He-Men Command Belief in MMA Film 'Warrior'

Gavin O'Connor does a remarkable job making his two-and-a-half-hour fight film gritty, involving and as credible as humanly possible.

He-Men Command Belief in MMA Film 'Warrior'

Gavin O'Connor does a remarkable job making his two-and-a-half-hour fight film gritty, involving and as credible as humanly possible.

He-Men Command Belief in MMA Film 'Warrior'

Gavin O'Connor does a remarkable job making his two-and-a-half-hour fight film gritty, involving and as credible as humanly possible.

He-Men Command Belief in MMA Film 'Warrior'

Gavin O'Connor does a remarkable job making his two-and-a-half-hour fight film gritty, involving and as credible as humanly possible.

San Francisco, Open Your Golden Gates

The Golden Gate Bridge remains in heavy rotation in sci-fi, action genres.

San Francisco, Open Your Golden Gates

The Golden Gate Bridge remains in heavy rotation in sci-fi, action genres.

San Francisco, Open Your Golden Gates

The Golden Gate Bridge remains in heavy rotation in sci-fi, action genres.

The Naked Truth on Nudity in Film

A legal expert offers advice on staying within the law while shedding extra layers.

The Naked Truth on Nudity in Film

A legal expert offers advice on staying within the law while shedding extra layers.

The Naked Truth on Nudity in Film

A legal expert offers advice on staying within the law while shedding extra layers.

Frameline35 Opens, Features Wildly Diverse Program

The San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival delivers internationally as well as locally made films of every identity and genre stripe.

Frameline35 Opens, Features Wildly Diverse Program

The San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival delivers internationally as well as locally made films of every identity and genre stripe.

Frameline35 Opens, Features Wildly Diverse Program

The San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival delivers internationally as well as locally made films of every identity and genre stripe.

Soap-Operatic 'Bride Flight' Is an Entertaining Ride

An historical-romantic novel in screen form, 'Bride Flight' offers all the pleasures (some guilty ones) of a film made half a century ago.

Soap-Operatic 'Bride Flight' Is an Entertaining Ride

An historical-romantic novel in screen form, 'Bride Flight' offers all the pleasures (some guilty ones) of a film made half a century ago.

Soap-Operatic 'Bride Flight' Is an Entertaining Ride

An historical-romantic novel in screen form, 'Bride Flight' offers all the pleasures (some guilty ones) of a film made half a century ago.

'Blank City' Looks Back at Underground 'B' Heyday

A documentary digs into New York's 'No Wave' movement that briefly flourished in the late 1970s and early ’80s.

'Blank City' Looks Back at Underground 'B' Heyday

A documentary digs into New York's 'No Wave' movement that briefly flourished in the late 1970s and early ’80s.

'Blank City' Looks Back at Underground 'B' Heyday

A documentary digs into New York's 'No Wave' movement that briefly flourished in the late 1970s and early ’80s.

Another Hole in the Head Scares Up New Round

The adventure of Another Hole in the Head Film Festival requires you risk seeing the occasional dud to seek out the gems.

Another Hole in the Head Scares Up New Round

The adventure of Another Hole in the Head Film Festival requires you risk seeing the occasional dud to seek out the gems.

Another Hole in the Head Scares Up New Round

The adventure of Another Hole in the Head Film Festival requires you risk seeing the occasional dud to seek out the gems.

Another Hole in the Head Scares Up New Round

The adventure of Another Hole in the Head Film Festival requires you risk seeing the occasional dud to seek out the gems.

Another Hole in the Head Scares Up New Round

The adventure of Another Hole in the Head Film Festival requires you risk seeing the occasional dud to seek out the gems.

Another Hole in the Head Scares Up New Round

The adventure of Another Hole in the Head Film Festival requires you risk seeing the occasional dud to seek out the gems.

Another Hole in the Head Scares Up New Round

The adventure of Another Hole in the Head Film Festival requires you risk seeing the occasional dud to seek out the gems.

Another Hole in the Head Scares Up New Round

The adventure of Another Hole in the Head Film Festival requires you risk seeing the occasional dud to seek out the gems.

YBCA Revisits Vintage Erotica

YBCA uncorks another era's eros.

