Festivals

Get ready for Frameline

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Photo caption: Olivia Coleman and John Lithgow in Sophie Hyde’s JIMPA, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Photo by Mark De Blok. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.

Frameline, the oldest and longest-running LGBTQ+ film festival in the world, opens June 18 and runs through June 28. The 49th(!) Frameline brings us festival award-winners from Sundance to the Berlinale, with 150 films from 40 countries, including 42 world, North American and US premieres.

Films will screen at the Herbst Theatre and the ACT’s Toni Rembe Theater, as well as familiar arthouses like the Roxie, the Vogue, the New Parkway and, this year for the first time, the Rafael. Select films will be streamable after the in-person fest; (I’ll have more about that when I learn which films will be available online).

Here are some Frameline49 highlights:

  • The fest opens with John Lithgow and Olivia Colman starring in the Sundance indie Jimpa, about the Amsterdam reunion of a multigenerational queer Australian family. The HIV-positive patriarch (Lithgow) is visited by his daughter (Colman) and her non-binary child (Aud Mason-Hyde). Described as “funny and heartfelt”.
  • The closing night film is the dramedy Twinless. Two guys meet at a support group for people who have lost their twin – straight Roman (Dylan O-Brien) and gay Dennis (James Sweeney) – and form an unlikely connection. O’Brien won the best acting award at Sundance and the film, written and directed by Sweeney, won the best drama award. See it now, before its September release.
  • The program includes a whopping 25 documentary features. Given the strength of the docs in past Framelines (Loving Highsmith, Making Montgomery Clift), this looks like a rich slate of docs.

Some of the screenings are already selling fast and, although Frameline may add some screenings, it would be wise to get your tickets now. You can peruse the program and get passes and tickets at Frameline.

As in my Frameline coverage last year, I’ll be focusing on international cinema, especially directorial debuts. The Frameline programmers have a gift for finding the promising first films of new directors. In recent years, Frameline has presented Marion Desseigne-Ravel’s French coming-of-age story Besties, Marius Olteanu‘s innovative Romanian drama Monsters.(sic), Leon Le’s groundbreaking Vietnamese romance Song Lang, and Arantxa Echevarria’s Spanish sexual awakening tale Carmen y Lola. Last year, Frameline hosted the North American premiere of the third feature by Brazilian auteur Juliana Rojas, Cidade; Campo.

In this year’s program, I’ve already found some gems from Croatia and Taiwan – and a wowzer from France. Just before the fest opens, I’ll be coming back with specific recommendations.

Dylan O’Brien and James Sweeney in James Sweeney’s TWINLESS. Photo by Greg Cotten. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.

Best of the SLO Film Fest

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Photo caption: The Gaelic thriller AONTAS. Courtesy of SLO Film Fest.

The 2025 SLO Film Fest opens tomorrow. I’ve screened over a dozen of the features, and here are four that you shouldn’t miss:

  • Aontas: This clever Irish thriller opens with three women donning balaclavas, brandishing guns and bursting into a credit union, a heist going wrong. Who are they? Who are they to each other? What is their plan? This is not techie Dublin. They are in a Gaelic-speaking western village, already on hard times when a smug sociopath loots the town by closing its last economic engine. In his second narrative feature, director and co-writer Damian McCann brilliantly unspools the story in a reverse chronology. Carrie Crowley and Brid Brennan are excellent as two estranged sisters with a shared horror in their past.
  • Made in Ethiopia: Businesswoman Motto is the face of a huge, new Chinese industrial park in Ethiopia. How huge? A factory with 3,000 workers is just one of its 130 businesses – and Motto is working on an 18,000-acre expansion. Motto is smart, zealous, charismatic and utterly non-ironic. Along with the other Chinese, she has drunk the Koo-Aid and sees the park as entirely benevolent – bringing large scale employment and investment to a poor and neglected society. A visiting Chinese official exclaims, “it’s just like China used to be!“. All of the workers are Ethiopian, who earn $50 per month in what is essentially a clean and gleaming sweatshop. All of the supervisors are Chinese who have left their families behind in China. The local farmers feel ripped off by their government, and an armed rebellion may be brewing. Apart from a global pandemic, what could possibly go wrong? In their first feature, directors Xinyan Yu and Max Duncan have created a brilliant exploration of clashing cultures and economic imperialism.
  • The Cigarette Surfboard: To raise consciousness about the environmental impact of cigarette butts (which is really, really bad), an activist builds and displays a functioning surfboard made out of 10,000 discarded cigarette butts picked up on the beach.  Backed by a community of surfers, scientists and surfer-scientists, he tours the world, seeking a ban on cigarette filters. Impressively, the Ciggy Board even survives Mavericks. The butt-gathering, surfboard building and local politics happens in Santa Cruz. This doc has racked up awards at many film festivals (even at one in Bulgaria).
  • Coastal: This film documents Neil Young’s most recent tour, a bus trip down and up the California coast for outdoor concerts in LA, San Diego and Berkeley. Young performs almost all new material, alone onstage except for his guitars, harmonica and a series of ancient pianos and an organ, each with its own back story. But the time on the bus is the most fun, featuring the banter between a wry, comfortable Young (with none of his renowned prickliness) and bus driver/raconteur Jerry Don Borden. This is director Daryl Hannah’s third Neil Young doc, and it’s an unusually intimate and authentic film. Neil Young and Daryl Hannah are expected to appear at the fest’s closing night screening at the Fremont Theater.
Neil Young in COASTAL. Courtesy of SLO Film Fest.

