Don't worry, this is not another one of our posts where we bemoan the razing of another local independent theater to make way for a much-needed Walgreens. This is a happy story! Gary Meyer, friend of SFist and owner of the Richmond's Balboa Theater, has announced a change in the programming at the theater. Once the best place in town to see a double feature of second-run movies on the cheap, the Balboa is now devoting one of their two screens to "premieres of international and US independent films, restored classics and selected revival festivals." This is a moment reminiscent of the first time someone dropped their chocolate in your peanut butter, as we like nothing better than having the option of high-falutin' classy cinema on one screen, and first-run-fun on the other.
Their new direction kicks off tonight with the American theatrical premiere of Travellers and Magicians, paired with the Oscar nominated
short Rocks. Lead actress Sonam Lhamo and Alan Kozlowski, the film’s cinematographer will be at the Saturday, January 8 at the 7:15 and 9:30 screenings. Travellers and Magicians, the first feature film shot in Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, is the comedic fish-out-of water tale of a government official who yearns to move to America, and is cast with non-professional actors. We know that sounds rough, but someone we like and respect saw it and loved it, so give it a shot!
If you're still shaking your head, on the second screen you can catch Closer, or a Saturday or Sunday 11 AM matinee of The Incredibles. There's something for everyone at the Balboa this weekend, so what are you waiting for?
If you're still looking for something fun to do tonight, SFist recommends SF IndyFest's Happy Hour Screening tonight at Hayes Valley's Rickshaw Stop of Noon Blue Apples (described as "a mind-bending psychological thriller that dives headlong into the paranoid convolutions of a conspiracy theorist's worst nightmare">and The Affairs Of God ("If God screwed your wife, you'd be pissed off too!") Tickets are for donation (be generous, jerks), doors open at 7 tonight and the films start at 8.
Also on the more-indy tip, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts has a double feature tonight themedTwo Hard-Asses: Ann Coulter vs Charles Bronson. For only 8 bucks, you get Is It True What They Say About Ann?, an "entertaining new documentary" (this we gotta see) about conservative pundit Ann Coulter, and The Mechanic, our personal favorite Bronson flick. (Thanks to SFist MattyMatt for the tip)
OK, OK, OK. We like mainstream cinema as much as anyone, and we can't deny you a big budget pick of the week. We feel like we should pick Hotel Rwanda but Mick LaSalle liked it so we cannot, in good conscience, recommend it. Instead we're going to go with the much more "important" film White Noise. Come on, the trailer looks creepy! Hey, did anyone see the Dr. Phil episode where Michael Keaton plugged this, and all Dr. Phil wanted to do was talk about Batman? Any actor who whores himself to Dr. Phil is working super-hard for our money, so that alone makes White Noise our Big Budget pick of the week.
add to digg
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
email this
add to facebook
add to del.icio.us
So you're saying that one could send their girlfriend to the classy pic while drooling over a scantily clad Natalie Portman in the other theater? Suh-weet!
It's actually a 4-part BBC series, not a movie, but if you're up for a documentary that explains how and why consumerism, advertising, and propaganda made such huge leaps forward in the 20th century, see Century of the Self at the Roxie this week. Bring your therapist; if she gets pissed watching the misuses psychoanalysis has been put to, she's a keeper.