YBCA Revisits Vintage Erotica

YBCA uncorks another era's eros.

YBCA Revisits Vintage Erotica

YBCA uncorks another era's eros.

Poetry in Motion: Working in Action

Build an action picture with a poor script? At your own risk.

Poetry in Motion: Working in Action

Build an action picture with a poor script? At your own risk.

Poetry in Motion: Working in Action

Build an action picture with a poor script? At your own risk.

Temporary Insanity Takes Hold at Noir City

Noir City 9's "madness" theme means a few more gothic titles and a fresh context to appreciate noir’s signature motifs.

Temporary Insanity Takes Hold at Noir City

Noir City 9's "madness" theme means a few more gothic titles and a fresh context to appreciate noir’s signature motifs.

Temporary Insanity Takes Hold at Noir City

Noir City 9's "madness" theme means a few more gothic titles and a fresh context to appreciate noir’s signature motifs.

'Deathstalker' Muscles its Way Back to Big Screen

Sword, sandals and a sinister real-life epilogue: 'Deathstalker' earns top billing in a Midnite for Maniacs evening at the Castro. As one of 1982's bigger box-office hits, Conan the Barbarian accomplished two things. First, it finally made a movie star out of thick-bodied, thicker-accented Arnold Schwarzenegger after several failed attempts. Second, it spawned a legion of cheaper imitations cashing in on the early 1980s' seemingly bottomless need for films to fill cable airtime and video rental shelves. (Remember, until that time there the only commercial outlets for movies were theatrical release and network TV—so these were entirely...

'Deathstalker' Muscles its Way Back to Big Screen

Sword, sandals and a sinister real-life epilogue: 'Deathstalker' earns top billing in a Midnite for Maniacs evening at the Castro. As one of 1982's bigger box-office hits, Conan the Barbarian accomplished two things. First, it finally made a movie star out of thick-bodied, thicker-accented Arnold Schwarzenegger after several failed attempts. Second, it spawned a legion of cheaper imitations cashing in on the early 1980s' seemingly bottomless need for films to fill cable airtime and video rental shelves. (Remember, until that time there the only commercial outlets for movies were theatrical release and network TV—so these were entirely...

Film 2010: Big Pictures Light up the Small Screen

Perhaps it's OK to bring art film home for the holidays with sophisticated collections of DVDs and must-buy film books.

Film 2010: Big Pictures Light up the Small Screen

Perhaps it's OK to bring art film home for the holidays with sophisticated collections of DVDs and must-buy film books.

Film 2010: Big Pictures Light up the Small Screen

Perhaps it's OK to bring art film home for the holidays with sophisticated collections of DVDs and must-buy film books.

Film 2010: Big Pictures Light up the Small Screen

Perhaps it's OK to bring art film home for the holidays with sophisticated collections of DVDs and must-buy film books.

Going McCarey's Way

A Mechanics' Institute series appreciates Leo McCarey's genius with comedy.

Going McCarey's Way

A Mechanics' Institute series appreciates Leo McCarey's genius with comedy.

Going McCarey's Way

A Mechanics' Institute series appreciates Leo McCarey's genius with comedy.

A Vampire Weekend at YBCA

Three vampire films capture more than the imagination. That the vogue for vampire melodramas may have run its course is clear enough from the appearance of Vampires Suck (in theaters as of this writing, though not likely much past it) and the news that the American redo of the 2008 Swedish indie hit, Let the Right One In, will be titled "Let Me In." Just like that, a lovely slice of pop-baroque gets reprocessed as a pathetic whine. No matter: as long there is cinema, the vampire will reemerge. Ever since the twin pinnacles of Nosferatu (1922) and Vampyr (1932), in which two of early cinema’s. . .

A Vampire Weekend at YBCA

Three vampire films capture more than the imagination. That the vogue for vampire melodramas may have run its course is clear enough from the appearance of Vampires Suck (in theaters as of this writing, though not likely much past it) and the news that the American redo of the 2008 Swedish indie hit, Let the Right One In, will be titled "Let Me In." Just like that, a lovely slice of pop-baroque gets reprocessed as a pathetic whine. No matter: as long there is cinema, the vampire will reemerge. Ever since the twin pinnacles of Nosferatu (1922) and Vampyr (1932), in which two of early cinema’s. . .