And here are two that I haven’t yet seen yet, but I think they’re pretty good bets:

  • The Baltimorons: A cracked tooth sends a guy to an emergency dentist and launches a nighttime adventure through Baltimore that could result in romance. We’re expecting The Baltimorons to reflect the sharp comic sensibility of writer-director Jay Duplass, who will appear to receive an award and present this film at the Fremont Theater. With his brother Mark, Duplass wrote and directed Baghead, Cyrus and Jeff Who Lives at Home, and has been busy directing/producing in television and acting (Transparent, Lynn Shelton’s Outside In). This is the first feature he has directed since 2012. At its world premiere just weeks ago, The Baltimorons won the Best Narrative Feature award at SXSW.
  • Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion: If ever a fashion designer dominated the Hollywood red carpet, it is Bob Mackie. Cher, Carol Burnett, Bernadette Peters, RuPaul and Tom Ford are all featured in this biodoc. After Monday’s screening at the Palm, Bob Mackie will appear to receive the festival’s King Vidor Award at the Hotel San Luis Obispo.

There are plenty more experiences at the fest, including features, workshops and six programs of shorts. Peruse the program and get your tickets at SLO Film Fest. Here are the trailers for Made in Ethiopia and The Cigarette Surfboard.

Surf and Skate at the 2025 SLO Film Fest

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Photo caption: Surf Nite in SLO. Courtesy of the SLO Film Fest.

This year’s SLO Film Fest, opening April 24, once again presents the richest Surf/Skate program that I’ve ever seen at a mainstream film festival. In fact, the SLO Film Festival dedicates its Friday night and Saturday night showcase screenings at the Fremont Theater to Surf/Skate events – that’s respect. Here are the highlights.

The always popular Surf Nite in SLO features three surfing short films with gnarly waves. Expect the Fremont Theater to be packed again with surfers enjoying drinks in the lobby and the Riff Tide surf band before the screening. The films are:

  • Making Waves: The Lakey Peterson Story profiles 805-native Lakey Peterson and her experiences on the World Surf League Championship Tour.
  • Creatures of Habit explores extreme cold water surfing,
  • NØ WAY involves even colder water and is described as “an antithesis to The Endless Summer“. It follows a band of surfers in the Barents Sea, which is between the northernmost coasts of Norway, Finland and Russia and the Arctic Ocean
Leandre Sanders in SKATEGOAT. Courtesy of SLO Film Fest.

For the second year, SLO Film Fest celebrates the culture and cinema of skateboarding with its Community of Skate program:

  • The feature film Skategoat profiles Leandre Sanders, whose passion for skateboarding led him to escape a crime-ridden and impoverished environment to become an international skateboarding superstar. Sanders will appear personally, along with the director, Van Alpert.
  • The short film Against the Current airs the reflections of skate icon and filmmaker Stacy Peralta on his own artistic journey. A surfer and one of the pioneers of modern skateboarding, Peralta, directed Dogtown and Z-boys and Riding Giants, wrote Lords of Dogtown, and founded the Powell Peralta skateboard product company. 
  • A post-screening panel with pro skaters Leandre Sanders and Chico Brenes, skate film director Aaron Meza, and Skategoat director Van Alpert.
  • An exhibition of skateboard designs and live-screen printing by the San Luis Obispo High School Advanced Graphic Design class. 
Photo caption: Jack Johnson in THE CIGARETTE SURFBOARD. Courtesy of SLO Film Fest.

The fest’s program also includes the enviro documentary feature The Cigarette Surfboard. To raise consciousness about the environmental impact of cigarette butts (which is really, really bad), an activist builds and displays a functioning surfboard made out of 10,000 discarded cigarette butts picked up on the beach.  Backed by a community of surfers, scientists and surfer-scientists, he tours the world, seeking a ban on cigarette filters. Impressively, the Ciggy Board even survives Mavericks. The butt-gathering, surfboard building and local politics happens in Santa Cruz. This doc has racked up awards at many film festivals (even at one in Bulgaria).

Check out the program and get your tickets at SLO Film Fest. Here are the trailers for Skategoat and The Cigarette Surfboard.

SFFILM Festival: three international gems

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Photo caption: Marina Fois in MAGMA. Courtesy of SFFILM.

