Olivia Wilde, Seth Rogen, Penelope Cruz and Edward Norton in Olivia Wilde’s INVITE, opening night at the SFFILM Festival. Courtesy of A24.
This year’s San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM) opens April 24, and runs through May 4. SFFILM Festival is the longest-running film festival in the Americas, and this year’s fest is the 69th.
The Opening and Closing nights will return to the Castro Theatre, and Oakland’s Grand Lake Theatre will host the Centerpiece night. Other venues include the Premier Theater at One Letterman, the JCCSF, SFMOMA, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the Marina in San Francisco and the Berkeley Art Museum and BAMPFA in Berkeley.
The menu at SFFILM Festival includes150 films from 40 countries. Peruse the program and buy tickets at SFFILM.
Greta Lee and Williem Dafoe in Kent Jones’ LATE FAME, opening night at the SFFILM Festival. Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
Here are some of the more special elements of this year’s SFFILM Festival :
A double feature at the Castro on Opening Night, kicking off with with Late Fame, staring Greta Lee and Willem Dafoe.
The other Opening Night film will be Olivia Wilde’s Invite, with a SF-based story, and starring Penelope Cruz, Edward Norton, Seth Rogen and Wilde herself. Personal appearance by Olivia Wilde.
The already sold out Closing Night program is a screening of Star Wars™: Episode V—The Empire Strikes Back, including an onstage conversation between C-3PO himself, Anthony Daniels and Lucasfilm veteran, Howard Roffman.
A special screening of Power Ballad, the latest from John Carney, writer-director of Once, Sing Street and Flora and Son.
The absurdist psychological thriller Sender, fresh from SXSW, starring Britt Lower (Severance), Rhea Seehorn and Jamie Lee Curtis.
A performance by Grammy-winning guitarist Gabriela Quintero of Rodrigo y Gabriela will follow the documentary about her, Mysterious Bird.
Movies starring Tilda Swinton, Dustin Hoffman, Chris Pine, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Jamie Lee Curtis, Paul Rudd, Danielle Brooks, Peter Mullan, Dale Dickey, Léa Seydoux, Don Cheadle, Rhea Seehorn, Britt Lower, Charlotte Rampling, Demi Moore, Keke Palmer and Nick Jonas.
As usual, I’ll be looking for under-the-radar gems and posting my recommendations just before the fest’s opening. Here’s the festival trailer.
Photo caption: Zendaya and Robert Pattinson in THE DRAMA. Courtesy of A24.
This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of the darkest rom com I’ve ever seen, The Drama, and the 1996 John Sayles masterpiece Lone Star. If you missed Lone Star on TCM, you can stream it from Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube and Fandango.
Photo caption: Haley Joe Osment in HOW TO DATE AGAIN. Courtesy of SLO Film Fest.
The 2026 SLO Film Fest opens on April 23 and celebrates its 32nd 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 28.
This is the second festival since 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 nights, including Surf Night, happening at the Fremont Theater. As usual, most festival screenings will take place at the Downtown Centre 7. The fest’s Community of Skate will be presented at the Bay in Morro Bay. The Masonic Event Center will host a music video showcase and one screening.
Highlights include:
The world premiere of How to Date Again, a humor-filled study on love and healing, with a hilarious supporting turn by Haley Joel Osment (Poker Face, and of course, Oscar-nominated for The Sixth Sense) who will appear personally to receive an award. Watch for Morro Rock and the Madonna Inn in How to Date Again.
The stellar family dramedy Left-Handed Girl, followed by a Q&A with writer-director Shih-Ching Tsou. You’ve seen her other work – she met Sean Baker in film editing class, and the two have since collaborated as filmmaking partners. They co-directed their first film, she produced his Starlet, Tangerine, The Florida Project and Red Rocket, and Baker and Tsou co-wrote Left-Handed Girl.
Britt Lower (Severance) will appear personally to receive an award and present her new psychological thriller Sender, fresh from SXSW, and also starring Rhea Seehorn and Jamie Lee Curtis.
The opening night movie is the West Coast Premiere of Give Me the Ball! the biodoc of groundbreaking tennis champion and cultural icon Billie Jean King.
The closing night film will be Power Ballad, the latest from John Carney, writer-director of Once, Sing Street and Flora and Son.
Matt Formston in THE BLIND SEA. Courtesy of SLO Film Fest.
