4-Star Theatre. The Intern: Starting a new job can be a difficult challenge, especially if you're already retired. Looking to get back into the game, 70-year-old widower Ben Whittaker (Robert De Niro) seizes the opportunity to become a senior intern at an online fashion site. Ben quickly becomes popular with his younger co-workers, including Jules Ostin (Anne Hathaway), the boss and founder of the company. Whittaker's charm, wisdom and sense of humor help him develop a special bond and growing friendship with Jules. Through Oct. 1. Wildlike: Sent to stay with her uncle in Alaska while her mother is in treatment, 14-year-old Mackenzie is forced to flee as her uncle's attention turns threatening. Unable to reach her mother and afraid that the authorities will return her to her uncle, she embarks on a journey across miles of wilderness to find a way back home to Seattle. As she plunges deeper into the Alaskan interior, a chance connection with gruff backpacker Bartlett proves to be her only lifeline. Mackenzie shadows Bartlett across the rugged frontier, thwarting his efforts to cut her loose until he has no choice but to help her survive, and against the backdrop of a spectacular landscape, they discover the redemptive power of friendship. Through Oct. 1. Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief: Filmmaker Alex Gibney interviews former members of the Church of Scientology and reveals abuses and strange practices within the controversial organization, based on Lawrence Wright's book of the same name. Oct. 2-8. Breathe: Melanie Laurent's teen psychological drama Breathe stars Josephine Japy as Charlie, a seventeen-year-old who does well in school and seems to have everything going for her. When the much more sophisticated Sarah (Loe de Laage} moves to town, however, Charlie finds herself drawn to the world girl whose mother supposedly works for an NGO. The two become fast friends, but soon Sarah makes Charlie uncomfortable with her wilder ways. When Sarah Charlie learns a secret about Sarah, their relationship takes a sinister turn. Oct. 2-8. 2200 Clement, San Francisco, 666-3488, lntsf.com/4-star-theatre.html.
Castro Theatre. Magic Mike XXL: Three years after Mike (Channing Tatum) bowed out of the stripper life at the top of his game, he and the remaining Kings of Tampa hit the road to Myrtle Beach to put on one last blow-out performance. This sequel to the sleeper hit co-stars returning cast members Matt Bomer, Kevin Nash, Adam Rodríguez, Joe Manganiello and Gabriel Iglesias. Directed by Steven Soderbergh protégé Gregory Jacobs. Sun., Oct. 4, 7 p.m. Tangerine: Sean Baker's fifth feature is a frenetic, funny, and often moving work that employs the most contemporary of means—it was shot on the iPhone 5S—to present the story of Sin-Dee (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez), a transgender sex worker back on the streets of Los Angeles following a stint in jail. Seeking to confront her unfaithful boyfriend/pimp (James Ransone), Sin-Dee and fellow sex worker Alexandra (Mya Taylor) tear through Tinseltown against a sonic backdrop of blaring trap music, innocent and not-so-innocent bystanders be damned. Sun., Oct. 4, 9:10 p.m. 429 Castro, San Francisco, 621-6120, castrotheatre.com.
Clay Theatre. Stonewall: A drama about a fictional young man caught up during the 1969 Stonewall Riots. Danny Winters (Jeremy Irvine, War Horse) is forced to leave behind friends and loved ones when he is kicked out of his parent's home for his sexuality. Fleeing to New York and alone in Greenwich Village, he befriends a group of street kids who soon introduce him to local watering hole The Stonewall Inn; however, this shady, mafia-run club is far from a safe haven. Danny and his friends experience discrimination, endure atrocities and are repeatedly harassed by the police. A rage begins to build through Danny and the entire community of young gays, lesbians and drag queens who populate the Stonewall Inn and erupts in a storm of anger. With the toss of a single brick, a riot ensues and a crusade for equality is born. Also starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Jonny Beauchamp, Caleb Landry Jones and Ron Perlman, Stonewall is written by Jon Robin Baitz and directed by Roland Emmerich (The Day After Tomorrow, Independence Day). Daily. 2261 Fillmore, San Francisco, 267-4893, www.landmarktheatres.com/san-francisco/clay-theatre.
