Aaah, summer. The time of big action movies and brainless comedy. As usual, summer is starting early at the multiplexes this year; it's only may and we've already had “Mission: Impossible III” and “Poseidon.”. Here's a look at the movies your humble reviewer is particularly interested in amid the many being released.
One of the advantages of reviewing movies is that I wind up seeing a lot of films I probably wouldn't manage to see otherwise. I watch at least one film a week, and when covering Cinequest, San Jose's film festival, I see more like three or four films a day for a week and a half. In 2005 I sat through over 100 movies, ranging from delightful to horrible, from short (only a few minutes) to long (over three hours). Because I get to pick which movies I see most of the time, I only saw a handful I didn't care for, but I did get to see a lot of films I greatly enjoyed.
Read the rest.SFIAAFF AT A GLANCE:
What: A local film festival featuring a vast showcase of films by and about Asians.
When: March 10-20, 2005
Where: San Francisco, Berkeley, and San Jose
Buy tickets: www.naatanet.org/festival/ or telephone (415) 865-1588.
HIGHLIGHTS:
* Opening Night: 3/10, 7:00 pm at the Castro Theater. "Saving Face" followed by a gala at the Asian Art Museam featuring sounds from Dan the Automator, Dhamaal, DJ King Kong and SambAsia.
* "An Evening with Steven Okazaki," featuring the world premier of Okazaki's latest film "The Mushroom Club" and a live on-stage chat.
* A retrospective film program, featuring films spanning three decades.
* "Hiroshima, Mon Amour," the 1959 classic about a French actress and a Japanese architect in his city of Hiroshima.
*The documentary "Sorceress of the New Piano," followed by a special performance by subject Margaret Leng Tan, the world's first professional toy pianist.
*"Evolution of a Filipino Family," a 10.5 hour documentary filmed over eight years which examines the fifteen years of martial law in the Philippines and its effects on one family's neighborhood.
* Closing Night: 3/17, 7:00 pm at the AMC Kabuki 8 Theaters. "The Motel" followed by a gala at San Francisco's War Memorial Building.
* Three-day showcase in San Jose at Camera 12, 3/18-3/20, featuring a selection of films from the whole festival.
Originally written for The Milpitas Post
Read the rest.Originally written for The Occidental.
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