San Francisco Independent Film Festival 2019 (Forum)

[Chris Knipp]

SF Indiefest started today. Some reviews.

SARAH PIROZEK: #LIKE (2018)

Weird drama set in Woodstock, New Yori about a girl who seeks to take revenge against a man she believes to have caused her younger sister to commit suicide through cyber-bullying. I was not impressed. The screenplay is full of holes. But of course this is on the trend with #Me Too and all.

DAVID SCHALLIOL: THE AREA (2018)

Slow-building documentary by Schalliol, completed in the course of doctoral studies at the University of Chicago, of the displacement of a poor, black community to make way for an expanded railroad shipping yard. Touching and profound. Seeing this after binge-watching the first two seasons of Donald Glover's hip, brilliant "Atlanta" led to some deep pondering about Black in America.

TAKUMI SHIMUMKAI: CENTERLINE

I have not reviewed this yet, but it's an intriguing idea from Japan: a story of the near-future when self-driving vehicles are universal, and a newly hired government prosecutor protests her job by bringing a self-driving car's AI to trial for causing a fatal accident. It's a most interesting premise, but the details aren't quite as absorbing as the starting point. It's detailed and ingenious though.

[Chris Knipp]

PAUL OSBORNE: CRUEL HEARTS (2018)

A little noirish tale about a low-level gangster and a mysterious stranger who comes up to him in the bar he owns and uses to launder money and tells him he's slept with his wife. Complications ensue, which are indeed intricate and surprising - this is like an O. Henry-style short story - and the action is dramatic. But the best and most revelatory moments come when the movie is seemingly becalmed and is focused on nothing but a customer and a waitress flirting and chatting in an empty diner.

[Chris Knipp]

CALLUM CRAWFORD: DEGENERATES (2018)

The alliteratively-named Callum Crawford's debut multiple-hyphenate performance (he acts here as writer, director, star and producer) shows a maximum of British sang-froid and drollery in this tale of an unsold young scriptwriter (Crawford himself) who sets out to push events along in the search for a missing girl and use whatever happens as material for a screenplay.

[Chris Knipp]

STUART SWEZEY: DESOLATION CENTER (2018)

Stuart Swezey describes extraordinary events he himself organized in the early Eighties in Los Angeles and the Mojave Desert and on the water in San Pedro where punk and industrial bands and events like Mark Pauline's bold, scary happenings involving robots and explosives were witnessed by an adventurous few. The archival footage is eye-opening and thrilling in tis recreation of a time of unparalleled intimacy between audience and creators that make events today like Lollapalooza or Burning Man, which grew out of Desolation Center, seem mere commercial Disneylands. Thrilling and eye-opening.

[Chris Knipp]

NIA DACOSTA: LITTLE WOODS (2018)

In this Tribeca debut feature opening in theaters in April, two sisters struggle to survive economically in a North Dakota oil boom town. One has an unexpected pregnancy; the other was arrested for selling prescription drugs illegally that she ran down from the Canadian border. They're forced to return to lawlessness to save a house and protect their futures. Socially conscious but relentlessly unfun. The two actresses, Tessa Thompson, Lily James, are attractive and talented.

(02/8/2019) 7:00PM Victoria Theater

[Chris Knipp]

DENNIS COOPER, ZAC FARLEY: PERMANENT GREEN LIGHT (2018)

A Bressonian (Cooper, primarily a writer, is a big admirer of the French auteur) film with a queer sensibility about a youth who decides to blow himself up. He and his young visual collaborator, Zac Farley, an American he originally met in Paris, are primarily focused on making movies now. An austere film that rewards close attention and repeated viewings.

SF Idiefest showtimes:

* Feb. 3, 9:30 pm: San Francisco @ SF IndieFest/Roxie Theater
* Feb. 4, 9:15 pm: San Francisco @ SF IndieFest/Roxie Theater

[Chris Knipp]

MELORA WALTERS: WATERLILY JAGUAR (2018)

Melora Walters has ninety-nine acting credits, including Magnolia and Boogie Nights, and Paul Thomas Anderson, the creator of those brilliant films, is executive director of this, Walters' debut as a feature director and writer. The film concerns the meltdown, or crisis, or rebirth, it's never quite clear which, of Bob (James LeGros), a highly successful author of "airport" novels who wants to do something more original and personal and does so, with a vengeance. A full-dress story of artistic crisis. And Bob's wife, Helen, is a painter, and she's played by Mira Sorvino. This has been chosen as the closing night film of the SF Indiefest. I didn't quite get the point of it, but you can go to the Roxie on Valentine's Day and decide what you think.

SF IndieFest: Waterlily Jaguar: Upcoming Showtimes
February 14 7:00 PM SF IndieFest at the Roxie