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Home
Welcome to SF360
Nov 15, 2011SF360.org represents a nearly six-year experiment in philanthropically funded film journalism, covering films and filmmaking in the Bay Area and beyond. Published by the San Francisco Film Society, the website debuted February 27, 2006 and was created in a unique collaboration between SFFS and Indiewire, with Susan Gerhard as editor. While SF360.org is no longer publishing feature stories, the SF360 Archive remains the most comprehensive collection of articles about the Bay Area film community, with more than 1,000 feature stories and reviews as well as Indie Toolkit's informative columns about the basics of creating a film and delivering it to audiences. Articles by some of the Bay Area’s most notable voices will remain at your fingertips for the foreseeable future.
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November 15, 2011
Welcome to SF360
Nov 15, 2011SF360.org represents a nearly six-year experiment in philanthropically funded film journalism, covering films and filmmaking in the Bay Area and beyond. Published by the San Francisco Film Society, the website debuted February 27, 2006 and was created in a unique collaboration between SFFS and Indiewire, with Susan Gerhard as editor. While SF360.org is no longer publishing feature stories, the SF360 Archive remains the most comprehensive collection of articles about the Bay Area film community, with more than 1,000 feature stories and reviews as well as Indie Toolkit's informative columns about the basics of creating a film and delivering it to audiences. Articles by some of the Bay Area’s most notable voices will remain at your fingertips for the foreseeable future.
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August 4, 2011
In Theaters: 'Life in a Day,' 'The Tree,' 'Cameraman'
Jackson Scarlett
Aug 2, 2011Critics from the Bay Area and beyond weigh in on the weekend's openings.
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Home
In Theaters: 'Life in a Day,' 'The Tree,' 'Cameraman'
Jackson Scarlett
Aug 2, 2011Critics from the Bay Area and beyond weigh in on the weekend's openings.
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Reviews
In Theaters: 'Life in a Day,' 'The Tree,' 'Cameraman'
Jackson Scarlett
Aug 2, 2011Critics from the Bay Area and beyond weigh in on the weekend's openings.
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Home
Vintage Kinski Uncorked at YBCA
Dennis Harvey
Jun 17, 2011YBCA digs a delightfully disturbing live Kinski document from the archives.
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Reviews
Vintage Kinski Uncorked at YBCA
Dennis Harvey
Jun 17, 2011YBCA digs a delightfully disturbing live Kinski document from the archives.
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Home
'Meek's Cutoff' a Minimalist Masterpiece
Michael Read
May 7, 2011Kelly Reichardt creates a moving meditation on open space with 'Meek's Cutoff.'
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May 12, 2011
'Meek's Cutoff' a Minimalist Masterpiece
Michael Read
May 7, 2011Kelly Reichardt creates a moving meditation on open space with 'Meek's Cutoff.'
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Reviews
'Meek's Cutoff' a Minimalist Masterpiece
Michael Read
May 7, 2011Kelly Reichardt creates a moving meditation on open space with 'Meek's Cutoff.'
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April 12, 2011
The Unorthodox Documentary: Lourdes Portillo
Apr 18, 2011SFFS Education and Lourdes Portillo, director/producer of ‘The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo’ and ‘The Devil Never Sleeps,’ present a Master Class titled ‘The Unorthodox Documentary,’ in which Portillo shares her techniques and reviews students proposals. More at sffs.org.
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April 7, 2011
Kehr Recalls ‘When Movies Mattered’
Michael Fox
Apr 4, 2011A collection of Dave Kehr's analytical, entertaining pieces from 30-plus years ago offers critical enlightenment for a short-form era.
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Home
Kehr Recalls ‘When Movies Mattered’
Michael Fox
Apr 4, 2011A collection of Dave Kehr's analytical, entertaining pieces from 30-plus years ago offers critical enlightenment for a short-form era.
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Reviews
Kehr Recalls ‘When Movies Mattered’
Michael Fox
Apr 4, 2011A collection of Dave Kehr's analytical, entertaining pieces from 30-plus years ago offers critical enlightenment for a short-form era.
