Artists' Television Access. SFAI Intro to Film Final Class Screening: Includes screenings of the group projects Mash Film and Torch and Shadows Unite!, plus individual works by 15 young filmmakers from the San Francisco Art Institute. Wed., Dec. 3, 7:30 p.m. $4. 992 Valencia, San Francisco, 824-3890, atasite.org.
Castro Theatre. Lost Landscapes of San Francisco 9: Rick Prelinger presents the latest in his immensely entertaining and popular (i.e., already sold out) series of short films shot in the San Francisco of yore. Thu., Dec. 4, 7:30 p.m. sold out. longnow.org. Sing-A-Long Sound of Music: The hills are alive with costumed crooners as the Castro's popular sing-along series brings Julie Andrews back to teach you a few things (including some of your favorites) about the ol' Do-Re-Mi. Fri., Dec. 5, 7 p.m.; Sat., Dec. 6, 1 & 7 p.m.; Sun., Dec. 7, 1 & 7 p.m. $11-$16. 429 Castro, San Francisco, 621-6120, castrotheatre.com.
Century San Francisco Centre 9 and XD. RiffTrax Live: Santa Claus: Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett revisit René Cardona's 1959 cinematic stinker (as previously seen during Mystery Science Theater 3000's fifth season) to provide all-new comedic riffs on one of the most surreal and inexplicable holiday movies of all time. Thu., Dec. 4, 8 p.m. rifftrax.com. 845 Market, San Francisco, 538-8422, cinemark.com.
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. Through Dec. 4. Miss Julie: Directed by Liv Ullmann, this adaptation of August Strindberg's 1888 stage work transplants the action — a long dark night of power plays between a baron's daughter (Jessica Chastain) and her father's valet (Colin Farrell) — from Sweden to Ireland, with Farrell as Chastain's challenger and Samantha Morton as his wounded and deceptively stoical fiancée. Starting Dec. 5. Daily. 2261 Fillmore, San Francisco, 267-4893, landmarktheatres.com.
Dark Room Theater. Bad Movie Night: Santa Claus – The Movie: Hosts Sherilyn Connelly and Tim Kay watch Dudley Moore play an elf in the 1985 Christmas flick that's less "Ho! Ho! Ho!" and more "No! No! No!" Sun., Dec. 7, 8 p.m. $6.99. 2263 Mission, San Francisco, 401-7987, darkroomsf.com.
Davies Symphony Hall. Disney in Concert: A Tale as Old as Time: Film and music medleys with the S.F. Symphony and guest vocalists Juliana Hansen, Sarah Hicks, Andrew Johnson, Whitney Claire Kaufman, and Aaron Phillips. Dec. 3-4, 7:30 p.m. $30-$100. 201 Van Ness, San Francisco, 864-6000, sfsymphony.org.
Embarcadero Center Cinema. The Homesman: Packed with top-notch actors who probably didn't need to hear more than "a western directed by Tommy Lee Jones" to be convinced to play small roles, The Homesman is less of a revisionist western than it is a tone poem on just how unfair, miserable, and downright rapey life was on the frontier. Daily. Birdman: In Alejandro González Iñárritu's bold comment on the uncertain new frontier of performing arts, Michael Keaton plays the wounded, ambitious, has-been star of a superhero-movie franchise, now mounting his own Raymond Carver adaptation on Broadway. Daily. The Theory of Everything: In director James Marsh's gauzy and chastely reverential movie, Eddie Redmayne relishes the physically challenging role of young astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, bending himself through a progression of wheelchairs from 1960s Cambridge toward the gnarled, impish, computer-voiced transglobal keynoter we all know and love today. Daily. 1 Embarcadero Center, San Francisco, 267-4893, landmarktheatres.com.
Exit Theatre. Now and at the Hour: See H.P. Mendoza's cinematic capture of Christian Cagigal's magical show before it makes the VOD rounds. Cagigal also performs in person before each screening. Starting Dec. 5. Fridays, Saturdays, 8 p.m. Continues through Dec. 13. $15-$25. 156 Eddy, San Francisco, 673-3847, theexit.org.
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.
New People. 11th Annual Another Hole in the Head Film Festival: The 2014 edition of SF IndieFest's yearly horrorfest starts smack dab in the middle of Advent and includes such non-holiday fare as Tony Kern's Singapore ghost story anthology Afterimages, Marc-Andre Samson's cabin-in-the-woods exercise Where the Devil Dwells, Chris LaMartina's tentacular genre comedy Call Girl of Cthulhu, Hitoshi Matsumoto's kinky sex dramedy R100, and Juan Ortiz's remarkably atmospheric (for a film shot on an iPhone 4S) Jennifer Help Us. Also featured are venerable classics such as James Cameron's 1986 Aliens and Tobe Hooper's 1982 Poltergeist — both presented in the dying 35mm format, probably for the last time. Dec. 5-15. sfindie.com. 1746 Post, San Francisco, 525-8630, newpeopleworld.com.