Back with a 'Vengeance'

Johnnie To delivers on his trademark themes with 'Vengeance.'

Back with a 'Vengeance'

Johnnie To delivers on his trademark themes with 'Vengeance.'

Back with a 'Vengeance'

Johnnie To delivers on his trademark themes with 'Vengeance.'

Crime on the Mind

The Pacific Film Archive's Criminal Minds series offers a liberating mix of asocial outlaws and sordid stories based on the ripped-from-the-headlines exploits of real-life gangsters and killers.

Crime on the Mind

The Pacific Film Archive's Criminal Minds series offers a liberating mix of asocial outlaws and sordid stories based on the ripped-from-the-headlines exploits of real-life gangsters and killers.

Getting Down, Dirty with Bob Ray and Chad Holt

Bob Ray brings his Down & Dirty Austin Film Tour to the Bay Area. And you can't stop him.

Getting Down, Dirty with Bob Ray and Chad Holt

Bob Ray brings his Down & Dirty Austin Film Tour to the Bay Area. And you can't stop him.

San Francisco International's Local Filmmakers Next Step

We caught up with several Bay Area makers, fresh off their high-energy screenings at SFIFF53 and primed to keep the momentum rolling.

SFIFF53 Reports: Divine Madness at 'All About Evil' Premiere

Judging from Saturday night s festivities, half the capacity Castro Theatre audience had worked on or otherwise invested in Joshua Grannell a.k.a. Peaches Christ s debut feature.

SFIFF53 Reports: James Schamus, Roger Ebert and the Writing Life

Few would argue that a good movie often starts with a good story. Yet it has been the screenwriter s lot to be underappreciated.

SFIFF53 Reports: The Butcher Block; Opening Night

To be from the Bay Area and called The Butcher Brothers might mean you get mixed up with purveyors of grass fed meats.

Bong Joon-ho's 'Mother' Pleases

One of the heroes of South Korean cinema's recent renaissance wisely sticks to home terrain with his follow-up to The Host.

Cinequest at 20

Wasn't it just yesterday that Cinequest was the scrappy upstart amongst Bay Area festivals? Apparently not: San Jose's annual cinematic blowout is entering its third decade.

Darkness Of Noir City On Castro Screen

In late January, many tune their radar to the snowy, showy glare of Sundance. With Noir City here, the stay-at-homes are the luckier ones.

Michael House's Translation of Tati at YBCA

Riding the crest of the Tati tsunami hitting our shores is The Magnificent Tati by Michael House, who lived in S.F. for 12 years before moving to Paris.

Thoughts On the Aughts: Best/Worst Trends

While the U.S. moved from rebuilding decimated skyscrapers to the rebuilding of an entire economy, film moved from the multiplex to the mailbox to the mobile.

Holiday Film Preview, Part II

Dennis Harvey weighs in on the upcoming films of the holiday season.

The Cockettes' Celluloid Afterglow Still Strong at 40

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art honors the 40th anniversary of The Cockettes with a one-night-only program.

On the Road Before 'The Recess Ends'

Shot in depressed burgs and 'burbs across the country, this documentary looks at the U.S. at its lowest economic ebb in generations.

The Exiled Ingrid Bergman at PFA

The PFA is offering a rare overview of Bergman's European films in the series, A Woman's Face: Ingrid Bergman in Europe.

French Cinema Now—and then

Francois Truffaut’s The 400 Blows is being revived as part of San Francisco Film Society’s second annual French Cinema Now festival, which runs the week of October 29 through November 4 at the city’s Clay Theatre.

Robert Mailer Anderson on Mendo Madness of 'Pig Hunt'

After ripping it up at various genre fests, the Bay Area indie horror flick settles in for a theatrical run at the Red Vic.

Columbia Pictures' noir lights at the Roxie

The Roxie's Best of Columbia Noir seroes features great films capitalizing on a simple formula: a girl, a guy and a gun.