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Home
Two Zimbalists and 'Two Escobars'
Susan Gerhard
Aug 27, 2010The stories of an assassinated soccer star and the nation's most notorious criminal merge in a portrait of '80s-'90s Colombia.
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Reviews
Two Zimbalists and 'Two Escobars'
Susan Gerhard
Aug 27, 2010The stories of an assassinated soccer star and the nation's most notorious criminal merge in a portrait of '80s-'90s Colombia.
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September 2, 2010
Two Zimbalists and 'Two Escobars'
Susan Gerhard
Aug 27, 2010The stories of an assassinated soccer star and the nation's most notorious criminal merge in a portrait of '80s-'90s Colombia.
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Home
'Wild Grass' Finds Resnais Still Growing
Dennis Harvey
Jul 9, 2010Resnais remains elusive and detached, his films beautiful abstracts of intellectual rather than emotional impact.
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Reviews
'Wild Grass' Finds Resnais Still Growing
Dennis Harvey
Jul 9, 2010Resnais remains elusive and detached, his films beautiful abstracts of intellectual rather than emotional impact.
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Home
Observing Ordinary People in 'Everyone Else'
Dennis Harvey
Jul 2, 2010Maren Ade’s second feature is striking for what it doesn't do as it follows ordinary lives through a failing relationship.
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Reviews
Observing Ordinary People in 'Everyone Else'
Dennis Harvey
Jul 2, 2010Maren Ade’s second feature is striking for what it doesn't do as it follows ordinary lives through a failing relationship.
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Home
Kore-eda Breathes Life into 'Air Doll'
Dennis Harvey
Jun 25, 2010Hirokazu Kore-eda's Air Doll is a conceptual gamble pulled off with a master’s grace and subtlety.
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Reviews
Kore-eda Breathes Life into 'Air Doll'
Dennis Harvey
Jun 25, 2010Hirokazu Kore-eda's Air Doll is a conceptual gamble pulled off with a master’s grace and subtlety.
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Reviews
Jordan's Magic Moments with Ondine
Dennis Harvey
Jun 8, 2010Ondine finds Neil Jordan back on personal terra firma with a story (his own, in conception and screenplay) that sits exactly on the thin line separating reality and fantasy.
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Reviews
The Greatest Finds of My Generation
Susan Gerhard
Jan 26, 2010The harsh glare of the spotlight that brought Howl mixed reviews from critics on opening night of Sundance had melted into a warm glow by Saturday.
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Reviews
Yes Men Take On the World
Dennis Harvey
Oct 30, 2009The documentary chronicles several large-scale pranks devised in the hopes of fooling corporate/government event attendees and/or the media.
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Festivals
French Cinema Now—and then
Dennis Harvey
Oct 29, 2009Francois 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.
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Reviews
Clough's Rough Time in 'Damned United'
Adam Hartzell
Oct 22, 2009There's an advantage to being an insulated American while watching Tom Hooper's dramatization of an important part of the life of football coach Brian Clough.
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First Person
E-news You Can Use
Michael Fox
Sep 1, 2009The rapid adoption of e-newsletters by documentary filmmakers is the latest example of resourcefulness and efficiency among contemporary independents.
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Festivals
Another Hole in the Head
Dennis Harvey
Jun 4, 2009At a film festival called Another Hole in the Head, dedicated to sci-fi, horror and fantasy, catastrophic carnage meets comedy more often than not.
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Reviews
Raimi's Return to Horror: Drag Me to Hell
Dennis Harvey
May 29, 2009Despite a few flaws in story and continuity, Drag Me to Hell offers the pleasures of a first-class entertainer thoroughly enjoying himself.
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Reviews
Garrel's 'Frontier of Dawn'
Dennis Harvey
May 15, 2009Philippe Garrel sticks to his highly-personal aesthetic in Frontier of Dawn.
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Reviews
"Observe and Report:" Seth Rogen Strikes Again
Dennis Harvey
Apr 9, 2009If 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.
