Well, the 46th annual Mill Valley Film Festival is now in the books, having concluded last Sunday night with a multi-screen unveiling of the much-anticipated new film Maestro, and one last big party that turned the streets of San Rafael into a dance club. Per tradition, the most common conversation-starter among the guests was the…
When you spend a lot of time at a film festival, you tend to adopt certain games to play while waiting for the next film to start. For example, at the annual Mill Valley Film Festival, which concludes its 10-day-run on Sunday, Oct. 15, there is a trailer that is shown before every screening, jammed…
On a warm Saturday, just after noon, João Federici — the Mill Valley Film Festival’s director of World Cinema programming — introduced the film Robot Dreams with a surprising admission. “This, I think, is my favorite film in the World Cinema lineup this year,” he said. “I love the characters and the story, and I…
In describing how he came up with the idea for his new film Day of the Fight, actor-turned-director Jack Huston (Ben Hur, Kill Your Darlings, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) told the opening night crowd at the Mill Valley Film Festival that it was the film’s star, Michael Pitt — with whom he worked on…
Dear Evan Hansen‘s Ben Platt plays a 14-year-old middle schooler who… Just kidding. I never went to theater camp, but I was involved in enough theater from elementary through high school that I recognized a lot of the characters and situations in this film. It’s an affectionate look at the world of youth theatre, best…
Several North Bay theatre artists move to the big screen (well, a big television screen, at least) with War of the Wills. It’s the hoary old “spend the night in a haunted house and inherit a million dollars” plot with a few adjustments. The Sonoma County-lensed thriller is now available for rent on Amazon Prime.…
It’s interesting that the budget for this film is approximately the same as “Asteroid City” (somewhere in the 25 MM range). Anderson’s film was shot in Spain, with government subsidies. “You Hurt My Feelings” was shot in New York. It’s amazing what 25 MM will get you (or not get you) depending on where you…
I recently had the opportunity to attend my first Sonoma International Film Festival. The festival, which celebrated its 25th year, ran for five days March 23 through March 27. More than 120 films were screened with more than 80 of them premiering at the festival. Films were screened at seven different venues, all within a…
Much has been written about the recently released Steven Spielberg/Tony Kushner version of West Side Story. While the reviews have been rapturous, its box office can be described as lukewarm at best, and the term “flop” has been bandied around by some. Its failure to find an audience (at least so far) has been attributed…
It’s been almost eight years since 13-year-old Andy Lopez was gunned down on a neighborhood sidewalk in Santa Rosa, CA by Sonoma County Sheriff’s Deputy Erick Gelhaus. Gelhaus, a 24-year veteran of the Sheriff’s office at the time (as well as a firearms instructor and Iraq war veteran,) apparently mistook the Airsoft gun Lopez was…
North Bay Stage and Screen 