Understanding Backstory

Behind any narrative for the screen is the story that came before it—the life that shaped the central character, who arrives fully formed as your story opens

Bob Goldthwait, Fate and 'World's Greatest Dad'

Bay Area favorite Bob Goldthwait, whose pop culture moment seemed to expire in the mid '80s, returns with comedic vengeance via World's Greatest Dad.

'District 9' a Summer Sci-fi Surprise

This fanboy-anticipated New Zealand-produced film set in South Africa, with gang activity, theft, riots, and ever-mounting interspecies hostility, is a summer breakout.

Seiji Horibuchi on VIZ Cinema

Seiji Horibuchi, founder and chairman of VIZ Media, speaks about VIZ Cinema, a built-from-scratch venue located in the New People building in Japantown.

'Thirst' and the Vampire Genre Still Bleeding

Vampires are still the It Ghoul of our cultural moment and South Korean film Thirst is as precisely crafted as it is gleefully over-the-top in content both carnal and carnivorous.

Shelley Diekman Reflects on Well-Spent life

Newly-retired Pacific Film Archive publicist Shelley Diekman discusses her cinephile tastes, her past and her future.

Berkeley-based writer Barry Gifford's wild screen-rides

A peripatetic childhood laid fertile ground for the heated imagination of Berkeley-based author Barry Gifford, who has written Wild at Heart and Lost Highway. 

Britta Sjogren and "Women's Film"

Sjogren threads her vexations with feminist film theory into a study of sound and voice in "women's film" touchstones like Letter from an Unknown Woman.

An Ample Display of Tilda Swinton's Edge

Tilda Swinton's edge of riskiness is on ample display in Julia, a new film by French director Erick Zonca.

SF Silent Film Festival

Douglas Fairbanks in The Gaucho is one of the many highlights on screen during the three-day San Francisco Silent Film Festival.

'The Greatest Year in Film' at the Castro

A series at the Castro marks 1939 as the high-water mark of cinema.

The horror, the horror: 'Tweaker With an Axe'

An interview with Flynn Witmeyer about his debut feature Tweaker With an Axe, and the desire to make genre films—horror or sci-fi or fantasy—that incorporate gay and lesbian characters.

The horror, the horror: 'Tweaker With an Axe'

An interview with Flynn Witmeyer about his debut feature Tweaker With an Axe, and the desire to make genre films—horror or sci-fi or fantasy—that incorporate gay and lesbian characters.

Frameline33: Icons and Unsung Heroes

A festival full of drama finds no more emotional screening than the homophobia-in-sports double bill of Training Rules and Claiming the Title: Gay Olympics on Trial.

Frameline33: Youth in Revolt

In this year's Frameline Fest, as so often in life, it's all about the one(s) that got away.

Frameline33: Something Old, Something New

A dose of self-affirmation arrives with Frameline33 (or, if you prefer, the multiple-breath-intake-requiring San Francisco International Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Film Festival.)

'All About Evil'-doer Joshua Grannell in post

Blood-soaked, darkly comic All About Evil has writer-director Joshua Grannell and editor Rick LeCompte on an express-train schedule rare for an independent feature.

'All About Evil'-doer Joshua Grannell in post

Blood-soaked, darkly comic All About Evil has writer-director Joshua Grannell and editor Rick LeCompte on an express-train schedule rare for an independent feature.

Another Hole in the Head

At a film festival called Another Hole in the Head, dedicated to sci-fi, horror and fantasy, catastrophic carnage meets comedy more often than not.

Raimi's Return to Horror: Drag Me to Hell

Despite a few flaws in story and continuity, Drag Me to Hell offers the pleasures of a first-class entertainer thoroughly enjoying himself.

Bruce Goldstein: From NY to SF to 'Con'

Bruce Goldstein recalls his adventures in film land as he prepares to host the Con Film Festival at the Film Forum in New York.

SFIFF52: Leone's 'Once Upon a Time in the West'

Once Upon a Time in the West is grand, cynical, lavish and above all huge, Sergio Leone's penchant for the iconically gargantuan (perhaps at the willing expense of relatable human detail) expressed in ultimate form.

"Observe and Report:" Seth Rogen Strikes Again

If it grows darker than one might expect, Observe still hesitates at becoming a true black comedy; it's more medium-gray, earning stripes for breaking from current comedy norms on a moment-to-moment basis without quite arriving at an original, fully-developed whole. But Hill has a good eye, ear (the soundtrack choices are notably sharp), sense of off-kilter pacing, and, most importantly, a firm grasp on character.

