Cheryl Eddy

Stop making sense

'Upstream Color' is a head-scratcher — but it's worth it

04.09.13 - 5:30 pm | Cheryl Eddy |

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FILM A woman, a man, a pig, a worm, Walden — what? If you enter into Shane Carruth's Upstream Color expecting things like a linear plot, exposition, and character development, you will exit baffled and distressed. Best to understand in advance that these elements are not part of Carruth's master plan. In fact, based on my own experiences watching the film twice, I'm fairly certain that not really understanding what's going on in Upstream Color is part of its loopy allure.Read more »

All killer, no filler: new movies!

04.05.13 - 10:36 am | Cheryl Eddy and Guardian Staff Writers |

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Deadites, dino-junkies, indie supporters, doc watchers, foreign-film fans, "Hey Girl" lovers ... there's a little something for all y'all this week. (If you'd prefer to avoid the multiplex, check out the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts' Pen-ek Ratanaruang series and/or the San Francisco Cinematheque's Crossroads fest.)

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Film

Local filmmaker's '50 Children' doc debuts on HBO

04.04.13 - 1:42 pm | Cheryl Eddy |

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San Franciscan Steven Pressman makes his filmmaking debut with 50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus, an informative documentary about Philadelphia residents Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus — grandparents to Pressman's wife, Liz Perle — who hatched a daring plan in 1939 to rescue 50 Jewish children from Nazi-occupied Austria. The hour-long film airs Mon/8 on HBO.

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RIP Roger Ebert

04.04.13 - 12:05 pm | Cheryl Eddy |

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A sad day for cinema fans everywhere today; veteran film critic, author, advocate, and (lately) blogger/Twitter master Roger Ebert has died after a long battle with cancer.

Below, some clips paying tribute to the man, the myth, the guy who co-wrote Russ Meyer's 1970 Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.

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Film

Ennui and I

Pen-ek Ratanaruang's 'Thai Dreams' screen at YBCA

04.03.13 - 10:00 am | Cheryl Eddy |

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FILM Thai filmmaker Pen-ek Ratanaruang's international breakthrough, Last Life in the Universe, came out 10 years ago, but its themes of isolation and loneliness still feel very much of the moment. Eternally cool Japanese star Tadanobu Asano plays librarian Kenji, whose Better Off Dead-style existential turmoil leads him to attempt suicide, or at least think long and hard about it, multiple times. Read more »

Rep Clock

04.02.13 - 6:58 pm | Cheryl Eddy |

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Schedules are for Wed/3-Tue/9 except where noted. Director and year are given when available. Double features marked with a •. All times pm unless otherwise specified.Read more »

Rep Clock

Film listings

04.02.13 - 6:44 pm | Cheryl Eddy |

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Film listings are edited by Cheryl Eddy. Reviewers are Kimberly Chun, Dennis Harvey, Lynn Rapoport, and Sara Maria Vizcarrondo. For rep house showtimes, see Rep Clock.

OPENING

Evil Dead Yep, they remade it. But before you grab your chainsaw in anger, know this: early buzz is actually pretty positive. (1:31) Read more »

Film Reviews

Are you experimental?

SF Cinematheque unleashes Crossroads 2013

04.02.13 - 5:18 pm | Cheryl Eddy |

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cheryl@sfbg.com

FILM At 52, the San Francisco Cinematheque is nearly the same age as the San Francisco International Film Festival, which kicks off its 56th incarnation later this month. And though there's bound to be some filmmaker overlap between SFIFF and SF Cinematheque's fourth annual Crossroads festival,

fans of avant-garde, experimental, and non-commercial films won't want to miss the latter, a weekend packed with works by 48 artists across eight esoterically-titled programs.Read more »

Foreign imports and American heroics: new movies!

03.29.13 - 1:25 pm | Cheryl Eddy and Guardian Staff Writers |

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Hollywood unfurls the latest adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's ever-popular YA fiction (the mercifully vampire-less The Host), as well as Tyler Perry's Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor, the multi-hyphenate mogul's 5628th film. (One statement in the previous sentence is false.)

Plus: check out Dennis Harvey's dual review of a pair of refreshingly low-key foreign imports, The Silence (from Germany) and Starbuck (from Canada, set in Quebec). There's also an American-set movie from singular French director Quentin Dupieux, Wrong, opening at the Roxie; check out my review here.

More reviews, including a surprisingly positive take on toys-gone-wild sequel GI Joe: Retaliation, after the jump. Read more »