By Richard von Busack
You can recognize the shape of the Canadian Oscar nominee Monsieur Lazhar (showtimes and tickets here) at 500 yards. It follows the pattern of legions of films from Goodbye Mr Chips to …

by Richard von Busack
Quoth the raven: this film sucks. In Raven (showtimes here) director James McTeigue (V for Vendetta) includes an early scene of the disemboweling of an obese captive with Edgar Allan Poe’s infamous …

Has the world suffered enough from pirates? In one of the best jokes in The Pirates! Band of Misfits (showtimes here) a crewmember observes, “You can’t just say ‘arrr’ and make everything better.’
This …

by Richard von Busack
One of the most exciting films of 2012 finally arrives in Santa Cruz at the Nickelodeon: Ralph Fiennes’ version of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus (other locations besides Santa Cruz here.). This obscurer play has …

(Opens Apr 27 at the AMC Metreon 16 in San Francisco and the AMC Cupertino 16 in Cupertino.)
By Richard von Busack
Likely you’ve heard the Tolstoi parable about how when a person goes to heaven, God …

By Richard von Busack
There comes a point in watching a modern-made, post Private Ryan war movie where you wonder what you’re supposed to be feeling. The explosions and bullet-ballets shake you into an ADD state. …

By Richard von Busack
“If we could tell a film, why make a film?” That’s the question in This Is Not A Film, opening for a week long run at the SF Film Society Cinema in …

By Richard von Busack
Pardon me for a quick act of recycle: a comment on a 2001 film titled The Emperor’s New Clothes:
The emotions stirred by the name of Napoleon are summed up in some words …

By Richard von Busack
Hunger Games (showtimes and tickets here) requires a pinch of amnesia. No young person wants to be told that their hero Katniss Everdeen and her futuristic gladiator games is a film that’s …

Richard III (1955) plays three nights Mar 20-22 at 7:30pm in Palo Alto, at the Stanford Theatre)
Fun is no measure of greatness, but Laurence Olivier’s Richard III (1955) is certainly the most sheer bloody fun …