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Reviews
Troell in Fine Form with 'Everlasting Moments'
Dennis Harvey
Mar 12, 2009Troell keeps everything emotionally intimate in this lovely film full of grace moments, that chronicles the early 20th-century travails of the Larsson family.
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Reviews
'Just Another Love Story' Offers Shock Treatment
Dennis Harvey
Feb 17, 2009A title like this is its own disclaimer, hinting there will be nothing "normal," or very loving, about this story.
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Reviews
Sundance Blogs: 'Everything Strange and New' and 'La Mission'
Susan Gerhard
Jan 22, 2009Susan Gerhard blogs on what is strange and new about watching movies in these particular mountains.
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Reviews
Bruce LaBruce's 'Otto': Zombies With Heart
Dennis Harvey
Jan 13, 2009A look at Otto; or, Up with Dead People, from a late arrival in the New Queer Cinema wave.
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Reviews
'Che: The Roadshow' reclaims a legend
Michael Fox
Jan 8, 2009Steven Soderbergh's fascinating portrait of legendary revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara is willfully disinterested in the conventions of mainstream movies.
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Reviews
The Year in Film 2008: Oscar Odds
Dennis Harvey
Jan 2, 2009Instead of breaking it down strictly category-by-category, Dennis Harvey meanders through some principal heat-seeking prestige films and their various chances.
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Reviews
Bursting with 'Button'
Dennis Harvey
Dec 23, 2008Dennis Harvey reviews The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
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Reviews
Soviet-Critical 'Cargo 200' at YBCA
Matt Sussman
Nov 11, 2008The controversial Cargo 200, a take-down of the Soviet era, makes its U.S. theatrical debut at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
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Reviews
Another Ingmar Bergman in 'Monika'
Dennis Harvey
Nov 6, 2008A newly restored print of Bergman's Monika, which deals with underage, guiltlessly unfaithful femininity, plays the Red Vic.
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Reviews
Supernaturalism with 'Let the Right One In'
Dennis Harvey
Nov 4, 2008Based on John Ajvide Lindqvist's novel, Let the Right One In is a poignant, nuanced, original addition to the cinematic vampire canon.
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Reviews
Crossing Borders with 'Fraulein'
Dennis Harvey
Oct 21, 2008A director who lives in both Switzerland and New York leads a Swiss-German coproduction about two women from former Yugoslavian territories who meet in Zurich.
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Reviews
'Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer'
Dennis Harvey
Sep 23, 2008Whether you dig jazz or not, O'Day's charisma and story make this movie riveting.
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Reviews
Chris Marker Comes Home, At Last
Michael Fox
Sep 1, 2008I confess that for a long while I had the misperception, based on almost no exposure to his work, that French essayist Chris Marker made dense, dry films steeped in political theory and inaccessible to anyone but a narrow strata of irrelevant European intellectuals.
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Reviews
In Spain with 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona'
Dennis Harvey
Aug 12, 2008Woody Allen's latest is a superb travel guide in addition to being an amusing, intelligent if not exactly profound meditation on fate, chance, and romance.
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Reviews
Swinging '60s suburbs in 'Viva'
Dennis Harvey
Jul 8, 2008Viva's cautionary tale is aptly encapsuled by the poster line: 'They were housewives seeking kicks, in a world of swingers, orgies, booze, and sin.'
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Reviews
Herzog's 'Encounters at the End of the World'
Dennis Harvey
Jun 26, 2008Eternally fascinated with extremes of location, Werner Herzog's latest documentary, Encounters at the End of the World, finds the filmmaker exploring life on the edge in Antarctica.
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Reviews
'Mongol's' Mr. Nice Guy: Genghis Khan
Dennis Harvey
Jun 20, 2008Dennis Harvey reviews Sergei Bodrov's Mongol, a distinctive look at the early life of the conqueror.
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Reviews
Review: 'Love Songs'
Dennis Harvey
Jun 3, 2008'Love Songs', a truly gay musical utterly devoid of camp, causes critic Dennis Harvey to reassess France's take on the genre.
