Boots Riley – Spinning Platters

Film Feature: SFFILM 2018 Festival Spotlights #4

Wrap up: 2018 San Francisco International Film Festival

The 61st San Francisco International Film Festival ended last Tuesday, but many of its offerings will find their way to your neighborhood cinema in the near future. We conclude our coverage of this year’s Fest by taking a look at four of the Fest’s films that you may want to keep your eye out for in the coming months (our previous coverage posts can be found here, here, and here). And if you’re curious to see which Fest films took home awards this year, you can see all the winners here. In the meantime, we’ll see you next year for SFFILM #62!

1.) Sorry to Bother You (USA 2018, 107 min. Centerpiece)

Detroit (Tessa Thompson) and Cassius (Lakeith Stanfield) join with striking workers at their telemarketing firm in Oakland.

Oakland rapper and artist Boots Riley got the hometown reception from the Festival this year, as his debut feature film was given a first-of-its kind, dual-venue Bay Area premiere at two of the Bay Area’s most iconic and beloved theaters: Oakland’s Grand Lake Theater and San Francisco’s Castro Theater. The movie had previously premiered at Sundance, where it garnered a Grand Jury prize nomination, but its Bay Area premiere definitely felt more special. Riley’s film centers on Cassius (Lakeith Stanfield, Get Out), a new employee at a telemarketing company in downtown Oakland (exteriors were shot around Kaiser’s Franklin Street building) whose rise up the corporate ladder doesn’t come without cost, to himself, his girlfriend (Tessa Thompson), and his friends, colleagues, and community. While inarguably entertaining, Riley’s film has a definite first attempt feel: elements of political satire, social criticism, surrealist comedy, outrageous sci-fi, and sweet romance often overlap to an extreme, coming dangerously close to burying the picture beneath its own everything-but-the kitchen-sink weight. Comedically deft performances from Stanfield and Armie Hammer, as a villainous corporate head, though, are appealing enough to make the flaws of Riley’s jam-packed screenplay forgivable.

Sorry to Bother You will open in the Bay Area on Friday, July 6th.

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SF Sketchfest Review: A Tribute to Patton Oswalt: In Conversation with Boots Riley at the Marines’ Memorial Theatre, 1/16/16

Boots Riley and Patton Oswalt (photo by Steve Agee)

Patton Oswalt, comedian and actor extraordinaire, isn’t sure why he’s getting a “tribute” from SF Sketchfest. Sure, he’s been touring the comedy circuit since ’88, has amassed millions of fans, exudes a remarkably conscious presence on social media, and generally is utterly recognizable in voice, manner, and his own creative palate — but is that really the sort of thing to have a “tribute” for? This, more or less, was the way he asked the question that kicked off the afternoon show, which saw Oswalt discussing his history, perception of comedy in decades gone by and in the modern age, and the vastly-deepening social awareness that exists to meld the worlds of comedy and reality together in (hopefully) wonderful ways. Despite the fact that the tribute was for him, and Boots Riley — the frontman of Oakland’s own hip-hop masterminds The Coup — was the one he was “in conversation” with, Oswalt was the first onstage, and introduced both the show and his guest, and remained the driving force for the conversation for the rest of the afternoon.

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Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 9/26/13-10/2/13

I remember the video was all austere and stuff. — It’s going to be like 1990 all over again at The Shoreline tonight, y’all.

October is nearly here. Match pre-Halloween candy sales with some concert-going and that’s a recipe for general happiness.

Here’s what’s coming up this week.

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A Nerd’s Guide To SF Sketchfest 2013

Spinning Platters loves Sketchfest. San Franciscans are generally really lucky, but for two and a half weeks every year, our lives get even brighter and more chaotic, because the best live comedy programming one could imagine is here, in the greatest place on Earth. Of course, it can be awfully intimidating. Hence this guide, to help you sort out everything that you should go to. For a complete schedule and tickets, please click here!

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Treasure Island Music Festival 2012 Diary: Day 1

Ian (533x800) — A festival patron is enjoying use of the trampoline.

Normally the Treasure Island Festival likes to separate Saturday and Sunday by genre: Saturday is the electronic day and Sunday is the rock day. However, as the lines blur between the two worlds, so did the festival. As Sunday will have a fair amount on laptops, Saturday seemed to have a healthy dose of live drums and guitar. And, well, for me, a lot of new music to tap into. This may be the first year where I was largely unfamiliar with the bulk of the acts playing on Saturday, which made my day even more exciting. I had a nice adventure, and I hope you enjoyed yourself, too. And if you didn’t, well, I feel bad.

(All Photos are by the fantastic Kelly Hoffer)

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