I recently came to the very important decision that if I could own any coin-op arcade game, it would be 1980's Star Castle. It's not necessarily my most favorite game of all time, and Tron or especially Star Trek would probably fit in more with overall collecting instincts, but Star Castle holds a particular place in my memory, that certain way the phosphor of the attract screen (the one that plays on a loop before a coin inserted) glowed in the most pleasing away, tucked into the corner of my neighborhood Me & Ed's Pizza in Fresno.
Obviously, having either the money or the space to own an arcade is a ludicrous dream that could never happen in a million years -- and the people who live out that dream, sometimes to obsession and points beyond, is the subject of Pinole filmmaker Jeff Von Ward's excellent new documentary The Space Invaders: In Search of Lost Time.
Martin McDonagh, the author of acclaimed plays including "A Skull in Connemara," "The Lieutenant of Inishmore" and "The Pillowman", as well as the movies In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths, is an exceptional writer, says Shotgun Players member Beth Wilmurt, who has been performing in the Bay Area for 25 years. She plays Maureen Folan in McDonagh's play "The Beauty Queen of Leenane" at the Marin Theatre Company.
"Rhythmically, he's amazing, and his wit and humor are so strong," she said. "There's this fine line between drama and comedy, but it's not even that he's going back and forth from comedy to drama -- it's like a constant mash up."
Joy Carlin, who plays Mag Folan, Maureen's manipulative mother in the play, agrees.
"For me he's like an Irish Clifford Odets," she said. "His language is beautiful and poetic. It's also the structure of the play, which is so tight. It's really interesting working on this play."
When not exuding urbane, Salinger-weaned New Yorker chic, or, relatedly, co-writing the occasional Wes Anderson film, Noah Baumbach makes movies of his own, typically involving witty portrayals of flawed individuals enduring tragicomic family dysfunction or estrangement from their own lives. These include The Squid and the Whale and Greenberg, the latter of which introduced Baumbach to leading lady Greta Gerwig, now his romantic and creative partner. In Baumbach's new film Frances Ha, a black-and-white frolic co-written with Gerwig, she plays an artistically inclined young woman in New York whose diminishing prospects don't get her down. Here's what Baumbach recently had to say about the picture, which opens today in San Francisco.
Frances Ha has been playing in film festivals since last fall, gathering steam for its official release. What are people saying about it?
Everyone has their own take, or their personal reaction to it. It sort of depends. I think maybe it depends on their expectations, or their feelings about other things I've done. About this movie in particular, the black-and-white has been a point of conversation.
It was Renoir who said that a work of art "must seize upon you, wrap you up in itself, and carry you away." Interviews with artists should have a similar effect. With "Artist's Statement," our weekly interview series with prominent and upcoming visual artists in San Francisco, SF Weekly speaks to the people behind the art you see in the galleries, in the museums, and in the streets.
