Photo caption: SFFILM returns in-person to the Castro Theatre and other venues. Photo by Pamela Gentile. Courtesy of SFFILM.
This year’s San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM) opens April 21, and runs through May 1. The fest is IN-PERSON, which is a big deal after cancelling in 2020 and going virtual in 2021. Screening all the films at San Francisco’s Castro, Roxie, Vogue and Victoria theaters, and Berkeley’s BAMPFA, SFFILM is doubling down on its live events. Mask and proof of COVID vaccination will be required for attendees.
As always, it’s a Can’t Miss for Bay Area movie fans. The menu at SFFILM includes 130 films from 56 countries, with 16 world premieres and 10 North American or US premieres. Once again, a majority of the films were directed by female and non-binary filmmakers, and a majority of the movie in this years program have BIPOC directors.
Here are more special elements of this year’s SFFILM:
SFFILM honors Michelle Yeoh (the martial arts star of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the Bond Girl in Tomorrow Never Dies, and the steely mom in Crazy Rich Asians). On April 29, Yeoh will appear for an on-stage interview by Sandra Oh. On April 25, SFFILM will present a 35mm print of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon on the big screen at the Castro.
After last year’s fine selection of Mexican films (Son of Monarchs, Nudo Mixteco, Fauna, Dance of the 41), SFFILM offers a promising expanded Latinx program, with films from Ecuador, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia, Brazil, and of course, Mexico.
The most topical film is probably Klondike, where a mortar attack wipes out the front of a couple’s Ukrainian farmhouse. The film is set in the 2016 conflict that has since erupted into a full-scale war with the Russian invasion.
Again, SFFILM has highlighted a cross section of movies and events as Family-friendly, something that more film festivals should do. Introduce the kids to good cinema! Artist William Joyce will present his the Oscar®-winning The Fantastic Flying Books of Morris Lessmore and his latest creation, Mr. Spam Gets a New Hat – and will finish with a live drawing activity, welcoming audience members to draw along.
As usual, I’ll be looking for under-the-radar gems and posting my recommendations just before the fest.
The 2022 SFFILM opens April 21. Here’s the information on the program and tickets and passes. Throughout SFFILM, you can follow me on Twitter for the very latest coverage, my coverage on my 2022 SFFILM page.
Michelle Yeoh, appearing live at SFFILM. Photo (c) by William Laisne Getty Images. Courtesy of SFFILM.
A moment of telling kindness in a global shit show.
This week on The Movie Gourmet – Cinequest is underway today, as is my Cinequest coverage. Plus a new review of The Automat and a rant on the Oscars.
Oscar winners CODA, Drive My Car and Belfast are all now available to stream.
Reflecting on the shit show that was this year’s Oscars:
The second-worst moment was the desecration of the In Memorium segment, with peppy dancers in front of the images of the dead people; no one is properly revered when someone is bouncing to Norman Greenbaum’s one hit in front of their portrait. Shameful. (And why should Betty White, however beloved, get special recognition on a cinema awards show when she only made four forgettable movies?)
The best moment was Lady Gaga’s kindness and graciousness in helping Liza Minnelli through presenting the Best Picture award. Liza clearly didn’t have enough cognitive capacity to navigate the situation, and I feared she would announce La La Land as the winner. But Lady Gaga let her have her moment without messing up CODA’s.
CURRENT FILMS
CODA: what’s not to like about this delightful Oscar-winning audience-pleaser? CODA’s success results from the textured supporting characters and complicated family dynamics in writer-director Sian Heder’s screenplay. AppleTV.
Drive My Car: director and co-writer Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s engrossing masterpiece about dealing with loss – and it’s the best movie of 2021. Layered with character-driven stories that could each justify their own movie, this is a mesmerizing film that builds into an exhilarating catharsis. HBO Max, AppleTV, Amazon, and Vudu.
Nightmare Alley: enough burning ambition for a thousand carnies. IHBO Max, Hulu,Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and redbox.
Belfast: a child’s point of view is universal. If you have heartstrings, they are gonna get pulled. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and redbox.