Michael Jacobs 'Audience of One' at the Roxie

Michael Jacobs talks about his documentary, which follows Pentecostal Pastor Richard Gazowsky engaged in the creation of an ambitious, multi-million dollar sci-fi-feature on God.

'Medicine for Melancholy' and the Art of DIY Legal Agreements

For many narrative filmmakers, hiring a lawyer is either an afterthought or not a financial reality, but moving forward with a film without considering legal is a huge mistake.

Re-Viewing 'The Savage Eye'

This "dramatized documentary" was a labor of love–if also a graphic portrayal of the vast LA detached from Hollywood's success-bubble glamour.

Intersections of 'Harrison Montgomery' with Daniel Davila

SF360.org interviews Davila on his film about a bottom-rung Tenderloin drug dealer with aspirations of becoming an artist.

SF Indiefest 2009

With a roster that sprawls from horror to softcore to verite-style drama and documentary, the only constant is that you won't be bored.

Sundance '09: Award-Winners, Bloggers, and More

Susie Gerhard gives an overview of a festival moving back to the basics of art-making.

Eddie Muller and Noir City

SF360.org spoke with Eddie Muller, who launched Noir City, an annual noir festival that has attracted an avid following in the Bay Area and beyond.

The Year in Film 2008: Oscar Odds

Instead of breaking it down strictly category-by-category, Dennis Harvey meanders through some principal heat-seeking prestige films and their various chances.

The Year in Film: What did Women Want?

Matt Sussman draws conclusions about women and Hollywood from three big women-oriented films of 2008.

Bursting with 'Button'

Dennis Harvey reviews The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Season's Gleanings, a Holiday Preview

Dennis Harvey reviews some of 2008's year-end sobering dramas.

Supernaturalism with 'Let the Right One In'

Based on John Ajvide Lindqvist's novel, Let the Right One In is a poignant, nuanced, original addition to the cinematic vampire canon.

Dead Channels 2008 Comes Alive

Those inclined toward healthy doses of sleaze, gore, and retro-shlock can rejoice that it's time for the second annual edition of Dead Channels.

Baloney Sandwiches With No Cheese: Ted V. Mikels' Wild World

'It takes your guts and your entrails and your soul to make a film,' Mikels once proclaimed. 'It takes everything you possess within you!'

Mendocino's Swine Country

"Horror films can hold a lot of crazy ideas and political ideas and no one blinks," says Pig Hunt writer and producer Robert Mailer Anderson, "and that serves our purposes."

Toronto 2008: Slow Food, Fast Festival

Every year, people grumble. Every year, someone points out how much worse it is than before. And every year, there are films that pull everyone out of the doldrums and guarantee it all continues. Welcome to this season’s Toronto International Film Festival.

Curators at Bay Area Now 5

YBCA's triennial exhibition has developed a deserved reputation for presenting an energetic survey of current Bay Area artistic practice.

Vertigo's 50th Anniversary

Not many movies call for a celebration of their anniversaries, but one exception is what many have called 'the ultimate San Francisco film.'

'The Dark Cinema of David Goodis' at the PFA

The Pacific Film Archive screens a survey of Goodis-related works from both the big and small screen, spanning nearly five decades.

Swinging '60s suburbs in 'Viva'

Viva's cautionary tale is aptly encapsuled by the poster line: 'They were housewives seeking kicks, in a world of swingers, orgies, booze, and sin.'

Travel Guide Through Another Hole in the Head Film Festival

The Hole Head Festival takes audiences back to terrifying locales and dangerous situations that should be pleasantly familiar to horror aficionados.

Capelle on Composers: Day Three

The final installment in the San Francisco composer and musician's blog from the 2008 SFIFF.

Capelle on Composers: Back to Back

Back to music.

I have some friends that were in a Sub Pop band that pre-dated Nirvana. They were known as the Dwarves. Their music is and was a snotty suburban unholy mixture of the Sonics, the Orlons, the Stooges and a vat of amphetamines. Their record covers usually featured midgets and half-naked woman covered in either blood or some sort of Nestle syrup of some sort. Here is one of their lines.