Opera Plaza Cinemas. Citizenfour: The centerpiece of Laura Poitras' new documentary about Edward Snowden is Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald interviewing Snowden in June of 2013, where Snowden explains just how thoroughly our government violates the world's privacy. Though he disappears for much of the second half to go into exile, his presence remains — and if the film ends abruptly, that's only because the real-life story is still far from over. Daily. Antarctica: A Year on Ice: The imagery in Anthony Powell's documentary is so stunning, it could function as a wordless, Qatsi-esque sensory experience. But Powell's film is as much about the people who live and work at Antarctica's McMurdo Station as it is about the beauties and terrors of their environment, and is all the stronger for it. Most of us will never make it to the bottom of our planet, so Antarctica: A Year on Ice is as close as we'll get, and it's worth the trip. Through Dec. 4. The Way He Looks: This sensitive (sometimes gratingly so) and sunny coming-of-age film from Brazil follows the blossoming affection that Leonardo, a blind teenager, feels for the cute new boy in class. Daily. Force Majeure: Ruben Östlund's film pulls off the remarkable trick of being a disaster movie that largely skips the disaster: A married couple goes on a skiing holiday, but when a false-alarm avalanche causes the husband to freak out and run, his panicked reaction causes permanent damage to their relationship. Östlund conveys the fragility of the mountain surroundings, making it feel like less like a vacation spot and more like a war zone — which is exactly what it becomes. Daily. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night: There's nothing not to get excited about in this feature-length debut by Ana Lily Amirpour. Not only is it shot in glorious black and white, it's also an Iranian (!) vampire (!!) western (!!!), complete with Ennio Morricone-style music. If that doesn't turn you on, you may already be dead. Starting Dec. 5. Daily. Point and Shoot: With the definition of masculinity becoming increasingly diffuse, Marshall Curry's documentary considers one fellow's attempt to become a man — whatever that may mean — by following Baltimore native Matthew VanDyke on his "crash course in manhood," which includes riding a motorcycle across northern Africa and taking up arms in the revolution against Gaddafi. Starting Dec. 5. Daily. 601 Van Ness, San Francisco, 777-3456, landmarktheatres.com.
Roxie Theater. Food Chains: Sanjay Rawal's urgent documentary tracks a labor dispute between Florida tomato pickers and the supermarket chain from which they want and really deserve an extra penny for every pound of tomatoes picked. While the storytelling techniques in Food Chains aren't exactly farm fresh, it's important to see these Florida farmworkers get organized and get some progress started. But only some. Through Dec. 4. Pulp: A Film About Life, Death & Supermarkets: It's also a film about Jarvis Cocker, his band, and the city of Sheffield. Wed., Dec. 3, 9:30 p.m.; Thu., Dec. 4, 9:30 p.m. Happy Valley: Berkeley-raised doc-maker Amir Bar-Lev, previously of The Tillman Story, doesn't shy away from sensational controversies. What he does is dig into them, seeking humanity and shades of gray. Here that involves revisiting the awful Penn State sex-abuse scandal and the related hazards of uncritical sports-culture obsession. Dec. 5-11. Murder of a Cat: Cat harshness alert: The title of Gillian Greene's comedy is not metaphorical. The deceased feline's owner is a twenty-something nerd named Clinton (Fran Kranz) — who still lives in his mother's basement — but when he finds his cat impaled with a crossbow on the street, he sets out to find the culprit, an investigation involving a local hairstylist Greta (Nikki Reed), a big-box store owner Ford (Greg Kinnear), and the town's sheriff (J.K. Simmons). Dec. 5-10. The Great Invisible: While nuclear accidents may create a more famous form of fallout, this documentary from Margaret Brown traces the personal and environmental fallout resulting from the explosion of BP's Deepwater Horizon oil drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico. Dec. 6-10. Something Ventured: Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine appear in person to present their 2011 paean to profitable venture capitalists. Tue., Dec. 9, 7 p.m. $7.50-$10. 3117 16th St., San Francisco, 863-1087, roxie.com.
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. New Waves in Mexican Cinema: The YBCA shines a light on burgeoning Mexican directors who do beautiful work in a less-is-more mode, including José Luis Valle's economical, potent parable about bereavement, The Searches (Las búsquedas) (Dec. 11 and 14); Nuria Ibáñez's direct and wrenching documentary The Naked Room (El cuarto desnudo), which is simply a series of closeups of children and young teens telling therapists about their deeply troubled lives (Dec. 18 and 21); Aarón Fernández's The Empty Hours (Las horas muertas), in which a teenage custodian takes up a relationship with one of the regulars in rent-by-hour roadside motel (Dec. 13 and 14); and Samuel Kishi Leopo's We Are Mari Pepa (Somos Mari Pepa), about a crew of lanky adorable scamps who struggle to come up with even two punk songs that they can remember and actually play (Dec. 4, 6, and 7). Starting Dec. 4. Thursdays, Sundays. Continues through Dec. 21. $8-$10. ybca.org/new-waves-mexican-cinema. 701 Mission, San Francisco, 978-2787, ybca.org.
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