Category: SF International Film Festival

SFIFF59 Spotlights #5: Indignation / Mr. Gaga / The Summer of Frozen Fountains / Radio Dreams

Spinning Platters continues its coverage of the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival, which continues through this Thursday, May 5th. You still have plenty of time to get in a few screenings! More information and tickets are available here.

Here we spotlight three more Fest feature films, and one documentary.

Indignation
(USA, 2015, 110 min, Centerpiece Film)

College students Marcus (Logan Lerman) and Olivia (Sarah Gadon) get to know each other on their first date.

Writer/producer James Schamus (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Brokeback Mountain) here proves himself equally adept at directing, choosing for his first full-length feature foray an adaptation of Philip Roth’s 2008 novel Indignation. Set in 1951 at a fictional Ohio liberal arts college, Schamus’s screenplay remains true to the Rothian themes of coming of age, family conflict, sex, love, religion, and death. Schamus and a stellar cast, including Logan Lerman (The Perks of Being a Wallflower) as the protagonist Marcus, a working-class Newark atheist Jew trying to fit in at the conservative, religious campus, and Tracy Letts as the no nonsense, intellectually formidable, but bemused Dean of Men, handle Roth’s heady material with remarkable skill and sensitivity. Sarah Gadon as Marcus’s troubled love interest, and the great Broadway actress Linda Emond as Marcus’s mom, who shares a breathtaking, Oscar-worthy scene with Lerman, round out the absolutely terrific cast. A tour de force scene between Lerman and Letts, in which the two argue about Bertrand Russell, among other issues, is also one of the most compelling, uninterrupted takes you’ll see on screen this year. A powerful meditation on repression and finding yourself through love and family, Schamus’s directorial debut is not to be missed.

Screenings:

  • No more SFIFF screenings, but will open nationwide on July 29th.

Continue reading “SFIFF59 Spotlights #5: Indignation / Mr. Gaga / The Summer of Frozen Fountains / Radio Dreams“

SFIFF59 Spotlights #4: Assassination Classroom / Thirst / The Demons

A scene from Eiichirô Hasumi's ASSASSINATION CLASSROOM will play at the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival, on April 21 - May 5,2016.

Spinning Platters continues its coverage of the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival, which is happening NOW through May 5th. Information and tickets are available here.

Here’s a look at three more feature titles…

Assassination Classroom
(Japan, 2015, 110 min, Dark Wave)

A scene from Eiichirô Hasumi's ASSASSINATION CLASSROOM will play at the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival, on April 21 - May 5,2016.
A scene from Eiichirô Hasumi’s ASSASSINATION CLASSROOM will play at the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival, on April 21 – May 5,2016.

This is a bizarre one, ladies and gentlemen! Assassination Classroom is a new Japanese scifi-comedy-drama inspired by a manga series of the same name. The story is as outlandish as it gets, which is a welcome sight when you’re used to the common film festival fare. The plot: A ‘have a nice day’ smiley-faced alien comes to Earth and strikes a deal with the Japanese government that he will teach a middle school class how to assassinate him before graduation, at which point if he’s not assassinated he’ll destroy the planet. Woohoo! The film is filled with interesting socioeconomic commentary, with the alien being a metaphor for… something…I’m just not quite sure and too distracted by the zany, unexpected, unravelling plot to care. And that’s a good thing. Check it out!

Screenings:

  • Wednesday, April 27th – 10:00pm, Alamo Drafthouse

Tickets for Assassination Classroom available here.

Continue reading “SFIFF59 Spotlights #4: Assassination Classroom / Thirst / The Demons“

SFIFF59 Spotlights #3: Phantom Boy / Chevalier / Shorts 1 / Shorts 2 / Animated Shorts

 

A scene from Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli's PHANTOM BOY will play at the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival, on April 21 - May 5,2016.

Today, it begins! The San Francisco International Film Festival(SFIFF) runs from today, April 21st through Thursday, May 5th. We’ll continue to bring you spotlights of amazing films at the festival, and cover special events and awards. But allow us to give you one last preview of the program with spotlights on two more features and three excellent short film programs. Full program available here.