This year’s San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM) opens on Thursday and runs through April 27. There are plenty of big events, including the opening night Rebuilding starring Josh O’Connor (Challengers, La Chimera, The Crown) and Andre Holland appearing to receive an award and present his latest film Love, Brooklyn. However, don’t overlook the international cinema at SFFILM – here are three gems.

  • Magma: Marina Fois plays the leader of the scientific team that monitors the active volcano on Guadeloupe. She is seasoned, confident and not prone to panic. The government relies on her to counsel whether and when an upcoming eruption will force evacuation of island residents – and the politicians are not comfortable interpreting her probabilities. While no one wants to endanger lives, everyone remembers an evacuation that went horribly wrong in 1976. So, the stakes are high, and she is the public face of the decision to evacuate or not. When the government overreacts, her job gets much tougher. The clock ticks and the pressure builds in this taut 82-minute thrill ride, as director Cypriot Vial, who co-wrote, unspools the action. The performances by Fois and Theo Christine as her grad student assistant are fantastic. Magma won the SFFILM award for depicting science in a narrative film.
  • Triumph: Looking for a new role after the fall of communism, Bulgarian army leaders follow a psychic’s advice to burrow into the earth in search of a portal to a space alien’s mothership. If this seems farfetched, look up the historical event called “The Tsarichina Hole” (illustrated in the closing credits). Following the East European filmmaking tradition of exposing the absurdities in communist bureaucracy, directors and co-writers Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov pile on layers of droll hilarity. The psychic gets everyone to adopt pseudo-scientific mumbo jumbo like “deactimation“. The army commander in charge brings his disturbed teen daughter (Maria Bakalova of Borat Subsequent Moviefilm), who has her own awakenings and begins to out-psychic the psychic.
  • Rains Over Babel: In her stunning debut feature, writer-director Gala del Sol takes us into an imagined world of Cali, Columbia, bars connected to the Underworld (not the just criminal underworld), ruled by a sexy loan shark who is the Grim Reaper. Among the denizens are a sleek and smarmy bartender, a prudish preacher, a gangland enforcer who’s been dead for twenty years, a talking salamander and more drag queens than you can shake a stick at. The story, fraught with desperation and Faustian bargains, flies by. Del Sol says she marries magic realism with gritty realism, and Rains Over Babel is visually orgiastic. The intricate production designs of the interiors could be by a demented Wes Anderson. The sound design is jarring and totally original. As an auteur, Gala del Sol is thinking so far outside of the box that you can’t tell that there’s a box.
Maria Bakalova in TRIUMPH. Courtesy of SFFILM and Bankside Films.

.The menu at SFFILM Festival includes 150 films from more than 50 countries. Peruse the program and buy tickets at SFFILM. Here’s the teaser for Rains Over Babel.

First look at the 2025 SLO Film Fest

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Photo caption: Neil Young in COASTAL. Courtesy of the SLO Film Festival.

The 2025 SLO Film Fest opens on April 24 and celebrates its 31st festival, bringing its characteristic mix of aspirational cinema and sheer fun to California’s Central Coast. This year’s slate is an intoxicating mix of US and international indies and festival hits fresh from their premieres at Sundance and SXSW. Plus the richest program of surf and skate films of any mainstream film festival. The fest will run through April 29.

This is the first festival since the the SLO Film Center came into being as a collaboration of the SLO Film Festival and the Palm Theatre. Fittingly, the Palm will be showcasing some films and celebrity appearances, with the festival’s biggest events at the Fremont theatre. As usual, most screenings will take place at the Downtown Centre 7. One surfing-oriented feature will screen at the Bay in Morro Bay.

Jay Duplass appearing at the SLO Film Fest, Courtesy of the SLO Film Festival.

Here are festival highlights:

  • The opening night film is the Sundance Audience Award winner, DJ Ahmet.
  • The closing night film will be Coastal, Daryl Hannah’s documentary of the latest Neil Young concert tour. Both Neil Young and Daryl Hannah are expected to appear in person.
  • Director Jay Duplass will appear in person to receive an award and present his SXSW hit The Baltimorons.
  • The biodoc Bob Mackie: A Naked Illusion, with the fashion designer Bob Mackie in attendance for a Q&A at the Palm..
  • The Oscar-nominated documentary Porcelain War.
  • The always popular Surf Night featuring three surfing short films with gnarly waves. Expect the Fremont to be packed again with surfers enjoying drinks in the lobby and the Riff Tide surf band before the screening.
  • Skating culture is celebrated with the second annual Community of Skate – skate films, a panel of pro skaters and skate filmmakers, and a skateboard design exhibition.

There’s plenty more, with features, workshops and six programs of shorts. I’m screening my way through the program, and will post my MUST SEE recommendations before the fest opens. Peruse the program and get your tickets at SLO Film Fest.

DJ AHMET. Courtesy of the SLO Film Festival.

First look at the 2025 SFFILM Festival

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Photo caption: Josh O’Connor and Lily LaTorre in Max Walker Silverman’s REBUILDING, screening at the 2025 SFFILM. Courtesy of SFFILM.

