I spent Saturday at the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA), watching three movies I'd never seen before. Fritz Lang's Indian Epic The day started with two Fritz Lang action flicks, The Tiger of Eschnapur and The Indian Tomb. These are two movies the way Kill Bill are two movies. It's one story, with the … Continue reading Fritz Lang and David Lynch: Saturday at BAMPFA
IndieFest celebrates films between the cracks
Amongst Bay Area film festivals, SF IndieFest is a hard one to classify. It's not about a genre (documentaries, noir) nor focused on a certain type of person (Jews, Asian Americans), and it's not big and flashy like the red-carpet festivals (SFFilm Fest, Mill Valley). Let's say IndieFest is a festival for films that fell … Continue reading IndieFest celebrates films between the cracks
What’s Screening: January 10 – 16
What's in the Bay Area's best movie theaters this week? Three new movies - two about capital punishment. A farewell to Agnès. Noir by Graham Greene, Charles Laughton, and Leigh Brackett. And comedies from the west, down under, and outer space. But no film festivals (I don't count Sketchfest). New films opening A Clemency, Embarcadero … Continue reading What’s Screening: January 10 – 16
Capital punishment hurts everybody in Clemency
A Drama Written & directed by Chinonye Chukwu How do you comfort the mother of a man about to be executed - especially when your job is to oversee the execution? The answer, inevitably, is "not well." The experience gets worse when the execution, by lethal injection, gets thoroughly botched and the condemned man suffers … Continue reading Capital punishment hurts everybody in Clemency
We need Just Mercy for the innocent
A- Courtroom drama Written by Destin Daniel Cretton & Andrew Lanham, from the book by Bryan Stevenson Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton Can true justice prevail in a racist society? According to the people who made Just Mercy, it can, but it takes an angel - or at least a gifted, well-trained, intelligent, and altruistic … Continue reading We need Just Mercy for the innocent
Movies I’ve Recently Seen: The Two Popes, Dodsworth, Lord of the Flies, & Shane
A bad cold (or maybe the flu) kept me out of movie theaters for the last couple of weeks. I spend a lot of time watching beloved films with their commentary tracks. But I did stream four films I'd never seen before, or hadn't seen in a very long time. A- The Two Popes (2019), … Continue reading Movies I’ve Recently Seen: The Two Popes, Dodsworth, Lord of the Flies, & Shane
What’s Screening: January 3 – 9
This week in Bay Area movie theaters: A Jew disappears in England; previews of two very similar upcoming dramas; shorts from Sundance, and classics by Hitchcock, Varda, and Goddard. Also, a festival preview of foreign Oscar possibilities. Festivals For Your Consideration opens today and closes Thursday. Read my preview New films opening C+ The Song … Continue reading What’s Screening: January 3 – 9
Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, & George Cukor give us a Holiday – thanks to Criterion’s new Blu-ray
The 1938 romantic comedy Holiday doesn't seem quite crazy enough to be called a screwball. The laughs don't pile up the way other such comedies of the period do. But it has something else - a believable romance between intelligent people discussing their lives and their loves, and how they became the people they are. … Continue reading Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, & George Cukor give us a Holiday – thanks to Criterion’s new Blu-ray
My Best Moviegoing Experiences of 2019
I don't do a Top 10 Best Films at the end of the year. After all, Bayflicks is about old films as well as new ones, and because it's also about the theatrical experience. Instead of listing Best Films, I pick my Favorite Moviegoing Experiences. The movies can be new or old. The experience must … Continue reading My Best Moviegoing Experiences of 2019
The Song of Names
C+ DramaWritten by Jeffrey CaineDirected by François Girard Jeffrey Caine and François Girard's new film starts with the runup to a big concert. The crowd have come to see the first major performance of a young violin virtuoso. But the new star doesn't show up. What happened to him? After that mysterious opening, almost everything … Continue reading The Song of Names
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