Upcoming Movies

LUNAFEST SAN JOSE: women’s films, raising money to fight breast cancer

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LUNAFEST, the traveling film fest to raise money for breast cancer research, comes to San Jose this week with its tag line “Short Films By, For And About Women”.  The 90-minute film program features six short films directed by women.  The event also features dinner, a boutique and breast cancer prevention tips. Doors open at 6 PM on Friday, January 22 at the San Jose Women’s Club.

As usual, this year’s films present something for everyone.  There’s the animated Beach Flags about a young Iranian woman in a beach lifeguard competition. Finding June, about a deaf woman diagnosed with breast cancer, is an exploration of personal communication.  In the Finnish comedy First World Problems, a shopper loses her car in a mall parking lot.

100 percent of all net proceeds are donated to charity.   LUNAFEST San Jose 2016, including the boutique, auctions, raffle, ticket sales and sponsorship will benefit the Breast Cancer Fund, Sempervirens Fund – Lani Luthard Memorial Grove, and the SJWC Charitable Giving Program, which funds local charities including San Jose Day Nursery and Next Door Solutions.

Click here for more information and tickets.

 

Mill Valley Film Fest – see it here first

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John Tururro in MY MOTHER
Margherita Buy and John Turturro in MY MOTHER

The Mill Valley Film Festival always showcases many of the most promising prestige films that are scheduled for release during Award Season. It’s the best opportunity for Bay Area film goers to catch an early look at the Big Movies. Last year’s fest featured an array of Oscar winners and Oscar-nominated films: The Imitation Game, Whiplash, Wild, Foxcatcher, Mr. Turner and Two Days, One Night, along with Force Majeure, which made it on my Best Movies of 2014 list.

Again this year, the film fest is especially rich with Oscar bait:

  • Bridge of Spies – Steven Spielberg’s espionage thriller with Tom Hanks;
  • Carol – fest favorite about lesbian awakening with Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett;
  • Dheepan – the French immigration thriller that won the Palm d’Or at Cannes;
  • The Danish Girl – Eddie Redmayne portrays one of the recipients of gender reassignment surgery;
  • Son of Saul – the Hungarian movie about Auschwitz that stunned critics, both for its intense brilliance and for the discomfort in watching it;
  • Suffragette – Carey Mulligan wins women the vote; and
  • The Assassin – an especially epic Chinese costume epic.

I’m especially looking forward to My Mother from Italy, about a film director who is simultaneously dealing with her dying mother, challenging teenager and hilariously pompous leading man (John Turturro). I’m also eager to see I Smile Back – Sarah Silverman has been getting buzz for a reportedly searing performance as an alcoholic.

Those are the Big Movies, but there’s also a promising assortment of the indies, foreign flicks and documentaries that I usually cover. Here’s the schedule.

The fest runs October 8-18 in Mill Valley, San Rafael and Corte Madera.  Tickets are now available to members and will go on sale to the public on September 19.

Sarah Silverman in I SMILE BACK
Sarah Silverman and Josh Charles in I SMILE BACK

for TRUE DETECTIVE fans

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I loved last year’s True Detective on HBO with Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson – so much that it made my list of the Best Movies of 2014.  McConaughey’s performance was the best on TV last year.

The teaser trailer for 2015 season of True Detective is out (see below).  There’s a whole new cast and story line – but it’s still written by the show’s creator Nic Pizzolatto.  Once again, it’s a great cast:  Colin Farrell, Rachel McAdams, Tyler Stritch (The Grand Seduction and Friday Night Lights), veteran character actor W. Earl Brown and the wonderful Kelly Reilly (Flight, Calvary).  (Vince Vaughn is one of the leads, and hopefully it will be the Clay Pigeons Vince Vaughn instead of the Delivery Man Vince Vaughn.)

HBO will premiere the 2015 season of True Detective on June 21,  The 2014 season is available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from HBO GO.

Cinequest 2015 – festival preview

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CinequestIt’s time to dive into the 2015 version of the San Jose film festival Cinequest running from tomorrow through March 8.  This year’s program looks GREAT.  You can find my festival coverage, including both features and movie recommendations, on my Cinequest page (which you may wish to bookmark).  Follow me on Twitter for the very latest.

