It's well known that a comedy trailer with no gags is a dire warning sign, but the principle can be applied more broadly. If the filmmakers can't tell a story in three minutes, it's unlikely they can do it in 90. Or 120. Or, in the case of Norte: The End of History, 250 ( Read more... )

The SFFS generally tries to avoid telling you that nothing happens, but if you see code words like "narrative", "portrait", and "meditation", know ye that an evening of stasis awaits, with more plot in the popcorn you're eating than on the screen. Some of the perps this year and the relevant descriptions ( Read more... )

The Monkey Rule is this: If the movie's main selling point is the protagonist's identity, then plot has probably been left by the wayside and it could have been automatically made more entertaining just by making the protagonist a monkey ( Read more... )

The San Francisco International Film Festival is once again bringing us too many movies to possibly see, and I once again am sharing my winnowing process ( Read more... )

After all that windup, it's time for the big letdown! Because, honestly, everyone has different taste. Hey, me at some age would have gotten a kick out of that Full Monty ripoff movie. I'm just too bitter and old to watch Terence Stamp be bitter and old now ( Read more... )

Let's be honest now: I have a two-year-old and a wife who hates going to movies. I'll be lucky to see two of the movies in the upcoming "awesome" category, much less these. But these movies look darn good.

Byzantium - Neil Jordan, vampires, "waterfalls gushing blood":


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I think I already called this movie out for the title alone, but it's also noteworthy for making me wonder if the Weinsteins literally have a factory that makes these things:

In really good movies the characters drive the plot. In okay movies the plot just happens. In these movies, the plot just doesn't happen. Here are the code phrases the SFIFF uses to tell you this ( Read more... )

Is it fair to dismiss a movie just on the basis of a title? In the case of these, probably!

Night Across the Street
Our Homeland
The Patience Stone
Unfinished Song

As always: if the character is the selling point, why not just make the movie about a monkey? Here are the characters who have been placed at the beginning of the movie descriptions, as if their soul is only three words long and the plot, only two ( Read more... )