Artists' Television Access. Gaze: Past Perfect, Future Tense: The women's independent film series grapples with the passage of time in short works by Caroline Blais, Catron Booker, Olivia Ciummo, Kim Collmer, Cecelia Condit, Kelly Gallagher, Carolina González, Karolina Glusiec, Traci Hercher, Heidi Kumao, Mirka Morales, Sylvia Schedelbauer, Shubhangi Singh, Nazare Soares, Deborah Stratman, and Hope Tucker. Fri., June 26, 8 p.m. $7-$10. gazefilmseries.wordpress.com. 992 Valencia, San Francisco, 824-3890, atasite.org.
Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center. Welles 100: Part One (1941-1948): The first half of the Smith Rafael Film Center's Orson Welles retrospective focuses on the singular director's early Hollywood works, including the 1946 imposturous Nazi noir The Stranger (June 7), his notoriously edited 1942 adaptation of The Magnificent Ambersons (June 14), the San Francisco-set 1947 crime thriller The Lady from Shanghai (June 21), his moody Macbeth (June 28), and starting with the one and only Citizen Kane (May 31). Sun., June 28, 7 p.m. $11. 1118 Fourth St., San Rafael, 454-1222, rafaelfilm.cafilm.org.
Clay Theatre. The Rocky Horror Picture Show: The Bawdy Caste performs onstage while the ultimate cult film plays in the background. Last Saturday of every month, 11:59 p.m. $9-$10. Testament of Youth: This new film version of Vera Brittain's memoir, which has been a seam in the fabric of British cultural history ever since its publication in 1933, is elegant and absorbing, with the quiet command that's sort of standard-issue British miniseries stuff. Less standard, and crucial, is the film's central perspective: It's a war story as told by a woman, who's a pacifist. Daily. 2261 Fillmore, San Francisco, 267-4893, landmarktheatres.com.
Embarcadero Center Cinema. Infinitely Polar Bear: Starring Mark Ruffalo as a bipolar 1970s dad who takes dubious custody of his two young daughters, this heartfelt, openly autobiographical, faultlessly cast work is Maya Forbes' debut as a writer-director. So why does it seem so bogus? Ruffalo's usual rumpled charm feels brittle and unnatural, cheapened by distracting shtick, and the movie plays out as a clump of episodes in search of dramatic shape, seeming to have paid more attention to recognizable period art direction than to recognizable humanity. Starting June 26. Daily. The Wolfpack: A loose laboratory study of the nature of escapism, Crystal Moselle's documentary introduces us to the six Angulo brothers, who — home-schooled and forbidden from leaving their cramped NYC apartment — have devoted a lot of time to transcribing their favorite movies, line by line, then filming home-video versions of their own re-enactments with impressive homemade costumes and props. Daily. The Overnight: A pizza-party playdate between two young couples turns very, very friendly, advancing in a jumble of hangups and high hopes, with just enough booze, bong rips, and body-image insecurities to go around. And before we know it, a coy indie sex comedy has fully disrobed, revealing — wait for it — a deep relationship drama, characterized with tactfully exaggerated comic proportions and benefiting from the pitch-perfect casting of Adam Scott, Taylor Schilling, Jason Schwartzman, and Judith Godrèche. Together, they have the right proportions of wit and feeling, and their shared escapade is funny and racy without ever trying too hard. Starting June 26. Daily. Batkid Begins: Nothing good or decent or remotely happy-making has happened in San Francisco since November 15, 2013, when the entire city collaborated to help Miles Scott live out his fantasy of being Batkid. For those of you heartless monsters who don't remember, Scott is the then-5-year-old leukemia survivor whose love of superheros inspired the Make-A-Wish Foundation to transform San Francisco into Gotham City for a day. Now Warner Brothers is releasing a documentary about Batkid's special day — so watch it, and remember what it's like to feel. Starting June 26. Daily. batkidbegins.com. 1 Embarcadero Center, San Francisco, 267-4893, landmarktheatres.com.
Exploratorium. Saturday Cinema: Weekly thematic film screenings presented in the Kanbar Forum by the Exploratorium's Cinema Arts program. Saturdays. Free with museum admission. Pier 15, San Francisco, 528-4444, exploratorium.edu.
Multiple Bay Area Locations. Frameline39: Proving that Pride Month isn't just one long excuse to barhop all month long, the Frameline Film Festival is one of the most respected film series in the world. Now 39 years on, it covers all bases, from hookups gone awry to the exploits of the first transwoman to compete in mixed martial arts, including documentaries, dramas, comedies, and more from over 30 different countries. Screenings take place at the Castro, Roxie, and Victoria theaters in San Francisco, Rialto Cinemas Elmwood in Berkeley, and Piedmont Theatre in Oakland. Through June 28. frameline.org. Multiple addresses, San Francisco, N/A.
Oddball Films. Strange Sinema 89: Visionaries of Time and Space: Experimental and psychedelic short films presented by Oddball Films director Stephen Parr. Thu., June 25, 8 p.m. $10. How to Be an Artist: Guest curator Christina Yglesias shares some super-duper-useful advice for budding artistes via a series of short instructional films from the 1940s to the 1970s. Fri., June 26, 8 p.m. $10. 275 Capp, San Francisco, 558-8112, oddballfilms.blogspot.com.