Phantom Boy
(France/Belgium, 2015, 84 min, Global Visions)

A scene from Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli's PHANTOM BOY will play at the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival, on April 21 - May 5,2016.
A scene from Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli’s PHANTOM BOY will play at the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival, on April 21 – May 5,2016.

From the filmmaking team that brought us 2010’s A Cat in Paris comes another fun, beautifully drawn adventure, Phantom Boy. In the film, a young cancer patient with a unique power to engage in out-of-body excursions teams up with a cop to stop a deranged gangster from taking over New York City. Constantly hilarious, always engaging, and totally charming, this film is an instant crowd-pleaser and should be on the top of everyone’s must-see festival list.

Screenings:

  • Sunday, April 24rd, 1:00pm, Alamo Drafthouse

Tickets available here.

Continue reading “SFIFF59 Spotlights #3: Phantom Boy / Chevalier / Shorts 1 / Shorts 2 / Animated Shorts“

SFIFF59 Spotlights #2: Five Nights in Maine/Frank & Lola/And when I die, I won’t stay dead/Notes on Blindness

SFIFF

Spinning Platters continues its preview coverage of the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival, which opens tomorrow, Thursday, April 21st. Information and tickets are available here.

To whet your Fest appetite, here we spotlight two of the Festival’s features and two documentaries.

Five Nights in Maine
(USA, 2015, 82 min, Marquee Presentations)

Sherwin (David Oyelowo) and his mother-in-law Lucinda (Dianne Wiest) share a moment at her Maine house.

When an adult dies unexpectedly, whose grief is greater – the surviving spouse, or the surviving parent? Are such comparisons even fair? Such are the heady questions that writer/director Maris Curran explores here, in a picture thematically similar to the recently released Demolition. After his wife Fiona (Hani Furstenberg) dies suddenly in a car crash, city-dweller Sherwin (David Oyelowo) visits Fiona’s terminally ill mother Lucinda (Dianne Wiest) at her isolated house in rural Maine. Though both try to maintain a polite façade with each other as they process their loss, issues of blame, recrimination, and bitterness slowly rise to the surface, forcing the two to confront past and present emotional wounds. A pas de deux between two of today’s best actors set against a stunning backdrop of fall light and foliage, Curran’s film is a flawlessly executed meditation on how we deal with life, loss, and love.

Screenings:

  • Saturday, April 23rd – 5:00pm, Alamo Drafthouse
  • Monday, April 25th – 1:00pm, Alamo Drafthouse
  • Tuesday, April 26th – 8:45pm, Alamo Drafthouse

Tickets for Five Nights in Maine available here.

Continue reading “SFIFF59 Spotlights #2: Five Nights in Maine/Frank & Lola/And when I die, I won’t stay dead/Notes on Blindness“

SFIFF59 Spotlights #1: Microbe & Gasoline / Dead Slow Ahead / Very Big Shot / Granny’s Dancing on the Table

SFIFF59

It’s that wonderful time of the year, again! Yes, time for the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF). The 59th edition of SFIFF will be hosting its two week celebration and screenings of incredible cinema from around the globe — April 21 through May 5. Year after year, Spinning Platters is here to provide you with tons of SFIFF coverage before, during, and after the event. Let’s start you off with four spotlights you should check out when SFIFF59 rolls around…

Microbe & Gasoline
(France, 2015, 105 min, Global Visions)

A scene from Michel Gondry's MICROBE AND GASOLINE will play at the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival, on April 21 - May 5,2016.
A scene from Michel Gondry’s MICROBE AND GASOLINE will play at the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival, on April 21 – May 5,2016.

Writer/director Michel Gondry’s newest cinematic entry may be his most charming to date. The whimsical tale of two adolescent friends (nicknamed Microbe and Gasoline) building a mobile tiny house for a chance to roadtrip across France to meet girls and explore the world is everything you’d want it to be — funny, inventive, and entertaining. Gondry’s usual DIY visual panache is less on display — maintaining focus instead on the two young lead characters whose conversations and musings on life transcend audience age groups. You’ll love Microbe & Gasoline!