This year’s San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM) opens April 17, and runs through April 27. SFFILM Festival is the longest-running film festival in the Americas, and this year’s fest is the 68th. The Premier Theater at One Letterman will host the Opening, Centerpiece and Closing Nights, and most screenings will take place at the Marina Theatre and the Presidio Theatre. Screenings and events will also take place at BAMFA in Berkeley and at seven other San Francisco venues.

The menu at SFFILM Festival includes 150 films from more than 50 countries. Peruse the program and buy tickets at SFFILM.

Here are some of the more special elements of this year’s SFFILM Festival :

  • Opening night with Max Walker-Silverman’s Rebuilding, a drama starring Josh O’Connor (Challengers, La Chimera, The Crown) as a man whose resilience is challenged by the devastation of wildfires.
  • Actor André Holland will appear to receive a tribute and to showcase his new film Love, Brooklyn. Holland also appears in another SFFILM film, The Dutchman.
  • Director Chris Columbus will appear to receive a tribute and host a screening of his 2005 musical drama Rent.
  • Greek director Athina Rachel Tsangari, who brought her her hilariously offbeat Attenberg and her wickedly funny Chevalier to previous SFFILM fests, is here again with her latest, Harvest, starring Harry Melling and Caleb Landry Jones.
  • SFFILM celebrates the treasured Roxie Theater with its 30-yar-old Mel Novikoff Award and a Roxie screening of Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon, in the year of that movie’s 75th anniversary,
  • One of the deepest documentary sections in recent memory, including fourteen US and thirteen international features.
  • Horror retrospective with The Babadook, Carnival of Souls, They Live, Chain Reactions and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
  • Movies starring Marlee Maitlin, Josh O’Connor, Kate Mara, Andre Holland, Ben Foster, Chloe Sevigny, Danielle Deadwyler, Marina Foïs, Caleb Landry Jones, Harry Melling and Simon Rex.

As usual, I’ll be looking for under-the-radar gems and posting my recommendations just before the fest’s opening

Cinequest movies go on-line today

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Photo caption: Alexander Karim in THE DOG. Courtesy of Cinequest.

Beginning today, and thru midnight March 31, select films from this year’s Cinequest are now available to watch at home through Cinequest’s online festival Cinejoy. The price is less than ten bucks per movie, and you can watch all of them with a $50 pass,

There’s a Spotlight section where you can join others watching the film at the same time and participate in Q&A with the filmmakers. The films that I recommend are in the Cinejoy Showcase section, so you can watch them whenever convenient:

