Category: Films

Film Feature: SFFILM 2019 Spotlights #1

62nd annual San Francisco International Film Festival opens today, Wednesday, April 10th

The 62nd annual San Francisco International Film Festival begins today, Wednesday, April 10th, and runs almost two weeks, until Tuesday, April 23rd. This year’s Festival boasts 163 films from over 50 countries in 36 languages, and will include twelve world premieres and five North American premieres. The Festival is proud that this year close to 45% of its films are directed by women. More information, complete program listings, and online tickets can be found here.

With so many offerings, figuring out your Fest schedule can be tricky. But never fear! As always, Spinning Platters has your back. We’ll get you started by sharing five Festival film spotlights (two narrative features and three documentaries). And of course be sure to check back here throughout the Festival for more spotlights and updates. 

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Film Review: The Aftermath

Knightley, Skarsgård helm predictable but entertaining post-War melodrama

In 1946, British Rachael (Keira Knightley) is none too happy to meet the German Stefan (Alexander Skarsgård, l.), despite the fact she and her husband (Jason Clarke) will be sharing Stefan’s Hamburg home.

With Jordan Peele’s Get Out follow-up Us opening today and receiving a ton of buzz, you may not realize there actually are a few other quieter, less high-profile films opening today as well. One of these is The Aftermath, an old-fashioned historical drama that, while somewhat forgettable and ultimately predictable, is a serviceable alternative for those searching for something less intense than Peele’s headline-grabbing horror flick.
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Film Review: Gloria Bell

Every now and then she gets a little bit nervous / that the best of all the years have gone by 

Gloria (Julianne Moore) frequents LA’s dance clubs looking for love.

Chilean director Sebastián Lelio peppers his new picture Gloria Bell with enough ‘70s and early ‘80s pop songs to make a Gen X’er weep, but often it’s hard to distinguish whether the songs are meant to match the film’s themes, or the other way around. But to watch Julianne Moore, as the titular Gloria, in her car, alone, singing her heart out along with Olivia Newton-John’s “A Little More Love” is to experience a sublime and intimate moment with a fully realized and utterly unique character. Scenes like these make Leilo’s reliance on musical crutches forgivable. Continue reading “Film Review: Gloria Bell“

Film Review: Fighting With My Family

Merchant throws down with charmer of a wrestling tale  

Wrestler Saraya (Florence Pugh, center) is embraced by her supportive parents (Lena Headey and Nick Frost). 

Florence Pugh, the young British actress best known for Lady Macbeth and The Outlaw King, steps out of those historic costume drama roles and into a costume of another kind in the terrific new wrestling picture Fighting With My Family. Written and directed by British comedian Stephen Merchant (Hello Ladies; Extras) with a whole lot of heart and verve, the film is based on a true story previously chronicled in the documentary The Wrestlers: Fighting With My Family. Merchant’s fictionalized account brings a sports underdog story to life — always a risk for clichés — but does so with such earnest spirit and genuine affection that you can’t help but develop a rooting interest in the film’s indelible characters and immensely enjoy yourself along the way. Continue reading “Film Review: Fighting With My Family“

Film Feature: Carrie and Chris Pick the 2019 Oscars

Film critics Carrie and Chris on who will – and who should – win the 91st Academy Awards

The 91st Academy Awards air this Sunday, February 24th, on ABC at 5:00 pm PST (with the requisite pre-show fashion assessments starting hours before). As they did last year, Spinning Platters film critics Carrie Kahn and Chris Piper share their predictions – and hopes – for the major categories.  Guild awards – often harbingers of Oscars to come – have been all over the map this year, so there may actually be some genuine surprises. Tune in on Sunday to see how things play out, and to find out if we correctly read the minds of Academy voters.

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Film Feature: Highs and Lows from the 2019 Sundance Film Festival

After almost two weeks of screenings that ran daily from 8:30 am to midnight, the Sundance Film Festival wrapped up last weekend with its awards presentation. All the winners can be found here, but below I present my personal highlights from my week exploring the Fest’s good, bad, and downright weird. Some of these may be widely released during the year, so I offer my advice on the films you should SEE or SKIP.

1.) Most Over the Top Rip Off of The Office that Feels Like it Was Written At 3:00 am After Smoking Way Too Many Joints: Corporate Animals (Category: Midnight)

Corporate Animals.

Not only does director Patrick Brice (who also directed the much better Sundance offering The Overnight) use a corporate retreat setting for his horror satire, replete with a who’s who of standard office types (Demi Moore as the hard driving boss; Jessica Williams as the dispirited protégée; and Callum Worthy as the eager to please intern, to name a few), but he even casts Office alum Ed Helms as a guide who leads the team on a caving expedition that goes awry, to put it mildly. Trapped deep in a collapsed New Mexico cave (the scenery at least holds its own), the cast is forced to deliver too many stereotypical jokes, especially at the expense of Moore, whose cutthroat boss is little more than a caricature. The group’s descent into cannibalism is played for laughs, but the film isn’t half as edgy as it thinks it is, and the entire exercise feels like writer Sam Bain somehow managed to get his snickering Office fan-fiction greenlit. — SKIP Continue reading “Film Feature: Highs and Lows from the 2019 Sundance Film Festival”

Film Feature: Carrie’s Top 10 Films of 2018

What were your favorite films of 2018? There were lots of worthy contenders, and choosing just ten can be challenging, but Spinning Platters Film Editor Carrie Kahn has given it a go. Below Carrie shares her ten favorite films of 2018, presented in descending rank order. You can also check out her list from last year, here. 

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Film Review: Aquaman

Porpoise-less fish tale drowns in mediocrity 

Aquaman (Jason Momoa) strikes one of his favorite poses.

Yes, I know that headline is a real groaner, but so is the movie that inspired it, so fair is fair. Aquaman is the latest DC Comics superhero to headline his own picture, and, unfortunately, this idea is one that never should have floated to the surface. Australian director James Wan (of the Fast and Furious and Saw franchises) throws in a bit of everything with Aquaman, but ends up with a whole lot of spectacle, and — if you’ll forgive me another water pun — not a lot of depth.
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Film Review: Widows

Men … and their messes

From left: Elizabeth Debicki, Viola Davis, Michele Rodriguez, and Cynthia Erivo in Widows

Steve McQueen’s new film Widows opens high above a modern Chicago, in a lofty lovers paradise of pearly white sheets, bodies in contact, and a feeling of time standing still. It’s a cunning and perplexing opening. It leads us to place of hope and optimism, and sets us up for the dark brutality to follow.

Passion gives way to the realities of the day, and Veronica (Viola Davis) and her husband Harry (Liam Neeson) part ways, she to her job as a school district administrator, and he to his gang’s heist of two million dollars.

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Film Review: The Front Runner

Reitman’s take on Hart/Rice scandal worth a look

Presidential candidate Gary Hart (Hugh Jackman) faces intense media scrutiny after rumors of an extramarital affair surface.

To watch The Front Runner is to be amazed at how much the political climate has changed in 30 years. Back then, the well-regarded, young, smart, Kennedy-esque Colorado senator Gary Hart, widely considered the front runner for the Democratic nomination, had his campaign derailed by just the whiff of an extramarital affair. Fast forward to today, and a candidate with multiple accusations of affairs harassment, and vulgar language has no problem staying in the race, and, ultimately, winning. How far we’ve come. But director Jason Reitman’s (Young Adult; Juno; Up in the Air) new film is less a treatise on changing public perception, and more a study of how journalism has changed, opening the door to what is now considered acceptable and expected scrutiny of candidates’ private lives. And for that, the film is worth seeing.
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