Film festivals—current, classical and a little tipsy—open in theaters and bars this week. Also, there’s news about San Francisco’s Castro Theatre, which has been closed for renovations since February 2024. It will reopen early next year, according to its operator, concert promoter Another Planet. The movie palace’s $41 million overhaul includes restored original ceiling artwork, new bathrooms, new heating and cooling systems, improved ADA access and other upgrades.
The 48th Mill Valley Film Festival opens Thursday, with 138 films from 40 countries. Presented by the California Film Institute, the festival runs through Oct. 12 at the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael, Sequoia Cinema in Mill Valley, Lark Theater in Larkspur, Outer Art Club in Mill Valley and Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley. As always, the event features a diverse lineup, ranging from “little gem” indies that may not get released in theaters to higher-profile end-of-the-year awards-bound releases. “Hamnet,” “Nomadland” filmmaker Chloe Zhao’s much-talked-about emotional drama about the personal tragedy that inspired William Shakespeare to write his famed tragedy “Hamlet,” opens the festival. Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley star. “Metallica Saved My Life,” Jonas Akerlund’s documentary about the San Francisco heavy metal band and its fans, is the centerpiece attraction, screening on Oct. 9. “Rental Family,” a sweet dramedy directed by Hikari starring Brendan Fraser as a Japan-based American actor who gets a job playing stand-in friends and family members for strangers, is the closing night feature. Additional highlights include “It Was Just an Accident,” Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi’s Cannes-winning political and moral thriller; “No Other Choice,” South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook’s satirical comedy; “The Secret Agent,” Kleber Mendonca Filho’s suspense thriller set during Brazil’s dictatorship; Hasan Hadi’s realistic “The President’s Cake,” the first Iraqi feature to play at Cannes; “Arco,” French filmmaker Ugo Bienvenu’s animated adventure; and the documentaries “The Alabama Solution” by Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman, and “Arrest the Midwife” by Elaine Epstein. A local standout is “Brother Verses Brother,” a “live-cinema” walking-and-talking-and-singing comedy featuring twin brothers Ari and Ethan Gold (sons of the late San Francisco poet and novelist Herbert Gold) and the streets and clubs of North Beach. Also on the bill are Q&As, artist tributes (honorees include Jessie Buckley, Rose Byrne, Zoey Deutch, Joel Edgerton, Jafar Panahi and Spike Lee), short-film programs, panels, parties and more. Tickets for sold-out films may become available. For a schedule and other information, visit mvff.com.
The Stanford Theatre’s Classic Westerns festival, honoring the once popular and still celebrated movie genre that has become of part of American mythology, begins Friday. Expect to see stagecoaches, showdowns, crooked sheriffs, saloon brawls, lone-wolf heroes, rugged landscapes, struggles with Native Americans (sometimes problematically portrayed) and lots of John Wayne at the 11-week event, which features more than 40 films dating from the 1920s to the early 1960s. Screenings continue through Dec. 19 at the Stanford Theatre in Palo Alto, mostly on Thursdays through Sundays. The fest gets rolling with silent and early sound-era Westerns: “Tumbleweeds” (1925) and “Riders of the Purple Sage” (1925) on Oct. 3; “The Covered Wagon” (1923) and “The Big Trail” (1930) on Oct. 4; and “The Iron Horse” (1924) and “The Big Trail” (1930) on Oct. 5. Live organ music accompanies the silents. From Oct. 9-12, look for two films regarded as among the greatest Westerns ever: “Stagecoach” (1939), starring Wayne, directed by John Ford, and featuring a motley bunch of travelers riding through the Wild West; and “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” (1948), a tale of greed and gold directed by John Huston and featuring Humphrey Bogart. For the schedule, visit stanfordtheatre.org.
The Drunken Film Fest, back for its eighth year, offers free programs of short independent and experimental films in Oakland bars and eateries preceded by an opening ticketed program ($10) at 8 p.m. Saturday at Artists’ Television Access in San Francisco, presented in collaboration with local filmmaker-curator Craig Baldwin’s Other Cinema project. The opener features short films from past festivals and the U.S. premiere of “Mann’s Sparks” by Oakland filmmaker Ryland Walker Knight, who sets images from Hollywood director Michael Mann’s film to music from the album “Depression Cherry” by the indie band Beach House. Knight will attend. Six nights of free curated programs, starting at 7 p.m. in Oakland, follow: at the Double Standard on Oct. 5; Stay Gold on Oct. 6; Beeryland on Oct. 7, Temescal Brewing on Oct. 8, Ei’s Mile High Club on Oct. 9 and Acapella on Oct. 10. Visit drunkenfilmfest.com/oakland.
“Assembly,” a feature documentary, follows multidisciplinary artist Rashaad Newsome as he puts together an ambitious exhibit, transforming a historic armory into a Black and queer sanctuary combining art, performance and artificial intelligence. It screens at the Cinemark Century Theater in Walnut Creek at 7 p.m. Oct. 3; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art at 1 p.m. on Oct. 4 (RSVP at sfmoma.org); and at the Roxie in San Francisco, at 3:20 p.m. Oct. 5. A Q&A with co-directors Newsome and Johnny Symons follows the screenings.
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