Don’t Look Up: Wickedly funny. Filmmaker Adam McKay (The Big Short) and a host of movie stars hit the bullseye as they target a corrupt political establishment, a soulless media and a gullible, lazy-minded public. Netflix.
The Tragedy of Macbeth: No surprise here: Joel Coen, Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand deliver a crisp and imaginative version of the Bard’s Scottish Play. AppleTV.
Photo caption: Michael James Kelly and Elizabeth Hirsch-Tauber in Clinton Cornwell’s 12 MONTHS, world premiere at Cinequest. Courtesy of Cinequest.
Cinequest’s online festival CINEJOY begins on April 1 and runs through April 17. Here are my top picks:
MUST SEE
12 Months: This uncommonly authentic film traces the year-long span of a romance, using vignettes that are snapshots of the relationship’s evolution. Just like a real life relationship, 12 Months has moments that are playful and moments that are searing. 12 Months is entirely improvised by its director and its stars, who are extremely keen and perceptive observers of relationship behavior, and they don’t hit a single wrong note. It’s the Must See at this year’s Cinequest. World premiere.
INTERNATIONAL CINEMA
The Grand Bolero: Early in COVID’s devastating assault on Northern Italy, a middle-aged organ restorer is locked down in a centuries-old church; a salty curmudgeon, she cruelly resists the assistant forced upon her – a runaway young mute woman with no place else to shelter. But the young woman’s unexpected musical gift unlocks passion in the older woman. Passion evolves into obsession, propelling the story to an operatic finale. The Grand Bolero is the most visually beautiful film that I’ve seen in some time, and the music is powerfully evocative. It’s a remarkable first feature for director, co-writer and editor Gabriele Fabbro and his cinematographer Jessica La Malfa.
DOCUMENTARY
Tell Me a Memory is a simple, yet engrossing, LGBTQ+ oral history. One or two at a time, individuals from Memphis (did you know they call themselves Memphians?) tell their own stories. The subjects are impressively diverse – in age, gender, race and identity. Coming Out in the Bible Belt is a common thread. This is a gentle and emotionally powerful film.
AND TWO MORE
18 1/2 is the festival’s Opening Night film, a dark comedy that sends up the paranoid thriller genre. A low-level government clerical worker (an excellent Willa Fitzgerald) finds herself in possession of the infamous 18 1/2 minute gap in the Watergate Tapes. Of course, co-writers Daniel Moya and Dan Mirvish had to devise a way to get this MacGuffin in her hands; given the paranoia, deviousness and clumsiness of the Nixon White House, their solution is surprisingly plausible. Double crosses and red herrings escalate, as does the dark, dark humor. Richard Kind and Vondie Curtis-Hall sparkle in supporting roles.
Alpha Male, from Poland, is another dark comedy. A feckless young man has been dispatched by his girlfriend to a smoking cessation self-help group. Given the chaos of the community center, he ends up in the wrong room, among a men’s support group headed by a charismatic instructor. He hangs around anyway – and even returns – because this group has better food. The group focuses on their resentment of women, which seems silly and harmless at first, but descends into a paranoid fixation on an imagined organization of women seeking to emasculate them. Both the misogyny and their submissiveness to their bullying leader are taken to absurd levels.
This is the twelfth year that I’ve covered Cinequest, and, as usual, I’ll be covering Cinequest rigorously with features and movie recommendations. Bookmark my CINEQUEST 2022 page, with links to all my coverage (links on the individual movies will start to go live on Thursday, March 31st). Follow me on Twitter for the latest.
Photo caption: Michael James Kelly and Elizabeth Hirsch-Tauber in 12 MONTHS. Courtesy of Cinequest.
The uncommonly authentic 12 Months traces the year-long span of a romance, using vignettes that are snapshots of the relationship’s evolution. Just like a real life relationship, 12 Months has moments that are playful and moments that are searing. It’s the Must See at this year’s Cinequest.