The always popular Surf Night in SLO with The Blind Sea, the documentary about blind Australian surfer Matt Formston, a 3-time World Champion, as he takes on the monster waves of Nazare. 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 third annual Community of Skate with N-Men: The Untold Story, a doc about the seminal 1975 Sacramento skating crew, starring Tony Hawk and Tony Alva. Plus a panel of pro skaters and skate filmmakers, and a skateboard design exhibition.
Movies featuring Tim Blake Nelson, Rob Lowe, Paul Rudd, Thomas Sadowski, Betsy Brandt, Mimi Rogers, Lois Smith, Anna Chlumsky, Nick Offerman, Rhea Seehorn, Jamie Lee Curtis, Mike Farrell, Haley Joe Osment, James Badge Dale, Simone Ashley, Aya Cash, Ella Rubin, Keyla Monterroso Mejia, Britt Lower, Kevin Nealon and Nick Jonas.
Films from Denmark, Vietnam, Lebanon, India, Ghana, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and Ireland.
Big-screen presentations of classic cinema: Sunset Boulevard, The Master, The Seventh Seal.
For the first time, SLO Film Fest will also sample as yet unreleased Episodics..
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.
Shi-Yua Ma in LEFT-HANDED GIRL. Courtesy of Netflix.
Photo caption: Zendaya and Robert Pattinson in THE DRAMA. Courtesy of A24.
In The Drama, the darkest romantic comedy I’ve ever seen, Emma (Zendaya) and Charlie (Robert Pattinson) are getting married in a week. They’re out with their best friend couple, finalizing the wedding’s catering and wine menu, when the four, in their cups, play a game that changes everything.
Each of the four undertakes to share the worst thing they’ve ever done. Emma goes last, and confesses to something shocking. This is not something that can be explained away as a youthful indiscretion. It is something that calls Emma’s very sanity and humanity into question. The friends are horrified, but Charlie is rocked with the possibility that his adorable bride-to-be is a dangerous psychopath.
Wedding week continues, with the couple going through all the banal tasks – reviewing the wedding photographer’s picture list, approving the flowers, meeting the DJ, etc. All while Charlie is more and more terrified of Emma.
Charlie, not strong of character to begin with, starts to vibrant with stress and then decompensates into a human puddle. Emma, on the other hand, is just trying to get past her embarrassment until she plunges into terror that her very worst secret is going public. Believe me, this really IS a romantic comedy, but there are elements of psychological thriller along the way.
Both Pattinson and Zendaya are excellent as two people trying to cling to situations that may not be savable. Zendaya is just so impressive – a multi-platform superstar who started making Spiderman movies at 21 and still is choosing thoughtful, interesting work like this and Challengers. Other fine performances include:
Mamoudou Athie, whom I just saw as a menacing criminal in Wardriver, as Charlie’s very grounded best buddy;
Alana Haim, reversing the goodhearted charisma of her character in Licorice Pizza, as the friend hiding her inner malice;
Hailey Gates, hilarious as Charlie’s assistant Mischa, whose talents do not include connecting the dots.
The Drama is the work of writer-director Kristofffer Borgli, who also created the brilliant and utterly original comedy Dream Scenario. It’s in theaters now.
Photo caption: Chris Cooper and Elizabeth Pena in LONE STAR.
On April 9, Turner Classic Movies airs the 1996 John Sayles masterpiece Lone Star, a multi-generational story of mystery, corruption, racism, forbidden love and redemption. The ensemble cast is phenomenal: Chris Cooper, Elizabeth Pena, Matthew McConaughey, Kris Kristofferson, Miriam Colon, Joe Morton, Ron Canada, Frances McDormand, Clifton James, Stephen Mendillo, Tony Amendola. And the best part is the elegant storytelling of writer-director John Sayles.
The story is set in a small Texan town on the Mexican border. Sam Deeds (Chris Cooper) has returned to his hometown to serve as Sheriff. He hasn’t been in his hometown for many years because of his estrangement from his father, Buddy Deeds, the recently deceased previous Sheriff. The decidedly old school Buddy Deeds, who ran the county for decades, was respected and beloved – even legendary. After Sam introduces himself as Sheriff Deeds to an older local woman, she responds “Sheriff Deeds is dead, honey. You just Sheriff Junior.“
Sam’s daddy issues are mirrored by those of Delmore Payne (Joe Morton), a ramrod-striaght Colonel who has been assigned to command the nearby US Army base. Del resents growing up without his father Otis (Ron Canada), who owns a roadhouse outside the town proper, and Del is eager to unleash his bitterness upon Otis.
