Reviewer: Jeffrey M. Anderson
Rating (out of five): *** 

It was quite a surprise to learn that, between Park Chan-wook's extraordinarily lithe, punchy Lady Vengeance (2005) -- the final entry in his equally extraordinary "vengeance" trilogy -- and the bizarre, acid vampire movie Thirst (2009), Park made this very broad, very odd comedy.

It looks as if I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK never saw an American theatrical release, or if it did, it was so small and localized that no critics knew of its existence. It apparently did middling box office in its native Korea as well. It's somewhat similar to Sion Sono's Love Exposure, from Japan, which was released in San Francisco this past summer. It features singularly love-struck characters with peculiar fates. It focuses on three or four specific, off-kilter jokes and runs with these jokes over and over until they connect and make some kind of sense.

Continue Reading I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK

Reviewer: Craig Phillips
Rating (out of five): *** 1/2

Ill Met By Moonlight (a.k.a. Night Ambush) is about the only Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger collaboration I'd never seen. Why this is important: they are among my favorite filmmakers of all time. At their creative peak, the fruitful collaboration in the 1940s and '50s -- Powell was generally the director/co-writer and Pressburger co-writer/producer, and they dubbed their team “The Archers” -- gave us such lovely gems as The Red Shoes, (my personal favorite) I Know Where I'm Going, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, Black Narcissus and A Matter of Life and Death.

Continue Reading Ill Met By Moonlight

Reviewer: Philip Tatler IV
Rating (out of five): *****

About halfway through Carlos -- Olivier Assayas’s five-and-a-half hour masterpiece -- the title character (Edgar Ramirez) tells a journalist that “the only struggle that matters is the oppressed versus the imperialist.” Were it up to Carlos, this struggle would be the focal point of a film based on his life. By the time he delivers these words, however, they are a fatuous hot wind. The focus of the film is not the struggle of the oppressed, it’s Carlos’s actual obsession: himself.

Continue Reading Carlos (Criterion)

Terrence Malick's epic is just one of many can't-miss titles available for rent today. We've got 2 hit comedies from the summer, historical epics, and much much more, inside. 

Continue Reading New and Coming Releases: October 11, 2011.

Reviewer: Philip Tatler IV
Rating (out of five): **** 1/2

Within a few years of its release in 1921, Victor Sjostrom’s The Phantom Carriage was considered a masterpiece of the cinema, alongside such canonical stalwarts as The Gold Rush, Battleship Potemkin, and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Charlie Chaplin thought The Phantom Carriage was the greatest film ever made. However, as the silent era ended and Carriage’s eye-popping-for-the-time special effects became outmoded, Sjostrom’s film fell out of favor and was soon regarded as more of a relic than a milestone. Fortunately, the Criterion Collection has deigned to restore The Phantom Carriage and bring it once again to the attention of discerning cinephiles.

Continue Reading The Phantom Carriage (Criterion)

Today's releases aren't all "fast and furious." We've got some excellent Korean-centric docs, a quirky British comedy, and a 80's Giallo-style erotic thriller. Click to see 'em all! 

Continue Reading New and Coming Releases: October 4, 2011.

From October 14 - 27, 2011, Docs are taking the city by the bay by storm, thanks to the good folks at SF Indie. This year's docs cover a range of topics from Bill Plympton to heavy metal picnics to women's wrestling - you won't want to miss this year's award - winning slate. Screenings take place at the Roxy Theater or Shattuck Cinemas.

You can win tickets to any of the festival's showings! See full details after the jump.

Continue Reading SF Indie Docfest 2011 Ticket Giveaway!

Take a ride on a Beijing taxi, a Cloud-Capped star, or Phantom Carriage via this week's slate of new releases for rent. Check out the rest of the fantastical titles after the jump. 

Continue Reading New and Coming Releases: September 27, 2011.

Reviewer: Jeffrey M. Anderson
Rating (out of five): *** 1/2

After an absence of ten years, master director John Carpenter's new film The Ward was treated as if it were suddenly deposited in a kitty litter box. It only opened in a couple of theaters, and after disastrous reviews and poor box office, a wider release never materialized. There were cries of Carpenter being "rusty" or "in decline," similar to claims made against Hitchcock, Hawks, Welles, and Chaplin during their later years. Perhaps worse, Carpenter chose to tell a rather old-fashioned ghost story, wherein a ghost sometimes pops out from the shadows. Additionally, the script has a twist ending that further irritated his detractors.

Continue Reading The Ward

Reviewer: Jeffrey M. Anderson
Rating (out of five): *****

The National Film Preservation Foundation, located in San Francisco, has been quietly releasing extraordinary DVD box sets over the past ten years, entitled the "Treasures" series. There isn't a better word for it. These sets are packed with little gems that had to be dug up and assessed before it could be determined how valuable they were. The first set (Treasures from American Film Archives), from 2000, came with fifty comedies, dramas, experimental films, cartoons, newsreels, documentaries, and tons of other stuff, all historically valuable as well as entertaining. Volume Two, from 2004, had more just like it. Volume Three focused on Social Issues, and Volume Four looked at Avant-Garde Film.

Continue Reading Treasures 5: The West, 1898-1938