Screenings:

  • Sunday, April 24rd, 6:00pm, Victoria Theatre
  • Tuesday, April 26th, 5:30pm, Alamo Drafthouse

Tickets available here.

Continue reading “SFIFF59 Spotlights #1: Microbe & Gasoline / Dead Slow Ahead / Very Big Shot / Granny’s Dancing on the Table“

Spinning Platters Interview: Félix de Givry and Sven Hansen-Løve, ‘EDEN’

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During SFIFF58 a few months ago, I was able to catch Mia Hansen-Løve’s new musical drama, Eden. Despite not knowing much about French touch and the electronic music movement of the 90s in Paris, I lost myself in the euphoric and tragic journey of the film’s central DJ character. Eden is a movie that will etch its aura into your mind, and its 4 hr. soundtrack plays like a history of house music. I was fortunate enough to arrange an interview with writer Sven Hansen-Løve, on whose life the story is loosely based, and Félix de Givry, who plays Paul, the central character of the film. At The Social Study, I sat down with the two French gentlemen to discuss Eden:

Félix, how much did you know about French touch and the electronic music movement before signing onto this project?

Félix: I think I knew a little bit more than normal people know in France. Even more than Americans. But still I was not expert, especially of garage underground scene. I knew about French touch. ‘French touch’ the expression represents so much success that almost everybody knows about the people involved. The most interesting thing for me was to really dig into the scene and the beginning of the scene and the fact that there was so few people, say 200 or 300 people. It was kind of a black hole. It wasn’t documented by the big media at the time and there was not internet yet. Thanks to Sven, I learned a lot about it.

Sven: Yes, the fact that we had the chance to see each other many times. With my sister, too (the film’s director, Mia). It was a good thing for Félix because he could get direct documentation, in a way <<laughs>>.

Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interview: Félix de Givry and Sven Hansen-Løve, ‘EDEN’”

SFIFF58 Final Spotlight: The End of the Tour/Golden Gate Awards

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This post must begin with a huge thank you to the entire SFIFF58 staff. Thank you! From the awesome crew that ran the press lounge, those manning the box office, the publicists, and programmers, to the volunteers and event coordinators, your tremendous effort was not overlooked or taken for granted by us covering the festival for Spinning Platters. We can’t thank you enough. We can’t wait for next year! Here’s a last look at one final film (appropriately titled) and the festival winners at this year’s SFIFF Golden Gate Awards:

The End of the Tour
(USA, 2015, 106 min., Big Nights)

The-End-of-the-Tour
THE END OF THE TOUR

Based on Rolling Stone journalist David Lipsky’s Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself, The End of the Tour depicts Lipsky’s conversations with author David Foster Wallace during the home stretch of his Infinite Jest book tour. Breaking out of his Apatow-produced shell, Segal proves he is ready for more dramatic roles with his honest and understated portrayal of the late author, who committed suicide in 2008. Comprised mostly of dialogue amidst some gorgeously shot muted midwest colors, The End of the Tour never loses our attention as the two central figures discuss universal topics that we are sometimes too afraid to face, or too afraid to hear.

Info available here.

Continue reading “SFIFF58 Final Spotlight: The End of the Tour/Golden Gate Awards”

SFIFF58 Spotlights #7: Welcome to Me/Very Semi-Serious/Two Shots Fired

The 58th San Francisco International Film Festival closes tomorrow, Thursday, May 7th, but that still leaves you time to see some films, including the closing night film, Experimenter (with Winona Ryder in attendance for the Q&A!). The screening is at 7:00pm at the Castro Theatre, and info and tickets are available here.

In the meantime, we’re spotlighting three other films that played during the Fest. And be sure check back after Thursday for our final wrap up.

Welcome to Me
(USA, 2014, 86 min, Marquee Presentations)

Alice (Kristen Wiig) and Gabe (Wes Bentley) form a connection.