Embarcadero Center Cinema. The Diary of a Teenage Girl: A coming-of-age story that is as poignant as it is unsettling. Like most teenage girls, Minnie Goetze (Bel Powley) is longing for love, acceptance and a sense of purpose in the world. Minnie begins a complex love affair with her mother's (Kristen Wiig) boyfriend, "the handsomest man in the world," Monroe Rutherford (Alexander Skarsgård). What follows is a sharp, funny and provocative account of one girl's sexual and artistic awakening, without judgment. Set in 1976 San Francisco, The Diary of a Teenage Girl begins at the crossroads of the fading hippie movement and the dawn of punk rock. In her feature film directorial debut, writer/director Marielle Heller brings Phoebe Gloeckner's novel to life with fearless performances, a stirring score, inventive graphic novel-like animation sequences, imagination, humor and heart. Daily. Meet the Patels: A laugh-out-loud, real-life romantic comedy about Ravi Patel, an almost-30-year-old Indian-American who enters a love triangle between the woman of his dreams... and his parents. Filmed by Ravi's sister in what started as a family vacation video, this hilarious and heartbreaking film reveals how love is a family affair. Fresh out of a breakup with his secret white girlfriend, who his parents knew nothing about, and freaked out that he's almost 30 and single, Ravi goes on a family vacation to India with his head and heart spinning. Ravi is willing to do whatever it takes to find love—but there's one tricky detail to consider: In his family, everyone has the last name Patel. Patels marry other Patels. It's not incest, it means they are from the same 50-square mile radius in India. Struck with how overwhelmingly happy the marriages are of his Patel family and friends, Ravi enters a fool-proof Patel matchmaking system and embarks on a worldwide search for another American Patel just like him. Witty and brutally honest, this comedy explores the questions with which we all struggle: What is love? How do we find it? And even then, how do we keep it? (Partially subtitled) Daily. Amy: That would be Winehouse, in case you wondered which Amy is the subject of director Asif Kapadia's uncreatively titled documentary, which refines an apparent Kapadia specialty: the intense remembrance of stars who died too young. We see the doomed chanteuse in the throes of her destructive relationships — with a responsibility-averse father, with a volatile husband, with chemicals — and hear her music remixed to highlight how it was driven by the raw power of personal-demon-indulgence. Daily. Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine: In his signature black turtleneck and blue jeans, Steve Jobs' image was ubiquitous. Perhaps the most publicly revered corporate figure of the technology age, Jobs' untimely death at the age of 56 in 2011 set off a worldwide outpouring of grief from consumers who worshipped his signature products such as the iPhone and the iMac. As the co-founder and CEO of Apple, his name and image had become synonymous with the sleek, high-tech personal devices that came to define and transform the first two decades of the 21st century. But who was the man on the stage under the giant iPhones? Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side, Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room) presents a critical examination of Jobs, revered both as a prophetic, iconoclastic genius and denounced as a barbed-tongued tyrant. The film is a candid telling of the Apple legend through interviews with a handful of those close to Jobs at different stages in his life. It unravels the larger-than-life myth he so deliberately crafted, and examines the enduring legacy of his values which continue to shape the culture of Silicon Valley to this day. Daily. Goodnight Mommy: The psychological horror film Goodnight Mommy is a twisted and fantastical take on the home invasion thriller. In the heat of the summer lays an isolated house in the Austrian countryside, where nine-year-old twin brothers await their mother's return after cosmetic surgery. She's recovering from an accident that has left her face covered in bandages, unrecognizable to her precocious sons. During her recovery her temper runs short with the boys, her behavior is domineering and her punishments turn harsh. The boys begin to suspect she isn't really their mother and they go about finding out for certain. What ensues is an atmospheric, terrifying observational struggle with fatal consequences on par with The Shining and Dead Ringers. Written and directed by Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz (writer of Dog Days and the Paradise trilogy). (Fully subtitled) Daily. 1 Embarcadero Center, San Francisco, 267-4893, www.landmarktheatres.com/san-francisco/embarcadero-center-cinema.
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 San Francisco Locations. SF Dance Film Festival: Mia: A Dancer's Journey screens at the festival kick-off event on Monday, Oct. 5, at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco. The program includes International Shorts 1, Rare Birds, International Shorts 2, Dance Film Forum, Renewal Through Dance, Art and Science Collide, My Mother Loved Dance, International Shorts 3, Let's Get the Rhythm, Feelings Are Facts, and Co-Laboratory & Local Shorts. Screenings run through Sunday, Oct. 11. Mon., Oct. 5, 7 p.m.; Thu., Oct. 8, 7:30 p.m.; Fri., Oct. 9, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m.; Sat., Oct. 10, 10:30 a.m., 2, 4:30, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m.; Sun., Oct. 11, 2, 4:30 & 7 p.m. $20-$250. www.sfdancefilmfest.org/. Multiple addresses, San Francisco.
