A Bay Area celebration of indie films, “Drag Me to the Cinema” at AMC’s EmeryBay, San Jose’s Cinequest packed lineup, a Sonoma screening of “Flow” and the Mostly British festival are highlights in a bustling lineup of upcoming local movie events.
SF IndieFest, a treasure in its 27th year, continues to be a go-to for true-blue indies and Bay Area-rooted shorts and features; it’s a welcome respite from what Hollywood often churns out. This year’s program runs Feb. 6 to Feb. 18 at the Roxie and the Vogue in San Francisco with much of the slate available to stream. Tickets cost $5 to $20; passes are $90 to $200. For details, visit sfindie.com.
“Pavements” from actor-filmmaker Alex Ross Perry kicks things off in raucous, crowd-pleasing style. The adventurous doc captures the spirit and ingenuity of the 1990s band Pavement using creative means to chronicle the group’s career. It screens at 6 p.m. on Feb. 6 at the Roxie with an afterparty at Kilowatt Bar. The closing night feature at 6 p.m. Feb. 13 at the Roxie (and streaming) is the Agbajowo Collective’s powerful Nigeria-set drama “The Legend of the Vagabond Queen of Lago.” Temiloluwa Ami-Williams stars as a mom stumbling upon beaucoup bucks and later realizing how greed impacts communities that are already feeling beaten down.
Also recommended is the fest’s centerpiece selection “The Paper Bag Plan” by Anthony Lucero. It’s been quite some time since the Oakland native charmed audiences with his directorial debut, the upbeat 2014 Oakland-set feature “East Side Sushi” (rent it if you haven’t seen it)! Over a decade later, with this beautiful father-son story, he has taken what could have been a mawkish and manipulative tearjerker and instead made a radiant testimony to a parent’s love. It centers on cancer-stricken father Oscar (Lance Kinsey, in a poignant performance) preparing his son Billy (Cole Mass), in a wheelchair due to cerebral palsy, for independent living once he’s gone. In lesser hands, the scenario of a dad with a drinking problem teaching his disabled son how to bag groceries at home could well amount to torture porn. But not in Lucero’s capable, caring hands. With great sensitivity and insight, the screenwriter-director imbues his film with a raw tenderness that’s never forced, cringe-inducing or phony. The two lead performances couldn’t be better. The charismatic, handsome Mass handles both drama and comedy. But the film’s tonally perfect final scene belongs to Kinsey, for handling the poignant sequence with such skill, and Lucero, for allowing silent moments to unfold naturally. The emotional depth will rip your heart out. It sure did mine. The movie screens at 6 p.m. Feb. 7 at the Roxie with Lucero slated to attend. It streams from Feb. 6- 18.
For those who simply want an escape, and to show a little pride while doing so, San Jose director Anthony Hand’s sweetheart of an animated confection “Maxxie Lawow: Drag Super-Shero” is just the ticket. Equal parts “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and “Scooby-Doo” (not necessarily in that order), Hand’s colorful creation finds a cute, often frazzled barista named Simon (delightfully voiced by Grant Hodges) putting on a pink wig and transforming like a superhero into the absolutely fab, far more confident Maxxie LaWow. Bestie Jae (Erika Ishii) and Simon/Maxxie Lawow enter the lair, aka mansion, where the diabolical (boo! hiss!) Dyna Bolical (Terren Wooten Clarke) has kidnapped drag queens and is trying to extract something precious from them. “Maxxie Lawow” mildly plays with innuendo and its captivating lead character is someone we’d like to see again. It’s written with breezy aplomb by San Francisco’s Michael Phillis, and it’s one that should be seen with a rowdy audience. It screens at 9 p.m. Feb. 8 with Hand slated to attend; it streams Feb. 6-18.
Other films piquing our interest include the world premiere of the sobering hour-long documentary “KCSM 91.1: The Bay Area’s Jazz Station to the World” directed by Bay Area filmmakers Wade Shields, Jasmine Wang and Danny Monico. It screens at 6:45 p.m. Feb. 8 and streams. San Francisco-based filmmaker J.P. Allen (“The Girl in Golden Gate Park”) returns to IndieFest with “Memorizing Alison,” a mystery with actress Allison Ewing about a man trying to solve a hit-and-run fatality. It screens at 8:45 p.m. Feb. 6 at the Roxie and streams. Vallejo director Miyoni Nelson’s passionate “Encrypted” focuses on Gia, a young Black woman realizing she must tend to her mental and emotional wellbeing. The just-shy-of-an hour film is on a double bill with the 30-minute “Suburban Story” from the Bay Area’s Chris Yen. Showtime is 4:30 p.m. Feb. 8 at the Roxie; both films stream.
