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Spinning Platters continues its coverage of the upcoming 58th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF) with a spotlight on four more films. The Festival opens next Thursday, April 23rd, and runs until May 7th. Tickets and more information can be found here.
Today’s post looks at one film from the Masters section and three from the Global Visions section. Keep checking back for more coverage throughout the Fest!
Welcome film lovers and moviegoers to the Spinning Platters coverage of the 58th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF). Bookmark this site because we’ll be bringing you tons of SFIFF coverage: previews, film spotlights, interviews, and special events coverage. Per usual, our spotlights will cover the films that you’re already excited to see, as well as many titles that you haven’t heard of. SFIFF program notes and tickets are available here.
We’ll be continuing our coverage this week and throughout the Festival. Without further ado, let’s take a look at some of the special events in store and then five of the festival films:
According to writer/director Victor Levin’s new film, a “5 to 7” relationship among the French refers to an extramarital affair, fully sanctioned by all involved parties, that may or may not take place during those appointed hours, but is termed thusly regardless. In Levin’s new film named for that expression, though, the affair that is the film’s subject does indeed mostly take place during those evening hours. The participants are 24-year-old aspiring New York writer Brian (Anton Yelchin, best known as the Star Trek reboot’s young Chekov) and the beautiful, older, married Frenchwoman Arielle (Bérénice Marlohe, Skyfall). At least these two get to have a few hours of fun; the viewers of this hokey mess aren’t quite as lucky.
The newest adaptation of a sappy romantic Nicholas Sparks novel, The Longest Ride, is exactly that — sappy and romantic, and formulaic with a preposterous twist added in for preposterous effect. The story about a young beautiful art lover (Britt Robertson, Dan in Real Life) who falls in love with a young beautiful bull rider (Scott Eastwood, Fury) is the surface romance, featuring lines like “I can’t just quit. It’s all I know”, etc. The more dramatic underlying romance is the story told by an injured old man (Alan Alda, M.A.S.H.), about his courtship and marriage to the love of his life (Oona Chaplin, Game of Thrones) and the sacrifices they made for each other. Combine the two together in a layered emotional cheese fest and you have the makings of a classic Sparks story which the movie studio can use to excitedly make a film trailer that states “Two Stories Separated by Time / Connected by Fate.” (see trailer below)
Sometimes you’ll hear people talk about a movie as being review-proof. This is one of those times. There’s nothing anyone could do or say to keep you away from Furious 7 if it’s something you already want to see. And if you don’t care, there’s nothing I could say to make you care. So what’s the point? I could tell you it’s a rollicking good time for most of its length, and then it devolves into some pretty dumb stuff, too dumb even for itself. It’s basically a bunch of video game levels with some unskippable cut scenes that you wish you could skip.
Writer/director Noah Baumbach, who is 45, and whose girlfriend and frequent muse Greta Gerwig (Frances Ha) is 31, obviously knows a thing or two about Gen X/millennial conflict, and it’s hard not to wonder how much his real life experiences shaped While We’re Young, his new picture exploring the generational divide. While intellectually clever and undeniably funny at times, Baumbach’s film is not without its problems.
On Saturday night, the San Francisco Symphony hosted Gotta Dance!: Great Moments of Dance in Film at Davies Symphony Hall. If the first thing you pictured when hearing this title was Gene Kelly dancing under the giant orchestrated set of Broadway lights or the long, flowing white dress of Cyd Charisse (or the flashy green dress, for that matter), then this was absolutely the show for you. But what do I know? Maybe you were there!
Continue reading “Show Review: “Gotta Dance!” Great Moments of Dance in Film”
Critically acclaimed Danish director Susanne Bier tries her hand at directing an American period piece with her newest film Serena, and, unfortunately, the result is a serious misstep, paling in comparison to her excellent, award-winning earlier films (In a Better World, After the Wedding, and Things We Lost in the Fire, among others). Based on a novel of the same name by Ron Rash, the picture stars Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper in a troubled romance, and the fact that so much talent is wasted here is beyond disappointing.
Eleven years ago today (March 19, 2004), Michel Gondry’s award winning sci-fi romantic dramedy, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet, was released – and how to categorize such a multifaceted film gem? At the time, it played strong in somewhat limited release, earning $34 million in the domestic box office while garnering very positive critical reviews and mass audience approval. More than a decade later, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a widely respected title, but it often goes unrecognized for its lasting power and timelessness. It has so much going for it, even eleven years later, that one must wonder why it doesn’t frequent more award ceremony montages, more best film lists, and more casual conversations between friends about their favorite films of all time. The A.V. Club got it right, claiming Eternal Sunshine to be the best film of the 2000s. You may be thinking, ‘I liked the movie, but it’s not one of my all time favorites’. Well, I implore you to reconsider, and here’s why:
Documentarian Robert Kenner, who deservedly earned an Oscar nomination and several other awards for Food Inc., his last documentary, unfortunately doesn’t retain the same level of quality in his newest film, Merchants of Doubt. The picture, inspired by a book of the same name by science writers Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway, doesn’t even come close to covering the range of topics promised by the book’s subtitle (which Kenner wisely drops): How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming.