It’s time for this year’s San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM), which opens tomorrow, April 9, and runs through April 18. This year, you can ATTEND AT HOME, so make the pandemic work for you and stream these movies. Here’s my first look at the 2021 SFFILM. Today or tomorrow, I’ll be posting recommendations of three very special indies.
ON VIDEO
- Nomadland: refusing to be defeated. THE YEAR’S BEST MOVIE. Hulu.
- The Father: as reality shifts. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play.
- Jumbo: a girl and her ride. Laemmle.
- Minari: who gets to decide on a family’s dream? Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play.
- Sound of Metal: Seeking anything but stillness. Amazon (included with Prime).
- Black Bear: Ever surprising. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play
- Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You: Wiser and still vital. AppleTV.
- Mayor: potholes and tear gas, all in a day’s work. Roxie.
- MLK/FBI: about America then and about America today. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
- Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer: a good man tracks down evil. Netflix.
- Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom: searing, with an electric performance. Netflix.
- The Personal History of David Copperfield: Dickins alive, at last. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
- Another Round: Humanity buzzed. Amazon.
- Mank: biting the hand. Netflix.
- One Night in Miami: four icons share one pivotal moment. Amazon.
- Martin Eden: Jack London in an art film. Laemmle.
- Ammonite: When the slow burn is a dud. Amazon.
ON TV
On April 12, Turner Classic Movies presents one of the greatest ever courtroom dramas, Stanley Kramer’s Inherit the Wind from 1960. The story is taken from the real-life Scopes Monkey Trial in 1925, so it has elements of the culture wars and politics that resonate today. Spencer Tracy and Fredric March are superb as the warring thought-leaders (based on Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan).