Ellie (Elizabeth Hirsch-Tauber) and Clark (Michael James Kelly) share a first date, which leads to another, and things get serious. Both Ellie and Clark are decent, smart, sincere and vulnerable; each has quirks, but neither is a bundle of red flags. Each deserves to find a partner, and, so, are they a fit?
Directed by Clinton Cornwell in his feature debut, 12 Months is entirely improvised. Cornwell is credited for the story, Hirsch-Tauber as executive story editor and Kelly as contributing writer. 12 Months is an especially promising calling card for all three.
12 Months soars in recognizing that relationships are rarely symmetrical. The two people involved generally experience different levels of attraction, security, commitment, confidence, comfort and maturity – and at different times.
And 12 Months understands that what a relationship can survive isn’t always predictable, whether it be depression, a sexual proclivity or an out-of-town work assignment.
Clearly, Cornwell, Hirsch-Tauber and Kelly are extremely keen and perceptive observers of relationship behavior (whether from their own or those of others). They don’t hit a single wrong note in12 Months.
Clark’s and Ellie’s best pals are played, respectively, by Christopher Mychael Watson and Lindsey Rose Naves, and they are hilarious.
Movies like 12 Months are why we have film festivals. Cinequest hosts the world premiere of 12 Months, and you can stream it at Cinejoy. View the trailer.
Michael James Kelly and Elizabeth Hirsch-Tauber in 12 MONTHS. Courtesy of Cinequest.
Photo caption: Lidia Vitale and Ludovica Mancini in Gabriele Fabbro’s THE GRAND BOLERO at Cinequest. Courtesy of Cinequest.
The Grand Bolero is set in winter 2020, early in COVID’s devastating assault on Northern Italy. Roxanne (Lidia Vitale), a middle-aged organ restorer, is locked down in a centuries-old church, along with her client Paolo (Marcelli Mariani). Lucia (Ludovica Mancini), a runaway young mute woman with no place else to shelter, arrives at the church. In an act of kindness, Paolo brings her into the church as an assistant to Roxanne. A salty curmudgeon, Roxanne cruelly resists, even when Palolo chides her, “you know what it’s like to be scared and alone.”
Indeed, Roxanne is a solitary person in a solitary profession, moving from church to church to repair the ancient organs.
But Lucia’s unexpected musical gift unlocks appreciation and then passion in the older woman. Passion evolves into obsession, propelling the story to an operatic finale.
Lidia Vitale and Ludovica Mancini in Gabriele Fabbro’s THE GRAND BOLERO at Cinequest. Courtesy of Cinequest.
The Grand Bolero is the most visually beautiful film that I’ve seen in some time. The interior scenes evoke the warmth of candlelight. The characters find relief from the lockdown in stroll through natural beauty characters find comfort in exteriors in the bright crispness of the northern Italian winter. It’s a remarkable first feature for director, co-writer and editor Gabriele Fabbro and his cinematographer Jessica La Malfa.
The all-absorbing power of organ music naturally complements a story of passion. Roxanne becomes transfixed as she watches Lucia’s bare shoulders heaving at the organ. The story climaxes as the dialogue is drowned out by an organ performance of Ravel’s Bolero.
The Grand Bolero is in competition for Best Narrative Feature at Cinequest and may be streamed through April 17 at Cinejoy.
Photo caption: Clint Eastwood in THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES. Courtesy of Warner Bros.
A top tier Western – and one of my personal favorites. is coming up on Turner Classic Movies on April 2 – Clint Eastwood’s The Outlaw Josey Wales. I venerate Westerns, and I rate John Ford’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and The Searchers and Fred Zinneman’s High Noon at the top of the genre; The Outlaw Josey Wales fits in the tier just below, among the rest of Ford’s portfolio and those of Anthony Mann, Sam Peckinpah, Sergio Leone, Howard Hawks, Budd Boetticher and other masters. Those masters include Clint Eastwood himself, having gone on to win the Best Picture and Best Director Oscars for Unforgiven.