Opera Plaza Cinemas. The Connection: Because in French, they don't need to call it The French Connection. The fact-based tale of cops versus smack smugglers in 1970s Marseille may be familiar from a certain celebrated American film, but this take, made with gusto by director Cédric Jimenez, doesn't seem daunted at all. Even if Jimenez hasn't exactly broken the period-crime-thriller mold, he's built a solid entertainment, with techniques well absorbed from the American movie tradition. Starting June 26. Daily. I'll See You in My Dreams: You might go in expecting a heart-on-sleeve handout to middle-class women of retirement age, but I'll See You in My Dreams isn't charity, and director Brett Haley doesn't seem so interested in demographic premeditation. It's light touches all around, with everybody — especially our protagonist, a retiree and widow played with truth and grace by Blythe Danner — seeming to have gotten the emotional availability memo. Neither a feel-good bromide nor a cynical comeback thereto, I'll See You in My Dreams seems patiently to be working out an equation which allows getting older on one side of the equal sign and keeping calm on the other. Starting June 26. Daily. Wild Tales: A cornucopia of comeuppance, this exuberant pulp anthology from Argentine writer-director Damián Szifrón would like to point out how ready and willing humans still are to act like animals. The tales include a perhaps deservedly unlucky assembly of airplane passengers; a dish of revenge best served at a late-night diner; a bribery spiral spinning out of control from a drunken rich kid's hit-and-run; an elaborate road-rage duel that'll be the envy of Tarantino; a demolitionist getting his own blow-up button pushed by parking-enforcement bureaucracy; and one catastrophically tacky wedding. Starting June 26. Daily. Rebels of the Neon God: Tsai Ming-liang's 1992 debut Rebels of the Neon God, now getting its first domestic theatrical distribution along with a spiffy restoration, is a grimy cool introduction to the director of What Time Is It There? and last year's Stray Dogs, replete with damaged young characters who bum about media-drenched Taipei, occupied with repressed longing and petty crime. Starting June 26. Daily. 601 Van Ness, San Francisco, 777-3456, landmarktheatres.com.
Roxie Theater. The Nightmare: Rodney Ascher's new documentary examines a phenomenon known as "sleep paralysis," in which the sleeper feels wide awake and cannot move, and is aware of a malevolent presence in the room — usually a shadowy, featureless figure — but is powerless to do anything about it. Ascher interviews people afflicted by sleep paralysis, and they participate in re-creations of their specific night terrors, all of which is filmed for maximum spookiness. Through June 25. What! No Beer?: To celebrate the approval of its very own beer license, the Roxie serves up a screening of this 1933 Jimmy Durante/Buster Keaton suds comedy along with half-price glasses of Brew Free! or Die IPA and a pre-film presentation by 21st Amendment Brewmaster Shaun O'Sullivan. Sun., June 28, 7 p.m. $10. Disaster Playground: The Roxie's Science on Screen film series confonts the destruction of the Earth with this documentary about scientists tasked with devising plans to prevent armageddon at the hands of planet-killing asteroids. Apollo 9 astronaut Russell Schweickart introduces the movie, while the Long Now Foundation's Alexander Rose hosts a post-showing panel discussion with specialists from the SETI Institute. Tue., June 30, 7 p.m. $7.50-$10. disasterplayground.com. 3117 16th St., San Francisco, 863-1087, roxie.com.
Second Act Marketplace & Events. B-Movie Night: Babes, Bozos, and Billions of Black Holes: A schlockfest of cosmic proportions, 1979's Starcrash was a simultaneous apogee and nadir on the timeline of low-budget Star Wars ripoffs, its appeal as a kitsch klassic all but guaranteed by the slinking eyecandy of deep space megababe Caroline Munro, the quizzical inclusion of Christopher Plummer as Emperor of the Galaxy, and the eternally guffaw-inducing "acting" of David "Prince Simon" Hasselhoff. Fri., June 26, 8:30 p.m. $12-$20. Dusty Studio Animation: Dusty Studio founder Dustin Grella screens a series of short animations with an occasional psychedelic vibe (e.g., the studio's sizzle reel is set to the strains of the Grateful Dead's "China Cat Sunflower"). Mon., June 29, 7 p.m. $5 advance. dustystudio.com. 1727 Haight, San Francisco, 668-3994, secondactsf.com.
Shattuck Cinemas. Movie Making Throughout the Bay: Director & Producer Challenge Films: Aspiring local filmmakers strut their cinematic stuff. Thu., June 25, 6:30 p.m. $10. moviemakingbay.com. 2230 Shattuck, Berkeley, 510-464-5980, landmarktheatres.com.
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. New Filipino Cinema: Though it can probably only be summarized with the disclaimer that it can't easily be summarized, YBCA's fourth annual installment of this special festival reliably collects some of the most dynamic and diverse independent cinema in the world, with topics including (but not limited to) typhoon devastation, the long-lasting fallout from dictatorship, the costliness of dying, and oblique love stories with supernatural twists. Also there are some simply great titles, like Relaks, It's Just Pag-Ibig. Through June 28. $8-$10. 701 Mission, San Francisco, 978-2787, ybca.org.
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