4-Star Theatre. The Liberator: Alberto Arvelo's big, sprawling biopic about legendary revolutionary Simón Bolívar makes no attempt to avoid the well-worn clichés of its genre, but it's beautifully shot and features a strong performance by Édgar Ramírez as the charismatic but grounded leader. Daily. 2200 Clement, San Francisco, 666-3488, lntsf.com/4-star-theatre.html.
Castro Theatre. Bertolucci: A Film Series: This one-day festival dedicated to the Italian directorial legend includes showings of The Conformist (12:30 p.m.), The Sheltering Sky (3 p.m.), and Last Tango in Paris (9:30 p.m.). The event centerpiece is the Northern California premiere of a restored 3-D version of his Academy Award-dominating 1987 epic, The Last Emperor (6 p.m.), with actress Joan Chen appearing in person. Sat., Oct. 18. The Castro Theatre Remembers Lauren Bacall: Celebrate the late Hollywood icon with this series of three double-feature screenings: To Have and Have Not with Dark Passage (Oct. 1), Key Largo with Harper (Oct. 12), and How to Marry a Millionaire with Written on the Wind (Oct. 19). Sun., Oct. 19, 3:03 & 7 p.m. $8.50-$11. 429 Castro, San Francisco, 621-6120, castrotheatre.com.
Clay Theatre. My Old Lady: Israel Horovitz adapts his own stage play to make his directorial film debut in this drama about an American (Kevin Kline) who thinks he's inherited a Parisian apartment, only to find that an elderly mother and her daughter (Maggie Smith and Kristin Scott Thomas, respectively) are already living in it. Through Oct. 16. Whiplash: Drumming well is the best revenge. Or so we learn from being schooled by Damien Chazelle's thrilling litany of mind games and physical punishments, which features a dynamic movie duet between Miles Teller as a driven young conservatory jazz drummer and J.K. Simmons as his unreasonably abusive teacher. Starting Oct. 17. Daily. 2261 Fillmore, San Francisco, 267-4893, landmarktheatres.com.
Dark Room Theater. Bad Movie Night: A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 – Dream Warriors: With hosts Sherilyn Connelly, Mikl-Em, and Alexia Staniotes. Sun., Oct. 19, 8 p.m. $6.99. 2263 Mission, San Francisco, 401-7987, darkroomsf.com.
Embarcadero Center Cinema. Boyhood: Richard Linklater spent 12 years filming this universally acclaimed coming-of-age tale in which the actors grow up right before your eyes during the film's 165-minute running time. Daily. The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Divided into two separate movies with competing perspectives — Him/Her and Her/Him — director Ned Benson's dual character study looks at the strains and struggles that test the relationship of James McAvoy and Jessica Chastain. Daily. The Two Faces of January: A thriller so tasteful it barely thrills, screenwriter Hossein Amini's directing debut serves mostly just to forecast the extinction of movies adapted from Patricia Highsmith novels. It's fine, and quite stylish, with Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst, and Oscar Isaac as an attractive triangle of Americans abroad in southern Europe in the early 1960s, conning and colluding and meting out mythological consequences among the ancient Greek ruins, but it's just not quite tasty enough. Through Oct. 16. Pride: Organized around the not-quite-radical idea that plucky nonthreatening homosexuals and provincial Welsh workingmen's wives are equally and universally adorable, this year's best hope for a movie from the U.K. to please crowds in the U.S.A. is an ensemble uplifter about the London gay and lesbian activists who raised money to pitch in for the National Union of Mineworkers strike of 1984. Daily. Men, Women & Children: You'll definitely want to double-check that your iPhone is switched off for the latest drama from Juno director Jason Reitman, which examines the emotional damage done to teenagers and their families by the ubiquity of the internet and our inability to communicate without the mediation of digital devices. Daily. We the Economy: 20 Short Films You Can't Afford to Miss: Co-produced by Morgan Spurlock, this collection includes a wide variety of film styles and an even wider variety of contributors, including economists like Jeffrey Sachs and Joseph Stiglitz and comic actors like Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph. Mon., Oct. 20, 7 p.m. 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.