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Reviews
Review: "Postal"
Dennis Harvey
May 27, 2008It may not be easy being Uwe Boll, but it must be fun. He's a boundlessly energetic fanboy-turned-maker who thinks large.
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Reviews
Review: "Mister Lonely"
Max Goldberg
May 19, 2008Part Luis Bunuel parable, Artforum spread, Jonestown ballet and Warhol camp, Harmony Korine's latest is a prime, insomniac two hours of midnight-movie drifting.
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Festivals
"Standard Operating Procedure" and the Stories We Tell
Staff
May 9, 2008Joan Didion famously said, "We tell ourselves stories in order to live." We've internalized the American narrative of Abu Ghraib and accepted its implications.
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Festivals
In Other Words: Pacific Whims
Laura Irvine
May 8, 2008As an Asian film fan, it's a miracle I keep my day job at this time of year.
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Festivals
In Other Words: States of Cinema, Music and Mind
Eve O'Neill
May 8, 2008"There are no movies without music," Kevin Kelly asserted last Saturday in his State of Cinema address.
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Reviews
Review: "Boarding Gate"
Dennis Harvey
Apr 8, 2008Boarding Gate is raw, silly, bloody, funny, carnal, intricate, coarse and self-conscious. It all suggests Olivier Assayas has a lot more surprises in him yet.
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Reviews
Review: "Shotgun Stories"
Dennis Harvey
Mar 31, 2008Small-town "heartland" America that once held our majority populace is now seldom seen on screen. Jeff Nichols debut feature Shotgun Stories is an exception.
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Reviews
SFMOMA's "Nonwestern Westerns" Series
Dennis Harvey
Mar 26, 2008A series of films at SFMOMA present an outsiders take on the outmoded American staple, the Western.
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Reviews
"Shelter"
Dennis Harvey
Mar 24, 2008Writer/director Jonah Markowitz's Shelter is a romantic gay surfer that more than earns its spurs in terms of real-world credibility and psychology.
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Reviews
"Paranoid Park"
Dennis Harvey
Mar 11, 2008Just when Gus Van Sant seemed on the verge of turning into just another Hollywood selloutÑhe did a total about-face. His four features since have been true art films
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Reviews
Review: "The Signal"
Dennis Harvey
Feb 19, 2008An idea so vivid yet simple you've got to wonder why more movies haven't used it: Something happens that turns the populace into irrational maniacs.
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Reviews
"Shrooms" Screams Bloody Horror
Dennis Harvey
Feb 8, 2008The Irish flick might put the leper back in leprechaun, but it's still at heart a reassuringly formulaic hunk of bloody commercial horror.
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Reviews
Review: "Taxi to the Dark Side"
Dennis Harvey
Feb 5, 2008Praise any god you like for Alex Gibney, who has quietly risen from stellar PBS series to a run of exceptional theatrical-release docs.
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Reviews
Review: "The Violin"
Dennis Harvey
Jan 8, 2008Francisco Vargas' first feature has won a pile of international awards to date, and might have garnered more had it arrived on the scene earlier.
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Reviews
Reviews: "Walk Hard"; "Charlie Wilson's War"
Dennis Harvey
Dec 18, 2007Judd Apatow has come to so dominate American comedy that I often find myself thinking, "If only this movie had been written by Apatow..."
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Reviews
Reviews: "Walk Hard"; "Charlie Wilson's War"
Dennis Harvey
Dec 18, 2007Judd Apatow has come to so dominate American comedy that I often find myself thinking, "If only this movie had been written by Apatow..."
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Reviews
Review: "Diva"
Dennis Harvey
Dec 4, 2007How does Jean-Jacques Beineix's breakthrough hold up a quarter-century later, duly remastered and freshly subtitle-translated?
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Reviews
"Holly," an Unseasonably Sobering Drama
Dennis Harvey
Nov 28, 2007U.S.-Cambodian co-production Holly might easily have gone straight to DVD, which would be a pity because it's well worth rushing to the theatre for.