[Editor’s note: For the San Francisco International’s 51st edition, SF360.org has asked Bay Area musician/composer/cineaste Marc Capelle to blog his thoughts on movies, music, and the films showing in the Festival. This is the third of three installments.]

Asia Argento, In Full Flower

Motherhood has supposedly had a slowing-down effect on Asia Argento, though at present evidence points rather wildly to the contrary. Not only does she star in this week’s San Francisco International Film Festival official opener, Catherine Breillat’s costume intrigue The Last Mistress, she also figures heavily in two other SFIFF features. Both are programmed in the culty "Late Show" section: Go Go Tales, Abel Ferrara’s most acclaimed film in years, and The Mother of Tears, a latest horror opus directed by her own fan-idolized gorehound dad Dario Argento. A couple weeks ago yet another vehicle opened commercially, Olivier Assayas’ Boarding Gate, which is entirely dominated by her feverish and highly physical performance.

Conventional logic might suggest all this visibility means it’s "breakthrough" time for Asia Argento, that moment when an actor goes from being a familiar face to a marquee name that can singlehandedly draw folks into the multiplex, or at least the arthouse. (In Europe she’s already quite well-known.) But as her project choices among other things bear out, Argento probably isn’t very interested in becoming a "star" in the conventional sense. In fact, she seems the girl most likely to run from any such fate.

'Thrillville' turns 11

Will "the Thrill" Viahro, impresario of East Bay cult movie extravaganza "Thrillville," discusses the difference between "trash" and "garbage" in film.

SF Int'l announces its 51st program and year-round screen

The SFIFF announced its 2008 program and the June 13 launch of its year-round programming on one screen at the Sundance Kabuki

SFMOMA's "Nonwestern Westerns" Series

A series of films at SFMOMA present an outsiders take on the outmoded American staple, the Western.

SFMOMA's "Nonwestern Westerns" Series

A series of films at SFMOMA present an outsiders take on the outmoded American staple, the Western.

"Shrooms" Screams Bloody Horror

The Irish flick might put the leper back in leprechaun, but it's still at heart a reassuringly formulaic hunk of bloody commercial horror.

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks's Midnight Movie Empire

Midnites for Maniacs unearths populist yet esoteric genre and exploitation flicks that have mostly disappeared into the netherworld of discarded VHS rental tapes.

Dead Channels : The San Francisco Festival of Fantastic Film

Taste a bit of the vintage grindhouse experience at the last of Dead Channels' Month of Sleazy Sundays triple bill of under-the-radar movies.

Reviews: 'Comedy of Power'

in Claude Chabrol's latest film, Isabelle Huppert plays a judge plunging headlong into a dangerous investigation of french corruption and gender dynamics.

Paul Verhoeven and His "Black Book"

Verhoeven's career can be divided between the character-driven movies he made in Holland and the slick genre films he directed in Hollywood after 1985.

Signs of the Zodiac

As this week's blanket coverage of David Fincher's Zodiac shows, it's axiomatic that nothing intrigues San Franciscans more than San Francisco. And why not?

Noir City5, Fun with Dicks and Janes

A preview of the festival's rich program with festival's organizer Eddie Muller

Written and Directed by Preston Sturges

It would not seem to bode well for the stewardship of studio classics that Preston Sturges's indomitable comedies have been so slow to DVD.

Frank Lee on 4 Star Theatre's Second Life

Last week, theater operators Frank and Lida Lee won the battle to save the 4 Star, and announced they'd purchased the building.

Cheryl Eddy's Badder Santas

You can't imagine a critic like Cheryl Eddy,with her dazzlingly caustic skepticism, ever believed in Santa Claus.

A Word From Our Sponsored Films

Collector and archivist Rick Prelinger puts on a show at the Other Cinema to celebrate his new book, A Field Guide to Sponsored Films.

Arnold On the Auction Block

Make a bid on Schwarzenegger's low-budget 1970 travesty, Hercules in New York.

Mary Woronov Visits Midnight Mass

An appreciation of the great actress of cult and mainstream films, before her appearance at a Midnight Mass screening of Death Race 2000.