4-Star Theatre. House of Temptation: Doc Zee's faith-based horror movie shot in Bodega Bay may be a micro-budgeted backyard production, but it has such heart that calling it "bad" would almost be bullying. Through Oct. 31. A Thousand Times Good Night: While it's inspired by director Erik Poppe's own experiences as a war photographer, what's refreshing about A Thousand Times Good Night — in which Juliette Binoche plays a photojournalist with a drive to cover some of the darkest things in 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. Daily. 2200 Clement, San Francisco, 666-3488, lntsf.com/4-star-theatre.html.
AMC Metreon 16. 39th Annual American Indian Film Festival: This year's installment of the long-running Native cinema showcase includes a full week of documentaries, dramatic features, live shorts, and animations at the Metreon, then concludes with an awards gala at the Palace of Fine Arts on Sunday, Nov. 9. Nov. 1-9. aifisf.com. 101 Fourth St., San Francisco, 369-6207, amctheatres.com/movie-theatres/amc-metreon-16.
Artists' Television Access. Other Cinema: Creature Feature: ATA's avant-weird film series opts for a kitschier kaijus-gone-wild approach to Halloween weekend with a 16mm screening of Godzilla on Monster Island (aka Godzilla vs. Gigan). Sat., Nov. 1, 8 p.m. $6. othercinema.com. 992 Valencia, San Francisco, 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. Through Oct. 30. pelicanmedia.org. 3630 Balboa, San Francisco, 221-2184, balboamovies.com.
Castro Theatre. Scary Cow 24th Short Film Festival: The local film co-op showcases the latest works by its upstart indie directors. Sat., Nov. 1, 2 p.m. $10-$30. scarycow.com. 429 Castro, San Francisco, 621-6120, castrotheatre.com.
Century San Francisco Centre 9 and XD. RiffTrax Live: Anaconda: Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett may have escaped the Satellite of Love in Mystery Science Theater 3000, but they're still stuck watching craptacular movies — this time riffing on the 1997 CGI snake flick that just might merit a Nicki Minaj reference or two. Thu., Oct. 30, 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. Daily. 2261 Fillmore, San Francisco, 267-4893, landmarktheatres.com.
Dark Room Theater. Bad Movie Night: Gone in 60 Seconds: Hosts Sherilyn Connelly, Mike Spiegelman, and Alexia Staniotes kick off a month of Angelina action attacks with this Cage/Jolie car chase remake. Sun., Nov. 2, 8 p.m. $6.99. 2263 Mission, San Francisco, 401-7987, darkroomsf.com.
Embarcadero Center Cinema. 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. 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. 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. 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.
Opera Plaza Cinemas. 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 Overnighters: As seen in Jesse Moss's roundly depressing documentary, Williston, North Dakota, 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. Through Oct. 30. Diplomacy: Volker Schlöndorff's Diplomacy is mostly just two old guys in a 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. Through Oct. 30. Keep On Keepin' On: Director Alan Hicks' documentary on his former mentor, nonagenarian jazz trumpet hero Clark Terry, is a reverie of lucid gentleness for its own sake. Starting Oct. 31. Daily. White Bird in a Blizzard: Groundbreaking queer filmmaker Greg Araki has always been fascinated by the darker side of the American teenager, starting with 1993's Totally F***ed Up, and it continues with his lovely adaptation of Laura Kasischke's novel about a teenage girl whose mother's mysterious disappearance forces her to confront some buried issues. Starting Oct. 31. Daily. 601 Van Ness, San Francisco, 777-3456, landmarktheatres.com.
Roxie Theater. Listen Up Philip: Possibly the best on-screen alter ego director Alex Ross Perry could ever hope for, Jason Schwartzman owns the role of a narcissistic young author in the early stages of soul-poisoning success, while the film's caustic social observation nails the ostensible paradox of a guy who's so self-interested and attention-dependent that he can't stand to promote his own work. Through Oct. 30. Viktor: Every so often, a specimen from the thriving cinematic underworld of Eastern European-lensed action movies gets an American theatrical release. Case in point: Philippe Martinez's potboiler Viktor, a Gerard Depardieu-starring revenge film which is a few roundhouse kicks away from being a Jean-Claude Van Damme straight-to-VOD flick. Through Oct. 30. Young Ones: Jake Paltrow's sci-fi western is yet another near-future dystopia with all the dusty tough-guy stoicism of yore, plus robots, gadgets, and Michael Shannon. Oct. 31-Nov. 6. Blood Feast: The legendary Herschell Gordon Lewis gorefest gets a rare big-screen showing in honor of the Halloween holiday. Fri., Oct. 31, 7 p.m. $7.50-$10. 3117 16th St., San Francisco, 863-1087, roxie.com.
Vogue Theatre. Spooky San Francisco: Special Halloween screening of the Trina Lopez documentary A Second Final Rest: The History of San Francisco's Lost Cemeteries. Fri., Oct. 31, 7 p.m. $7.50-$10. 3290 Sacramento, San Francisco, 346-2288, voguesf.com.
Comments are closed.
