Keep an eye on the rugged, smiling man with the goatee. He’s a man with a plan, he declares to us in medium close-up, the sun glinting off the Pacific Ocean behind him. He confides that he’s also a man with a grudge, and his nifty, twisty idea is to balance the books with a murder. The nameless protagonist of local writer-director-actor JP Allen’s latest, sharply drawn independent feature, Centaur, is a regular San Francisco guy who lost his lover in a tragic yet avoidable accident. Taking the form of a month-long video diary, Centaur enrolls us as a friend and partner in his reflections, grief, anger, and plotting. Allen delivers a veritable acting class as a reasonable, hyper-literate urbanite working up to a wild, beastly fury, backed by the smart, biting 1990s rock ’n’ roll of Michael Slattery and Shoulders. Interspersing monologues and memories with a stream of scenic shots of San Francisco and Marin County, Allen evokes dark-edged 1940s noir along with today’s self-indulgent journals. To kill or not to kill, that is the question. Allen and his supporting cast will be on hand Friday night, along with local musicians McCabe and Mrs. Miller. Allen’s previous film, Sex and Imagining, screens with Centaur on Saturday night.
March 23-29, 2012
415-267-4893
