New releases and Frameline, week two, are on the slate.
Frameline50 — the 2026 San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival — continues through Saturday, and as of this writing, tickets are still available for some screenings, including:
• June 23, 2 p.m., Roxie — “Meet Me at the Crossroads”: Queer people face life-changing decisions in this short-film collection.
• June 25, 2:30 p.m., Roxie — “Test”: A small-town dreamer pursues a bodybuilding career, but a queer awakening knocks him off balance in the character-focused drama, a festival highlight.
• June 25, 5:45 p.m., Castro — “Trial of Hein”: A young man returns to his village after a 14-year absence, and no one seems to recognize him in the award-winning German drama about homophobia and repression.
• June 25, 8:45 p.m., Castro — “Barbara Forever”: Pioneering lesbian filmmaker Barbara Hammer is profiled in this documentary, the festival’s centerpiece film.
• June 27, 11 a.m., Castro — “On the Sea”: A middle-aged family man living in Wales is drawn to a younger drifter in the erotic drama from British novelist-turned-filmmaker Helen Walsh.
Unextraordinary but hard to resist, “Peter Asher: Everywhere Man” follows the life and career of the actor, musician and producer known for his Zelig-like contact with rock, pop and folk icons from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Opening Friday in Bay Area theaters, the documentary directed by Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine (“Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song”) describes the many successes of Asher. It covers his child-actor period and his years as one-half of the British Invasion duo Peter and Gordon. (Viewers may recognize their recording of John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s “World Without Love,” a song that Lennon hated, according to one of the movie’s fun facts.) Asher’s status as a top-notch producer who helped James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt reach career high points is also detailed. The film sags a bit in the second half, but it’s impossible to dislike this doc, which contains lots of blast-from-the-past appeal and fabulous music. Bay Area residents Geller and Goldfine are appearing after the 5 p.m. show June 26 at the Opera Plaza Cinema in San Francisco; after the 1 p.m. show June 27 at the Orinda Theater; after the 7 p.m. show June 27 at the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael and after the 3 p.m. show June 28 at the Rialto Cinemas Elmwood in Berkeley.
“Ask E. Jean,” a documentary about journalist, advice columnist and joyful spirit E. Jean Carroll opening Friday at the Roxie, feels like two very different films. One is a career-spanning profile of Carroll; the other chronicles Carroll’s successful lawsuits against Donald Trump for sexual abuse and defamation, resulting in judgments totaling more than $88 million for Carroll. While filmmaker Ivy Meeropol (“Museum Town”) doesn’t blend the components smoothly, the 91-minute film merits attention, for introducing the likeable and entertaining Carroll, and for underscoring the significance of her victory over one of the most powerful and ruthless men in the world. Much of the courtroom material involves attempts by Trump’s team to discredit Carroll, and the question of why Carroll didn’t report the assault until more than 30 years after it occurred. Carroll, who is convincing, cites fear as a primary factor and says she was told that if she spoke out against Trump, his lawyers would crush her. Now 80, she notes that attitudes are changing for the better and that she sees her victory as a triumph for all sexual assault survivors.
“Rose of Nevada,” opening at the Roxie Theater Friday, is a trippy piece of arthouse sci-fi, made baffling but also mesmeric by British director Mark Jenkin (“Enys Men”). Both a time-travel adventure and a memory piece, the drama transpires in a hardscrabble English fishing town. A boat that vanished 30 years ago mysteriously shows up, and townsfolk view its return as a sign of hope. Two local men — Nick, a young family man played by George MacKay, and Liam, an enigmatic drifter played by Callum Turner — join the crew. But while their voyage proves successful, the men find themselves in a different world, separated from their place in time and navigating a landscape where nothing is familiar. Weirdness prevails, and not everyone will get behind Jenkin’s dream logic. But with its hallucinatory, haunting and meditative qualities, the movie captivates while viewers may be shaking their heads. The excellent Turner and MacKay (who’s appeared in several interesting movies) convey much isolation, confusion, grief and dread on their quietly expressive faces, giving the film a powerful emotional resonance.
CineGelato, a Thursday series featuring Italian films (in Italian with English subtitles) and Italian ice cream, returns to San Francisco’s Italian Cultural Institute this week. Four programs, at 6:30 p.m., are scheduled:
• June 25: “Amanda” (2022), directed by Carolina Cavalli
• July 16: “La Chimera” (2023), directed by Alice Rohrwacher
• Aug. 6: “La Citta Proibita” (2025), directed by Gabriele Mainetti
• Sept. 17: “La Citta di Pianura” (2025), directed by Francesco Sossai
Visit iicsanfrancisco.esteri.it/en/gli_eventi/calendario for registration information.