  • The Dog: This electrifying thriller follows a classic neo-noir premise. A low level hood is assigned to drive a call girl, and he falls for her – against the explicit instructions of their employer and advice from the call girl herself. To stake a new start in a faraway land, he reaches for the big score. Desperation results. What’s unusual about The Dog is that it’s exceptionally exciting and that it’s set in Mombasa, Kenya. There’s a wonderful low-speed tuk tuk chase (on three-wheel taxis) through Mombasa’s open air markets, street performers and herds of goats. And there’s another unforgettable scene that will be particularly uncomfortable for male audience members.
  • The Move In: In this Mexican drama, a couple moves into a new home and, the first night, think someone has broken in; it turns out to be only the clang of an old window, but it’s a really scary experience, and the man, heading off to defend them, suffers a panic attack. As they unwind from the incident, it appears like they can get past it, but can they? In his first feature, writer-director-producer RS Quintanilla gradually reveals more about the origin and underpinnings of their newish relationship, as the experience makes its mark . It’s a similar premise to Ruben Ostlund’s Force Majeure, but The Move In is more subtle and perhaps even better. This a profoundly clever screenplay, and The Move In is one of the very best films at Cinequest. World premiere.
  • Burt: The title character in this affecting dramedy is a an elderly street musician with Parkinson’s. Burt rents a room in the home of his landlord Steve, an ever-suspicious and oppositional guy who is Burt’s age. Nevertheless, Burt is relentlessly upbeat. A young man, Sammy, arrives with a letter from one of Burt’s youthful flames, explaining that Sammy is Burt’s son. Burt jumps into belated fatherhood with both feet, and then discovers that all is not what it seems. Director and co-writer Joe Burke, in his second feature, succeeds in getting fine performances from non-professional actors playing Burt and Steve. Executive produced by indie stalwart David Gordon Green (George Washington, All the Real Girls, Undertow). World premiere.
  • Alien: This mysterious Russian sci fi tale is set in the unfamiliar, remote Ural hinterlands. Lyosha, the local oddball, has a hearing disability, lives in his grandmother’s cabin on the edge of the settlement, and has built an impressive tower out of trash that he has collected. He has also jerrybuilt a radio system and made giant circles in the fields, all attempts to contact space aliens He is teased pitilessly by the village japesters. We later learn that the long ago disappearance of his mother has affected his psyche. A newcomer suddenly appears at his cabin – most certainly not looking like any space alien that Lyosha has imagined. Is this visitor just a runaway from another village, an emissary from deep in the universe, or a supernatural messenger from his mother? It’s all up in air as hostile villagers close in, all thew way to an unpredictable ending. US premiere.
  • Xibalba Monster: In this gentle, 76-minute tale, a pudgy Cuernavaca 10-year-old is sent off with his nanny for an extended visit in her remote Yucatan village. The affluent city kid is now in a poor community, tucked in the jungle with ancient Mayan ruins. He is now among the country kids, who do what kids do, completely unsupervised. He’s not been getting attention or affection from his widowed father, and he’s developed into a watchful, quietly curious kid with a gift for lying when convenient. He’s curious about mortality, and, throughout the story, reminders of death keep popping up – a highway accident, a museum with spooky artifacts, roadkill, a cemetery, local tall tales and more. Still, Xibalba Monster is decidedly not scary and captures the way that kids play and imagine. Adults will enjoy it, as will kids from middle school up. US premiere.
  • Boutique: To Preserve and Collect: This infectious documentary is about passion – passion that fuels the preservation and rejuvenation of cult cinema. We’re mostly talking about exploitation movies that would otherwise be lost. Much the credit for saving them goes to Severin Films and Vinegar Syndrome, which are essentially the Criterion Collection for grindhouse cinema. Both companies evolved from aficionados making bootleg tapes of their favorite obscure films into legitimate catalogues of preserved films. You may not think that a certain movie is IMPORTANT, but there is probably someone who finds it absolutely ESSENTIAL. Many movies have been made to be disposable, but have inspired loyal fans. One person’s drive-in may be another’s arthouse. What makes Boutique: To Preserve and Collect fun to watch is the contagious enthusiasm of the devotees. US premiere
  • American Agitators: This is the important story of legendary organizer Fred Ross, the mentor of Cesar Chavez, and essentially a saint of the social justice movement. American Agitators shows Ross being formed by the Great Depression and the left-wing politics, the union movement and the New Deal. This extraordinarily well-sourced doc rolls out Ross’ legacy today, not just Chavez the icon and the Farmworkers movement, but the influence of Fred Ross, Jr. and organizing campaigns in 2025. LOCAL INTEREST: Fred Ross met Chavez at Cesar’s home at 53 Sharff Avenue in San Jose, hired Cesar as his deputy and organized out of McDonnell Hall at Our Lady of Guadalupe on East Antonio Street.  Cesar’s son Paul (of San Jose) appears in the film as does Luis Valdes of Teatro Campesino, who has also had a significant presence in San Jose. World premiere.
  • A Little Fellow: The Legacy of A.P. Giannini: Here’s an underdog story – a boy loses his immigrant father, starts out impoverished and builds the nation’s largest bank, helping to rebuild San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake. This very comprehensive documentary also tells the less well-known story of Giannini as movie financier – backing films like City Lights, Gone with the Wind and Sleeping Beauty. LOCAL INTEREST: Giannini’s childhood began in San Jose, his father was murdered in Alviso, and his first bank branch building still stands, only 1500 feet from the Cinequest screening at the Hammer Theatre..  US Premiere.
  • Silent Sparks: In this Taiwanese neo-noir, small time hood Pua is released from prison and checks in with the swaggering, exuberant local crime lord. The boss assigns him to a lieutenant, Mi-Ji, who happens to be Pua’s former cell-mate. But when Pua and Mi-Ji meet again, the encounter is a study in social awkwardness. Pua just wants to start earning money and working his way up in the syndicate, but Mi-Ji is surprisingly unhelpful. What explains Mi-Ji’s behavior toward Pua? As Silent Sparks smolders on, the risks escalate. Promising first feature for writer-director Ping Chu. US premiere.
  • In a Wintry Season:  This heartfelt and intoxicating documentary starts out looking like a fairy tale, and unpredictably turns decidedly not, as the real world and human behavior intervene.  I generally resist filmmakers profiling their own parents, but In a Wintry Season won me over with its candor, authenticity and surprises.  It’s a relatable story of two people and their family and their times, but it brings us into a meditation on what is American Catholicism today.  With its very sweet ending, In a Wintry Season will be a crowd=pleaser at Cinequest. US Premiere.

These are all good, but don’t miss The Dog and The Move In.

Florencia Rios and Noé Hernández in THE MOVE IN. Courtesy of Cinequest.

Wrapping up Cinequest

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Photo caption: Florencia Rios and Noé Hernández in THE MOVE IN. Courtesy of Cinequest.

