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Longlegs
(2024)
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Dennis Harvey
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Fans of mainstream thrills will lament precisely the qualities of ambiguity and restraint that make Longlegs more creepy than splashy. But those who don't need to be prodded awake every ten minutes will find this a satisfyingly unsettling 100 minutes.
Posted Jul 12, 2024
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Once Upon a Time in America
(1984)
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Dennis Harvey
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A bad movie at any length, swimming in the syrup of Morricone's score. But hey, some call it a masterpiece.
Posted Jul 12, 2024
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The Year of the Cannibals
(1970)
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Dennis Harvey
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An adventurous mix of radical politics and ancient Greek tragedy.
Posted Jul 12, 2024
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Touch
(2024)
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Dennis Harvey
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Touch is an unusually intelligent, artful love story that earns the tears eventually jerked.
Posted Jul 11, 2024
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National Anthem
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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It’s an attractive tableau…but just as superficial as Strange Way of Life, the gay western Pedro Almodovar made last year that was pretty much a half-hour commercial for Yves Saint Laurent.
Posted Jul 11, 2024
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The Convert
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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It provides a solid narrative context for Tamahori to demonstrate his skill at large-scale storytelling, staging action, and eliciting strong performances.
Posted Jul 11, 2024
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Green Border
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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Green Border is a pretty blunt indictment of cruelty and cowardice...
Posted Jul 11, 2024
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Last Summer
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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Though Breillat has pushed the envelope of graphic content much further before, this is one of her most successful narratives...
Posted Jul 05, 2024
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MaXXXine
(2024)
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Dennis Harvey
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West simultaneously over-relies on Goth. Stuffed with too many ideas that go undeveloped, MaXXXine is not dull, but it’s a bit of a hot mess.
Posted Jul 05, 2024
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Taking Venice
(2024)
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Dennis Harvey
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More conventionally crafted than the disruptive art it chronicles, Taking Venice nonetheless uses plentiful archival materials and latter-day interviews to tell a fascinating story.
Posted Jul 05, 2024
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The Devil's Bath
(2024)
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Dennis Harvey
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The film is beautifully crafted, yet the mill of torments it puts Plaschg through becomes something of a dirge, monotonous and overlong at 121 minutes.
Posted Jul 05, 2024
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This Closeness
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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This Closeness looks at first like your classic “normal couple menaced by maladjusted weirdo” thriller setup, but it has different goals.
Posted Jul 05, 2024
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Chestnut
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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Like the summertime flirtations depicted, Cron’s film as a whole does feel like an authentic representation of youthful impulses suspended between infatuation, uncertainty, and evolving self-knowledge.
Posted Jul 05, 2024
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Janet Planet
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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Their movie sneaks up on you, then lingers in the mind long after.
Posted Jul 05, 2024
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Tramps!
(2022)
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Dennis Harvey
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Tramps!—a title that never makes much contextual sense—shows the New Romantics to have been a lot more compelling than the cultural footnote they fast got reduced to.
Posted Jun 25, 2024
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Fancy Dance
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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Though their movie could be a little more assertive in its storytelling, the people it portrays are all credible, complex, and worth meeting.
Posted Jun 25, 2024
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Chuck Chuck Baby
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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Janis Pugh’s crowdpleasing drama gains novelty from being a sort of karaoke musical—characters periodically break into songs by artists as diverse as The Cascades, Neil Diamond, and Janis Ian.
Posted Jun 25, 2024
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Go Fish
(1994)
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Dennis Harvey
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A resourcefully no-budget, B&W ensemble romp of romantic entanglements.
Posted Jun 25, 2024
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Helen and the Bear
(2024)
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Dennis Harvey
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Blair’s film is a surprisingly moving portrait of two strong personalities who have remained devoted to each other despite considerable differences.
Posted Jun 25, 2024
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High Tide
(2024)
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Dennis Harvey
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Sexy yet not your stock frivolous gay romcom, Marco Calvani’s feature poignantly deals with depression, prejudice, and the difficulties of being a sensitive soul in a milieu of short-attention-spanned barflies.
Posted Jun 25, 2024
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Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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A part-concert, part-backstage portrait of the envelope-pushing pop sensation...
Posted Jun 25, 2024
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Bound
(1996)
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Dennis Harvey
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1996’s Bound has Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly as co-conspirators and lovers in what’s not just one of the great neo-noirs, but way up there amongst mainstream Hollywood depictions of lesbian love and lust.
Posted Jun 13, 2024
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Songs of Earth
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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The scenery conveys a degree of timelessness in which mankind is perhaps a comparatively fleeting presence. But the frequent sound of cracking ice, and snowpacks groaning towards avalanche, remind that this, too, may pass, and sooner than later.
Posted Jun 07, 2024
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Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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It's a grotesque story in which the shock of institutionalized bigotry is cushioned by the smug complacency...
Posted Jun 07, 2024
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A Poem Is a Naked Person
(1974)
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Dennis Harvey
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Les Blank left a lasting influence on the Bay Area’s still-busy documentary filmmaking scene, perhaps even more so on the entire genre of music docs that go beyond performance footage to capture entire subcultures.
