AltWeeklies Wire
Joyous Bluesnew
New doc spotlights the musical wanderings of Arhoolie Records founder Chris Strachwitz.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Nicole Gluckstern |
09-22-2014 |
Profiles & Interviews
Bee True: the documentaries of Berlin and Beyondnew
Three German-language documentaries (More Than Honey, Miles and War, and Redemption Impossible) stand out in San Francisco's annual Berlin and Beyond film festival.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Nicole Gluckstern |
01-17-2014 |
Movies
This Ain't a Wrapnew
This Ain't California, an unexpectedly controversial film about East German skaters, challenges the establishment in more ways than one.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Nicole Gluckstern |
12-28-2012 |
Movies
Killer-Nature Flick 'The Canyon' Inadvertently Advocates Staycationsnew
A first feature for director Richard Harrah and writer Steve Allrich, The Canyon falls firmly within that vacation-from-hell subgenre recently capped by the very clever, funny, and fairly freaky A Perfect Getaway. (None of which adjectives apply here, alas.)
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Dennis Harvey |
10-28-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: Richard Harrah, The Canyon
The Notorious Subject of 'Bronson' Inspires a Star-Making Performancenew
Bronson is utterly revved up in a way that's showy but not at all dumbed-down. Tom Hardy's prankster-rageaholic portrayal emerges amid several flavors: ironic Pulchinella à la contemporary music-theater sensation Anthony Newley; Tom of Finland bad-muscle-daddy fantasy; and adrenaline exercise of mainstreamed, po-mo directorial testosterone.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Dennis Harvey |
10-21-2009 |
Reviews
Inconvenient Truths Abound in Eco-Docs 'The Age of Stupid' and 'No Impact Man'new
So then, do the canvas bags, travel mugs, energy-saving appliances, clotheslines, CSA memberships, cycling, recycling, composting, and other ecologically minded efforts of a smattering of well-intentioned individuals matter at all? Or matter enough?
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Lynn Rapoport |
09-16-2009 |
Movies
The Withdrawn Narration of 'Liverpool' Moves With the Stealth Purpose of a Folk Talenew
Liverpool may belong to the slow club of cinema -- long takes, downcast eyes, and monumental landscapes -- but the friction between its patient formalism and wild terrain is anything but staid.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Max Goldberg |
09-16-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: Lisandro Alonso, Liverpool
Indie Idol Andrew Bujalski's 'Beeswax' is a Lo-Fi Standoutnew
Beeswax will surely lure Bujalski fans, but even those who think they hate mumblecore won't be disappointed by this tale. It's his best and most mature work to date, focusing on Austin, Texas twins Jeannie and Lauren.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Cheryl Eddy |
09-10-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: Beeswax, Andrew Bujalski
'The Baader Meinhof Complex' Exhaustively Explores the Red Army Factionnew
Uli Edel's sober, clear-eyed view of the youthful and sexy yet arrogant and murderous, gun-toting radicals at the center of Baader-Meinhof's mythology -- a complex construct, indeed -- manages to do justice to the core of their sprawling chronology, while never overstating their narrative's obvious post-9/11 relevance.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Kimberly Chun |
09-02-2009 |
Reviews
'Still Walking' Observes a Family in Quiet Crisisnew
This is Kore-eda's most truly naturalistic, let alone Ozu-like film since his first -- the comparatively bleak 1995 Maborosi -- as well as a dysfunctional-family seriocomedy uncommonly beautiful inside and out. It's a quietly funny and insightful two hours capable of inducing one pretty ecstatic afterglow.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Dennis Harvey |
09-02-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: Still Walking, Hirokazu Kore-eda
Find Those Hoary Old Cult Movie Chestnuts Onlinenew
The San Francisco collective Cosmic Hex is committed to finding, archiving, and digitally preserving just those forgotten treasures of underground exploitation film.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Michael Krimper |
08-05-2009 |
Movies
'Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg' Honors a Forgotten Sitcom Star from the Early Years of TVnew
Even more than the largely forgotten popular institution The Goldbergs, Yoo-Hoo commemorates the one-woman dynamo who created and sustained it: Gertrude Berg.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Dennis Harvey |
07-22-2009 |
Reviews
'Downloading Nancy' Interrogates Sacrifice in the Hyperdigital Zeitgeistnew
Swedish music video director Johan Renck's first feature is largely a meditation on metaphysical atmospheres -- the suffocating air of tract homes, the cold showers of sexual dysfunction, the liquid plasma of the sickly blue computer screen -- and one woman's compulsion for escape.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Erik Morse |
07-08-2009 |
Reviews
Jennifer Lynch Steps Up -- Cruelly -- With 'Surveillance'new
With this Jennifer Lynch starts to be interesting on her own -- even more since her already-wrapped next, Hisss, is an India-shot horror fantasy based on local mythology. Which, at last, is a project one can't even imagine David Lynch doing.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Dennis Harvey |
07-01-2009 |
Reviews
'Objectified''s Subjects Plot a User-Friendly Universenew
Gary Hustwit's Objectified is more an appreciation than a critique of something utterly ubiquitous -- in this case product design -- and a few stellar personalities behind it.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Dennis Harvey |
06-24-2009 |
Reviews
