Best of Cinequest

by
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.

SILENT SPARKS: but weren’t they cellmates?

by
Photo caption: Guan-Zhi Huang and Ming-Shuai Shih in SILENT SPARKS. Courtesy of Cinequest.

In the Taiwanese neo-noir Silent Sparks, small time hood Pua (Guan-Zhi Huang) is released from prison and checks in with the local crime lord (Chih-Wei Cheng). The boss assigns him to a lieutenant, Mi-Ji (Ming-Shuai Shih), 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.

Pua finally gets the chance to do some crime, and we wonder, will Pua get caught, or worse? And what explains Mi-Ji’s behavior toward Pua? As Silent Sparks smolders on, the risks escalate.

The lead actors are very good. Chih-Wei Cheng is very funny as the crusty, vulgar crime boss, who is full of joie de vivre. Jui-Chun Fan is exceptional as Pua’s mom.

Chih-Wei Cheng in SILENT SPARKS. Courtesy of Cinequest.
Jui-Chun Fan and Guan-Zhi Huang in SILENT SPARKS. Courtesy of Cinequest.

Silent Sparks is the first feature for writer-director Ping Chu, and it’s a promising debut. I screened Silent Sparks for its US premiere at Cinequest.

TIME TRAVEL IS DANGEROUS: “We’re not scientifically-minded”

by
Megan Stevenson and Ruth Syratt in TIME TRAVEL IS DANGEROUS. Courtesy of Cinequest.

In the deadpan British comedy Time Travel Is Dangerous, Megan (Megan Stevenson) and Ruth (Ruth Syratt), two ditzy gals who run a vintage shop discover a discarded gizmo from the early VCR era. Looking suspiciously like a carnival bumper car, 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.”

It never occurs to them to 1) go back and change history, 2) go back and reveal the answer to a historical mystery or 3) go back and get something crazy valuable, like the Holy Grail, or 4) sneak a peek at the future – they’re just getting stuff for their junk store. “We’re not scientifically-minded“. they’re not ANYTHING-minded,

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

Jane Horrocks (Little Voice) appears, as does the esteemed Brian Blessed, in his most unrecognizable role. The narrator is Stephen Fry.

If you like Portlandia and Best In Show, but wish they were wackier, you’ll enjoy Time Travel Is Dangerous. I screened Time Travel Is Dangerous for its Bay Area premiere at Cinequest.

TIME TRAVEL IS DANGEROUS. Courtesy of Cinequest.

THE DOG: obsession and desperation in Mombasa

by
Alexander Karim in THE DOG. Courtesy of Cinequest.

The electrifying thriller The Dog follows a classic neo-noir premise. MZ (Alexander Karim), a low level hood, is assigned to drive the call girl, Kadzo (Catherine Muthoni), and he falls for her – against the explicit instructions of their employer and advice from Kadzo herself. To stake a new start for them 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.

In his quest to make a quick fortune, MZ tries to cash in on a tip about a drug deal. When that goes awry, he finds himself owing a huge debt to Saddam (Caroline Midimo), one of Mombasa’s crime matriarchs. He then tries working with Saddam’s rival Ainea (Veronica Mwaura). MZ takes more and more risks as he get more deeply entangled with the two godmothers. All the way, he’s just one double cross away from disappointing the last people he’ll ever disappoint.

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 Dog matches up well to Howard Hawks’ definition of a great movie – three great scenes and no bad ones“. My FOUR nominations for the three great scenes:

  • a big spender who owes MZ money brings him to his home;
  • Kadzo has MZ film her latest video ad, and he watches her at her sexiest through her cellphone camera.
  • Kadzo explains that she is not asking anyone to save her;
  • MZ faces his reckoning,

The Swedish-born Alexander Karim is superb as MZ. MZ works out to maintain a physicality that intimidates johns and debtors, but he knows his place in the crime hierarchy and grovels before the godmothers; when he screws up, he knows the consequences and moves directly into desperate terror. Alexander Karim has worked in lots of Scandanavian films (so he must be familiar with Nordic Noir) and appeared in Gladiator II.