Clint plays Josey Wales, a Missouri farmer whose family is massacred by terrorist partisans at the beginning of the Civil War, leading Josey to join rival irregulars. At the end of the war, Wales refuses to surrender and heads West to restart his life. But his old enemies hound him, and there is a price on his head which draws bounty hunters. As Josey seeks sanctuary westward, he is joined by a motley convoy of Native Americans and White settlers, which Josey defends against outlaw bands and hostile Native Americans. The dramatic tension revolves around whether Josey will survive, and, if so, whether he will find peace.
Josey has blood on his hands from his part in wartime atrocities. He’s no longer looking for trouble, just trying to find a place where he can be left alone. But violence follows him – from the men that are hunting him and the dangers that he will encounter on the journey. Josey says, “Whenever I get to likin’ someone, they ain’t around long.” A companion retorts, “I notice when you get to DISlikin’ someone they ain’t around for long neither.“
Will Sampson and Clint Eastwood in THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES. Courtesy of Warner Bros.
The sympathetic portrayal of Native Americans (by Native American actors) is another hallmark of The Outlaw Josey Wales. Josey’s main buddy is Lone Watie, played by Chief Dan George (actually a Native Canadian Squamish) in a sparkling performance. Six-foot-five Creek actor Will Sampson (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) and Navajo actor Geraldine Kearnes are also excellent.
Josey must run a gauntlet of the scariest movie bad guys since Kansas City Confidential – Bill McKinney, John Davis Chandler, Len Lesser, John Quade. It’s such a dastardly slew of baddies that it leaves a more complicated role for John Vernon (villain of Point Blank and countless episodes of Mission: Impossible and Dean Wormer in Animal House).
Sam Bottoms play an ill-fated and callow pal of Josey’s. Sondra Locke’s character represents purity and innocence as a counterpoint to Josey’s jaded world view. The cast is peppered with recognizable character actors: Royal Dano, Sheb Wooley, John Mitchum.
Philip Kaufman had co-written the screenplay, and as director, had cast the movie and prepared the shoot, but Eastwood, impatient with what he viewed as too many takes, had Kaufman fired and took over himself. This was Clint’s fifth picture as a director and his second Western (after High Plains Drifter). Eastwood’s work as director is excellent, but it’s important to look at Josey Wales in light of both men’s contributions. In the long run, Kaufman’s career didn’t suffer – he went on to direct The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Right Stuff and The Unbearable Lightness of Being.
Clint Eastwood in THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES. Courtesy of Warner Bros.
What about a former Confederate soldier as hero? The source material for the screenplay was a novel by the racist propagandist Asa Earl Carter, who co-wrote George Wallace’s “Segregation today, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever” speech. However, in Kaufman’s screenplay, Josey isn’t a hater of people because of what they were born as, he hates for what they have done to him and his loved ones. Apolitical, he joins the side that didn’t kill his family. Asa Earl Carter probably wouldn’t have liked that – or the sympathetic portrayal of Native Americans as equals to whites. The Outlaw Josey Wales is now accepted to be a revisionist Western . Eastwood has since said that he considers it an anti-war film, which has much merit.
One more historical note, the Civil War soldiers depicted were not regular Union or Confederate troops, but guerilla raiders that came out of the Bleeding Kansas conflict. These units did exist on both sides in Kansas and Missouri, and were noted for their massacres of unarmed civilians as well as combatants. Josey joins up with one of the most notorious, William T. “Bloody Bill” Anderson. As both a victim and a perpetrator, Josey has seen the most inhumane human behavior.
On set, Clint Eastwood and Sondra Locke began a 14-tear relationship (which did not end well).
Qualified as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the Library of Congress, The Outlaw Josey Wales has been selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. Jerry Fielding’s music was nominated for an Academy Award. The Outlaw Josey Wales plays frequently on TV and is streamable from HBO (subscription), Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu and YouTube.
Photo caption: THE AUTOMAT: Actress Audrey Hepburn photographed by Howard Fried in New York City as part of a multi-day photo shoot for Esquire magazine, 1951. Courtesy of A Slice of Pie Productions.
