Chattering teeth and a hapless bear at SF Short Film Festival
The San Francisco Short Film Festival will be held from Sept. 17-26, with selected films also screening in person this weekend at San Francisco’s Roxie Theater.
John Seal
Freelancer John Seal is Berkeleyside’s film critic. A movie connoisseur with a penchant for natty hats who lives in Oakland, John writes a weekly film recommendation column at Box Office Prophets, as well as a column in The Phantom of the Movie’s Videoscope, an old-fashioned paper magazine, published quarterly. He also writes regular film reviews for IMDB, which can be read here.
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Articles by John
Icelandic grandma chats it up with invisible elves in ‘The Seer and the Unseen’
The film makes clear the parallels between the invisible elves and the invisible hand of the marketplace that sent the Icelandic economy into a disastrous tailspin during the 2008 financial crisis.
Documentary follows bizarre journey of ‘lost’ Leonardo da Vinci painting
The painting of dubious origin attracted the attention of a wily Swiss businessman, a Russian oligarch, the CIA, and the FBI before ending up in the possession of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Documentary takes close look at 2 of California’s worst wildfires
‘Bring Your Own Brigade’ burns hot for its first 15 minutes before settling into a simmering broadside. Also reviewed: ‘Nine Days’ and ‘No Ordinary Man.’
Film gives unflinching look at rocker Lydia Lunch’s artistic path
Plus: ‘Mandibles,’ Quentin Dupieux’s latest contribution to the cinema of the absurd.
‘I Carry You with Me,’ a gay immigrant love story with a narrative curveball
‘Te Llevo Conmigo’ (I Carry You with Me) is a flashback-strewn drama currently screening at Landmark’s Shattuck Cinemas.
Masterpiece of Indian cinema ends in tragedy for selfless heroine
Ritwik Ghatak’s 1962 film ‘Meghe Dhaka Tara’ is streaming via the Pacific Film Archive. Also reviewed: ‘A Crime on the Bayou,’ documenting the 1966 trial of Gary Duncan.
At the Frameline Festival: One of those horrible everyone-has-to-go family getaways
‘Sweetheart’ is a very satisfying comedy-drama. Also at the festival: ‘North By Current,’ a doc about a religious family’s struggles to come to terms with sex, sexuality and death.
A margarine heir, lesbians in revolt and an alien on stage at San Francisco Docfest
The film festival starts today at the Roxie Theater. It runs through June 17 in person and through June 20 online.
‘Losing Ground,’ a forgotten gem full of temptation, artistic muses and summer distractions
Director Kathleen Collins, an African American poet, civil rights activist and professor, only made one feature-length film, ‘Losing Ground,’ before her untimely death at the age of 46 in 1988.
Film festival all about aging features ‘Code of the Freaks’ and a Bay Area nonagenarian
Salome Chasnoff’s ‘Code of the Freaks’ details how Tinsel Town generally forces disabled characters into one of three categories.
Reviewed: ‘Tell Them We Were Here’ and ‘Riders of Justice’
‘Tell Them We Were Here’ gives an overview of the Bay Area’s contemporary art scene. ‘Riders of Justice’ is a violent film, but not an immoral one.
Reviewed: ‘About Endlessness’ and ‘The Fever’
‘About Endlessness’ is narrated by a nameless, omniscient goddess detailing some of the things she’s observed; in ‘The Fever,’ an unseen jungle creature stalks victims.
Reviewed: ‘The Virtuoso’ and ‘Four Good Days’
‘The Virtuoso’ is well-mounted and suspenseful despite Anthony Hopkins’ botched American accent; Glenn Close, Mila Kunis shine in ‘Four Good Days’
Reviewed: ‘I’m Fine (Thanks For Asking)’
The often harsh realities of pandemic life balanced with a bracing shot of old-fashioned California ‘can-do’ optimism result in a prize-worthy movie. Screen it before Sunday.
Reviewed: Highlights from the San Francisco International Film Festival
A well-deserved and clear-eyed tribute to a one-of-a-kind punk rock pioneer, a journey back to the ‘video nasty’ era and an impressive debut feature with a nod to Aki Kaurismäki.
