Pete's Popcorn Picks

The Re-Opening of the Rheem

05/01/08

The Re-Opening of the Rheem

Last weekend I was at a party for the Town Hall Theatre and someone told me that the Rheem Theater had closed. I felt a sharp, sickened pang in my side, a jab I had not felt since I received similar news about the adorable Lafayette Park Theater's closing a few years back. The Rheem Theater is a little gem, a throwback to the old days of cinema, when towns built movie palaces in their downtowns for the community to enjoy. Too many of these cinema treasures have been shut down by the massive megaplexes, that make up for a lack or personality by showing commercials and too many previews before their mainstream flicks.

Fortunately, the information i received about the Rheem was innacurate. Apparently, the theater has changed ownership, and the theater was simply shut down for...

Posted at 06:49 PM in Pete's Popcorn Picks | Permalink | Comments (1)
California Independent Film Fest: Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

04/08/08

California Independent Film Fest: Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

I'm really excited about the California Independent Film Festival next week. This is a fantastic event, every year, but this year's lineup is particularly good. I'll be moderating discussions with legendary football coach John Madden and filmmaker Penny Marshall, actor Mary Stuart Masterson (Some Kind of Wonderful, Fried Green Tomatoes) who will be screening her outstanding directorial debut The Cake Eaters, and film producer Michael Cerenzie, who is receiving the festival's Maverick Award for producing the criminally-underseen crime caper masterpiece, Before the Devil Knows Your Dead.

Devil is a beautifully written, sensationally acted, masterfully directed nailbiter about two brothers (Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke) who plan to...

Posted at 09:12 PM in Pete's Popcorn Picks | Permalink | Comments (0)

04/04/08

Show Me The Funny: Chris Rock and Carrie Fisher

If you're looking for a laugh, you're in luck: two of the funniest people on the planet are headlining in the East Bay this weekend. I went to see Chris Rock's show last night at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland, and it was nothing short of brilliant. Rock, a former Saturday Night Live player, is best known for his HBO comedy concerts and has booked four nights at the Paramount. The shows sold out quickly, but Craigslist has lots of tickets available for the weekend shows, and I was able to get a great seat for under the face value outside the venue just before the show. The box office also had a few open tickets left.

Rock is as good as stand-up comedy gets—smart, hilarious, and not afraid to talk about very serious topics, including riveting segments about...

Posted at 01:10 PM in Pete's Popcorn Picks | Permalink | Comments (0)
Long play version: An interview with Adam Duritz of Counting Crows

03/09/08

Long play version: An interview with Adam Duritz of Counting Crows

We've gotten an amazing response to the East Bay's Greatest Hits story and the cover image, featuring Counting Crows. I was particularly pleased to find that the article has been posted on the Counting Crows' message boards, and that the interview with Duritz was well received as interesting and informative. (As a frequenter of artist-related websites, www.expectingrain.com, www.goldensmog.com, I've noticed how much fans know about their favorite artists, and how frustrated they get when an interview makes a mistake with a song title, asks a stupid/redundant question, or, Hendrix forbid, disses their band). Anyway, the interview I did with Adam Duritz had lots of extra meat to it that had to be cut from...

Posted at 08:04 PM in Pete's Popcorn Picks | Permalink | Comments (0)
Awesome Exclusive Interview with A Boy and His Dog director

02/26/08

Awesome Exclusive Interview with A Boy and His Dog director

I've always been a huge fan of midnight movies—cult favorite films shown at the midnight hour to the delight of film geeks. When I was very young, Channel 44 in San Francisco used to play the old Sherlock Holmes movies starring Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce at Watson, late on Saturday nights. I'd do my best to stay awake, but rarely made it to the end of the film. A few years later, I'd watch Bob Wilkins host midnight movies on his Creature Features program on Channel 2. I recall that The House That Dripped Blood was particularly chilling.

As the years rolled on, my film geek instincts turned me onto various other movies that play best at midnight. Liquid Sky. Mad Max. But the mother of all midnight movies has to be the 1975...

