas Fairbanks' The Black Pirate. Not his best work, but fun. … Continue reading This Week At the Movies

Looking for laughs this weekend? The Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum hosts its traditional Mid-Winter Comedy Film Festival Friday through Sunday. The weekend starts off with something that hardly seems traditional in Niles: talkies. Friday night's program consists of short sound comedies starring names normally associated with silents: Buster Keaton, Charlie Chase, Harry Langdon, and … Continue reading This Week At the Movies

I know. Bayflicks keeps changing on you. I've decided to make the newsletter much less formal. I'll simply tell you about stuff I think is worth telling you about. So here goes: IndieFest (AKA, The Tenth Annual San Francisco Independent Film Festival) opens Thursday night as I write this. It plays through the week at … Continue reading New Newsletter

Noir City continues at the Castro over the weekend. I haven't seen any of the films, so I give any specific recommendations. And then IndieFest starts there on Thursday. The Seventh Seal, Pacific Film Archive, Sunday, 2:00. I fell deeply in love with Bergman's religious allegory when I first saw it at the age of … Continue reading A Very Short Weekly Newsletter

Noir City opens Friday night at the Castro and plays through the week (and well into the next one), and that's worth mentioning on its own, even if there isn't much there I've seen or even heard of. But isn't that what makes it special? DOUBLE FEATURE: The Lady Vanishes (1938) & Young and Innocent, … Continue reading Noir City and Other Screenings

Dr. Strangelove, Cerrito, Thursday, 9:15. We like to look back at earlier decades as simpler, less fearful times, but Stanley Kubrick’s "nightmare comedy-- reminds you just how scary things once were. Thank heaven we no longer have idiots like those running the country! It’s also very funny. A benefit for Theater Engage. Notorious, Stanford, Friday … Continue reading Everything Good This Week