Here are my 18 best bets at Cinequest 2015:

  • WILD TALES: the darkly comic Argentine collection of revenge stories. Wild Tales has been a festival hit (Cannes, Telluride, Toronto and Sundance) around the world and was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar.  One of its vignettes features one of my favorite screen actors, Ricardo Darin (the Argentine Joe Mantegna).  See it at Cinequest before it gets to Bay Area art houses on March 6.  Ann Thompson (Thompson on Film) will be receiving a Media Legacy Award at the screening.
  • CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA:   The ever-radiant Juliette Binoche plays an actress now relegated to the older role in her breakthrough play, with her younger role going to Kristen Stewart (All About Eve, anyone?).  And Stewart just became the first American actress to win a César (the French Oscar) for  this performance.
  • ’71:  Everybody says that this thriller about a British soldier trapped overnight in a hostile Northern Ireland neighborhood during the Troubles is pedal-to-the-metal intensity.
  • SLOW WEST:  This offbeat Western with Michael Fassbender won a prize at Sundance.
  • QUEEN AND COUNTRY:  Director John Boorman’s Korean War-Era quasi-sequel to his Hope and Glory.  Boorman (Deliverance) will appear at the screening.  Silicon Valley release on March 6.
  • L’ATALANTE: The 1934 masterpiece of French writer-director Jean Vigo, who died at age 29 soon after its completion.  Richard von Busack, the highly respected film critic for Metro, will receive a Media Legacy Award at the screening.

Here are my pre-festival picks from among the films that I’ve seen:

DRAMA:

  • ANTOINE ET MARIE: A brilliantly constructed French-Canadian drama with two unforgettable characters.
  • THE CENTER: An absorbing and topical American indie drama about the seductiveness of a cult.

COMEDY:

  • LOS HAMSTERS: A biting darkly hilarious Mexican social satire.
  • DIRTY BEAUTIFUL: An American indie comedy that is decidedly NOT a by-the-numbers battle of the sexes.

DOCUMENTARY:

  • ASPIE SEEKS LOVE: A surprisingly sympathetic portrait of a guy looking for love like anyone else, but whose social skills are handicapped by Asberger’s.
  • MEET THE HITLERS: Tracking down real people burdened with the Fuhrer’s name, this successful doc weaves together both light-hearted and very dark story threads.
  • SWEDEN’S COOLEST NATIONAL TEAM: A character-driven take on the sports movie takes us into a Nerd Olympics.

I’ve also gotten tips from insiders about some other very promising films (that I haven’t seen yet):

  • CORN ISLAND: Reportedly transcendent Georgian drama.
  • FOR SOME INEXPLICABLE REASON: Hungarian comedy.
  • GUARD DOG: dark and violent Peruvian thriller. US premiere.
  • MILWAUKEE: US indie sex and relationship comedy. World premiere.
  • THREE WINDOWS AND A HANGING:  Searing Kosovan drama.

Take a look at the program and the passes and tickets. (If you want to support Silicon Valley’s most important cinema event while skipping the lines, the $100 donation for Express Line Access is an awesome deal.) You can download the Festival Guide from this page.

Get ready for CINEQUEST 2015

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CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA
CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA

It’s time to get ready for the 2015 version of the San Jose film festival Cinequest, coming up on February 28 through March 8.  At the media launch, Cinequest CEO and co-founder Halfdan Hussey pronounced himself “totally stoked”.  We all should be stoked because Cinequest 2015 will host artists from 50 countries and present 91 world, North American or US premieres.

This is the 25th anniversary of the festival, but Hussey described Cinequest 2015 as “about today and tomorrow”, referencing both cutting edge cinema and the film technology of the future.

One of the surefire festival hits will be Clouds of Sils Maria, where the ever-radiant Juliette Binoche plays an actress now relegated to the older role in her breakthrough play, with the younger role going to Kristen Stewart (All About Eve, anyone?).  The Twilight series has obscured what a good actress Stewart can be (Into the Wild, Adventureland, The Runaways), and her performance in The Clouds of Sils Maria has been getting raves.

Ann Thompson (Thompson on Film) will be receiving a Media Legacy Award and screening the Argentine revenge drama Wild Tales, which has been a festival hit at Cannes, Telluride, Toronto and Sundance.

Other highlights:

  • Rosario Dawson will appear to receive a Maverick Spirit Award.
  • That award will also go to Deliverance director John Boorman, who will be screening his newest work Queen and Country.
  • Richard von Busack, the highly respected film critic for Metro, will receive a Media Legacy Award and screen L’Atalante, the 1934 masterpiece of French writer-director Jean Vigo, who died at age 29 soon after its completion.

But the real treasure at Cinequest 2015 is likely to be found among the hitherto less well-known films – like last year’s Cinequest jewel Ida, which is high on my list of Best Movies of 2014.