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Reviews
"Hannah Takes the Stairs"
Dennis Harvey
Nov 27, 2007A perfect example of the emerging genre of improv-based, digitally shot, minimally budgeted seriocomedies about twentysomethings stumbling through, you know, relationship stuff.
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Reviews
The Many Faces of Dylan
Dennis Harvey
Nov 21, 2007Todd Haynes' I'm Not There both replicates and examines the hazy landscape of fact, fiction, art and myth comprising Dylanology.
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Reviews
"Redacted"
Dennis Harvey
Nov 13, 2007Sometimes even presumably good intentions can warp into artistic misdeeds most foul.
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Reviews
"Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten"
Dennis Harvey
Nov 6, 2007There are a lot of Strummer stories to tell, and a good share of them are in Julien Temple's terrific new documentary.
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Reviews
"Lars and the Real Girl"
Dennis Harvey
Oct 16, 2007This wisp of a movie shouldn't be able to sustain its gimmicky concept, yet miraculously does, thanks not just to Gosling, but to his fellow actors and measured direction.
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Reviews
Joseph Cornell at SFMOMA
Max Goldberg
Oct 11, 2007Joseph Cornell: Navigating the Imagination comes to San Francisco for the first major west-coast exhibition of the artist's work in 40 years.
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Reviews
"The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"
Dennis Harvey
Oct 2, 2007Slow your rhythms down to this film's idiosyncratic tempo, and you'll get a striking, authentic-feeling epic that's often rivetingly tense.
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Reviews
"In Search of Mozart"
Max Goldberg
Sep 25, 2007"In Search of Mozart" is a comprehensive overview of the composer's generous genius and one of the finest examples of the PBS-style, talking heads-and-cutaways documentaries in recent memory.
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Reviews
"Punk's Not Dead"
Dennis Harvey
Sep 18, 2007The freshing thing about Susan Dynner's new documentary ÔPunk's Not Dead' Ñ beyond the fact that it's not the 9,482nd recap of The Early Years (circa 1976-85) Ñ is its unabashed if not uncritical acknowledgment that punk is here to stay.
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Popular
"Discovering Orson Welles"
Max Goldberg
Sep 4, 2007Max Goldberg on Jonathan Rosenbaum's critical survey of director Orson Welles.
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Reviews
"Discovering Orson Welles"
Max Goldberg
Sep 4, 2007Max Goldberg on Jonathan Rosenbaum's critical survey of director Orson Welles.
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Reviews
"The King of Kong;" "2 Days in Paris"
Dennis Harvey; Kristi Mitsuda
Aug 21, 2007SF360.org reviews a masterpiece of train-wreck voyeurism and "Sunset" stripped.
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Reviews
"Crossing the Line" and "Death at a Funeral"
Dennis Harvey and Kristi Mitsuda
Aug 14, 2007One film takes us from the American South to the Korean North, another to Frank Oz's last gasp.
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Reviews
"This is England;" "Rocket Science"
Dennis Harvey and Anthony Kaufman
Aug 7, 2007SF360.org reviews Shane Meadows' finest directorial effort yet and an offbeat coming-of-age comic-drama.
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Reviews
"Private Property;" "One to Another"
Dennis Harvey and Michael Koresky/indieWIRE
Jul 31, 2007A non-rich family is torn apart by money matters, and young actors lie atop, next to, and around each other with youthful, sexual abandon.
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Reviews
"Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox;" "Ten Canoes"
Dennis Harvey
Jul 10, 2007Reviews: Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox and Ten Canoes
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Reviews
Parker Posey's return in "Broken English"
Dennis Harvey
Jul 5, 2007Parker Posey: one more-than-worthies in an often less-than-worthy medium. It's particularly exciting when they get a rare expansive part in a good movie.
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Reviews
"SiCKO"-time
Susan Gerhard
Jun 28, 2007Sicko's story of the mismanagement of U.S. healthcare takes Michael Moore from the U.S. to Canada to Europe, and most notably, to Cuba.
