Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
After waiting for a movie for almost 50 years, can it ever live up to expectations? In the case of the film adaptation of Judy Blume’s classic 1970 coming of age novel Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, the answer is a resounding yes.
Continue reading “Film Review: “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret””
The 66th SFFilm Festival concludes today, with screenings through this evening. We wrap up our Fest coverage with two final spotlights for you: Here’s a look at a documentary and a feature film that have been playing the film festival circuit, but may receive theatrical distribution. Continue reading “Film Feature: 66th SFFILM Festival Wrap-Up”
Ray Romano is one of our most underrated dramatic actors. If you know him only from the network sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, you’ve only seen a fraction of what he’s capable of. Check him out in the indies Paddleton or The Big Sick, for which his heartbreakingly honest monologue about infidelity should have netted him a Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. Or better yet: go see him in his outstanding feature film directorial debut Somewhere in Queens, opening today.
I saw Showing Up one week ago today, and sat down to write this review at 5:00am this morning. Yes, I procrastinated, even though I love to write about movies. But I think writer/director Kelly Reichardt would forgive me and understand my dilemma, as it’s exactly what her newest picture so charmingly explores.
The 66th SFFilm Festival opens tomorrow, Thursday, April 13th, and will run through Sunday, April 23rd. Tomorrow’s opening night premiere – a documentary about Steph Curry — is sold out for advance tickets and at rush (if you want to show up and take your chances), but luckily there’s tons more cool stuff to see over the next week and a half. Here we present just a taste: a look at four upcoming screenings — two documentaries and two narrative features. Continue reading “Film Feature: 66th SFFilm Festival Spotlights”
If you love basketball and you want to see an in depth movie about Michael Jordan, watch Netflix’s The Last Dance. But if you love stories about high-stakes gambling, go see Ben Affleck’s Air. What Affleck gives us here isn’t a sports story. It’s a tale about business, and a wonderfully juicy one at that. Air tells the story of how Jordan’s contract with Nike nearly single-handedly transformed the middling Oregon-based company into the world’s greatest apparel empire, thanks to the story’s main characters placing big bets: on Jordan by Sonny Vaccaro, a then little-known Nike marketing executive; on Vacarro by his boss, Nike founder Phil Knight, and on Nike by Jordan’s family, particularly his mother Deloris.
Writer/director Zach Braff hasn’t made a solo feature film since 2004’s Garden State (2014’s Wish I Was Here had a co-writer), so you’d think that a 19 year incubation period would be enough for him to craft something truly great. But sadly, that’s not the case: A Good Person, his newest picture, is a disappointing misfire.
The 95th Academy Awards air tomorrow, Sunday March 12th, on ABC at 5:00 pm PST (Don’t forget to spring forward so you don’t miss the beginning!). Tune in to see not only who will take home Oscar gold, but also how host Jimmy Kimmel will handle the elephant in the Dolby Theater – last year’s infamous Will Smith/Chris Rock moment, AKA the Slap Heard ‘Round the World. Whether we get any similar jaw-dropping moments this year is anyone’s guess, but, in the meantime, there’s always your good old-fashioned Oscar pool to keep you entertained. See how your predictions line up with mine, below:
Continue reading “Film Feature: Carrie Picks the 2023 Oscars”
Back in 2018, my number two movie of the year was Searching, an innovative thriller about a father’s search for his missing teenage daughter that was told entirely through modes of modern technology. Fast forward five years later, and members of that filmmaking team have made essentially the same movie, only this time we have a teenage daughter searching for her missing mother. The result is a film that, while no longer fresh in style, at least has a winning formula that keeps us entertained, even as we’re no longer impressed by the narrative concept.
Representation Matters in Christmas With You Starring Aimee Garcia and Freddie Prinze Jr.
About ten years ago, a friend of mine said, “They never make movies about people like us unless it’s about our trauma or a white person growing. Why can’t we have happy endings, too?”
It was true; all my favorite movies were helmed by white people, and the few that weren’t were about trauma. The rest of the time, we were in supporting roles as best friends, maids, taxi drivers, gangsters, or terrorists. Sometimes the story was about us, but it wasn’t really about us; it was about the white teacher who changes our lives, the white writer who is inspired by us to tell our stories for us. It still centered on a white person’s journey of growth. Continue reading “Film Review: “Christmas With You””