Take a look at the program and the passes and tickets. (If you want to support Silicon Valley’s most important cinema event while skipping the lines, the $100 donation for Express Line Access is an awesome deal.) You can download the Festival Guide from this page.

As usual, I’ll be covering Cinequest rigorously with features and movie recommendations. Follow me on Twitter for the latest.

WILD TALES
WILD TALES

French Cinema Now: an early look at two Big Movies

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CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA
CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA

One of the absolute gems in the Bay Area’s cinema scene is the San Francisco Film Society’s French Cinema Now series.  Every year at French Cinema Now, SFFS presents the best and most interesting movies contemporary French movies.

This year’s offerings include early looks at two Big Movies – as in potential Oscar bait or, at least, art house hits.

  • Two Days, One Night: The latest urgent drama from the Dardennes brothers (The Kid with a Bike, The Son). Their movies always make my annual top ten list – and this one features Marion Cotillard.
  • Clouds of Sils Maria: Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart in an All About Eve-type rivalry, directed by Olivier Assayas (Carlos).  Stewart has gotten great reviews.

Other tempting treats include:

  • Paris Follies: the always compelling actors Isabelle Huppert and Jean-Pierre Darroussin as old marrieds.
  • Love Is the Perfect Crime: a great cast (Mathieu Amalric, Karen Viard, Maïwenn, Sara Forestier) in a sly story of crime and sex.

French Cinema Now is coming up this weekend on November 6-9 at San Francisco’s Vogue Theater:     French Cinema Now tickets and schedule.

Mill Valley Film Fest upcoming

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THE PAST

Here’s a heads up for San Francisco Bay Area (and especially Marin) movie fans.  The Mill Valley Film Festival usually offers an early peek at some prestige fall releases, and that is definitely the case this October.

I think the three most promising films are:

  • The Past: The Artist’s Berenice Bejo won Best Actress at Cannes as a Parisian woman divorcing her Iranian husband in Paris amid an increasingly messy family life.  By the director of Oscar-winning A Separation.
  • All Is Lost with Robert Redford as a man battling impossible odds when something goes horribly wrong on his trans-ocean solo voyage.
  • the historical slavery epic 12 Years a Slave (but the only screening, with director and star, is already sold out).

Other films with lots of buzz include:

  • Nebraska:  Director Alexander Payne follows his Sideways and The Descendants with a black and white indie.  Bruce Dern won Best Actor at Cannes for portraying an addled Montana grump who thinks he’s won a junk mail sweepstakes.  His son drives him to Omaha to claim the nonexistent prize, stopping to see some relatives and have some road trip adventures along the way.   There’s also some buzz about the performance of June Squibb (who acted in Payne’s About Schmidt) as the old man’s wife.
  • Philomena:  Judi Dench stars as an Irish woman seeking the son she was forced to give up for adoption.  Co-stars Steve Coogan in a non-ironic role.
  • Blue is the Warmest Color:  This film, which many critics thought was way too long, nevertheless won the top prize at Cannes. Actresses Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux (Farewell My Queen, Midnight in Paris) are reportedly spectacular in this three-hour love story.  One of the explicit sex scenes takes over twenty minutes (TWENTY MINUTES!).
  • The Rocket:  A boy takes his family across war-scarred Laos to enter a rocket contest.  It looks like the kind of movie that I usually don’t like, but it won major awards at the Berlin and Tribeca film fests.

Eventually, I’ll have descriptions and trailers for all these films on my Movies I’m Looking Forward To.  Scroll down to “Later Fall – Prestige Season”.   The Mill Valley Film Festival will run October 3-13  at the Rafael in San Rafael, the Sequoia in Mill Valley and three other Marin venues.

TCM’s June feast of noir

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Humphrey Bogart in THE MALTESE FALCON (1941)

It’s more than a film fest, it’s a feast of film noir.

This June, Turner Classic Movies’ Friday Night Spotlight will focus on Noir Writers.  The guest programmer and host will be San Francisco’s Eddie Muller, founder and president of the Film Noir Foundation.  The Foundation preserves movies from the traditional noir period that would otherwise be lost.  It also sponsors Noir City, an annual festival of film noir in San Francisco, which often plays newly restored films and movies not available on DVD.  (My favorite part is Noir City’s Thursday evening Bad Girl Night featuring its most memorable femmes fatale.)

Muller (the Czar of Noir) has selected films from the work of noir novelists.  Friday night, he kicks off with films from the novels of Dashiell Hammett: the 1931 and more famous 1941 versions of The Maltese Falcon, plus the 1936 version (Satan Met a Lady) and After the Thin Man and The Glass Key.  (Muller informs us that Hammett pronounced his first name da-SHEEL.)