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Reviews
"Lover Other"
Matt Sussman
Jun 26, 2007Review: startling portraits Claude Cahun, her half-sister and lover Marcel Moore took of themselves and each other dressed in a variety of personas, costumes and genders in Lover Other.
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Reviews
Reviews: "Brand Upon the Brain!", "Golden Door"
Matt Sussman
Jun 12, 2007Brand is no short supply of Guy Maddin's usual firecrackers: apostrophe, hyperbole, and of course, catastrophe.
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Reviews
Reviews: "Brand Upon the Brain!", "Golden Door"
Matt Sussman
Jun 12, 2007Brand is no short supply of Guy Maddin's usual firecrackers: apostrophe, hyperbole, and of course, catastrophe.
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Festivals
A Strandful at Frameline31
Michael Guillen
Jun 8, 2007Strand Releasing can always be relied upon for some of the best art films and queer indies, and it has a strong festival presence,
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Reviews
Reviews: "La Vie en Rose;" "Crazy Love"
Steve Ramos
Jun 5, 2007Despite the best efforts of method actors, methodical directors, and talented costume designers, biopics can usually be relied upon to disappoint.
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Reviews
Reviews: "La Vie en Rose;" "Crazy Love"
Steve Ramos
Jun 5, 2007Despite the best efforts of method actors, methodical directors, and talented costume designers, biopics can usually be relied upon to disappoint.
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Reviews
"The Prodigy," The Roxie, Delirium, God
Michael Guillen
May 30, 2007San Franciscans have a poignant symbiotic relationship with William Kaufman's freshman feature, The Prodigy, which returns to the city this week.
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Reviews
Reviews: "Bamako" and "Angel-A"
Robert Avila
May 29, 2007A masterful stroke by writer-director Abderrahmane Sissako; Luc Besson returns to American theaters after a nearly decade-long absence.
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Reviews
Reviews: "Bamako" and "Angel-A"
Robert Avila
May 29, 2007A masterful stroke by writer-director Abderrahmane Sissako; Luc Besson returns to American theaters after a nearly decade-long absence.
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Reviews
Guillen's Top Five from Another Hole in the Head
Michael Guillen
May 25, 2007Five recommendations chosen from among the gore, ghouls, ghosts, gags, and animation at Indiefest's Holehead festival.
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Reviews
"Zidane: A 21st-Century Portrait"
Susan Gerhard
May 17, 2007Not even widely released yet in the States, Philippe Parreno and Douglas Gordon's "ZidaneÉ" has already been considered a portrait of the century.
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Reviews
A "Flanders" Reader
Michael Guillen
May 6, 2007As Bruno Dumont's Flanders navigates festival waters, it's been leaving behind a noticeable wake.
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Reviews
Reviews: 'Comedy of Power'
Robert Avila
Apr 17, 2007in Claude Chabrol's latest film, Isabelle Huppert plays a judge plunging headlong into a dangerous investigation of french corruption and gender dynamics.
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Reviews
Reviews: 'Comedy of Power'
Robert Avila
Apr 17, 2007in Claude Chabrol's latest film, Isabelle Huppert plays a judge plunging headlong into a dangerous investigation of french corruption and gender dynamics.
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Reviews
Reviews: "I Don't Want to Sleep Alone"; "Mafioso"
Max Goldberg
Apr 10, 2007“I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone” puts its melodrama and comedy within a Malaysian mattress. 1962’s “Mafioso” may be the mob-chronicle genre’s ground zero.
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Reviews
Reviews: "I Don't Want to Sleep Alone"; "Mafioso"
Max Goldberg
Apr 10, 2007“I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone” puts its melodrama and comedy within a Malaysian mattress. 1962’s “Mafioso” may be the mob-chronicle genre’s ground zero.
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Reviews
Loach's Palme d'Or Winner
Robert Avila
Apr 5, 2007A Western occupying power faces opposition from the locals and responds with brutal military suppression, spurring a countrywide resistance movement reaching down to the grassroots.