Saturday Night Live and Bridesmaids alum Kristen Wiig stars in director Shira Piven’s new film, but the picture is no lightweight comedy. It has some rich laughs, to be sure, but, ultimately, it’s a smart, compassionate, and serious look at mental illness and the narcissism of new social media and reality TV platforms. Wiig plays Alice, a Palm Desert former veterinary nurse with borderline personality disorder who wins the lottery and decides to invest her winnings in a local talk show hosted by, and entirely about, her. The film deftly explores the collision between mental and cultural illness, and Wiig continues to flex the dramatic muscle we saw in last year’s The Skeleton Twins by giving her bravest performance yet. A stellar supporting cast, helmed by Tim Robbins as a patient but firm therapist, and the wonderful Joan Cusack, channeling her famous Broadcast News character, help to shape the picture’s serio-comic tone. Wes Bentley, James Marsden, Linda Cardellini, and Jennifer Jason Leigh nicely complement the proceedings as well, but this is Wiig’s show all the way, and she’s absolutely masterful. Put this one on your must-see list now.

Screenings:

  • Opens this Friday, May 8th, in limited release in the Bay Area, including at the AMC Van Ness and the Presidio Theatres in San Francisco, and the Elmwood Theater in Berkeley. You can watch the trailer here.

Continue reading “SFIFF58 Spotlights #7: Welcome to Me/Very Semi-Serious/Two Shots Fired”

SFIFF58 Interview: ‘Vincent’ director/writer/actor Thomas Salvador

Thomas Salvador is VINCENT
Thomas Salvador is VINCENT

For me, one of the many highlights of SFIFF58 was seeing Vincent, the new French “superhero” film from dir. Thomas Salvador. Having previously made only a handful of short films, Mr. Salvador took the plunge into feature films with this new wonderfully understated audience charmer, which he directed, wrote, and stars in. I sat down with the funny, polite, and reserved filmmaker to discuss Vincent, which has one more screening this Thursday, 5/7 at 6:15 (info here):

The trailer for Vincent says ‘the first film of French superhero”. Are superheroes just not as popular in France?

Not really <<laughing>>. The superhero movies have a lot of success everywhere. But as there are many, people are a little bit bored. It’s a real US kind of movies. Like westerns. You can’t imagine a superhero outside of United States. It’s a marketing way to present the film. If we think deeply, it’s not a real superhero movie but it was the marketing way to bring people into the theater. <<laughing>>

Well it’s you now. You’re the first!  You’re the first European superhero!

I’m not sure that, maybe there have been other people in French films with something special, special gifts. Maybe I’m the first. I didn’t do this movie for that. I did it because I feel it.

How did you decide on water as the source of power?

Continue reading “SFIFF58 Interview: ‘Vincent’ director/writer/actor Thomas Salvador”

SFIFF58 Spotlights #6: Eden/Results/Democrats/Far From Men/Hill of Freedom/Goodnight Mother

Less than a week left and sadly there are many great titles that have finished screening at SFIFF58. But we here like to keep you in the loop nonetheless, so here’s six more titles to add to your cinema radar (including Democrats, which still has some screenings left!):

Eden
(France, 2014, 131 min, Marquee Presentations)

EDEN
EDEN

Whether you’re familiar with the “French touch” influence of the 90s or not, it’s hard to deny the sensory power of this semi-biographical story about a French DJ rising to prominence in the Parisian electronic music scene, paralleling the origins of Daft Punk (who appear as characters throughout). Director Mia Hansen-Løve co-wrote with her brother Sven Hansen-Løve, of whom the story is loosely based. Eden juxtaposes a futile DJ lifestyle with house music’s high energy atmosphere and evolving media formats, set against the pulsating vibrant backdrop of some gorgeously shot clubs and raves.

There are no more upcoming screenings for Eden at the festival.
Info for Eden is available here.  *Interview with actor Felix de Givry and Sven Hansen-Løve coming soon*

Continue reading “SFIFF58 Spotlights #6: Eden/Results/Democrats/Far From Men/Hill of Freedom/Goodnight Mother”