Avant-garde cinema; new releases; a rave and party classic; and dogs of the silent screen are coming to theaters this week.
San Francisco Cinematheque, the Bay Area’s 64-year-old showcase for avant-garde, experimental and underground film and video presents its 16th annual Crossroads festival Friday through Sunday at Gray Area in the Mission District.
Forty-seven film, video and performance works by artists representing 19 countries and territories screen in eight programs curated by Cinematheque’s Steve Polta. Themes include “hold me in your arms,” “the earth as if it were a dream” and “this isn’t what it appears.”
The event gets underway at 7 p.m. Friday, with five short works by contemporary filmmakers, plus “Flo Runs a Corner,” a 1999 film by pioneering experimental director Ken Jacobs. Friday’s 9:30 p.m. program includes the world premiere of “Celluloid Between the Wounds,” a collaboration of Portland experimental musician and sound artist Daniel Menche and Montreal-based filmmaker and projection artist Karl Lemieux.
Additional programs, each running slightly over 60 minutes, continue through Sunday.
Gray Area is at 2665 Mission St., San Francisco. Visit sfcinematheque.org for details.
“Jaws” isn’t the only movie phenomenon receiving milestone-anniversary attention. “Groove,” while hardly on the scale of Steven Spielberg’s classic, can claim its own brand of seminal status, and, in honor of its 25th birthday, the San Francisco-set rave and party classic is being celebrated at the Vogue Theater on Friday and Saturday.
Presented by Cinema SF, the celebration features a grooving and socializing opportunity at 9 p.m. followed by a screening of “Groove”—a cinematic trip through San Francisco’s underground rave scene—at 10 p.m. both days. On Friday, writer-director Greg Harrison will appear in person. Organizers, expecting a sell-out, are advising fans to get their tickets early.
Visit voguemovies.com for details.
“Splitsville” is an old-fashioned screwball comedy that takes place in the sexually liberated present day and bears the wacky, funny stamp of Michael Angelo Covino (writer-director) and Kyle Marvin (cowriter). The pair previously collaborated on the male-friendship indie “The Climb.” Two couples supply the love-hate dynamics this time. When his wife Ashley (Adria Arjona) wants a divorce, Carey (played by Marvin), seeks refuge with his friends Paul (Covino) and Julie (Dakota Johnson), who reveal the secret of their satisfying marriage. They have an open relationship in which trust, not monogamy, is what matters, they say. Soon, all four characters are involved in a tangle of sex, deception and jealousy that contrasts with the mature, classy images they put forth. At one point, the men have a drawn-out physical fight.
The movie is more broad than deep. Don’t expect to feel emotionally invested. But it is also entertaining and observant. The filmmakers opt for chaos over a stale romcom formula, and fare nicely. We rarely know where the crazy story will take us. Marvin and Covino, good actors, impress as the mild-mannered Carey and the explosive Paul, who describes his assault on Carey as “kind of a werewolf situation.” Johnson’s serene Julie, however, exists primarily as an object of desire. Arjona, while entertaining, has even less to work with.
“Splitsville” opens Thursday in San Francisco. Rated R.
“The Fantastic Golem Affairs,” screening in San Francisco tonight prior to its national release, is a surreal fantasy about humankind in modern times. Or something like that. Burnin’ Percebes (Juan Gonzalez and Fernando Martinez), the Spanish filmmaking duo behind this movie, operate and entertain with their own brand of humor and logic. Inspired by a bit from the 1984 comedy “Top Secret!” (the filmmakers have also cited Luis Bunuel and Monty Python as influences), the story begins when Juan (Brays Efe), an unextraordinary regular guy, is clowning around drunkenly with buddy David (David Menendez) on a Madrid roof. David falls to his death and, on impact, shatters into ceramic-like pieces. If that’s not way-out enough, the mourners at David’s funeral display no hint of sadness. Mystified, Juan does some investigating, which yields weird findings: a death algorithm; a company that manufactures golem companions; an epidemic of pianos falling from the sky…. It all adds up to an insanely original trip worth taking through a world of mechanized thinking and absurd realities, although the bizarreness tends to prevail over emotional impact.
The premiere screening of “The Fantastic Golem Affairs” is at 9:30 p.m. Aug. 25 at the Alamo Drafthouse New Mission, San Francisco.
San Francisco Film Preserve, an organization that restores, preserves and provides access to the world’s cinematic heritage, presents a pair of silent films with canine stars on Tuesday, Aug. 26 — International Dog Day. The sure-to-be-fun event is at 6:30 p.m. at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco. A 4K restoration of 1924’s “Black Lightning” directed by James P. Hogan and featuring silent-era superstar Clara Bow as a mountain girl in a treacherous situation, is the feature attraction. Thunder the Marvel Dog, playing a heroic police dog, costars. “The Love Fighter” (1926), a short film starring the top-billed Fearless the Dog, completes the bill. Live piano music performed by Wayne Barker accompanies both films. David Stenn, author of “Clara Bow: Runnin’ Wild,” introduces the program. SFFP’s Rob Byrne hosts.
Visit roxie.com.
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