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HOLEHEAD 2015: OPENING NIGHT—NINA FOREVER (2015)
The 12th edition of Another Hole in the Head ("Holehead") kicks off Friday night, November 6, 2015, courting the morbid, the sordid, and the gleefully dark with the Bay Area premiere of Nina Forever...
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WINTER ON FIRE: UKRAINE'S FIGHT FOR FREEDOM (2015)—Q&A With Evgeny Afineevsky
Netflix appears to be cornering the market on documentaries chronicling people's revolutions around the globe. Following up on Jehane Noujaim's The Square (2013)—which took us into the heart of the...
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HOLEHEAD 2015—FAUX PAWS (2013)
When we first see Brian (Brian Wimer) pacing in his cell, nervously trying on one outfit after the other, we clue in pretty quickly that he's gay, and shortly thereafter—in dialogue with his...
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THEEB (2014)
Winner of the Orizzonti (Horizon) Award for Best Director at the 2014 Venice Film Festival, and Jordan's Official Selection for the Academy Award® for Best Foreign Language Film, Naji Abu Nowar's...
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FCN 2015—MICHAEL HAWLEY ANTICIPATES THE LINE-UP
The San Francisco Film Society (SFFS) concludes its ambitious 2015 Fall Season this weekend with French Cinema Now, a four-day, 11-film mini-fest whose line-up ranges from Cannes champions to...
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ADDAMS' FAMILY VALUES (1993)—The Evening Class Interview With Joshua Grannell
In recent years San Francisco has seen dramatic shifts in its filmic landscape. First we saw the death of so many repertory houses as audiences shifted to flashier cineplexes. Then we watched the...
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BLOOD IN THE SNOW 2015—WHITE RAVEN (2015)
Shane Twerdun and Andrew Dunbar are no strangers to Canadian independent film. Twerdun has been working behind camera on sound and electrical for short films since at least 2006, as cinematographer...
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45 YEARS (2015)—An Evening Class Question For Andrew Haigh
Andrew Haigh's 45 Years (2015) is misleadingly calm in its early scenes as it chronicles Geoff and Kate Mercer (Tom Courtenay and Charlotte Rampling) in the week before their 45th wedding anniversary....
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SFSFF—MICHAEL HAWLEY PREVIEWS A DAY OF SILENTS
The San Francisco Silent Film Festival (SFSFF) takes command of the Castro Theatre this Saturday for "A Day of Silents", a one-day, all-day autumn adjunct to the festival's main event held each spring....
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SPOTLIGHT (2015)—An Evening Class Question For Tom McCarthy
How does one make journalism cinematic? Tom McCarthy's Spotlight (2015), along with James Vanderbilt's Truth (2015), are two efforts that have creatively tackled that challenge this year. Both explore...
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THUNDERCRACK! (1975)—"Lust For Ecstasy" by Johnny Ray Huston
On Tuesday, December 8, 2015, Synapse Films releases the 40-year anniversary DVD / Blu-Ray edition of the restored Directors Cut of Curt McDowell's Thundercrack! (1975), the now legendary art horror...
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THUNDERCRACK! (1975)—The Evening Class Interview With Joshua Grannell (aka...
On Tuesday, December 8, 2015, Synapse Films releases the 40-year anniversary DVD / Blu-Ray edition of the restored Directors Cut of Curt McDowell's Thundercrack! (1975), the now legendary art horror...
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ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE / SAN FRANCISCO—The Evening Class Interview With Tim League...
Photo: Thomas HawkEverything old is new again. As Ross Melnick has synopsized at Cinema Treasures: "Built in 1916 and originally designed by the Reid Brothers, the over 2,000-seat movie palace was...
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SON OF SAUL (SAUL FIA, 2015)—The Evening Class Interview With László Nemes &...
Photo: Andrea ChaseWinner of the 2015 Cannes Film Festival's Grand Prize, as well as the FIPRESCI Prize, the François Chalais Award, and the Vulcain Prize for technical artistry, as well as being...
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WE COME AS FRIENDS (2014)—An Evening Class Question for Hubert Sauper
I first watched Hubert Sauper's We Come As Friends (2014) at the 2014 edition of the San Francisco International Film Festival, where Curtis Woloschuk synopsized in his program capsule: "South Sudan...
View ArticleBELIEVE! THE FESTIVAL UNDERBELLY OF SEASONAL CINEMA—By Bruce Fletcher
'Twas the week before Christmas and all through the town,Seasonal classics are playing, both upstairs and down.We re-watch them all yearly (on big screens and small),Mesmerized by our favorites,...
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BEST HORROR MOVIE OF THE YEAR: WE ARE STILL HERE (2015)—The Evening Class...
I could make a list this "Listmas" season. I could rattle off my top ten, or my top five. But why go through all that when—in my estimation—there so clearly is a top contender in this year's clutch of...
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A CHRISTMAS OBITUARY: LAURA'S DEAD—BY MARC HUESTIS
For as much merriment as the Christmas season promises, the holidays prove melancholic for many, either for lack or for the awareness of what others lack. Songs like Joni Mitchell's "River" have...
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LISTS—10 FAVORITE CONVERSATIONS OF 2015
In retrospect, 2015 has been the year of my cinephilic recovery after 2014, which was one of the worst years of my life. The death of my beloved sister Barbara and a threatening HIV spike hindered my...
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PSIFF 2016—A WAR (2015): Q&A With Tobias Lindholm
[Warning: This write-up contains spoilers.]Danish filmmaker Tobias Lindholm is a contemporary master of suspense, both in his screenplays, which include The Hunt (Jagten, 2012)—brought to the screen by...
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