4-Star Theatre. A Thousand Times Good Night: While it's inspired by director Erik Poppe's own experiences as a war photographer, what's refreshing about the work-versus-home drama of A Thousand Times Good Night — in which Juliette Binoche plays a photojournalist with a drive to cover some of the darkest things in some of the most dangerous parts of the world — is that the typical gender roles are reversed. The soul of the film is the relationship between a mother and daughter, not a father and son, and the man is married to a woman six years his senior, as opposed to half his age. Starting Oct. 24. Daily. 2200 Clement 666-3488, lntsf.com/4-star-theatre.html.
Artists' Television Access. Periwinkle Cinema's October Spooktacular: Gentry McShane curates an evening of Halloween-themed shorts by LGBT filmmakers, including Kadet Kuhne's Cunt Dykula, Hunx's I Vant to Suck Your Cock, Skye Thorstenson's Morgies, and more. Wed., Oct. 22, 8 p.m. $7-$10. facebook.com/PeriwinkleCinema. Flamingos: Filmmaker Antero Alli makes a personal appearance to screen his 2012 indie crime film about two lovers on the lam. Fri., Oct. 24, 8 p.m. $7-$10. 992 Valencia 824-3890, atasite.org.
Balboa Theatre. Pelican Dreams: The newest documentary from The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill filmmaker Judy Irving is an intimate meditation on modern mankind's relationship with ancient sea birds — particularly the California brown pelican — and as unabashedly personal as we'd expect from a trusty old-school San Francisco nature appreciator. Oct. 24-30. pelicanmedia.org. 3630 Balboa 221-2184, balboamovies.com.
Bindlestiff Studio. Filmmakers on the Fringe: This showcase of Asian Pacific Islander female filmmakers includes narrative works by Katelind Ikuma (Hawaiian Hipster) and Laura Priscilla Paule (Sam & Syl), plus documentaries by Jerilyn Guerrero (Le Baked Noms) and Sally Tran (Deconstructing My Depression). Thu., Oct. 23, 6:30 p.m. $5-$10. 185 Sixth St. 255-0440, bindlestiffstudio.org.
Brava Theater Center. Pretty Faces: The Story of a Skier Girl: Inverting the bro-brah dynamics of usual ski bum movies, Lynsey Dyer's high-altitude sports film features an all-female parade of skiers and snowmobilers carving powder and jumping cliffs in beautiful natural settings. Proceeds from the evening — which also includes a raffle, panel discussion, and "lots of rad swag" — benefit SheJumps. Sat., Oct. 25, 6:30 p.m. $15. unicornpicnic.com. 2781 24th St. 641-7657, brava.org.
California Historical Society Museum. Reel California: Screenings of short films from Yosemite's Range of Light Film Festival. Thu., Oct. 23, 6 p.m. $5. yosemiteshortfilms.eventbrite.com. 678 Mission 357-1848, californiahistoricalsociety.org.
Clay Theatre. 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. Daily. 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. 2261 Fillmore 267-4893, landmarktheatres.com.
Dark Room Theater. Bad Movie Night: Halloween III – Season of the Witch: Hosts Jim Fourniadis, Dan Foley, and Tristan Buckner sadly remove their modified Captain Kirk masks to watch the only Halloween movie that doesn't feature Michael Myers. Sun., Oct. 26, 8 p.m. $6.99. 2263 Mission 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. 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. Lilting: Lest that title give the wrong impression, it should be said that writer-director Hong Khaou's feature debut is unabashedly a dirge. Grief is the main characters' common ground, muted delicacy prevails, and the movie comes across as a placid surface under which emotions sometimes may be seen to roil. This film about language barriers and fragile incomplete relationships risks seeming itself untranslatable, fragile, and incomplete, but the characters' sensitivities combine into something very much alive. Daily. Birdman: starting Oct. 23. Daily. Citizenfour: starting Oct. 23. Daily. 1 Embarcadero Center 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 15 528-4444, exploratorium.edu.
Oddball Films. Cinema Soiree: Eccentric Visionaries of '60s Rock: Classic rock superaficionado Richie Unterberger presents film clips of subterranean '60s heroes in action, including the Beau Brummels, Bonzo Dog Band, Electric Prunes, Tim Buckley, Arthur Brown, and more. Thu., Oct. 23, 8 p.m. $10. 275 Capp 558-8112, oddballfilms.com.
Opera Plaza Cinemas. 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. Daily. The Overnighters: As seen in Jesse Moss's roundly depressing documentary, Williston, N.D., is perhaps doing better than the town in Rich Hill, but not by a lot. The dirty and dangerous practice known as fracking has created new oil fields and turned Williston into a boom town, but as often happens with boom towns, it's attracting thousands of down-and-out pilgrims. When the secret gets out that Pastor Jay Weinke is allowing one of these desperate job-seekers — who's also a registered sex offender — to stay with his family, the town's outrage turns The Overnighters into a sort of sociological Straw Dogs. Oct. 24-30. Diplomacy: Based on the play by Cyril Gely, Volker Schlöndorff's Diplomacy is mostly just two old guys in an opulent room: General Dietrich von Choltitz (Niels Arestrup), the military governor of occupied Paris in 1944, under orders from Hitler to blow up Paris; and Swedish consul general Raoul Nordling, who sneaks into von Choltitz's office in order to convince him to not blow up Paris. Even though we know Nordling was eventually successful in his task, how they reach that point is still plenty compelling. Oct. 24-30. 601 Van Ness 777-3456, landmarktheatres.com.
Presidio Theatre. Bitter Honey: Feature-length documentary about polygamy in Bali and its effect upon Balinese women. Through Oct. 23. bitterhoneyfilm.com. 2340 Chestnut 776-2388, lntsf.com.
Roxie Theater. 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. Through Oct. 23. Before You Know It: This bittersweet documentary focuses on three aging gay men in Galveston, Harlem, and Portland, reflecting on both the lives they've lived and how the changes in America's treatment of its LGBT citizens have affected them for both better and worse. Wed., Oct. 22, 7 p.m. $7.50-$10. Listen Up Philip: Jason Schwartzman owns the role of a narcissistic young author in the early stages of soul-poisoning success. Oct. 24-30. Viktor: Every so often, a specimen from the thriving cinematic underworld of Eastern European-lensed action movies gets an American release. In Viktor, a Gerard Depardieu-starring revenge film. It's all very strange, made more so by the fact that many of the Russian actors seem to be speaking their English lines phonetically, including main villain Anton (Denis Karasev). His poolside dialogue with a similarly English-bereft actress is possibly one of the worst-acted scenes in recent memory — and therefore, of course, one of the funniest. Oct. 24-30. Purgatorio: Avoiding blatant political statements, Rodrigo Reyes' meditative cinematic essay about life along the sun-blasted U.S.-Mexico border quietly depicts a world where poverty, decay, and desperation are as prevalent as the sand. Tonight Reyes makes a personal appearance at the Roxie to participate in a Q&A session following the film. Sun., Oct. 26, 6:30 p.m. $7.50-$10. 3117 16th St. 863-1087, roxie.com.
Town Hall Restaurant. Key Ingredients San Francisco: Tribeca Film Institute benefit featuring films by Wendy Levy, Dana Nachman, Ondi Timoner, and Kate McLean, paired with a four-course meal provided by chefs Esteban Escobar, Mellisa Root, Giorgio Milos, and Joey Ng. Thu., Oct. 23, 7 p.m. $250+. 342 Howard 908-3900, townhallsf.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. 23, 7:30 p.m.; Sun., Oct. 26, 2 & 3:30 p.m. $8-$10 per program. 701 Mission 978-2787, ybca.org.
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