Here are the Cinequest 2025 films that I hadn’t written about yet in my The Best of Cinequest:

  • The Move In: In this Mexican drama, a couple moves into a new home and, the first night, think someone has broken in; it turns out to be only the clang of an old window, but it’s a really scary experience, and the man, heading off to defend them, suffers a panic attack. As they unwind from the incident, it appears like they can get past it, but can they? In his first feature, writer-director-producer RS Quintanilla gradually reveals more about the origin and underpinnings of their newish relationship, as the experience makes its mark. It’s a similar premise to Ruben Ostlund’s Force Majeure, but The Move In is more subtle and perhaps even better. This a profoundly clever screenplay, and The Move In is one of the very best films at Cinequest. World premiere.
  • Xibalba Monster: In this gentle, 76-minute tale, a pudgy Cuernavaca 10-year-old is sent off with his nanny for an extended visit in her remote Yucatan village. The affluent city kid is now in a poor community, tucked in the jungle with ancient Mayan ruins. He is now among the country kids, who do what kids do, completely unsupervised. He’s not been getting attention or affection from his widowed father, and he’s developed into a watchful, quietly curious kid with a gift for lying when convenient. He’s curious about mortality, and, throughout the story, reminders of death keep popping up – a highway accident, a museum with spooky artifacts, roadkill, a cemetery, local tall tales and more. Still, Xibalba Monster is decidedly not scary and captures the way that kids play and imagine. Adults will enjoy it, as will kids from middle school up. US premiere.
  • Boutique: To Preserve and Collect: This infectious documentary is about passion – passion that fuels the preservation and rejuvenation of cult cinema. We’re mostly talking about exploitation movies that would otherwise be lost. Much the credit for saving them goes to Severin Films and Vinegar Syndrome, which are essentially the Criterion Collection for grindhouse cinema. Both companies evolved from aficionados making bootleg tapes of their favorite obscure films into legitimate catalogues of preserved films. You may not think that a certain movie is IMPORTANT, but there is probably someone who finds it absolutely ESSENTIAL. Many movies have been made to be disposable, but have inspired loyal fans. One person’s drive-in may be another’s arthouse. What makes Boutique: To Preserve and Collect fun to watch is the contagious enthusiasm of the devotees. US premiere
  • A Little Fellow: The Legacy of A.P. Giannini: Here’s an underdog story – a boy loses his immigrant father, starts out impoverished and builds the nation’s largest bank, helping to rebuild San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake. This very comprehensive documentary also tells the less well-known story of Giannini as movie financier – backing films like City Lights, Gone with the Wind and Sleeping Beauty. LOCAL INTEREST: Giannini’s childhood began in San Jose, his father was murdered in Alviso, and his first bank branch building still stands, only 1500 feet from the Cinequest screening at the Hammer Theatre..  US Premiere.
  • Nora: A singer-songwriter (Anna Campbell, who also wrote and directed) leaves the music industry to return to her hometown, along with her precocious six-year-old daughter. Her confidence rocked by her life changes, she is now the new gal in a society run by her former high school classmates. Her feelings are reflected in her songs, dropped in throughout the movie, and Campbell shows a knack for directing music videos. Campbell’s screenplay genuinely captures the vulnerabilities of solo parenting and career change. Two of the characters are unrealistically perfect, but Campbell resists the cliche of having Nora hook up with the guy. The kid actor, Sophie Mara Baaden, is very good. The songs, written by Noah Harmon, are outstanding. World premiere.
  • The Bitter Tears of Zahra Zand: Having fled the Islamic Revolution of 1979, recently divorced and going broke, a famous Iranian fashion designer is trying to maintain her former lifestyle in London. She tends to narcissism and extravagance, which makes for character-driven humor. The designer is wonderfully played by Iranian poet Boshra Dastournezhad (so good in Radio Dreams), who co-write the screenplay. It’s basically a remake of Fassbinder’s The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant.
  • 1 + 1 + 1, Life, Love, Chaos: In this awkwardly titled Quebecois comedy, an author suffering from writer’s block takes her on-and-off boyfriend and her teen daughter for a secluded week at her aunt’s country cabin. As she battles with her self-confidence, the situations struck me as contrived in a sit-commy way, but the protagonist’s narration of her inner dialogue is a hoot. World premiere.
  • The Courageous: In this Swiss drama, a mom lives on the margins with her kids. She admittedly has no good choices, but she takes increasing risks to provide for the kids. The film is well-acted and well-shot, but it intends to depict the mom as rebellious and individualistic, when she is actually endangering her children’s welfare and long-term futures. Instead of rooting for the mom, audience members will want to call Swiss Child Protective Services.
  • The Summer Book: An elementary school-age girl and her father, struggling with the death of her mother, spend the summer at her grandmother’s home on a tiny Finnish island. The grandmother (Glenn Close) always knows the right thing to do or say as the girl heals and comes of age. This is an adaptation of the 1972 novel by Finnish-Swedish author Tove Jansson, which is reputedly a great read.  Unfortunately, its literary merit isn’t translated to the screen. Close’s fine performance can’t save this slog. I checked the time after nothing had happened in the first 31 minutes, and decided to keep watching in case it turned out to be the most boring film I had ever seen. That most boring film ever remains Le Quattro Volte, but The Summer Book is a contender.
Manuel Irene in XIBALBA MONSTER. Courtesy of Cinequest.