The charming documentary The Automat traces the fascinating seven-decade run of the marble-floored food palaces where one could put nickels in a slot and be rewarded with a meal. The story of the automat is essentially a business history of Holt & Hardart, which pioneered the automat concept in Philadelphia and New York, and dominated the market for years, at one point the nation’s largest restaurant chain. Mel Brooks, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Colin Powell speak to how the automat touched their lives, and Starbucks founder Howard Schulz credits the automat as his inspiration; (Mel Brooks even wrote and performed a song for the film).
The Automat is the first film for director Lisa Hurvitz, who spent eight years on the project. Along with the celebrities, Hurvitz has sourced her film with longtime Holt & Hardart employees, members of the founding families and even the guy who titled his Ph.D. dissertation, Trapped Behind the Automat: Technological Systems and the American Restaurant, 1902-1991.
The Automat is filled with unexpected nuggets, including:
The New Orleans origin of Holt & Hardart’s signature coffee.
The astounding percentage of the NYC and Philly populations once fed by Holt & Hardart.
The devastating impact of a nickel price increase.
Above all, The Automat features the automat as a democratic institution – a place and an activity enjoyed by a diverse collection of customers from all classes, genders and races.
The Automat gives voice to those nostalgic about the automat, but it is clear-eyed about why it didn’t survive – a business model based on volume when the volume of customers moved to the suburbs, along with social changes in post-war America.
The Automat is opening this weekend at the Vogue in San Francisco, the Rafael in San Rafael, the Landmark Albany Twin in Albany and the Summerfield in Santa Rosa.
Photo caption: Michael James Kelly and Elizabeth Hirsch-Tauber in Clinton Cornwell’s 12 MONTHS, world premiere at Cinequest. Courtesy of Cinequest.
Make your plans now to stream from the 2022 Cinequest, Silicon Valley’s own major film festival. This year’s fest will again be online as Cinejoy, scheduled for April 1 through April 17. Cinequest is a significant showcase for independent film, documentaries and world cinema., and this year presents 132 Films and Television from 53 countries. The 2022 program includes features from Italy, Spain, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Iceland, Serbia, the UK, Canada, Uruguay, Japan, Vietnam, South Korea, Jordan and Australia.
82 of the movies are world or US premieres – be in the FIRST AUDIENCE to see these films. You can stream the vast majority of the premiering films for the cost of an espresso drink. Here’s where you can peruse the program and buy your pass/tickets.
I’ve already screened almost ten Cinejoy films, and I’ll be posing my recommendations by the end of this week.
This is the twelfth year that I’ve covered Cinequest, and, as usual, I’ll be covering Cinequest rigorously with features and movie recommendations. Bookmark my CINEQUEST 2022page, with links to all my coverage (links on the individual movies will start to go live on Thursday, March 31st). Follow me on Twitter for the latest.
Lidia Vitale in Gabriele Fabbro’s THE GRAND BOLERO at Cinequest.
Every year, The Wife and I watch the Oscars while enjoying a meal inspired by the Best Picture nominees. This year, our lives are in chaos because we are moving; since we didn’t have time to actually prepare every dish from scratch, we looked to a menu that could be out-sourced.
Gummy worm centerpiece from Dune: The Wife is celebrating the giant sandworms in culinary art. (Gummy worms from 7-11.)
Cocktail from Nightmare Alley: We passed on the obvious carny chow to reference Stan’s (Bradley Cooper) nightclub act and how well Lilith (Cate Blanchett) pulls off holding a cocktail glass. There are no geeks at The Movie Gourmet, so no live chickens were involved tonight. This particular cocktail is one of The Movie Gourmet’s favorites – Bulleit Rye, Averna and Aperol, chilled and served up with an orange twist and a floater of homemade Strega.
Tea from Belfast: Tea is sipped throughout. (Tea from our pantry.)