Catherine Muthoni in THE DOG. Courtesy of Cinequest.

Catherine Muthoni is very good as Kadzo. This may be a neo-noir, but Kadzo isn’t a manipulative femme fatale – it’s only MZ who drives himself to his fate. Midimo and Mwaura are wonderful as the two crime bosses. Watch for how matter-of-factly Midimo dons Saddam’s eyeglasses in the most extreme scene.

The Dog is brilliantly directed, and edited. The director is Alexander’s Ugandan-born brother Baker Karim, who is also based in Sweden. That makes The Dog a Swedish movie, although it has every appearance of a Kenyan film.

I screened The Dog for my coverage of Cinequest.

THE COMPLEX FORMS: what did he bargain for?

by
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.

Movies to See Right Now

by
Photo caption: Mikey Madison and Yura Borisov in ANORA. Courtesy of NEON.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – it’s time to reset after the Oscars. I’m finishing up my Cinequest coverage; the festival starts on Tuesday, and I’ll be rolling out my fest preview and individual reviews, starting Sunday.

There’s no more excuse for missing big 2024 movies, including the big Oscar winner, Anora. They’re all available to watch at home for under $6, except for The Brutalist ($20) and A Complete Unknown ($25), which are now streaming but pricey. I haven’t yet seen Nickel Boys, Sing Sing and Flow, but they’re also available on inexpensive VOD.

Alternatively, you could honor Gene Hackman by watching The Conversation (Criterion, Paramount, Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango). It’s right up there with The French Connection as Hackman’s best performance and his best movie.

CURRENT MOVIES

ON TV

SEVEN CHANCES
Buster Keaton (out in front) in SEVEN CHANCES

Don’t miss Turner Classic Movies March 11 airing of Seven Chances. I thought that I knew the work of Buster Keaton, but somehow I had never seen Seven Chances until a few years ago.  It features a phenomenal, 26-minute chase scene that rates with the very best in cinema history – What’s Up Doc?, The French Connection, Bullitt!, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Keaton’s own The General.

Keaton’s character publishes a public offer of marriage and gets way more takers than he can handle. There’s a very funny scene where he sits in a church to reflect on his situation and woman after woman seats herself next to and around him; he is oblivious to the fact that each of them is there to marry HIM.  The church fills up with prospective wives, and, 30 minutes into the movie, he flees, with a horde of veiled would-be brides in pursuit. The chase is on.

Keaton is off and running and running and running, in a ridiculously long sprint though the city’s downtown and rail yards and into the hills.  Amazingly, he did all of his own stunts, including leaping over an abyss and being swung around by a railroad crane.  His race with a cascade of falling boulders is pure genius.  You keep asking yourself, “How did they perform that stunt with 1925 technology?”

Keaton understood the comedic power of excess, and the sheer magnitude of the frustrated brides is hilarious   I think I can see the inspiration for the hundreds of crashing cars at the end of The Blues Brothers.

SEVEN CHANCES
Buster Keaton jumps the abyss in SEVEN CHANCES

When he made Seven Chances in 1925, Keaton was only 30 years old and had just directed his first feature two years before.  He had just made the classics Sherlock, Jr. and The Navigator in 1924.  He was about to make his masterpiece The General in 1926 and Steamboat Bill, Jr. in 1928.  Talking pictures changed the industry in 1929, and Keaton signed a disastrous contract with MGM in 1930.  Keaton was to direct only three more features in his career (all unaccredited).  MGM took away his artistic freedom, and no studio kingpin knew what to do with him in the talking era.  Keaton took to drink and went dark for decades.

SEVEN CHANCES

Comments on the Oscars, along with The Movie Gourmet’s 2025 Oscar Dinner

by
Photo caption: The Movie Gourmet’s 2025 Oscar Dinner.