Inevitably, Sam finds his high school sweetheart Pilar (Elizabeth Pena) and the two rekindle a bond. Their relationship had been broken up by Sam’s dad Buddy and Pilar’s mom Mercedes, and Sam and Pilar have always thought it was on racial grounds.
Elizabeth Pena and Chris Cooper in LONE STAR.
Human remains are found in the desert, and they are identified as those of Buddy’s predecessor as Sheriff, the corrupt, racist and extremely fearsome Charlie Wade (Kris Kristofferson). Wade went inexplicably missing, and he was such a despicable bully, the relieved community didn’t seem to search for him very diligently.
The investigation of Charlie’s suspicious disappearance and death fall within Sam’s authority. Sam sees this as an opportunity to tarnish Buddy’s iconic status. Probing for some dirt to besmirch his father’s name, Sam asks Otis if Buddy ever took money for a favor, and gets back, “I don’t recall a prisoner ever died in your daddy’s custody. I don’t recall a man in this county – black, white, Mexican – who’d hesitate for a minute to call on Buddy Deeds to solve a problem. More than that, I wouldn’t care to say.”
Charlie disappeared before Sam and Pilar were born, but there are folks who were around at the time, Otis for one. Mercedes (Miriam Colon) is now a local business leader. The town’s good ol’ boy mayor Hollis (Clifton James) was, like Buddy, one of Charlie’s deputies. It turns out that what happened to Charlie is not so much a mystery as a long-suppressed secret.
Kris Kristofferson in LONE STAR.
As Sam undertakes the present day investigation, we see flashbacks of the time when Charlie, as terrifying as a T-Rex, walked the earth, and we see the young Buddy (Matthew McConaughey), Hollis and Mercedes. Sayles unspools the story with live segues, in which a single camera shot shows the flashback action at a location and then shifts to the present at the same place. In Sayles hands, the technique is a seamless storytelling device, and never just a gimmick.
Along the way, Sam encounters a flood of memorable, fully fleshed out characters. especially a metal-detecting Army sergeant (Stephen Mendillo), a feisty Mexican old-timer (Tony Amendola) and Sam’s own ditzy ex-wife Bunny (Frances McDormand, in the same year as her Oscar-winning turn in Fargo).
As the story moves to its conclusion, there are two surprising revelations in the plot. And Sayles ends the film with one of the all-time best best closing lines.
Matthew McConaughey in LONE STAR.
Cooper and Pena lead a cast filled with exemplary performances. The villainous Charlie Wade is my favorite Kristofferson performance. McConaughey was essentially unknown, and Sayles said “I needed a guy who didn’t have any star weight but who had the presence to play off against Kristofferson.” That casting paid off with McConaughey playing a callow character, with just the hints of the charisma and authority that he would later grow into. Cooper, Colon and Morton all appeared in previous Sayles films.
John Sayles’ body of work is as impressive as that of any American indie film director – and more diverse: Passion Fish, Eight Men Out, Matewan, The Secret of Roan Inish and some of the most iconic Bruce Springsteen music videos. In Lone Star, racial relations on the Texas border are complicated and dynamic, just like those in urban New Jersey in that other Sayles ensemble piece City of Hope. He first became known for Return of the Secaucus 7, which was probably the model for The Big Chill and Thirtysomething.
Sayles was Oscar-nominated for the screenplays of both Lone Star and Passion Fish. The dialogue in Lone Star is exceptionally witty, and not just funny, but insightful thought-provoking. Sayles has also been a distinguished script doctor, responsible for many uncredited rewrites, such as Apollo 13. (He started out writing the screenplays for Roger Corman’s Piranha and another exploitation movie Alligator.)
Lone Star is John Sayles’ best movie and IMO the very best movie of 1996, along with Fargo and Secrets & Lies. If you miss it on TCM, you can stream it from Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube and Fandango.
Photo caption: Laura Dern and Will Arnett in IS THIS THING ON? Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures.
This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of the distopian AI thriller Mercy and the unusually thoughtful romantic dramedy Is This Thing On?
Note: The engrossing indie family drama East of Wall and the historical psychodrama Nuremberg are now both on Netflix.
CURRENT MOVIES
Is This Thing On? uncoiling the bewilderment of a break-up. Hulu (included,) Amazon, AppleTV.
Heel: don’t try this at home. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
La Grazia: it’s time to get past his malaise. Amazon, AppleTV.
The Bride!: a funnier Bonnie and Clyde, with monsters.In theaters.
