Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
Robert De Niro and Bobby Cannavale have acted together once before, in Martin Scorsese’s 2019 mob drama The Irishman. But casting them as father and son is a brilliant idea, and, if nothing else, actor/director Tony Goldwyn’s new film Ezra at least offers audiences that long overdue delight.
The 61st annual San Francisco International Film Festival begins this Wednesday, April 4th, and will run almost two weeks, until Thursday, April 17th. This year’s Festival features 186 films from over 40 countries, and will include eight world premieres, five North American premieres, and six U.S. premieres. Of special note is that over a third of this year’s selected films are directed by women. Tickets and more information about films and programs can be found here.
To help you plan your Fest schedule, we’ll start you off here with five Festival film spotlights (three narrative features and two documentaries). And be sure to bookmark Spinning Platters and check back frequently, as we’ll have more coverage throughout the Festival.
Continue reading “Film Feature: SFFILM 2018 Festival Spotlights #1”
Spinning Platters wraps up its coverage of the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival, which ended last Thursday, May 5th, after showcasing nearly 200 films from over 40 countries. The Fest may be over, but many of its offerings will be released throughout the year, so be sure to use our eight spotlight posts as a guide for potential future viewing.
We conclude our coverage by looking at three final films and two special events.
The Bandit
(USA, 2016, 82 min, Closing Night Film)
Local filmmaker Jesse Moss, who found success two years ago with his intense, stunning, but somber documentary The Overnighters, told us at the Q&A after the closing night screening of his new film that after that emotionally wrenching experience, he wanted to go in an opposite direction and make a “fun car comedy” like the films he loved while growing up – films like the ’70s Burt Reynolds-helmed, car chase classic Smokey and the Bandit. Still a documentarian, though, Moss has thus made what he terms the first “action-comedy” documentary. Indeed, as a look at ’70s heartthrob action and comedy star Burt Reynolds and his lifelong friendship with Hal Needham, the Hollywood stuntman turned writer/director who made the iconic Smokey, Moss’s new film succeeds brilliantly at echoing the good ol’ boy charm of the best of Needham and Reynolds’s pictures. Featuring historical interviews with Needham (who passed away in 2013), as well as interviews with former Smokey co-stars, country music stars, friends, colleagues, family, and Reynolds himself, The Bandit is chock full of juicy behind-the-scenes insider stories and enough old TV and movie clips to please the most ardent pop culture fans. As a portrait of both a bygone era of movie-making and, more importantly, of a singular friendship that could shift between respect and rivalry, Moss’s picture mirrors the good natured southern charm of the Reynolds-Needham collaborations, while also examining more serious issues of fame, competition, and deep, enduring friendship. The Bandit took home the Audience Award at SXSW this year, and deservedly so; a genuine crowd pleaser, the picture is a must-see for students of ’70s cinema, and anyone who values engrossing, well-made documentary stories.
Screenings:
Back in 2010, Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg starred in a middling buddy cop movie called The Other Guys, which at least had the benefit of being directed by Adam McKay, who directed Ferrell in the well-received Anchorman movies, and is currently garnering deserved praise for the very smart and very funny The Big Short. McKay’s early, relatively innocuous effort pairing Ferrell and Wahlberg, however, looks like the Hamlet of movie comedies compared to the newest film featuring the duo, a lazy, paint-by-numbers, dispiriting picture called Daddy’s Home.
In the age of the coming-of-age comedy, nothing is more prevalent than indie music montages and sad sap protagonists with remarkably expensive looking hipster clothing. Thankfully, Adult Beginners really has neither of these characteristics. The characters in Adult Beginners are past the point of coming-of-age, and therein lies the point. It may be formulaic and glossy in its ultra quick stereotypical depictions of IPOs, swim classes, successful entrepreneurs, awkward home town reunions, etc., but judging the film on these miscues is to miss the (aforementioned) point. What Adult Beginners does well is allow its very talented cast to execute a cute story featuring very familiar circumstances and themes.
In 1972, Linda Boreman Marchiano, better known by her stage name, Linda Lovelace, spent a sum total of 17 days working on one notorious pornographic film, but the results of that work led her to a lifetime of fame – or, more accurately, infamy. Her story is vividly brought to life in Lovelace, the new film by directors Rob Epstein and Jeremy Friedman (The Times of Harvey Milk; Howl) and writer Andy Bellin. They have crafted not only a fascinating psychological drama, but also a brilliant evocation of a bygone era. Continue reading “Film Review: Lovelace”
I am willing to forgive Woody Allen the misstep that was last year’s disappointing and forgettable To Rome With Love, since perhaps he needed to get that rote entry out of his system in order to make one of his finest films in years, Blue Jasmine. Sure to become one of his best known pictures, on par with such perceptive and tightly constructed works as Interiors, Crimes and Misdemeanors, and Match Point, this terrific film will no doubt be a strong contender for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Actress at Oscar time. Continue reading “Film Review: Blue Jasmine”