closed the San Francisco International Film Festival Thursday night to a sell-out crowd. Despite the fact that public radio fans plus Robert Altman devotees do not equal red carpet spectacle, SFIFF did roll out the (albeit very short) red carpet guarded by velvet ropes, with staffers wearing head sets and staring officiously down their noses at the unwashed masses. There were even paparazzi hovering on the other side of the velvet rope, although when we passed by they were mostly just joking around with each other. We would have stuck around to gawk on the off chance that Lindsey Lohan might show up and have a wardrobe malfunction or some other US Weekly notable moment but those public radio fans move pretty fast in those Birkenstocks and we had to race inside to grab a seat before they were all filled with KQED tote bags, Patagonia jackets and hemp scarves. more ›

SFist believes wholeheartedly in supporting the local arts, and when those local arts can also make us laugh (intentional or not), well so much the better. Which is why when we heard the Shelton Theater is currently staging a production of the Christopher Durang play Beyond Therapy, we attended a performance with much eagerness. We remember reading and loving the play back when it was a Broadway hit in the early 1980s, and we remember being shocked at the awfulness of director Robert Altman's 1987 movie version. Thankfully, this local production doesn't fall into that level of adaptation. more ›

George Lucas revisits his eager student past. more ›