Bernard Boo
667 articles written by Bernard Boo
-
SFIFF57: Jeremy Ambers and Ben Davis Talk ‘Impossible Light’
Jeremy Ambers’ directorial debut, Impossible Light, chronicles the conception, design, and construction of The Bay Lights, the world’s most massive light sculpture. Ben Davis, the founder of Illuminate the Arts and the man who dreamed up the gargantuan project, teamed...
-
Charlie and Lucy Paul Talk Ralph Steadman, ‘For No Good Reason’
In Charlie Paul’s For No Good Reason, the British filmmaker allows us a peek into the world of artist Ralph Steadman, one of the key Gonzo visionaries and good friend of Hunter S. Thompson. The film chronicles not only his career,...
-
SFIFF57: Hellion, The Sacrament, Kumiko, Ping Pong Summer
The 57th annual San Francisco International film festival has been taking over Japantown in the Sundance Kabuki Cinema and New People Cinema, and the lineup of films so far hasn’t disappointed, with domestic and international gems from all genres. We’re...
-
John Turturro Talks ‘Fading Gigolo’, Woody Allen’s Brutal Honesty
John Turturro writes, directs, and stars in Fading Gigolo, a tender comedy about a stoic bookstore employee whose boss (Woody Allen) convinces him to become a male prostitute, acting as his pimp, essentially. Business is booming, but eventually, love, money, and...
-
Steven Knight Talks ‘Locke’, the Theater of the Automobile
In Steven Knight’s experimental chamber piece Locke, we follow construction manager Ivan Locke (Tom Hardy) who, while driving on a highway late at night, has his whole world crumble around him as he desperately tries to keep his calm, cool exterior. Locke’s...
-
Hot Docs 2014: The Last Season & Self(less) Portrait
The Last Season The Last Season, an engrossing, layered documentary by Berkeley, CA filmmaker Sara Dosa, captures the poetic beauty of a father-son relationship between two damaged, former soldiers–Roger, an American sniper who fought in Vietnam and Kouy, a Cambodian who resisted...
-
SFIFF57: Opening Night, The Two Faces of January
It was a packed house at the Castro Theater in San Francisco last night for Opening Night of the 57th annual San Francisco International Film Festival. I should know–I had to sit in the nosebleeds! (It’s that damn SF...
-
Alan Partridge
Steve Coogan’s Alan Partridge character, while only well-known in America to diehard BBC fanatics, is an amusing creation that should spark laughter even in those unfamiliar. A bumbling, egotist, doofus radio DJ who loves his craft so much he would...
-
Teenage
Weekends have only existed since 1908. Nirvana is as old now as The Beatles were in the ’90s. Betty White is older than sliced bread! These are pretty mind-boggling things to think about; time can be tricky like that. Matt Wolf’s Teenage,...
-
Next Goal Wins
The story at the center of sports doc Next Goal Wins is classic underdog material: American Samoa’s national football (soccer) team is notorious for suffering one of the worst losses in the history of the sport, losing to Australia 31-0 in 2001....
-
SFIFF 2014 Preview
Tomorrow night, the 57th annual San Francisco International Film Festival (April 24-May 8) kicks off its program of 168 films representing 56 countries. Seeing every film in that span of time is a veritable impossibility (though San Francisco is...
-
Jeremy Irons to Receive Peter J. Owens Award at SFIFF 2014
The San Francisco Film Society announced today that Jeremy Irons will be the recipient of the Peter J. Owens Award for excellence in acting at the 57th annual San Francisco International Film Festival. Previous recipients include Harrison Ford, Robert Duvall, Sean Penn,...
-
Matt Wolf Bridges Past and Present Youth Culture in ‘Teenage’
With Teenage, filmmaker Matt Wolf chronicles the rise of the phenomenon known as the teenager from its inception around World War I and through World War II. Based on the book by Jon Savage, the film blends archival footage, reenactments, narration...
-
Watermark
Filmmakers Jennifer Baichwal and Edward Burtynsky (Manufactured Landscapes) bottle the immense power and omnipresence of water, earth’s mightiest element, in their stunningly cinematic film Watermark. Assembling jaw-dropping footage of rivers, dams, rice paddies, abalone farms, and more, they’ve created a...
-
Only Lovers Left Alive
You couldn’t ask for two actors better suited to play a couple of sharp-featured, hipster vampire lovers than Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston, two actors who’ve hit the absolute peak of coolness at this point in their respective careers....