On June 14, Muller continues with the work of David Goodis, The Burglar, The Burglars, The Unfaithful, Shoot the Piano Player and Nightfall.  (You may have seen Goodis’ Dark Passage with Bogie and Bacall.)

On June 21, we’ll see films from the novels of Jonathan Latimer (Nocturne, They Won’t Believe Me) and James M. Cain (Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice).

TCM and the Czar of Noir wrap up on June 28 with movies from the novels of Cornell Woolrich (The Leopard Man, Deadline at Dawn) and Raymond Chandler (Murder My Sweet, The Big Sleep, Lady in the Lake, Strangers on a Train).

These two movies aren’t part of the Friday night series, but on June 11, TCM features two of the nastiest noirs:  Detour and The Hitchhiker.

Set your DVR and settle in for dramatic shadows, sarcastic banter and guys in fedoras making big mistakes for love, lust and avarice.

Anne Bancroft and Aldo Ray in NIGHTFALL

Coming Up on TV: 3 noir classics

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OUT OF THE PAST

On May 7, Turner Classic Movies is broadcasting three classics of film noir.

You really haven’t sampled film noir if you haven’t seen Out of the Past (1947).  Perhaps the model of a film noir hero, Robert Mitchum plays a guy who is cynical, strong, smart and resourceful – but still a sap for the femme fatale…played by the irresistible Jane Greer.  Greer later reported that she received this guidance from director Jacques Tourneur: “First half of the picture – good girl.  Second half – bad girl.”  Kirk Douglas plays The Bad Guy You Don’t Want to Mess With, emanating a mix of evil and power.  With Out of the Past, Tourneur crafted one of the most dramatically lit and photographed noirs – not one puff of cigarette smoke goes uncelebrated.

THE ASPHALT JUNGLE

In The Asphalt Jungle (1950), the crooks assemble a team and pull off the big heist…and then things begin to go wrong.  There aren’t many noirs with better casting – the crooks include Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Sam Jaffe and James Whitmore.  The 23-year-old Marilyn Monroe plays Calhern’s companion in her first real speaking part.  How noir is it? Even the cop who breaks the case goes to jail.  Directed by the great John Huston.

Every police procedural from 1948 through today’s Law and Order and CSI owes something to the prototypical The Naked City (1948). Tenacious New York City cops solve a murder amid gritty streets and shady characters. Unusual for the time, it was shot on location.   Directed by noir great Jules Dassin, The Naked City won Oscars for black and white cinematography and film editing.

THE ASPHALT JUNGLE

Movies to See Right Now

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The Sapphires

I’m still recommending the absolutely winning The Sapphires, a charmer about Australian Aboriginal teens forming a girl group to entertain troops in the Vietnam War. The other side of the coin is the bleak, but masterful Romanian drama Beyond the Hills.

And I still love two indies on Video on Demand:

  • Letters from the Big Man: a beautifully looking and sounding fable about a prickly woman with a guy and a Bigfoot competing for her affections.
  • Electrick Children: an entirely unique teen coming of age story with fundamentalist Mormon teens in Las Vegas.

The other best choices in theaters:

  • No: Gael Garcia Bernal stars as the regular guy who brainstormed the guerrilla advertising campaign that dethroned Chilean dictator Pinochet.
  • The Incredible Burt Wonderstone: a pleasant comedy and a showcase for Jim Carrey.
  • Side Effects: Steven Soderbergh’s psychological thriller starring Rooney Mara, Jude Law and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
  • Quartet: a pleasant lark of a geezer comedy with four fine performances.

Music fans will enjoy the bio-documentary Beware of Mr. Baker, available on VOD.

On the Road is the faithful but ultimately unsuccessful adaptation of the seminal Jack Kerouac novel, with surprisingly little energy. The HBO movie Phil Spector is really just a freak show.

You may still be able to catch the fine PBS documentary Philip Roth: Unmasked. Roth himself gets lots of screen time to explain his career and his creative process.

I haven’t yet seen the much anticipated The Place Beyond the Pines with Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper, which opens today.  You can read descriptions and view trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

My DVD of the week is the campy 1994 sci fi western Oblivion, which I’m betting is more entertaining than this week’s Hollywood remake.

On April 15, Turner Classic Movies is showing all four of the Clint Eastwood Man with No Name movies:  the Sergio Leone trilogy (For a Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) plus Hang Em High.