Snacks from Don’t Look Up: One of the funniest bits is that Kate (Jennifer Lawrence) can’t stop obsessing about General Themes (Paul Guilfoyle) and his scam with White House snacks. (From Rotten Robbie.)
Cod and chips from CODA: The family catches cod. and they eat cod. (This also works for Belfast.) (From City Fish and Chips.)
Bulgogi, banchan and rice from Drive My Car: The theater organizer and his Korean wife host Yusuke (Hidetoshi Nishijima) and Oto (Tôko Miura) with a memorable Korean repast. (From HOM Korean Kitchen.)
Fried chicken and mashed potatoes from The Power of the Dog: We’re thinking of the meal served by Rose Gordon (Kristin Dunst) at her inn. (From KFC.)
Hamburger and fries from King Richard; Richard takes the family for fastfood burgers in Compton before his intended showdown with a local thug. (From In-N-Out Burger.)
Pernil from West Side Story: The Puerto Rican gangbangers certainly visit their abuelas for this roast pork comfort food. (Actually made this – leftover from a family meal earlier this week.)
Licorice Pizza from Licorice Pizza: Although no one eats this in the movie, it IS the title, for gosh sakes. BTW, the licorice and the pizza are each better when not eaten with the other. (My go-to pizza joints, A Slice of New York and Bibo’s New York, would be horrified at the thought, so I made this myself.) Important: the pizza and the licorice are much better when eaten separately.
Thanks again to The Wife, who has been the primary driver of the Oscar Dinner in recent years, and the genius behind masterpieces like the Severed Hands Ice Sculpture for Winter’s Bone and the Black Bean Alien Signal from Arrival.
This week at The Movie Gourmet – I previewed Noir City, underway through Sunday, reviewed my final list of theBest Movies of 2021 and tossed in a belated review of The Last Duel. Plus – a sneak peek at tomorrow night’s Oscar Dinner.
Taylor Hawkins, the Foo Fighters’ drummer, has died at 50. He is featured extensively in HBO’s Alanis Morissette documentary Jagged.
CURRENT FILMS
Drive My Car: director and co-writer Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s engrossing masterpiece about dealing with loss – and it’s the best movie of 2021. Layered with character-driven stories that could each justify their own movie, this is a mesmerizing film that builds into an exhilarating catharsis. In theaters.
Nightmare Alley: enough burning ambition for a thousand carnies. In theaters.
Belfast: a child’s point of view is universal. If you have heartstrings, they are gonna get pulled. In theaters.
Don’t Look Up: Wickedly funny. Filmmaker Adam McKay (The Big Short) and a host of movie stars hit the bullseye as they target a corrupt political establishment, a soulless media and a gullible, lazy-minded public. Netflix.
The Tragedy of Macbeth: No surprise here: Joel Coen, Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand deliver a crisp and imaginative version of the Bard’s Scottish Play. AppleTV.
Parallel Mothers: Pedro Almodovar gives us a lush melodrama, sandwiched between bookend dives into today’s unhealed wounds from the Spanish Civil War. In theaters.
Jagged: Insightful biodoc of Alanis Morissette, who is really not that angry, after all. HBO.
The Lost Daughter : Great, Oscar-nominated performances by Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley in this dark, unsettling exploration of the obligation of parenting. Netflix.
House of Gucci: Lady Gaga and Adam Driver shine in this modern tale of Shakespearean family treachery. In theaters.
Licorice Pizza: When nine years is a big age difference. In theaters.
The Hand of God: Filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino’s own coming of age story – and a time capsule of 1986 Naples. Netflix.
Being the Ricardos: a tepid slice of a really good story. Amazon (included with Prime).
ON TV
THE TIMES OF HARVEY MILK
On March 28, Turner Classic Movies airs one of the greatest political movies of all time – The Times of Harvey Milk, the documentary Oscar winner from 1984. It’s the real story behind the 2008 Sean Penn narrative Milk – and with the original witnesses. If you pay attention, The Times of Harvey Milk can teach you everything from how to win a local campaign to how to build a societal movement. One of the best political movies ever. And watch for the dog poop scene!
