Arts & Entertainment Review: ‘Shang-Chi’ an Epic SF Car Chase, Followed by Two Hours of Sporadically Good Comic Book Movie The Muni-kung fu-swordfight-car chase scene on SF hills is well worth the price of admission, but the rest of ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ is, well, up and down.
Arts & Entertainment 'Suburbicon' Is A Mid-Century Modern Misfire I've followed George Clooney's career as director with guarded interest because his choice of material is always intriguing. He has a penchant for period dramas, often based on or inspired by real-life events,
Arts & Entertainment Save Your Money, Let 'The Snowman' Melt Away There is a lot of talent involved with the serial killer thriller . Martin Scorsese was once set to direct, and he remains an executive producer. His longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker cut the film.
Arts & Entertainment 'Happy Death Day' Is John Hughes With A Side Of Stabbing does not hide its obvious debt to the film Groundhog Day — in fact a character comments on the similarities between the seemingly cursed heroine's plight and the plot of the 1993 film. But
Arts & Entertainment 'Battle Of The Sexes' Depicts The Triumph Against Misogyny We Need Today In any other year — or perhaps in an alternative timeline — might have come off as a bit of feel good retrospection. Look how far we've come, baby! Thank god we've gotten past those
Arts & Entertainment Taylor Mac: A Joyfully Liberal Carnival Barker To Get Us Through These Terrible Times I've been thinking how best to talk about what I experienced Sunday at Chapter II of Taylor Mac's irreverently epic, hard-to-describe, "performance art concert" called A 24-Decade History Of Popular Music. It is
Arts & Entertainment SF Symphony Opening Night Gala Features Yo-Yo Ma, And A Rousing 'Bolero' The SF Symphony Gala kicked off the orchestra's season on Thursday night, later in September than usual as MTT was on tour with the Vienna Symphony orchestra. Often enough, classical music is a
Arts & Entertainment The Temptations Get The Biographical Jukebox Treatment They Needed With 'Ain't Too Proud' Berkeley Rep appears set to send another world-premiere hit to Broadway (the short-lived Amelie musical notwithstanding) with Ain't Too Proud, a biographical jukebox musical that traces the history of famed Motown quintet The
Arts & Entertainment 'An American In Paris' Brings Gershwin Tunes To Vivid Life At The Orpheum When the cheery new Roman Holiday musical made its San Francisco debut in June, I noted that this out-of-town tryout destined for Broadway was part of a trend of mid-century nostalgia that's been
Arts & Entertainment 'The Force' Lays One Of America's Most Troubled Police Departments Bare Peter Nicks's is a cinema verit-style documentary focused on the Oakland Police Department as things stood shortly after the arrival of then-police chief Sean Whent in 2014. At that point, the Oakland
Arts & Entertainment There's No Heart To The Ugly Degradation That Is 'mother!' From the moment that mother!, the latest film by auteur Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan) begins, we are told that this is not a movie that strives for realism. The
Arts & Entertainment Great Performances Help 'It' Float When I was 16, I read Stephen King's brick of a novel in one weekend. This is both a testament to King's readability and to my dorkitude. I think I had read just
Arts & Entertainment 'I Do...Until I Don't' Is Disappointingly Conventional Lake Bell wrote, directed, and starred in 2013's In a World... a charming comedy about the life of a struggling voiceover actress, a world she's very familiar with, as she has a number
Arts & Entertainment Winning Performances Keep Rap Musical 'Patti Cake$' Fresh Going into , I'll admit I had some trepidation. Is now really the time for a story about a white girl who wants to become a rap star? Also, didn't 8 Mile already cover
Arts & Entertainment 'The Glass Castle' Sells Its Heroine Short There are plenty of tales of drunken fathers with big dreams that can never be fulfilled, and plenty of stories of families who are as poor as dirt but nevertheless manage to find
Arts & Entertainment 'Good Time' Will Take Your Breath Away begins with a close-up on a young man's face. When he speaks, the sound of his voice suggests that he has a developmental disability. His name is Nick, and he's with a psychiatrist
Arts & Entertainment 'The Dark Tower' Lands With A Thud I've read almost all of Stephen King's books, having started way younger than I probably should have (around age 10), yet series never did it for me. I tried the first book, but
Arts & Entertainment 'War For The Planet Of The Apes' Is The Best One Yet When the franchise first tried a reboot in 2001, it was in the hands of director Tim Burton.The result, while pretty faithful to the look of the original series, was....not good.
Arts & Entertainment 'Maudie' Is An Unromantic Romance , which tells the slightly fictionalized story of Nova Scotian folk artist Maud Lewis, is probably one of the least romantic romances you'll ever see. This makes the film unique, but also a bit
Arts & Entertainment Kate McKinnon Steals 'Rough Night' When came out in 2011 it was a turning point for female-led comedies. It was written by women, it centered on women, and most importantly, it made money, proving teenage boys are not
Arts & Entertainment 'Cars 3' Grows Up With Its Audience I have a theory that I've, admittedly, not really done much to prove aside from talking to friends with kids: Pixar's Cars movies are the ones parents like the least, while their (often
Arts & Entertainment 'Paris Can Wait' Is Conventionally Pleasant In 1991, Eleanor Coppola turned the interviews and footage she shot during the production of her husband Francis's film Apocalypse Now into the excellent documentary And she hasn't made a feature film since.
Arts & Entertainment Third Time Is *Not* A Charm For 'The Dinner' is the third adaptation of Dutch author Herman Koch's novel to hit the screens since the book's 2009 release, and the first version to be set in America. I'll have to watch the
Arts & Entertainment 'The Promise' Is A Love Story Surrounded By Horror Taxes were due this week (if this is news to you, I'm sorry), and if you're a California resident paying state income tax, you may have once again been puzzled over a question
Arts & Entertainment Epic Adventure 'The Lost City Of Z' Tiptoes Through Thorny Racial Issues James Gray's , based on the best selling book by David Grann, is an epic adventure that brings to mind cinematic classics like Lawrence of Arabia, Apocalypse Now, and similar stories centered on obsessive
