“Pope of Trash,” “Prince of Puke,” “People’s Pervert,” “King of Sleaze” and “Filth Elder” are all monikers apropos for prolific filmmaker, author, photographer, visual artist, provocateur and true original, John Waters, who turns 80 this month.
The Mostly British Film Festival returns for its 18th year, Feb. 5-12, with 26 films, some new, some nearly new, along with a sprinkling of classics. Curated selections come from the UK, Ireland, Australia, South Africa, India and New Zealand and will all be screened at San Francisco’s Vogue Theater.
The family hi-fi set-up, anchored by two giant hidden speakers, was located in the dining room. We never ate there unless we had company. No one who came to the house knew where the speakers were because the beige tweed fabric covering them matched the adjacent drapes.
The large cast – which includes Seth Green as the boorish head of rival Camp Barak, and Steve Guttenberg as the oldest but wise staffer at Camp Daveed – was assembled with purpose, which included hiring Jewish actors to play Jewish characters.
As hosts of their latest podcast series, “So Supernatural,” sisters Yvette Gentile and Rasha Pecoraro are finally getting to transition out of the darkness of the true-crime genre and into phenomenon, conspiracies, mysteries and the unexplained.
Most people have never seen Janis Joplin live. Those who have could feel her lifeforce, her pain, her palpable need to be loved, her raw bluesy delivery and her desire to be unforgettable.
The documentary “Diane Warren: Relentless” by director Bess Kargman delves into songwriter Diane Warren’s complex persona, capturing her enigmatic nature, relentless work ethic, and personal dichotomies. The film showcases Warren’s unwavering self-belief, her chaotic creative process and her journey to becoming a commercially successful and influential songwriter.
Murakami has blurred the boundaries of high and low art. His newest exhibition at the Asian Art Museum (AAM) in San Francisco, called “Takashi Murakami: Unfamiliar People – Swelling of Monsterized Human Ego” (Sept. 15-Feb. 12, 2024), demonstrates that his 82-foot, super-detailed, story-telling painting, created especially for this – his first-ever Bay Area exhibition – is consumed alongside the instantly recognizable, multicolor smiling flower motif, which visitors rabidly purchase in many forms (including as a stuffy-style pillow) at the museum gift shop.
I joined a family really into staging large reunions, where everything had to be documented with snapshots – in front of bodies of water, sitting around a massive table at restaurants (“Everybody, stop eating for a second!”) and posing in front of mountain ranges.
Once Roe vs. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) in 2022, documentary director and producer Tracy Droz Tragos felt an urgency to complete her latest film, “Plan C,” which follows the grassroots organization, Plan C, as they fight to expand knowledge of and access to the abortion pill in the U.S.
My father, Leon, lived with chronic depression. It wasn’t called depression back then. What did his daily life look like? He was a workaholic, getting up early, as the rest of the family slept. He had plenty of rituals. They seemed necessary.
W. Kamau Bell, 50, may have started out as a stand-up comedian in the 1990s, but he realized early on that he had to widen his vision of a career in show business. While living in San Francisco’s Inner Sunset District for 11 years, Palo Alto-born Bell honed his craft.
Are you addicted to binge-watching on streaming platforms, in front of a flat-screen monitor dominating your living room space? Put down the remote control. Get off your couch and venture out to a local cultural event. Does it really require that much effort?
There are a lot of highly regarded movies filmed in San Francisco, including Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 noir masterpiece, “Vertigo” and the 1968 slow-burn, groundbreaking action thriller, “Bullitt,” starring Steve McQueen as a brooding but honest police lieutenant. Every cinephile has seen those classics. I’d rather explore a few other significant (and more recent) films, where San Francisco does more than provide a dramatic, textured backdrop. The City is actually a supporting character.
I’ve been riding public transportation in San Francisco since childhood. As early as age 7, I took buses, street cars and cable cars by myself. For the most part, it was safe. Of course, there were a few dicey experiences, which caused me to grow up faster.
Richmond Review/Sunset Beacon 