Posted at 07:00 PM in Pete's Popcorn Picks | Permalink | Comments (0)

02/20/08

Oscar Party at Danville's Village Theatre

I love watching the Oscars every year, so I'm pretty psyched that the writers settled and the big show will go on. I like to stay home, wear pajamas, and snack on some comfort food during the show—but some people like to go out to a big party. If you're looking for something to do on Oscar Night, there's going to be a cool party at Danville's Village Theatre, benefitting the Danville Children's Film Festival.

Information below:

Local film enthusiasts are invited to celebrate Hollywood’s biggest night at the Village Theatre Oscar-Viewing Party, a benefit to support the Danville International Children’s Film Festival.

Evening gowns and tuxedos are NOT required at this casual, fun-filled event on Sunday, Feb. 24 at the Village Theatre, 233 Front St....

Posted at 05:12 PM in Pete's Popcorn Picks | Permalink | Comments (0)

02/08/08

U23D at the Dublin IMAX

This has been a big rock 'n'roll week. First, my all-time favorite band, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers rocked the halftime show of the greatest Super Bowl in history. Then, we finished work at Diablo on an awesome package about the greatest rock groups to come from the East Bay. Look for it in the upcoming March issue. After the final pages were done, I celebrated  by going to see the spectacular new concert film, U23D at the Dublin IMAX Theater.

U23D rockets up the list of all-time great concert films, as well as the somewhat shorter list of great IMAX films. Released by National Geographic Entertainment, the film was shot at a U2 show in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in an enormous soccer stadium toward the end of the Vertigo tour. I saw this concert at the...

Posted at 09:59 AM in Pete's Popcorn Picks | Permalink | Comments (0)
Super Tuesday Film Fest

02/05/08

Super Tuesday Film Fest

I'm just about to head to the polls to cast my votes. But I thought I'd rip off a quick blog about some of my favorite politically-themed films for your Netflix pleasure. Director Frank Capra starts things off with Meet John Doe, the 1941 classic starring Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck. It's not an election-politics film persay, but I do love this movie, and what it has to say about media manipulation of public figures. Its just as timely now as it was in its post-Depression era release.

I also love The Manchurian Candidate (1962), by director John Frankenheimer. Ahead of its time in many ways, most startlingly, this assassination-themed thriller was one of President John...

Posted at 12:09 PM in Pete's Popcorn Picks | Permalink | Comments (1)
DVDs at your local public library

02/05/08

DVDs at your local public library

I'm supposed to be taking the week off, to catch up on the few outstanding Oscar nominees I still have to see (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is coming from Netflix) before I blog my Oscar picks. Meanwhile, here's a great tip for film buffs: check out the Contra Costa public libraries for an amazing selection of dvds. You can check the movies out for free, the borrowing time is a full week. Also, you can search the entire library system for the titles you want to see, then place a hold on the item AND have it transfered to your local branch. I've been visiting the beautiful Hercules branch frequently, and have picked up a bevy of great films.

Tonight, I watched the director's cut of

Posted at 01:06 AM in Pete's Popcorn Picks | Permalink | Comments (0)
Film Noir Fest at the Castro Theatre

01/25/08

Film Noir Fest at the Castro Theatre

Yeah, baby, Noir City is back with a vengeance. The annual Film Noir Festival is my very favorite cinematic event of the year (I've scheduled overseas vacations around it, to make sure I didn't miss any of its black-and-white glory.)

Back to the festival. Every January, Alameda resident Eddie Muller hooks up a film geek's buffet of the rarest of rare movies from the 1940s and '50s. Often, these films have never been released on DVD or VHS, and never show up on TCM—so the only chance film buffs have to see them is on the giant silver screen of the glorious Castro Theater in San Francisco. Muller is the go-to guy for noir—his books, Dark City and Dark City Dames, among others, lovingly extol the virtues of the...

Posted at 07:50 PM in Pete's Popcorn Picks | Permalink | Comments (1)