The Dinner

Every year, The Wife and I watch the Oscars while enjoying a meal inspired by the Best Picture nominees. Usually, there’s one dish or beverage from each of the nominated movies; here are the 2024 Oscar Dinner and the 2023 Oscar Dinner as examples.

But we just couldn’t contrive an elaborate meal from this year’s nominees. There just weren’t memorable food scenes in A Complete Unknown, Wicked or Conclave. The fancy dinner parties in The Brutalist were pivotal scenes, but it’s not clear what they were serving, nor was it memorable what Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley were taking out of their fridge in The Substance. We had already echoed the giant sandworms of an earlier Dune movie (wih gummy worms on a bed of rice) and didn’t care to duplicate that. The one great 2024 food scene was in Anora, when Annie (Mikey Madison) scarfed the burger in the diner with the Russian/Armenian goons; that is the best Gal-Devours-Burger scene since Peggy Cummins in Gun Crazy.

So this year, we’re just celebrating the movies with movie food. We’ve got the fountain drinks, popcorn and movie candy, and we’re getting our protein from nachos and hot dogs. The very idea of multiplex hot dogs would make me gag, but I remember that the sadly departed Landmark Embarcadero in San Francisco, served Nathan’s All-Beef hot dogs, and that’s what we’re going with here.

The Academy Awards

And how about the Oscars themselves? The lead story is that the nominations were pretty solid. For the second straight year, there weren’t any gross miscarriages of justice in snubs or undeserved recognition. Either Anora or The Brutalist would deserve Best Picture and ither Timothy Chalamet or Adrien Brody would deserve Best Actor. Kieran Culkin was always a lock for the Best Supporting Actor, but the others guys all deserved to be nominated. It was fun to have such a wide-open race for Best Actress, without a clear frontrunner and this clearly being the only chance at an Oscar for Demi Moore, Karla Sofia Gascon and Fernanda Torres.

I had been thinking about the Best Actor award, where Adrien Brody had been the frontrunner for months, as the star in this year’s most ambitious, epic, intentionally arty movie – An Important Movie. Brody gave a wonderful performance as a guy who came into the story drained of his resilience; Brody played a guy weathering big lows and big highs, without ever controlling his destiny. To my mind, Timothy Chalamet had the tougher assignment – to play a character so odd, so prickly, so witty and so ambitious. Yeah, Dylan was a genius at age 20, but he was so obsessed about songwriting, so reverential about Woody Guthrie and yet so self-confident when there wasn’t any objective evidence to support him until people like Pete Seeger and Joan Baez heard his work. Chalamet captures all of of Dylan’s complications and gives us a believable impersonation of an icon, too. IMO Chalamet had the best performance. But Brody was excellent, and he gave a heartfelt acceptance speech.

FWIW I’ve had Anora as the #1 film on my running list of the Best Movies of 2024 since the week it released in October.

The Show

The best moments of the telecast were:

  • The opening We Love LA segment followed by Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo and their beautiful renditions of home-themed songs. Sentimental? Sure, but very fitting as an acknowledgement of the fire disasters on the industry and the community.
  • Conan O’Brien’s claim to interrupt overlong acceptance speeches, not with music, but with John Lithgow looking disappointed. Very funny.

The Oscar producers actually improved two areas that have been pet peeves of mine. First, they condensed the presentation of the Best Song nominees, and excised the tiresome full performances of the five songs. Finally!

Second, recent changes to the In Memoriam segment (always my favorite part of the show) had been sucking out the emotional impact. This year, it helped to show examples of the decedents’ work in the background of their portraits.

But there’s no reason for this show to drag to three hours and 46 minutes, and it would generate more viewer engagement if an hour shorter. Examples of time wasting abounded tonight: the silly Adam Sandler gag, O’Briens’s “time waste“ musical number, professional firefighters delivering jokes from the writers room, and the inexplicable medley of James Bond songs. I think it’s time to move the animated, live action and documentary shorts off the live telecast, too.

Still, I’m a sucker for the Oscars. I’ll be watching next year, too.