Best of Cinequest

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Photo caption: Sergio Podeley in GUNMAN. Courtesy of Cinequest.

Cinequest, Silicon Valley’s own major film festival, returns live and in-person March 11, back in downtown San Jose, with screenings March 11-24 at the California Theatre, the Hammer Theater and 3Below. Selected films from the program then move to Cinequest’s virtual platform, Cinejoy, from March 23-30. I’m covering Cinequest for the fourteenth straight year.

I’ve already seen over twenty offerings from Cinequest 2025, and here are my initial recommendations. As usual, I focus on the world and US premieres. Follow the links for full reviews, images and trailers. I’ve also included some tips for making the most of the Cinequest experience under “Hacking Cinequest”. I’m leading off with two neo-thrillers – one set in Buenos Aired and one in Mombasa Kenya – and a haunting sci fi from Italy.

MUST SEE

  • Gunman (Gatillero): This hyper-kinetic Argentine neo-noir kicks off when the small time gunsel Galgo returns from prison and learns that the neighborhood drug gangs find him expendable. He immediately finds himself framed for a gangland assassination and goes on the run in a 75-minute, real-time thrill ride. As the prey in a midnight man hunt, Galgo’s dash for survival is captured by a handheld camera in shots of very long duration. If you liked Run, Lola, Run or Victoria, you’ll love Gunman. Gunman is an amazing first feature for director and co-writer, Cris Tapia Marchiori, and an unforgettable achievement for Marchiori and his veteran cinematographer Martin Sapia. Based on a true story and shot in its actual setting, the drug-plagued Buenos Aires neighborhood of Isla Maciel, Gunman is brimming with verisimilitude. US premiere.
  • The Dog: The electrifying thriller The Dog follows a classic neo-noir premise. A low level hood is assigned to drive a call girl, and he falls for her – against the explicit instructions of their employer and advice from the call girl herself. To stake a new start in a faraway land, he reaches for the big score. Desperation results. What’s unusual about The Dog is that it’s exceptionally exciting and that it’s set in Mombasa, Kenya. There’s a wonderful low-speed tuk tuk chase (on three-wheel taxis) through Mombasa’s open air markets, street performers and herds of goats. And there’s another unforgettable scene that will be particularly uncomfortable for male audience members.
  • The Complex Forms: This visually striking atmospheric is set in a centuries-old Italian villa, where Christian and other down-on-their-luck middle-aged men sell their bodies for a period of days to be “possessed”. Possessed how? By who or by what? As the dread builds, Christian resolves to pry the answers from the secretive masters of the villa. Director Fabio D’Orta unspools the story with remarkably crisp black-and-white cinematography, a brooding soundtrack and impeccable editing. In his astonishingly impressive filmmaking debut, D’Orta wrote, directed, shot and edited The Complex Form. 

MORE INTERNATIONAL CINEMA

  • Alien: This mysterious Russian sci fi tale is set in the unfamiliar, remote Ural hinterlands. Lyosha, the local oddball, has a hearing disability, lives in his grandmother’s cabin on the edge of the settlement, and has built an impressive tower out of trash that he has collected. He has also jerrybuilt a radio system and made giant circles in the fields, all attempts to contact space aliens He is teased pitilessly by the village japesters. We later learn that the long ago disappearance of his mother has affected his psyche. A newcomer suddenly appears at his cabin – most certainly not looking like any space alien that Lyosha has imagined. Is this visitor just a runaway from another village, an emissary from deep in the universe, or a supernatural messenger from his mother? It’s all up in air as hostile villagers close in, all thew way to an unpredictable ending. US premiere.
  • Silent Sparks: In this Taiwanese neo-noir, small time hood Pua is released from prison and checks in with the swaggering, exuberant local crime lord. The boss assigns him to a lieutenant, Mi-Ji, who happens to be Pua’s former cell-mate. But when Pua and Mi-Ji meet again, the encounter is a study in social awkwardness. Pua just wants to start earning money and working his way up in the syndicate, but Mi-Ji is surprisingly unhelpful. What explains Mi-Ji’s behavior toward Pua? As Silent Sparks smolders on, the risks escalate. Promising first feature for writer-director Ping Chu. US premiere.

