The Two Faces of January kicked off the 2014 San Francisco International Film Festival with style, including a Q&A with writer-director Hossein Amini.
SFIFF capsules: It’s a hard knock life for the rich – Last Weekend and Palo Alto
Two of the San Francisco International Film Festival’s most anticipated films — The Centerpiece Film Palo Alto and the World Premiere of Last Weekend — both deal with the woes of the rich. They’re also made by Hollywood royalty: writer-director Gia Coppola, who directed Palo Alto” is the grand-daughter of director Frances Ford Coppola and […]
Review: Only Lovers Left Alive — vampires ain’t what they used to be
The lovers in Jim Jarmusch’s fantastic film, Only Lovers Left Alive, are Adam (Tom Hiddleston, excellent) and Eve (Tilda Swinton, fine), a sophisticated couple both in love with each other and with art and science. They’re also vampires, but they’re far from the emotionally stunted teenagers that tend to haunt the genre. This pair are […]
An ex-lover may just be able to alleviate Rudolf Bauer’s painter’s block in the world premiere of "Bauer" at the SF Playhouse
After this review of Bauer at the SF Playhouse, read more Seventh Row writing on theatre. The first thing you notice about an SF Playhouse production is the phenomenal and detailed set. This was true even in their old, smaller location on Sutter St, but now on Post St with a bigger space, the sets […]
What to see and what to skip at the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF)
“Frank” **1/2 (Ireland) Director Lenny Abrahamson, who brought us the brilliant psychological drama What Richard Did, may not seem like the most likely candidate to make a comedy, but Frank” is a deftly handled, bizarre and charming comedy. Michael Fassbender plays the eponymous Frank, a talented musician whose main quirk is that he walks around […]
Review: In Breathe In, a foreign exchange student quickens the breath of a middle-aged man
Writer-director Drake Doremus’s new meditation on marital infidelity, Breathe In, is a puzzling combination of emotional resonance and frustratingly lazy, on-the-nose directing. When it works, it’s usually thanks to the strong performances of its leads, eighteen-year-old British exchange student Sophie (Felicity Jones, playing a character ten years younger than herself) and the dissatisfied high school […]