Opera Plaza Cinema. The Second Mother: Val (Regina Casé), a longtime live-in maid in São Paulo, feels almost like a part of the affluent family she faithfully serves—especially their 17-year-old son for whom she is a surrogate mother—but she has not seen her own teenage daughter for ten years. When her daughter Jessica (Camila Mardila) unexpectedly contacts her, wanting to stay with Val while applying to college, Val is excited but filled with trepidation. Jessica arrives, smart, confident and ambitious, feeling (and acting) like an equal, and throws the unspoken class barriers that rule the household into disarray. Instead of sleeping on a mattress on the floor of Val's boxlike bedroom, Jessica suggests she stay in the opulent empty guest room. Her presence upsets the status quo, testing relationships and loyalties and forcing everyone to reconsider what family really means. Daily. Phoenix: A spellbinding mystery of identity, illusion and deception unfolds against the turmoil of post-World War II Germany in the stunning new film from acclaimed writer/director Christian Petzold (Barbara, Jerichow). Berlin, 1945: Nelly (Nina Hoss, A Most Wanted Man), a German-Jewish, ex-nightclub singer, has survived a concentration camp. But, like her country, she is scarred, her face disfigured by a bullet wound. After undergoing reconstructive surgery, Nelly emerges with a new face, one similar but different enough that her former husband, Johnny (Ronald Zehrfeld), doesn't recognize her. Rather than reveal herself, Nelly walks into a dangerous game of duplicity and disguise as she tries to figure out if the man she loves may have been the one who betrayed her to the Nazis. Submerged in shadowy atmosphere and the haunted mood of post-war Berlin, Phoenix weaves a complex, Hitchcockian tale of a nation's tragedy and a woman's search for answers as it builds towards an unforgettable, heart-stopping climax. (Partially subtitled) Daily. The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution: Change was coming to America and the fault lines could no longer be ignored—cities were burning, Vietnam was exploding, and disputes raged over equality and civil rights. A new revolutionary culture was emerging and it sought to drastically transform the system. The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense would, for a short time, put itself at the vanguard of that change. The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution is the first feature length documentary to explore the Black Panther Party, its significance to the broader American culture, its cultural and political awakening for black people, and the painful lessons wrought when a movement derails. Master documentarian Stanley Nelson (Freedom Riders, Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple) goes straight to the source, weaving a treasure trove of rare archival footage with the voices of the people who were there: police, FBI informants, journalists, white supporters and detractors, and Black Panthers who remained loyal to the party and those who left it. Starting Oct. 2. Daily. 601 Van Ness, San Francisco, 267-4893, www.landmarktheatres.com/market/SanFrancisco/OperaPlazaCinema.htm.
Roxie Theater. Mission to Lars: This film follows the three siblings as Kate and Will decide to break their severely autistic brother Tom out of his home in a sleepy English town and take him to America to find Lars. Any dreams of a bonding rock n roll roadtrip fade as Kate and Will's struggle to understand their brother's condition, while Tom confronts the challenges of his syndrome and the ignorance and noise in the outside world. There is also the little matter of finding Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich. Through Oct. 1. A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez Story: This documentary follows the inspiring journey of 26 year old, 58 pound Lizzie from cyber-bullying victim to anti-bullying activist. Born with a rare syndrome that prevents her from gaining weight, Elizabeth "Lizzie" Velasquez was first bullied as a child in school for looking different and, later online, as a teenager when she discovered a YouTube video labeling her "The World's Ugliest Woman." The film chronicles unheard stories and details of Lizzie's physical and emotional journey up to her multi-million viewed TEDx talk, and follows her pursuit from a motivational speaker to Capitol Hill as she lobbies for the first federal anti-bullying bill. Through Oct. 1. The Seeds: Pushin' Too Hard: Using vintage footage, rare photos, memorabilia and audio, and fresh interviews with band members and associates as well as notable fans and observers, Pushin' Too Hard relates the bizarre rage-to-riches-to-rags tale of the rock quartet who took Los Angeles by storm in the mid-60s. All four original Seeds are represented, alongside auxiliary members, band associates, and contemporaries such as Kim Fowley, Bruce Johnston of The Beach Boys and Johnny Echols of Love. A Q&A with director Neil Norman, producer Alec Palao, and founder Seeds member Daryl Hooper will follow the screening. Sun., Oct. 4, 5 p.m. Finders Keepers: When his amputated leg is discovered in a grill sold at a North Carolina auction, John Wood finds himself at the center of a worldwide media frenzy. Believing the new-found attention to be his chance at doing some great things in an otherwise disappointing, wayward life, he's quickly swept up in the hysteria as the leg's enterprising buyer, Shannon Whisnant, then sues to regain its custody. But the stranger-than-fiction chain of events, fueling John's drug addiction and compounded by generations of his familial dysfunction, soon sets John on the streets and heading to his certain demise. Just in time, however, another twist in these fantastical occurrences gives John a final shot at becoming whole for the first time in his life. Directed by Bryan Carberry & Clay Tweel. 84min. 2015. DCP. Oct. 2-8. 3117 16th St., San Francisco, 863-1087, roxie.com.
The Walt Disney Family Museum. Tomorrowland: Walt's Vision For Today: Through animated sequences, musical compositions, sound bites, graphics, audio visuals, vintage posters, and more, Tomorrowland: Walt's Vision for Today will immerse visitors in the story of Walt's hopes and vision for the future, as reflected in his creation of the 1967 version of Tomorrowland at Disneyland. This exhibition allows visitors to experience Walt's perception of this beautiful tomorrow in a robust and vibrant way. Mondays, Wednesdays-Sundays. Continues through Dec. 7. 104 Montgomery, San Francisco, 345-6800, waltdisney.org.
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Architecture & Design Films Showcase 2015: In our second Architecture and Design Film series, we present a showcase of 14 films and more than 20 screenings that cover architecture and design from every angle and aspect. Come and discover the DIY graphic arts scene in the UK, a history of land art, tiny houses, contemporary women architects, the battle to renovate the Rijksmuseum, and much more. Oct. 1-Nov. 8. 701 Mission, San Francisco, 978-2787, ybca.org.
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