Movies to See Right Now

by
Photo caption: Gene Hackman in THE CONVERSATION

This week on The Movie Gourmet – a new review of Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius) plus my First Look at Cinequest.

I’ve finished my coverage of the Slamdance Film Festival, which continues on-line. Through March 7, you can watch Slamdance films at home on the Slamdance Channel: Here’s my wrap-up coverage of Slamdance:

REMEMBRANCE

Gene Hackman was one of the greatest screen actors of all time, justifiably best known for his searingly original Popeye Doyle in The French Connection. When we examine Hackman’s body of work, it’s striking that he delivered indelible performances in multiple movies in each of four decades: the 1960s (Bonnie and Clyde, The Gypsy Moths, Downhill Racer), the 1970s (The Conversation, Night Moves, Young Frankenstein), the 1980s (Hoosiers, Mississippi Burning, BAT*21, The Package) and the 1990s (Unforgiven, Get Shorty). Who else has accomplished that – Jimmy Stewart and very few others? My favorite Gene Hackman performance bar none – will always be as the dogged, and then obsessive, Harry Caul in The Conversation.

CURRENT MOVIES

WATCH AT HOME

From my Best Movies of 2024:

  • Anora: human spirit vs the oligarchs. In theaters and Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • The Bikeriders: they ride, drink and fight, and yet we care. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • Hit Man: who knew self-invention could be so fun? Netflix.
  • Challengers: three people and their desire. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • La Chimera: six genres for the price of one.  Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • In the Summers: they mature, he evolves. Amazon.
  • The Substance: the thinking woman’s Faust, if you can take the body horror. MUBI (free), Amazon, AppleTV.
  • Ghostlight: a family saves itself, in iambic pentameter. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango (included).
  • The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed: is she going to be a loser? Amazon, AppleTV, Hulu.
  • Love Lies Bleeding: obsessions and impulses collide. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • I Saw the TV Glow: brimming with originality. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.

ON TV

William Powell and Carole Lombard in MY MAN GODFREY

On March 2, Turner Classic Movies is airing the timeless and fantastic comedy, My Man Godfrey (1936). An assembly of eccentric, oblivious, venal and utterly spoiled characters make up a rich Park Avenue family and their hangers-on during the Depression. The kooky daughter (Carole Lombard) brings home a homeless guy (William Powell) to serve as their butler. The contrast between the dignified butler and his wacky employers results in a brilliant screwball comedy that masks searing social criticism that is still sharply relevant today. The wonderful character actor Eugene Pallette (who looked and sounded like a bullfrog in a tuxedo) plays the family’s patriarch, and he’s keenly aware that his wife and kids are completely nuts.

I feel strongly about this 89-year-old movie, which I first saw when it was only 36-years-old. We talk about screwball comedy, but this is the gold standard. And we need to remember the comic genius of Carole Lombard, who died supporting the war against fascism when she was only 33.

First look at Cinequest

by
Photo caption: Naomi Watts and Bill Murray in THE FRIEND, the closing night film nd Cinequest. Courtesy of Bleecker Street.

Cinequest, Silicon Valley’s own major film festival, returns March 11-24 to downtown San Jose, with screenings at the California Theatre, the Hammer Theater and 3Below. Selected films from the program then move to to Cinequest’s virtual platform, Cinejoy, March 23-30.

Highlights of the 2025 Cinequest include:

