By Lincoln Spector. (April 4, 2024)

What’s Screening: April 5 – 11

For reasons that I prefer not to discuss, I’ve lost the Bayflicks blog…hopefully only for a while. Thankfully, Gary Meyer of Eat Drink Film has given me space for my newsletter.

(Editor’s note: As an avid fan of Lincoln’s Bayflicks for many years I am thrilled offer a place for readers old and new to benefit from his guidance and reviews. If you don’t live in the bay area Lincoln’s thoughts about movies can guide you to other platforms.  Though he is temporarily unable to post there, past writings are available.)

Festivals & Series

• San Francisco Silent Film Festival opens Wednesday

New films opening

B+ Club Zero (2023), Lark,
   ֍ Friday, 4:00pm
   ֍ Sunday, 7:10pm
   ֍ Tuesday, 5:50pm
   ֍ Wednesday, 2:00m
   ֍ Thursday, 9:00am
Here’s a very strange film that will leave parents considerably fearful – even though the story is extremely unlikely. A new teacher comes to a very expensive high school. She connects with five students who want to help the environment. Her solution? “Conscious Eating.” What does that mean? They stop eating. Entirely! Soon, it becomes obvious that this new teacher belongs to a cult.

Movies that play over & over

• The Room, Balboa, 11:00pm
• Stop Making Sense, Lark, Friday, 9:00pm & Thursday, 5:00pm

Vintage films on the big screen

A- What’s Up, Doc? (1972), Lark
   ֍ Sunday, 10:00am
   ֍ Sunday, 5:20pm
   ֍ Monday, 2:25pm
How did I miss this laugh fest in 1972? I remember it being in theaters. Maybe I was too caught up in “serious cinema” to notice that Peter Bogdanovich had made one of the funniest movies in years. It’s like a Howard Hawks screwball comedy with physical slapstick reminiscent of Buster Keaton (except that there were stunt doubles). The plot isn’t likely: Four people go to the same hotel, on the same day, with four identical bags. Two of these bags contain things that powerful and ruthless people want. Written by Buck Henry, David Newman, and Robert Benton – the screenwriters of The Graduate and Bonnie and Clyde. Barbra Streisand plays the crazy dame to perfection, and Madeline Kahn is the luckless fiancée. Even Ryan O’Neal is funny.

A The Big Heat (1953), 4-Star, Wednesday, 5:00pm
A cop commits suicide, and the first person the new widow calls is a mob boss. The mob runs the unnamed city, and the police do what they’re told in this Fritz Lang noir – except for one honest detective assigned to the case (Glenn Ford in a strong performance). Soon he’s sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong. He’s fired, of course, but that doesn’t stop him. Getting fired isn’t the worst that will happen to him and other good people in this tale of thorough corruption. Gloria Grahame gives a great performance as the rebellious girlfriend of a violent thug (Lee Marvin).

A- Vagabond (1985), BAMPFA, Thursday, 7:0m

I think Agnès Varda intended this as a cap on the hippie movement, and it’s not a fond farewell. The plot is pure Citizen Kane, except instead of a newspaper magnate, the dead protagonist is a young woman hitchhiker who died in a ditch. Then come the flashbacks and interviews with people who crossed her path over the course of her last winter alive. Neither Varda nor actress Sandrine Bonnaire make her likeable. She’s dirty, smelly, unreliable, prone to theft, and doesn’t even thank the people who help her along the way. I would have liked to know the characters better. The film doesn’t quite hold together, but it has some wonderful scenes.

B+ Invasion of the Body Snatchers (the original, 1956 version), Balboa, 7:30pm

16mm! Noir, sci-fi, and political allegory in one paranoid package. You can argue if the movie is anti-Communist or anti-anti-Communist, but either way, it ratchets up the suspense. The best alien invasion movie of the 1950’s (and no, that’s not damning with faint praise).

B+ Interview with the Vampire (1994), New Mission, check dates and times
Writer Anne Rice and director Neil Jordan create a vampire epic stretching across three centuries. And a very dark yet sexy three centuries it is. Tom Cruise gets top billing as the immortal sociopath Lestat, but a not-yet-famous Brad Pitt is the real star, playing the tormented vampire being interviewed. Between them and Antonio Banderas, you could call this film Great-Looking Guys with an Eating Disorder. A 12-year-old Kirsten Dunst expertly plays a grown woman in a little girl’s body.

B The Big Sleep (1946), 4-Star
   ֍ Wednesday, 7:00pm
   ֍ Thursday, 8:00pm
This is probably the most complicated murder mystery ever made. Humphrey Bogart plays Raymond Chandler’s hard-boiled detective, Phillip Marlowe, and Lauren Bacall plays his client’s daughter. That’s pretty much all you need to know. The movie runs entirely on their star wattage and the clever dialog by William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett, and Jules Furthman. The story is so convoluted that you shouldn’t even try to follow it. Legend claims that director Howard Hawks called Chandler to ask who committed one of the several murders, and the novelist admitted he didn’t know.

C+ Gone with the Wind (1939), my review
One of the most beloved Hollywood movies of all time doesn’t do much for me. Okay, it’s visually beautiful, using colors in ways that no one else did before. The first part (before the intermission) is rousing and exciting, but the second part (after the intermission) is dull and boring. Worst of all, it’s an extremely racist movie, even by 1939 standards – looking back nostalgically at the “good old days” of slavery and suggesting that emancipation had been at best a tragic mistake and at worst an evil revenge against the gallant South. You can read my review. Since it runs for almost four hours, there is no double bill.

Too long ago to remember

• Labyrinth, 4-Star
  • Friday: 10:00am (Popcorn Palace), 12:30pm
  • Sunday: 10:00am (Popcorn Palace), 1:30pm; 4:30, & 7:30pm

Lincoln Spector is a life-long cinephile and an award-winning journalist who writes about entertainment, culture, and technology.  He’s also a frequent contributor to TechHive  and Windows Secrets. His articles have appeared in  The New York Times, The Washington Post, Small Business Computing, Home Office Computing, Oakland City Magazine, Time Magazine, Technologizer, and InfoWorld.

His local film blog, Bayflicks, contains a weekly newsletter covering speciality screenings throughout the Bay Area. His article comparing film and digital presentations (including Kubrick’s DR. STRANGELOVE) is a good companion to the above piece. We suggest that you sign up to receive his informative tips on movies to see —an invaluable service for film lovers.