DOCUMENTARIES

  • The Unfixing: This mesmerizing film is a self-therapeutic memoir, chronicling the filmmaker’s personal journey through her parents’ divorcee, her own sudden disability from chronic fatigue syndrome, and then shockingly, her daughter’s affliction with the same symptoms via Lyme Disease; mom and daughter experiment with a new therapy that purports to rewire their brains.  The clever structured (in yearly segments tied to climate change) and repeated motifs (of photography, the beach and grief) make this an art film inside a memoir.  How will this family story end? This unique film may not be for everyone, but it’s that wholly original cinema that people hope to see at a film festival. US Premiere.
  • American Agitators: This is the important story of legendary organizer Fred Ross, the mentor of Cesar Chavez, and essentially a saint of the social justice movement. American Agitators shows Ross being formed by the Great Depression and the left-wing politics, the union movement and the New Deal. This extraordinarily well-sourced doc rolls out Ross’ legacy today, not just Chavez the icon and the Farmworkers movement, but the influence of Fred Ross, Jr. and organizing campaigns in 2025. LOCAL INTEREST: Fred Ross met Chavez at Cesar’s home at 53 Sharff Avenue in San Jose, hired Cesar as his deputy and organized out of McDonnell Hall at Our Lady of Guadalupe on East Antonio Street.  Cesar’s son Paul (of San Jose) appears in the film as does Luis Valdes of Teatro Campesino, who has also had a significant presence in San Jose. World premiere.
  • In a Wintry Season:  This heartfelt and intoxicating documentary starts out looking like a fairy tale, and unpredictably turns decidedly not, as the real world and human behavior intervene.  I generally resist filmmakers profiling their own parents, but In a Wintry Season won me over with its candor, authenticity and surprises.  It’s a relatable story of two people and their family and their times, but it brings us into a meditation on what is American  Catholicism today.  With its very sweet ending, In a Winrty Season wil be a crowd=pleaser at Cinequest. US Premiere.

INDIE

  • Burt: The title character in this affecting dramedy is a an elderly street musician with Parkinson’s. Burt rents a room in the home of his landlord Steve, an ever-suspicious and oppositional guy who is Burt’s age. Nevertheless, Burt is relentlessly upbeat. A young man, Sammy, arrives with a letter from one of Burt’s youthful flames, explaining that Sammy is Burt’s son. Burt jumps into belated fatherhood with both feet, and then discovers that all is not what it seems. Director and co-writer Joe Burke, in his second feature, succeeds in getting fine performances from non-professional actors playing Burt and Steve. Executive produced by indie stalwart David Gordon Green (George Washington, All the Real Girls, Undertow). World premiere.

COMEDY

  • Time Travel Is Dangerous: In this deadpan British comedy, two ditzy gals who run a vintage shop discover a discarded gizmo from the early VCR era; it turns out to be an operational time machine, which they use to pilfer objects in the past that they can merchandise in the present. “You can’t put a price on nostalgia. Well, we do.” The two are tracked down by a consortium of inventors, and Time Travel Is Dangerous brilliantly sends up organizational behavior and other human foibles (one becomes stuck in her insufferable teenage years. When they carelessly unlock a dangerous vortex, we’re off to another dimension. The filmmakers don’t take themselves too seriously, and the special effects are the best you can find at the Dollar Store If you like Portlandia and Best In Show, but wish they were wackier, you’ll enjoy Time Travel Is Dangerous. Bay Area premiere.

HACKING CINEQUEST

Cinequest resumes its Downtown San Jose vibe, with concurrent screenings at the 1122-seat California, the 550-seat Hammer and the more intimate 3Below – all within 1600 feet of each other (and the VIP lounge at the Continental ). 

At Cinequest, you can get a festival pass for as little as $199 (a ten-pack for $110), and you can get individual tickets as well. Take a look at the entire program, the schedule and the passes and tickets.

As usual, I’ll be covering Cinequest rigorously with features and movie recommendations. I usually screen (and write about) twenty to thirty films from around the world. Bookmark my CINEQUEST 2025 page page, with links to all my coverage. 

Here’s the trailer for The Complex Forms.

THE COMPLEX FORMS: what did he bargain for?

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David Allen White in Fabio D’Orta’s THE COMPLEX FORMS. Courtesy of Slamdance.

The visually striking atmospheric The Complex Forms is set in a centuries-old Italian villa, where Christian (David Allen White) and other down-on-their-luck middle-aged men sell their bodies for a period of days to be “possessed”. Possessed how? By who or by what? As the dread builds, Christian resolves to pry the answers from the secretive masters of the villa.

Director Fabio D’Orta unspools the story with remarkably crisp black-and-white cinematography, a brooding soundtrack and impeccable editing. In his astonishingly impressive filmmaking debut, D’Orta wrote, directed, shot and edited The Complex Form.

David Allen White is excellent as Christian, who begins resigned to endure whatever process that he has committed to, but becomes increasingly uneasy as his probing questions are deflected. So are Michael Venni as Christian’s talkative roommate Luh and Cesare Bonomelli as the impassive roommate simply called The Giant.

Like his countrymen Fellini and Leona, D’Orta has a gift for using faces to heighten interest and tell the story. He makes especially effective use of Bonomelli’s Mt. Rushmore-like countenance.

I screened The Complex Forms for its United States premiere at Slamdance. The Complex Forms was my favorite Slamdance film and won the festival’s Honorable Mention for Narrative Feature.  The Complex Forms is playing Cinequest on March 12 and 13.