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Reviews
Reviews: "Police Beat"; "The Page Turner"
Dennis Harvey
Apr 3, 2007It's taken over two years for Police Beat to go from one of the most praised films at Sundance to a theatre near you.
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Reviews
Reviews: "Police Beat"; "The Page Turner"
Dennis Harvey
Apr 3, 2007It's taken over two years for Police Beat to go from one of the most praised films at Sundance to a theatre near you.
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Reviews
Now and Zen and an Imperial Adventure
Robert Avila
Mar 27, 2007Robert Avila reviews A Zen Life: D.T. Suzuki and The Situation.
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Reviews
Reviews: "Color Me Kubrick" and "Pride"
Dennis Harvey
Mar 20, 2007One film shows how an inspirational movie can actually inspire; the other that a con sometimes looks better on paper.
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Reviews
Reviews: "Color Me Kubrick" and "Pride"
Dennis Harvey
Mar 20, 2007One film shows how an inspirational movie can actually inspire; the other that a con sometimes looks better on paper.
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Reviews
Reviews: "Black Snake Moan"; "Cinemachismo"
Michael Guillen
Feb 27, 2007
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Reviews
The Countercultures of "Commune"
Robert Avila
Feb 22, 2007The cinematic image of the Ô60s commune is normally as two-dimensional as the screen it's projected on, and rarely very kind.
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Reviews
Reviews: "Family Law"; "Amazing Grace"
Michael Fox
Feb 20, 2007Daniel Burman's smartest play was casting Daniel Hendler as his onscreen alter ego. Michael Apted's worthy Grace, reminds that period pieces make effective message movies.
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Reviews
Reviews: "Family Law"; "Amazing Grace"
Michael Fox
Feb 20, 2007Daniel Burman's smartest play was casting Daniel Hendler as his onscreen alter ego. Michael Apted's worthy Grace, reminds that period pieces make effective message movies.
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Reviews
"Iraq in Fragments, "The Lives of Others"
Max Goldberg
Feb 13, 2007James Longley's Fragments stands out amongst the crowded field of Iraqumentaries, while Others pulls back the Iron Curtain to powerful effect.
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Reviews
The Eye Candy of 'Tears of the Black Tiger'
Dennis Harvey
Feb 6, 2007Tears of the Black Tiger is Thai eye candy, an exercise pastiche where color just about leaps off the screen, and a star-crossed love story.
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Festivals
A Superdance and a Superbowl
Susan Gerhard
Jan 31, 2007Wrapping up Sundance Ô07, with the NFL's big game as the best metaphor to describe the annual festival.
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Reviews
"Samoan Wedding"; "Romantico"
Robert Avila
Jan 16, 2007A delightfully funny movie on boy-men redeeming themselves from New Zealand, and Mark Becker's absorbing documentary on a musician in the Mission.
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Reviews
A Chilean Top Four
Miljenko Skoknic
Jan 12, 2007Miljenko Skoknic's list of favorites in Chilean Cinema.
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Reviews
"Absolute Wilson"; "Army of Shadows"
Robert Avila
Jan 9, 2007A documentary provides an in-depth description of Robert Wilson's life and art. Melville's spy story on a Resistance cell in Nazi-occupied French challenges our idea of heroism.
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Reviews
A "Backstage" Breakdown
Dennis Harvey
Jan 4, 2007Teenager Lucie's (Islid Le Besco) encounter with her idol, the pop diva Lauren Waks (Emmanuelle Seigner), turns into a twisted and creepy psychological relationship.
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Reviews
A Whole Lotta Holiday Film
Dennis Harvey
Dec 21, 2006Hollywood is the Santa that bestows gifts every Yuletide,; but you have to pick which ones you want, then pay for them.
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Reviews
"Candy" keeps up with the Joneses
Dennis Harvey
Dec 14, 2006"Candy," an Australian film an accent-less Aussie Heath Ledger, follows the downward spiral of a Heroine addict - by now a time-tested narrative conceit.
