Photo du Jour 516
Welcome Back! Um, Why Are You at Work Today?
Tiger Woods In "Serious" Condition After Car Crash
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Photos from Black Friday
Builder of Oakland's Fox Theater Once Imprisoned For 'White Slavery'
Here's what's opening this week:
Wild Hogs
About four wannabe bikers who stumble into a chapter of Hell’s Angels, the film looks like an updated (and not-so-yuppie) retelling of City Slickers. Wild Hogs features Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence, John Travolta and William H. Macy. A huge event for the Chinese “Year of the Pig” saw all four of the film’s stars in some sort of parade on the Embarcadero. There were supposed to be floats-- and motorcycles, of course. We hear you couldn’t pay press to attend. Let's hope the same can't be said of the movie.
Glastonbury
A doc on the largest, longest running music festival in the world Glastonbury traces the history of the fest in the context of the changing decades. Word has it this doc is lousy with great British performances. Bands like Oasis, The Cure and David Bowie are featured.
Maxed Out
People are always comforted to know their issues are not solely their own and knowing their problem has a name minimizes that insecurity. In that interest, James Scurlock has made Maxed Out. Scurlock amassed statistics and testimonies about the of personal (including credit card) debt and concludes that the government furthers the liberties of banks and lending institutions at the detriment of the consumer. Maxed Out does contain some controversy and could engender great coffee talk…or if you can’t afford the coffee, perhaps it will soothe your soul to know you’re not alone.
Black Snake Moan
Craig Brewer’s anticipated follow up to Hustle and Flow; Black Snake Moan is the story of an intervention using the kind of Deep South soap opera logic that hasn’t hit theatres since the mid 90’s (and also starred Samuel Jackson). A gold-toothed Samuel L. Jackson chains up a bleached and reportedly “wicked” Christina Ricci for the purposes of ending Ricci’s "sickness." You tell me people aren’t going to see this film just to see harlot Ricci and zealot Jackson claw it out in daisy dukes and wife beater (respectively).
Zodiac
Samuel Jackson’s chain couldn’t keep us from this film. David Fincher, genius expressionist and original native of Marin County, is making a personal opus to outlive those that have come before it. Se7en was brilliant and Fight Club was culture transforming but those were stories of imaginary cities.
By Sara S., contributing
Two Weeks
Sally Fields stars with a number of up and coming greats (Juliana Nicholson of Flannel Pajamas, Glen Howerton of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Clea DuVall of Carnivale to name only half) to tell the story of a dying mother and her detached children. As I’m not the only critic to remain unschooled
Full of It
Sam Leonard (Ryan Pinkston from Punk’d) learns the only way to fit in at Ridgeport High is to lie. When his lies come true it’s like Liar Liar met Freaky Friday. Pedigree on the actors doesn’t look so grim but the premise is a little cookie cutter. No shame to being unoriginal, that’s what the films are usually about anyway, right? They’re about the fear of being commonplace or rather, clichéd. Irony, I say. Irony.
LOCAL WISDOM
Artist Television Access (922 Valencia St.) is featuring days of fun with Noisepop screenings with guests!
The Castro (429 Castro St.) features “Midnite Madness” with a triple bill of almost forgotten (gasp) Jodie Foster picks from her more formative years. Two picks also feature Scott Baio and before you ask, there are no hallucinogenics allowed in the theatre. The third sees an evening with the legendary Connie Francis, the fourth is a screening of Vigen Chaldranian’s the Priestess, Tuesday is for Tormented Terrestrials with screenings of Carpenter’s Hawks homage, The Thing and Strange Behavior. On Wednesday and Thursday, the Robert Altman tribute begins again with two gender oriented double bills: McCabe and Mrs. Miller followed by 3 Women and M.A.S.H. followed by Brewster McCloud.
The Cinemateque starts a screenings series on Sunday 3/4 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (701 Mission Street) featuring works by Nicky Hamlin. Filmmaker will be in attendance to discuss his films composed “in camera.”
Other Cinema is having a party to celebrate the release of street comedian Stoney Burke’s DVD. Doors open at 8pm. There will be complimentary Nutella and music by David Cox and the Mighty Korg.
Pacific Film Archive (2575 Bancroft Way) begins two screenings series this week: a Tribute to the San Francisco International Film Festival and a retrospective on Italian New Wave rebel Michaelangelo Antonioni. Antonioni’s screening looks relatively comprehensive and includes some more famous fair: Blow Up and L’eclisse. The SFIFF tribute extends to late April and includes some hard-to-find pieces (Djibril Diop Mambé’s The Little girl who Sold the Sun Fri Apr 13, 7p) along with some easy to find films that are must see on the big screen (Wed Mar 14 7:30p, Kalatamazov’s I am Cuba).
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (701 Mission Street) is housing the Human Rights Watch film Festival and kicks off 3/2 at 7:30 with Total Denial by Milena Kaneva. Total Denial documents the landmark lawsuit of jungle villagers from Burma who go up against US Oil Companies guilty of human rights violations. The weekend is full of compelling human rights docs: Camden 28 is about activism against the Vietnam War in 1971and KZ looks at the dark history that doted the land near the Danube in the form of Concentration Camps. I’m a sucker for human rights doc. I get excited about films like Camden 28. Nothing makes me cry like a good strike.
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Jeez are you guys asleep at the wheel,
Jennifer Siebel's movie The Trouble with Romance is Premiering at CINEQUEST Tonight...
Jeez,,,,
I love that you're on the ball! But Jennifer Seibel's film is far from the only film opening/premiering at CineQuest (a fest I'm blogging on at reelgirly.com/blog, btw) AND since CQ is all the way in SJ, I thought the SF crowd might not be so keen to commute. I can't really do fest coverage as part of this weekly entry but if you have a suggestion as to how this weekly section could be better, I'm all eyes!
thanks!
sara