Over at Emeryville’s AMC Bay Street, the first “Drag Me to the Cinema” queer film festival kicks up its high heels Feb. 8 with five themed programs of shorts and a sprinkling of live performances.
“We Are Family” (noon), aimed for families, includes Bret Parker’s semi-autobiographical treat “Pete,” which does more than tag bases as it raises issues about gender and youth baseball. “Pure.Queer.Joy” (1 p.m.) skews for a more mature crowd, featuring director Adam Enright’s “Gay History Tour” in which a New York queer history tour guide comes undone. “Fantasy Island” (3 p.m.) provides a spicy escape, with Robby Kendall’s “(Un)Free Will,” a short comedy about the impact that guardian angels have on an opposites-attract relationship. “Life’s a Drag” (5 p.m.), a celebration of drag performers, includes “Alex Is a Queen,” about a drag queen reconciling with an unexpected patron, her dad. It stars Bay Area drag queen Lady Camden and was written by the multi-talented Tony Gapastione of the South Bay. “Adults Only” (7 p.m.) spices things up, and includes director Nicole de Meneses’ “Last Bite,” a sapphic vampire short with, well, you guessed it: some bite.
For tickets and prices, go to sweetnothingproductions.com/product/dragmetothecinema/.
The South Bay’s Cinequest Film and Creativity Festival (March 11-23 in person and March 24-31 virtually) has a massive 238 films (110 are world or U.S. premieres) and promises to be one of the major local cinematic events of 2025.
The theme is “Luminate,” and it’s somewhat reflected in the opening feature, “The Luckiest Man in America” (starring Paul Walter Hauser, it’s a truth-based comedy-drama about a game-show contestant’s very calculated streak of good luck) and its closing night selection, “The Friend” with Naomi Watts as a New Yorker leading a comfy life that gets ruff when she’s bequeathed (or saddled?) with a Great Dane.
This year’s Maverick Spirit Award goes to the deserving, award-winning actor Gillian Anderson (TV’s “The X-Files” and “The Crown”), star of the upcoming “The Salt Path,” an inspirational drama getting its U.S. premiere on March 22 during the fest’s run. For details about the full lineup, visit cinequest.org
Over in Sonoma, catch “Flow,” the best animated film of the year, the double-Oscar nominee (best international feature, best animated feature). Though Gints Zilbalodis’ wordless feature from Latvia about a cute cat surviving a flood through the assistance of helpful animal friends is streaming, it’s worth falling under its spell in a theater. The Sonoma International Film Festival screens it at 10 a.m. Feb. 9 at Sonoma’s Sebastiani Theatre as part Mimosas & the Movies. For tickets, which include a mimosa should you want to imbibe, visit https://sonomafilmfest.org/year-round/monthly-screenings/flow.
Among the constants in the life of a Bay Area movie fan is the high caliber of the Mostly British Film Festival. Now in its 17th iteration, this year’s program of terrific films from the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and India lives up to its reputation. The San Francisco fest kicks off this week with the always wry and delightful actor Steve Coogan in the opening night feature, “The Penguin Lessons” at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 6. He plays Tom Michell, an English teacher who gets his education groove back on once he discovers that the penguin that insists on being at his side in his 1976 Buenos Aires classroom sparks higher learning. Co-starring Jonathan Pryce, the film is directed by Peter Cattaneo of “The Full Monty” acclaim and is based on Michell’s memoir.
Other highlights include the closing night comedy “Jane Austen Wrecked Me” (7:45 p.m. Feb. 13) from first-time feature director Laura Piani and about a forlorn bookstore clerk and Austen admirer’s search for romance and inspiration; director Michael Winterbottom’s thriller “Shoshana” (7:30 p.m. Feb. 7) set in 1930s Palestine and centering on a passionate romance between a Polish Jew and a British cop; the emotionally wrenching father-son story “Nowhere Special” (7 p.m. Feb. 9) with its Oscar-sized performance from James Norton; and the thriller “American Star” (7 p.m. Feb. 11) with Ian McShane as a ready-to-retire hitman who discovers his last target is fraught with complications. Tickets cost $17.50-$20. Screenings are the Vogue. For details, visit https://mostlybritish.org/.
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