by Richard von Busack
San Jose’s internationally famous Psycho Donuts has a cameo in Of Two Minds (playing Sep 1 at 7pm at the United Film Festival in San Francisco at the Roxie Theater). Directors Doug …

(Dreama Walker as Becky, above)
by Richard von Busack
If the acting in Craig Zobel’s Compliance (tickets and showtimes here) were as powerful as the premise, it’d be unwatchable. Even as it stands, Compliance is one of …

(Lea Seydoux, above)
By Richard von Busack
Remember that Versailles-Barbie vision of Marie-Antoinette, purported by Sofia Coppola a few years back? It’s quite swept away by Benoit Jacquot’s intense Farewell, My Queen. (Farewell, My Queen tickets and …

By Richard von Busack
A gumption-crazed little girl survives what looks like post-industrial living in Beasts of the Southern Wild (tickets and showtimes here). She’s so cute that she’s even called “Hushpuppy.” And if you don’t …

By Richard von Busack
Jonathan Demme once made the best rock concert film ever. And Neil Young Journeys (tickets, showtimes here) Demme’s film of Young’s 2011 Le Noise concert in Toronto, is up there with Stop …

By Richard von Busack
It’s not that To Rome With Love was built in a day. But watching the new Woody Allen one remembers the recent PBS documentary about Allen. The director/writer showed off …

By Richard von Busack
This emo and bloody reboot is about how our hero fights a nine foot tall lizard-man. But it’s so muddled that it’s hard to tell what else The Amazing Spider-Man is about.
Some …

Mom (Henriette Steenstrup) is a Scandinavian look-alike of SNL‘s Debbie Downer and literally works someplace where they unload the turnip trucks—she wears a jogging jacket with a picture of a turnip embroidered on it when …

(Opens today June 22 at the Rialto Cinemas Elmwood in Berkeley, the Rafael Film Center in San Rafael, and the Embarcadero Center Cinemas in San Francisco, among other theaters. Tickets and showtimes here: )
By Richard …

By Richard von Busack
Scotland, sometime in the second half of the first eon: in Brave, the clans are uneasily united under mountainous King Fergus (voiced by Billy Connolly). Bears are still a threat. Much celebrated …