Posted Jun 07, 2024
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The Maestro: King of the Cowboy Artists
(1995)
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Dennis Harvey
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[It] spilled into appreciation of regional cuisine, and additional creative expressions...
Posted Jun 07, 2024
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All in This Tea
(2007)
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Dennis Harvey
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Lovely [and] globe-trotting...
Posted Jun 07, 2024
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Burden of Dreams
(1982)
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Dennis Harvey
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It is the rare “making-of” document that many consider better than the completed project itself.
Posted Jun 07, 2024
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Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe
(1980)
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Dennis Harvey
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It is the rare “making-of” document that many consider better than the completed project itself...
Posted Jun 07, 2024
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The Boy and the Heron
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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It was a graceful summing-up of themes and motifs he’d begun making familiar even before co-founding Studio Ghibili in 1985...
Posted Jun 07, 2024
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British Sounds
(1970)
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Dennis Harvey
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Lacking the aesthetic appeal of his equally didactic prior La Chinoise, Sounds (which eventually got a tiny theatrical release as See You At Mao) is a curio for completists… but who wouldn’t want to see all of 1960s Godard?
Posted Jun 07, 2024
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23 Mile
(2024)
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Dennis Harvey
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Its recent-history flashback plays like a queasy preview of national discord...
Posted Jun 05, 2024
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Narrow Path to Happiness
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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On a more overtly political tip, there are some sobering missives...
Posted Jun 05, 2024
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Who is Michael Jang?
(2024)
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Dennis Harvey
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Who Is Michael Jang? profiles the titular shutterbug whose remarkable photos of life in SF and beyond from the 1960s onward have only belatedly gotten much recognition.
Posted Jun 05, 2024
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The Donn of Tiki
(2024)
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Dennis Harvey
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Unlike myriad imitators who followed in his wake, Beach was interested in preserving elements of authentic Polynesian culture, not just making a kitschy buck from its vulgarization.
Posted Jun 05, 2024
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Gasoline Rainbow
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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Their film is casual, but not self-indulgent, and crafted with care to make its somewhat wayward joyride sans specific destination (geographic or otherwise) feel like a journey that's worth taking.
Posted May 21, 2024
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I Saw the TV Glow
(2024)
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Dennis Harvey
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While the fadeout retains ambiguity, it raises the pitch of no-exit dread high enough to provide a satisfactory sense of climax.
Posted May 21, 2024
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Sweet Dreams
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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Contrastingly becalmed -- if sinister -- is this blackly comedic indictment...
Posted May 21, 2024
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The Last Stop in Yuma County
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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Last Stop doesn't just strike a pose—it really is clever, in both writing and execution.
Posted May 10, 2024
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H2: The Occupation Lab
(2022)
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Dennis Harvey
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There's no overt case-pleading in the dispassionate assembly of materials here. But a furious gist emerges still...
Posted May 10, 2024
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Terrestrial Verses
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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If you’re one of those people who’s felt guilty about finding some Iranian cinema a little too ascetic and “pure,” this short, sharp feature will prove their stripped-down approach can be devastatingly effective.
Posted May 10, 2024
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Evil Does Not Exist
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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In the end, Evil struck me as a good movie flawed by an unnecessarily pretentious approach to a fairly simple allegory. Nonetheless, its story gist maintains interest, and there are aspects of real beauty in Yoshio Kitagawa’s cinematography...
Posted May 10, 2024
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The Black Cat
(1934)
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Dennis Harvey
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A nutty 66-minute wonder whose ridiculous script Ulmer lifts into a zone of black comedy—not in the giddy tenor of James Whale, but something more coldly ironical...
Posted May 10, 2024
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And So It Begins
(2024)
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Dennis Harvey
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And So provides more chilling proof that fascism seems to be the rising political flavor of preference around the world, and that resistance is desperately needed.
Posted May 10, 2024
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Girls Will Be Girls
(2024)
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Dennis Harvey
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It’s a perceptive, first-rate drama and an auspicious directorial debut.
Posted May 10, 2024
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Q
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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We don’t get much insight into the beliefs or workings of the sect itself. But we do glean how it has impacted Hiba for better and for worse, while also having a sometimes-attracting, sometimes-alienating effect on her children.
Posted May 10, 2024
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New Life
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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This interesting attempt to mix body-horror suspense with character drama doesn't entirely work, because the intended psychological depths are underdeveloped. But it's worth a gander, not least for former Berkeley Rep company member Tony Amendola.
Posted May 06, 2024
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Mars Express
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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A French sci-fi animation in which another murder investigation turns into a colorfully convoluted, Blade Runner-esque probe of blurred future lines between humans, robots and hybrid “synthetics.”
Posted May 06, 2024
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Limbo
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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I found it more pretentious than impressive...
Posted May 06, 2024
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Nowhere Special
(2020)
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Dennis Harvey
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You could argue Nowhere Special is a little too spare, so tastefully restrained it almost misses touching our emotions. But that tactic pays off when, in the end, you'd have to have a heart of stone not to be moved to tears.
Posted May 06, 2024
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