It’s hard to say no to Pixar when the animation studio invites you to its major national and international press day. Pixar Animation Studios, situated a mere three miles from UC Berkeley’s campus, opened up its own collegiate affair, “Monsters University.” Inspired by 2001’s “Monsters, Inc.,” Pixar is premiering the Read More…
Early twentieth century Russian filmmaker Dziga Vertov once observed that “everybody who cares for his art seeks the essence of his own technique.” Director Shane Carruth’s sophomore effort, the new film “Upstream Color,” strikes directly at this exploration; it is a sprawling, emotionally wrought movie whose abstract plot seems less Read More…
“Expand or Die.” This is the mantra of the 21st century’s $2 trillion agricultural market, depicted in Ramin Bahrani’s “At Any Price.” Henry Whipple (Dennis Quaid) is a firm believer of this saying. Whipple realizes that in order to survive he must expand, and to do this he must cut Read More…
If you’re looking for a documentary to break your heart with harrowing images, “The Revolutionary Optimists,” by Nicole Newnham and Maren Grainger-Monsen, is not for you. If you’re looking for a film to inspire you, it is. The documentary, which opened on April 5, instead presents a hopeful view of Read More…
It has been over 40 years since political activist and scholar Angela Davis landed on the FBI’s Most Wanted list, but her story of perseverance and courage in the fight for civil rights is timeless. The upcoming documentary, “Free Angela & All Political Prisoners,” chronicles Davis’s lifework and her journey Read More…
If you ride like lightning, you’re gonna crash like thunder.” It is a single moment of electricity and its monumental reverberations that transfix us in Derek Cianfrance’s gripping new film, “The Place Beyond the Pines.” Tension is hurtled from one generation to another in a bloodied tapestry of legacy and Read More…
In honor of this famous collaboration between Hitchcock and the Bay Area, the Pacific Film Archive conducted a special screening of the psychological pulse-pounder with a rarely seen, IB tech print that would have been one of the originals seen in multiplexes across the nation when it first premiered. Read More…
More than being just a dizzying odyssey of ass and bong rips, Harmony Korine’s “Spring Breakers” captures our beautifully tragic train wreck of a youth culture in all its first-world glory. Read More…
“The Great and Powerful Oz” is a Disneyfied downfall compared to the 1939 classic. Big names like James Franco, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz and Michelle Williams bring clout to the release but turn out flat characters overshadowed by the extraneous use of CGI. Read More…
Mia Wasikowska plays India Stoker like a basilisk. She saunters around every room in her house like a pale, leathery reptile with a sharp ear for eerie household rhythms and melodies. Beyond human capacity, India recognizes even the subtlest sounds in her surroundings. Read More…