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Reviews
Written and Directed by Preston Sturges
Max Goldberg
Dec 13, 2006It would not seem to bode well for the stewardship of studio classics that Preston Sturges's indomitable comedies have been so slow to DVD.
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Reviews
Music Videos At the Museum
Max Goldberg
Nov 29, 2006MTV's boat has long since sailed, but music videos are as ubiquitous on YouTube and Myspace as YBCA brings music videos to its downstairs gallery.
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Reviews
Teshigahara at The Castro
Dennis Harvey
Nov 23, 2006Filmmaking was just one among many creative outlets for Japanese multimedia artist Hiroshi Teshigahara.
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Q & A
51 Birch Street, Revisited
indieWIRE
Nov 6, 2006Through a close examination of his own family, filmmaker Doug Block explores universal questions about our own mothers and fathers in 51 Birch Street.
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Reviews
A U.N. Ten
Robert Avila
Oct 20, 2006The List: Ten to catch at the 9th annual United Nations Association Film Festival October 25 through 29 at Stanford University in Palo Alto.
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Reviews
Found: 'Marie Antoinette' in Paris
Max Goldberg
Oct 18, 2006After weeks of Western Europe, what better way for the young cineaste to crash the City of Light than a trip to the silver screen?
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Reviews
A War Movie Lost to Time
Dennis Harvey
Oct 4, 2006Though it won the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 1975, Overlord is one of those movies that mostly slipped through the cracks.
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Reviews
Jack Stevenson's vault of vice
Michael Fox
Sep 28, 2006The expat archivist and writer makes his near-annual pilgrimage to San Francisco with a flurry of shows teeming with goodies from his personal collection.
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Reviews
The "remake," re-made
Michael Fox
Sep 26, 2006Why do updates of Jerry Lewis flicks get more slack from critics than Zailian's "All the King's Men" and Demme's "The Manchurian Candidate?"
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Reviews
The "remake," re-made
Michael Fox
Sep 26, 2006Why do updates of Jerry Lewis flicks get more slack from critics than Zailian's "All the King's Men" and Demme's "The Manchurian Candidate?"
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Reviews
Another Other Cinema, Now on DVD
Johnny Ray Huston
Sep 20, 2006Craig Baldwin and Noel Lawrence bring their brand of smart, quirky, avant-garde and political programming into the home.
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News & Blogs
Indie Distributors Strategize for Fall 2006 Releases
Steven Rosen
Sep 8, 2006Distributors of independent films reveal their strategies and assessment of the market heading into the all-important fall season.
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Reviews
Pacific Film Archive's "A Theater Near You"
Max Goldberg
Aug 31, 2006This 2006 series of recent releases and restorations that played theaters for only a day or, at most, a week is exceptionally varied.
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Reviews
"Seventeen" Might be Greatest Movie Ever About Teenagers: 17 Reasons Why
Johnny Ray Huston
Aug 17, 2006Jeff Kreines and Joel DeMott's legendary and obscure 1982 documentary set in Muncie, Indiana, highlights the PFA series "Screenagers: Documents from the Teenage Years."
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Reviews
Francois Ozon, Mortal
B. Ruby Rich
Aug 2, 2006Ozon's Time to Leave demonstrates how central he's become to European cinema, and reminds us that he's among gay world cinema's most accomplished writer/directors.
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Reviews
Would Football By Any Other Name Smell As Sweet?
Susan Gerhard
Jun 30, 2006Bay Area soccer fans offer their takes on the best football films.
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Reviews
Zack Bazzi, War Correspondent
Susan Gerhard
Jun 28, 2006In The War Tapes, Deborah Scranton exposes war as an industry - for those who fight it and for those who don't.
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Reviews
"Songbirds" New Tune
Dennis Harvey
Jun 1, 2006Songbirds is a "documentary musical" Ñ something that sounds like a pure contradiction-in-terms until you actually see it.
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Festivals
Picks for the San Francisco International Film Festival
Susan Gerhard
Mar 31, 2006The List: B. Ruby Rich picks her favorites for the 2006 San Francisco International Film Festival.
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