If fiendishly concocted escapism is what you hanker for right now, consider "The Burnt Orange Heresy," a highly entertaining new Italian melodrama opening Friday.
BAMPFA looks back at a studio's legacy with "Francis Ford Coppola and 50 Years of American Zoetrope," a two-part series that assembles films from 1963-2019 directed or supported by Coppola and the company he built.
"Greed" (opening Friday), from British director Michael Winterbottom and comic actor Steve Coogan, has Coogan playing an arrogant, knighted textile importer.
After the fireworks of the political season, the Castro Theatre offers a refreshing change of pace: a mix of contemporary and classic cinema, including tributes to Judy Garland and Kirk Douglas, who just left us at the exalted age of 103.
In the opening frames of the fabulous rock-history memory piece "Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band," the one-time pretty boy and still quite handsome bandleader Robbie Robertson ruefully reflects on a human tragedy.
In "And Then We Danced," writer-director Levan Akin has fashioned a powerful, passionate love letter to young men everywhere, but particularly to those trapped in tradition-bound macho cultures.
Nothing beats a post-Oscar hangover quite so well as a late February night at the Castro Theatre, where the programmers have booked a baker's dozen worth of traditional and freshly minted classics.
The Mostly British Film Festival, a relatively new kid on the block, is turning 12. This annual event, dedicated to English-language films made outside the U.S., remains a standout in a local field packed with choices.
Best picture: Will Win: "1917." Should Win: "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood." Director Quentin Tarantino evokes 1969 Hollywood in so many clever ways, even the Manson Family is upstaged.
Each era has its own definition of great acting, which often puzzles subsequent generations. The following Best Actress Oscar-winning performances are worth a second viewing.
"The Assistant," opening Friday at Bay Area theatres, is a monster film where you never quite glimpse the monster. It's inspired by the scandals surrounding disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.
Handicapping the 2020 Oscar derby is complicated by the difficulty of trying to read the minds of the Academy's approximately 9,000 members. The following predictions are based on my own top film choices plus the national critics' lists.