Fackham Hall: silly, low-brow, and that’s okay. HBO Max (free), Amazon, AppleTV.
A Private Life: a shrink and her own issues. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
Mercy: not as good as the premise. Amazon (included with Prime), AppleTV.
ON TV
Matthew McConaughey in LONE STAR.
Set your DVRs to record the 1996 John Sayles masterpiece Lone Star on April 9 on Turner Classic Movies. It’s a great multi-generational story of mystery, corruption, racism, forbidden love and redemption, and the screenplay was nominated for an Academy Award. The cast is also phenomenal: Chris Cooper, Matthew McConaughey, Kris Kristofferson, Elizabeth Pena, Francis McDormand, Miriam Colon, Joe Morton and Ron Canada.
I love and admire this film so much, and I was amazed to see that I hadn’t written about it in the 15-year history of this blog. So, on Monday, I’ll be publishing a full review.
Photo caption: Will Arnett in IS THIS THING ON? Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures.
In the romantic dramedy Is This Thing On?, Alex (Will Arnett) and Tess (Laura Dern) are suburban New Yorkers heading for an amicable divorce. They’ve been together for 26 years, married for 23, and have a pair of precocious and adorable ten-year-old sons, but the passion in the relationship has petered out. Alex, who works in finance, has become a hangdog, passively accepting household assignments from Tess. Tess, a former Olympic athlete, runs the family, but she’s suffering from some undefined deficit. They like each other, and their lives are objectively comfortable, but each is miserable, so Alex takes a tiny apartment in Manhattan.
Despairing and confused, Alex is at loose ends when, on a whim, he gets on stage at a comedy club’s open mic night. He talks about his bewilderment to an audience, and finds it gratifying. Soon, he is spending every night doing stand-up, continuing to process his feelings, and actually getting proficient at comedy. Alex has found a new passion, and it’s stand-up comedy.
Tess is finding that the mere absence of Will isn’t making her feel better either, and decides to re-enter the world of sports as a coach. When Tess finally learns about Alex’s new pursuit, the two can finally start figuring out what has been keeping them from happiness.
Laura Dern and Will Arnett in IS THIS THING ON? Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures.
This is a mostly funny and unusually thoughtful rom com. Arnett and the director, Bradley Cooper, co-wrote the screenplay with Mark Chapell.
Both Will Arnett and Laura Dern are exceptional as the talented and privileged Alex and Tess, who founder as a couple and as singles. Bradley Cooper is very funny as Alex’s extremely shallow actor friend.
The way that Tess finds out about Alex’s stand-up comedy is contrived, as important plot points in any rom com tend to be, but I was distracted by the actor involved, who is very, very famous for non-acting. Jeezus, that’s Peyton Manning! Manning is actually good, but his sudden appearance took me out of the movie for a bit.
The Wife, on the other hand, walked out at that point. She had previously been distracted by the lack of economic consequences to the split of the one-income family into two households.
Nevertheless, I liked Is This Thing On?, which is as funny and redemptive as most rom coms, and smarter than most of them. Is This Thing On? is included with Hulu and rentable on Amazon and AppleTV.
Photo caption: Rebecca Ferguson in MERCY. Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios.
Here’s the interesting premise of the distopian AI thriller Mercy: in the near future, Los Angeles adopts a new AI-driven criminal justice system whereby a murder suspect is restrained in front of a screen, where an AI “judge” gives him the chance to prove his innocence; he is presumed guilty, and will be executed within ninety minutes unless he can lower his likelihood of guilt percentage under a numeric threshold that represents reasonable doubt. The object is to reach a fact-based conclusion quickly and with certainty, protecting the community and providing closure for victims’ loved ones. The Orwellian name for the new system is Mercy.
One of the biggest advocates of this new system is the police detective Chris (Chris Pratt), who wakes up from a blackout drunk to find himself strapped to the Mercy chair, charged with the murder of his wife. An initial review of facts demonstrate that he had the motive, means and opportunity – and things look really bad for Chris. He is being judged by an AI bot, played by Rebecca Ferguson. The bad news is that she/it is completely devoid of intuition and emotion, rigidly adhering to the programmed procedure.
The good news is that the court is a supercomputer which is able to provide Chris with INSTANT access to video from traffic cameras and security cams and police body cams, to everyone’s history of movements from cell phone tracking, al financial records, every call and text, and forensic evidence – blood, fingerprint, fiber and DNA. The key word is instant because it allows an investigation that would take days or weeks to be compressed in to just over an hour. That device also allows a whodunit story to be told in real time, which is always a plus in a movie.
