It all began seven years ago when audiences witnessed a young Bruce Wayne falling through an abandoned well filled with bats. As the story goes, Wayne develops a phobia for the same animal that would come to symbolize the terror that he would inflict on Gotham City’s crime underworld. At Read More…
In a summer filled with CGI special effects, the annual San Francisco Silent Film Festival reminds audiences of the beauty of film’s early days. Live music accompanies every film as festival attendees take advantage of one of the few chances to see such films as von Sternberg’s “Docks of New Read More…
R. Kelly has been a man of many faces for the better part of two decades. As a singer, songwriter, producer and all-around freak, Kelly rarely shies away from risqué topics. Unfortunately, this unique mixture sometimes leads to uneven results with embarrassing tracks like “Sex Planet” and “The Zoo.” After Read More…
LGBT films have been a subgenre of film for far too long. For years, they’ve existed underground, almost like foreign films, as relics of an outside culture. With San Francisco’s Frameline film festival, these voices can finally find an audience. An Internet celebrity, an Iranian transgender and a drug-addicted lawyer Read More…
When recalling the classic bands of the ’60s, the usual suspects are always to be found. Of course, you have the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Then you may hear mention of the Grateful Dead, The Who and Led Zeppelin. Finally, right before you hit the cheesiness of The Monkees, Read More…
Let’s be honest. Last summer was a sore disappointment. Out of the many blockbusters to be released — “Thor,” “X-Men: First Class” and the laughably awful “Green Lantern” — no film stood out as the centerpiece of the summer season (except maybe “Harry Potter”). There was no “Inception” or “Dark Read More…
Martin Scorsese’s influential presence in the last 40 years of cinema is an undeniable thing of beauty. For a director that has spent more than half his life in the film industry, Scorsese has produced a relatively small filmography with only 34 movies made in nearly half-a-century. But such longevity Read More…
After 15 years, Mary J. Blige’s 1994 album My Life still stands as the gem of her recording career. Picking up where her debut album — What’s the 411? — left off, My Life helped shape a mature image of Blige, stripping way the MIDI keyboards in favor of the Read More…
Upon his return to filmmaking almost five years ago, Francis Ford Coppola offered his take on the difference between a young artist looking for success and an aging artist attempting to regain prominence: “I’ve been thinking about what seems to be a repeating pattern, artists who distinguish themselves when they Read More…
Northern California during the 1970s served as a bastion of cinema with such enduring filmmakers as Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas and Philip Kaufman basing their projects in the San Francisco Bay Area. Seen as a practical alternative to the established hierarchy of Los Angeles, Northern California attracted a multitude Read More…
