The Price of Sugar, Opera Plaza and Shattuck, opening Friday. Billy Haney’s expose of the Dominican Republic’s sugar industry takes us into a world where illegal immigrants from Haiti effectively become slaves. Kept behind barbed wire and controlled by armed guards, they’re imprisoned on the plantation and paid in vouchers redeemable only at the company … Continue reading The Price of My Recommendations and Warnings

Presenting my first weekly Recommendations & Warnings Report created without benefit of weekly schedules. New rule: I will no longer list films in wide release--even art-house wide release. This list will only include calendar screenings (a day to a week in one theater) very limited releases playing in only a couple of theaters. Valley of … Continue reading The Valley of This Week’s Recommendations and Warnings

The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan live at the Newport Folk Festival 1963--1965, Rafael, Friday through Sunday. There have been plenty of Bob Dylan documentaries, and several concert film where Bob Dylan made an appearance, but not nearly enough films that simply catch him in performance. A record of Dylan's performances at the … Continue reading The Other Side of Spiderman: This Weeks Recommendations and Warnings

Manufacturing Dissent, Roxie, opening Friday. One expects a documentary critical of Michael Moore to be a right-wing polemic, but narrator/co-director Debbie Melnyk starts Manufacturing Dissent by telling us that she admires Moore and his politics. Yet, although she gives plenty of time to Moore's defenders, the film leaves the impression that there isn't much to … Continue reading Manufacturing Intent: This Week’s Recommendations and Warnings

Matinee, Castro, Saturday, 12:00 noon. On one level, Matinee works as a nostalgic comedy, allowing us to laugh at the bad movies and outrageous attitudes of the early 1960's. But there's something deeper at work here. Writer Charles S. Haas and director Joe Dante use the premise of a cheap horror film's small-town preview during … Continue reading Found Footage and the End of the World

I'm separating the Jewish Film Festival listings from everything else on this week's list. So first: Jewish Film Festival: My Mexican Shivah, Castro, Monday, 6:45. Death brings families together"“even families that should probably remain apart. In Alejandro Springall's mildly comic drama (Do we call these things a dramedy or a coma?), the death of the … Continue reading This Week’s Movies–Jewish and Goyish