  • 110 world and US premieres and many directorial debuts.
  • Films from 45 countries, including from Italy, Russia, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, China, India, Vietnam, Iran, Serbia, Korea, Kenya, Switezerland and the United Kingdom.
  • New movies with Naomi Watt, Bill Murray, Glenn Close, Patricia Clarkson, David Straithern, Gillian Anderson, Walton Goggins, Paul Walter Hauser, Lou Diamond Phillips, Constance Wu, Ken Jeong, Carla Gugino and Jon Heder. 
  • A personal appearance by film star Gillian Anderson  (The X-Files, The Crown), who will receive an award and present her latest film, The Salt Path.
  • Directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel make very few films but they’re superb (The Deep End, Montana Story); they’re contributing their latest to Cinequest – The Friend, starring Bill Murray and Naomi Watts.
  • Two films of local historical interest: American Agitators (about famed organizer Fred Ross mentoring Cesar Chavez in San Jose) and A Little Fellow The Legacy of A.P. Gianni (about the founder of Bank of Italy/Bank of America – his first branch still stands in San Jose, three blocks from Cinequest).
  • Cinequest’s Silent Cinema Event will present F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu (the seminal 1922 Dracula film, starring the scary Max Schenk) accompanied by master organist Dennis James on the historic California Theatre’s Mighty Wurlitzer.
  • And, at Cinequest, it’s easy to meet the filmmakers.

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. The prices have not been raised SINCE 2019!) Take a look at the entire program, the schedule and the passes and tickets

I’ll be rigorously covering Cinequest for the fourteenth straight year with features and movie recommendations. I usually screen (and write about) over twenty Cinequest films from around the world. Bookmark my CINEQUEST 2025 page, with links to all my coverage (links on the individual movies will start to go live on Sunday, March 9.

SLY LIVES! (AKA THE BURDEN OF BLACK GENIUS): rise, fall and legacy of a groundbreaking prodigy

by
Photo caption: Sly Stone in SLY LIVES! (AKA THE BURDEN OF BLACK GENIUS). Courtesy of Hulu.

Questlove’s insightful documentary Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius) traces the rise, fall and legacy of the groundbreaking musician Sly Stone (birth name Sylvester Stewart) of Sly and the Family Stone. It’s the remarkable story of a prodigy

Sly led and wrote the songs for Sly and the Family Stone, startlingly innovative as both a multi-racial and a multi-gender band. It’s too easy to use the label psychedelic soul (although it does fit Sly and the Family Stone’s music); but, Sly was an original and a genre-buster, whose music blurred (or erased) the lines between rock, R&B, funk, soul and pop.

The term prodigy also gets thrown around, but I didn’t know (until I watched Sly Lives!), that Sly was working as a songwriter, producer and D-jay as a TEENAGER, already moving the needle on Bay Area music culture during its most fertile period.

Sly Lives! also gives us file footage showing Sly to be articulate and charming, with the gift of being quick-witted even while stoned. But then came the heavier drugs, sabotaging his career with a pattern of concert no shows and walkouts that have persisted thru at least 2007. His productivity essentially ended in 1974. All members of Sly and the Family Stone were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. Sly is alive today at age 81.

This is an exceptionally well-sourced fil. Besides lots of previously obscure archival material from before Sly’s stardom, we get plenty of footage of Sly in interviews and performances back in the day. Perspective comes from the band member themselves, Sly’s ex-wife and his former partner, and a slew of experts in the music industry,

Questlove asks his interviewees about black genius (and seems to confound them). There’s no question Sly was a musical genius. I think that Questlove is emphasizing the word burden in his subtitle – suggesting that having to achieve while battling institutional racism finally sapped Sly of his resilience.

Questlove also reminds us that Sly’s creativity peaked during one of our most turbulent periods – the MLK and RFK assassinations, urban riots and the political evolution from Civil Rights to Black Power. The Black Panther Party suggested that Sly bankroll them personally.

Questlove, who was three years old at the time of Sly’s last hit in 1974, is widely known as the band leader of The Roots on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and the producer for many recording artists, including Common, Jay-Z, John Legend Al Green and Elvis Costello. He is a musicologist and a historian of Black music and Black culture. In his directorial debut as a filmmaker, he won the Best Doc Oscar for Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised). (The Movie Gourmet predicted that Oscar BTW.)

I loved this nugget from the film – band members celebrated their first big paycheck by acquiring signature dogs. Not cars, jewelry or exotic vacations – dogs.

Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius) is streaming on Hulu.