Arts & Culture :: Movies

David Lynch & the darkness next door

David Lynch & the darkness next door

  • by Sura Wood
  • Jan 7, 2020

A well-deserved if incomplete retrospective at BAMPFA, "Next Door to Darkness: The Films of David Lynch" includes his flawed masterpieces.

Let's do the Time Warp again!

Let's do the Time Warp again!

  • by David-Elijah Nahmod
  • Jan 7, 2020

Hard to believe that it's been 45 years since audiences first danced in the aisles and shouted back at the screen at showings of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show."

Remembering Mark Finch, 25 years later

Remembering Mark Finch, 25 years later

  • by Jenni Olson
  • Jan 7, 2020

Local queer filmmaker and former Frameline festival programmer Jenni Olson offers up a remembrance of her festival co-director Mark Finch. Olson and Finch also co-wrote the B.A.R.'s Out There column together in 1994.

Comedy & noir at the Castro Theatre

Comedy & noir at the Castro Theatre

  • by David Lamble
  • Jan 7, 2020

The year opens at the Castro Theatre with a bevy of special-event screenings including some under the banner of the 19th edition of the San Francisco Comedy Festival, or SF Sketchfest.

Cunningham, dancing through time

Cunningham, dancing through time

  • by David Lamble
  • Dec 30, 2019

Director Alla Kovgan's captivating bio-doc "Cunningham" (1919-2009) provides a hypnotic view of the fabled gay star dancer/teacher Merce Cunningham's choreography.

Best Films of 2019

Best Films of 2019

  • by David Lamble
  • Dec 23, 2019

Part Two of our Best Films of the year round-up is meant to lasso some late-season releases into the list, and hint at some of the strongest contenders for the Golden Globes and the Oscars.

Best films of 2019

Best films of 2019

  • by David Lamble
  • Dec 17, 2019

Week 1 of our annual Top Films salute is full of spectacular work drawn mostly from pre-Turkey Day releases.

Family plot: 'The Kingmaker'

Family plot: 'The Kingmaker'

  • by David Lamble
  • Dec 17, 2019

In director Laura Greenfield's poignant new doc "The Kingmaker," the dark recent history of the Philippines is explored around the bigger-than-life history of former first lady Imelda Marcos.

Up, up & away!

Up, up & away!

  • by David Lamble
  • Dec 10, 2019

At the Castro Theatre the other night I watched actors Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones soar into the sky over jolly old England, circa 1862, in the breathtaking new Amazon Studios feature "The Aeronauts."

30 years of Strand

30 years of Strand

  • by David Lamble
  • Dec 3, 2019

With "30/30 Vision: Three Decades of Strand Releasing," the venerable gay-owned film distribution company Strand Releasing celebrates its 30th anniversary in a special program at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art on Thurs., Dec. 5.

Our Miss Andrews

Our Miss Andrews

  • by Brian Bromberger
  • Dec 3, 2019

Julie Andrews' "Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years" begins with her arrival in Hollywood in 1963 to make her screen debut in Disney's "Mary Poppins."

Quelle horreur!

Quelle horreur!

  • by David Lamble
  • Nov 27, 2019

This year's Another Hole in the Head Film Fest, the 16th edition of a splendid little horror-film fest, comes with a distinctly queer accent: a queer feature and a handful of LGBTQ-themed shorts.

Kindness & forgiveness carry the day

Kindness & forgiveness carry the day

  • by David-Elijah Nahmod
  • Nov 26, 2019

In the new film "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood," Tom Hanks stars as Mister Rogers not in the story of Rogers' life, but in a story about what he meant to people, how he changed lives with his simple, folksy charm.

Silence is golden at the Castro Theatre

Silence is golden at the Castro Theatre

  • by David Lamble
  • Nov 26, 2019

December at the Castro Theatre offers a potent mix of noir silent classics, Peaches Christ, and annual holiday concerts by the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus.