elle

Elle (2016)

I once had a (Caucasian) roommate, who while offering up the details of her deflowering, reported that afterwards she dreamed that six Latino men dressed in sarapes and sombreros, ritualistically tethered her to a wooden cross to punish her for  ...
nosferatu-horror-movies-16124764-1287-951

Not So Silent Cinema

Philadelphia,
Even though it’s hard to imagine that F.W. Murnau’s 1922 film, "Nosferatu" actually scared audiences, it still remains a classic of the horror genre. Most of the thrills now are in its German expressionist cinema language which  ...
Maggie Cheung stars in Stanley Kwan's 1991

Hong Kong Film Festival, San Francisco

San Francisco,
Ruan Ling-yu was among the biggest Chinese silent-film stars, acclaimed, adored, and compared to Greta Garbo. Her brief life - ending in suicide before turning 25 - seems just as mysterious as that of the great "I vant to  ...
fritz

The People vs. Fritz Bauer (2015)

Fritz Bauer isn't exactly a household name in the United States--nor, I suspect, in Germany, his birthplace. And yet it was Bauer, a Jew who fled Germany before the Holocaust and returned after World  ...
Eva 1

Eva Hesse (2016) – documentary

Eva Hesse had a short but important and impactful career as one of America’s foremost post-war artists. She was way ahead of her time with a style that was all her own - a post minimalist using mixed media  ...
Equity1

Equity (2016)

It’s not just the men that are swimming with sharks these days. Women may be the minority on Wall Street, but alive and present, ready to kick ass and take numbers. It’s a couple of these shrewd and ambitious women  ...
san-francisco-jewish-film-festival-san-francisco-ca

Jewish Film Festival, San Francisco

San Francisco,
Some Bay Area movie-goers have called the annual Jewish Film Festival their favorite Jewish holiday, and you'd have to witness the excited queue outside San Francisco's Castro Theater on opening night to understand why. This year's 36th edition, running  ...
yoyo

The Music Of Strangers (2015)

We all want to be loved. We all want to belong. But what do you do if your house is bombed and everyone in it dies? Do you become bitter, or take the high road? And what do you do  ...
cafe society

Café Society

Starting with the plain white opening titles against a black background, Woody Allen's latest romantic comedy, "Café Society," has all the earmarks of earlier Allen rom-coms: an Allen avatar with a Jewish background, a beautiful love interest (or two),  ...