The New Parish. Scream: East Bay Express' Horror Film Festival II: Like any good teen slasher, this local short-film festival dedicated to DIY horror refused to die after just one outing ... so the East Bay Express and Oakland Underground Film Festival have brought it back to life for another year of splatter-tastic entertainment. Thu., Oct. 16, 7 p.m. $10-$12. 579 18th St., Oakland, 510-444-7474, thenewparish.com.
New Parkway Theater. Sound and Chaos: The Story of BC Studio: Documentary about famed independent music producer Martin Bisi and his NYC studio "on the banks of the beautiful Gowanus" where he recorded crucial albums by such bands as Sonic Youth, Swans, John Zorn, Unsane, Dresden Dolls, Cop Shoot Cop, Foetus, and many more. Bisi also performs live at the Stork Club after the film screening. Tue., Oct. 21, 7 p.m. $10. soundandchaosfilm.com. 474 24th St., Oakland.
Opera Plaza Cinemas. The Trip to Italy: Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon pack up their appetites and hit the road again for more droll dinner conversation in this sequel to Michael Winterbottom's 2011 comedy The Trip. Daily. The Green Prince: Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of Hamas founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef, tells the story of how his fundamental human decency and objections to the organization's brutally violent tactics led him to collaborate with Israeli intelligence. The documentary comes across like a cross between a techno-thriller and a Saw movie, which is appropriate enough for the many real-life horrors on display. Daily. The Blue Room: Directed by great French actor Mathieu Amalric — who you may remember as the Bond villain in Quantum of Solace, paralyzed memoirist in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, or secretive butler in The Grand Budapest Hotel — The Blue Room is a dark, swift take on sex, death, and judgement that hits the French-thriller sweet spot. Being an Amalric affair, it benefits, too, from a certain je ne sais quoi. Starting Oct. 17. Daily. 601 Van Ness, San Francisco, 777-3456, landmarktheatres.com.
Presidio Theatre. Bitter Honey: Feature-length documentary about polygamy in Bali and its effect upon women. Oct. 17-23. bitterhoneyfilm.com. 2340 Chestnut, San Francisco, 776-2388, lntsf.com.
Roxie Theater. #Stuck: The morning after a one-night stand, the only thing that Holly (Madeline Zima) and Guy (Joel David Moore) regret more than having slept with a stranger is now being stuck in a car with that stranger, stranded in a gnarly traffic jam. As they grudgingly get to know each other, the movie intersperses Memento-style flashbacks to the night before, including many audacious POV shots that provide a decent example of how cinematic a movie with a budget less than $1 million can be. Through Oct. 16. S.F. Shorts: San Francisco International Festival of Short Films: Mini-dramas, documentaries, experimental works, music videos, and more get mixed-and-matched in a sequence of seven programs that invite you to "watch films rub up" against each other. Oct. 16-18. sfshorts.org. Harmontown: Neil Berkeley's documentary follows Dan Harmon, creator of the cult NBC series Community, and his associates as they take the also-called-Harmontown podcast on a whirlwind tour after being sacked by NBC. Oct. 17-23. Ivory Tower: ScholarMatch benefit screening of the documentary that wonders if a college education is really worth the inflated price you pay for it these days, followed by a panel discussion with Jessica Aguirre, Jill Tucker, and more. Mon., Oct. 20, 7 p.m. $12.50. scholarmatch.org/ivory. 3117 16th St., San Francisco, 863-1087, roxie.com.
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Lest We Forget: Remembering Radical San Francisco: For city newcomers, the YBCA's latest film series — featuring documentaries about S.F. gay rights activists, striving immigrants, Alcatraz uprisings, punk rockers, and, of course, lots of empirical, San Francisco-style sex — could serve as a historical primer. For old timers, it's more like a reunion. Thu., Oct. 16, 7:30 p.m.; Sun., Oct. 19, 2 & 3:45 p.m.; Thu., Oct. 23, 7:30 p.m.; Sun., Oct. 26, 2 & 3:30 p.m. $8-$10 per program. 701 Mission, San Francisco, 978-2787, ybca.org.
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