Chris Pratt in MERCY. Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios.
So, essentially, the plot of Mercy is a detective procedural, but one with very high stakes (summary execution) and under extreme time pressure. That all works to heighten the thrills in this thriller.
So far, so good, but it wasn’t enough for the filmmakers who, IMO, jump the shark with some silly add-ons, which I discuss in the spoiler paragraph below.
SPOILER: The problem I have with Mercy is that Chris, beside saving himself to solve the crime, ALSO saves his daughter from a hostage situation, saves downtown LA from being blown up in a terrorist strike, solves a previously closed case and forces the discredited AI justuce system to shut itself down. As well-crafted and exciting as the movie is, that’s really excessive plot. The story got so silly that it lost me in the final 20 or so minutes.
Mercy is streaming on Amazon (included with Prime) and AppleTV.
Note: The engrossing indie family drama East of Wall and the historical psychodrama Nuremberg are now both on Netflix.
REMEMBRANCE
Valerie Perrine always had a sex kitten image, but she held her own in some seriously good movies: Slaughterhouse-Five, Lenny, Superman, The Electric Horseman.
CURRENT MOVIES
Heel: don’t try this at home. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
La Grazia: it’s time to get past his malaise. Amazon, AppleTV.
The Bride!: a funnier Bonnie and Clyde, with monsters.In theaters.
Fackham Hall: silly, low-brow, and that’s okay. HBO Max (free), Amazon, AppleTV.
A Private Life: a shrink and her own issues. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
ON TV
Rita Moreno, F. Murray Abraham and Jack Weston in THE RITZ.
On March 29, TCM airs a milestone in LGBTQ cinema, the 1976 madcap comedy The Ritz. A straight and very square suburban businessman (Jack Weston) is fleeing from his homicidal mobster brother-in-law (Jerry Stiller) and hides out in the very last place one would look for him – a gay bathhouse in Manhattan. The Ritz is a fish-out-of-water farce with lots of comic mistaken identities. Today, it’s plenty dated, and a handsome but squeaky-voiced detective (Treat Williams) falls especially flat. But it’s one of the first movies with a decidedly queer setting, and F. Murray Abraham plays one of the first entirely sympathetic and relatable gay movie characters. Rita Moreno is all in as Googie Gomez, the house entertainer. Watch for John Ratzenburger (Cliff the mailman in Cheers and the voice of many Pixar movies) as a bathhouse patron.
Photo caption: Toni Servillo in LA GRAZIA. Courtesy of MUBI.
When we talk of “coming of age” movies, we usually mean those about kids or young adults experiencing life lessons for the first time. But, the more mature among us also face new realities as we age into new phases of our lives. That’s the case with Paolo Sorrentino’s lyrical La Grazia.
La Grazia is an insightful and empathetic portrait of a fictional president of Italy (Toni Servillo) in the final months of his term. He is a man of quiet and resolute competence, a jurist admired for guiding the country through six political crises. He is also staid and taciturn, a man of boring countenance (except for an his fondness of the most current pop music, including rap).
He is a lame duck and in a malaise from the loss of wife of fifty years. He’s just running out the clock. Fortunately, his daughter Dorotea (Anna Ferzeti), an impressive jurist in her own right, is nudging him through his daily duties. To her frustration, he is refusing to make his final three official decisions, about whether to sign euthanasia legislation and whether to grant two pardons.
He believes that his beloved wife had an affair forty years before, and now, instead of working, he’s stewing over who was her lover.
His lethargy contrasts with the vibrant, over-the-top baroque art covering every surface of the Quirinale Palazzo, the former papal palace now the headquarters of Italy’s President. The only sparks of life come from Anna’s prodding and from dinners with the art critic Coco, his friend from grade school and his wife’s bestie (played in a charismatic performance by Milvia Marigliano).
As doggedly as the president drags his feet, we know that he will need to find a catharsis and reset his life. As he figures things out, there is a remarkable scene involving, of all things, an astronaut shedding a zero gravity tear.
Toni Servillo is excellent here as a much more decent and much less flamboyant politician than the ones he played in Sorrentino’s Il Divo and Loro. La Grazia matches up well with his Youth, another contemplation of the end of a career. As usual, Sorrentino takes full advantage of the palace interiors and Roman exteriors; visually and otherwise, Sorrentino’s masterpiece remains The Great Beauty.
