Big Screen Berkeley: ‘Never Look Away’
The new film by 'The Lives of Others' director Florian Maria Georg Christian Graf Henckel von Donnersmarck, is a fictionalized take on the life of German artist Gerhard Richter.
John Seal is Berkeleyside’s film critic. A movie connoisseur with a penchant for natty hats who lives in Oakland, John writes a weekly film recommendation column at Box Office Prophets, as well as a column in The Phantom of the Movie’s Videoscope, an old-fashioned paper magazine, published quarterly. He also writes regular film reviews for IMDB, which can be read here.
Big Screen Berkeley: Academy Award nominated short subjects
This year’s Oscar-nominated shorts, both live and animated, screen at Landmark’s Shattuck Cinemas starting Friday. Who's going to win?
Big Screen Berkeley: SF Indiefest
A preview of this year’s festival, which kicks off on Wednesday and continues through Feb. 14, with programming at the Mission District’s Roxie and Victoria Theaters.
Big Screen Berkeley: ‘Heartlock’
This film features numerous elements of the classic prison-break movie, but ultimately strays quite far from the template, instead incorporating a few tried-and-true genre tropes into a satisfying storyline.
Big Screen Berkeley: ‘Stan and Ollie’
The film provides neither dramatic fireworks nor a well-footnoted plod through history. No matter: most viewers will be utterly delighted by its gently humorous approach and the letter-perfect performances of its leads.
Big Screen Berkeley: ‘The Golem’ and ‘Not Wanted’
Head on over to BAMPFA in downtown Berkeley to see one of the gems of Weimar cinema as well as a 1949 film that, according to its prologue, tells a story that is "told one hundred thousand times each year.”
Big Screen Berkeley: Favorite films of 2018
No list and no awards ceremony has a monopoly on good film: cast your net wide enough, and you’ll find something everyone else overlooked. Here are 16 movies that impressed Berkeleyside's film critic this year.
Big Screen Berkeley: ‘The Quake’
Unless you’re a disaster movie obsessive, you can surely find a better use for your time than watching this generic film with its unimpressive, barely adequate CGI effects.
Big Screen Berkeley: ‘People’s Republic of Desire’
This documentary from China explores the fascinating — and disturbing — world of "live streaming hosts," who build an audience and make money by singing and dancing online.
Big Screen Berkeley: The films of Jiří Trnka
Admirers of George Pal’s 'Puppetoons' or the holiday classics of Rankin-Bass will want to check out this Czech animator’s films, screening as a series of five at BAMPFA. Even if you're not, you're in for a treat.
Big Screen Berkeley: ‘Shoplifters’, ‘Hale County This Morning This Evening’
Two films: One about a collective of lost souls and abandoned children living happily but precariously on the outskirts of legality; the other follows two young African-American men in the rural South over several years.
Big Screen Berkeley: ‘El Angel’
One of the better recent crime films concludes with an army of police closing in on its prey. Our protagonist worries not: he’ll meet it with a song in his heart, a spring in his step and bullets in his gun.
