Horror at the Balboa, week two at Mill Valley, and outdoor movies at China Basin Park highlight the cinema scene this week.
Aliens, zombies, slashers, and Satan appear in “Horror on Film,” a series of creepy, gruesome, and groundbreaking movies presented at the Balboa Theater this month in San Francisco. On the slate are:
• 7:30 p.m. Oct. 9: “The Faculty” (1998).
• 7:30 p.m. Oct. 13: “Longlegs” (2024).
• 7:30 p.m. Oct. 27: “Night of the Living Dead” (1968).
• 7:30 p.m. Oct. 29: “The Exorcist” (1973).
• 7:30 p.m. Oct. 30 and 2 p.m. Oct. 31: “Scream” (1996).
Visit balboamovies.com for more information.
October filmgoers can also enjoy free Friday viewings in San Francisco’s China Basin Park. Four popular animated pictures will screen:
• 6:30 p.m. Oct. 9: “Inside Out.”
• 6:30 p.m. Oct. 16: “Ratatouille.”
• 6:30 p.m. Oct. 23: “Fantastic Mr. Fox.”
• 6:30 p.m. Oct. 30: “Coco.”
Visit eventbrite.com for more information.
The Mill Valley Film Festival continues through Oct. 11 and tickets are still available for some screenings. Films are showing at the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael; Sequoia Cinema in Mill Valley; Lark Theater in Larkspur; and Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley.
Options include:
• “When a Witness Recants,” 3:30 p.m. Oct. 9, BAMPFA. Filmmaker Dawn Porter (“Trapped”) explores the case of the Harlem Park Three — teenagers wrongfully sentenced to life in prison for the 1983 murder of a Baltimore middle schooler.
• “Splish Splash Forever,” 11:15 a.m. Oct. 11, Sequoia Cinema. A preteen girl joins forces with a classmate to save an outdoor swimming pool in this Swiss coming-of-age tale directed by Natascha Beller.
• “Flies,” 3 p.m. Oct. 8, Lark Theater. A Mexico City woman forms an unlikely bond with her renter’s 9-year-old son in this dramedy directed by Fernando Eimbcke (“Olmo”).
• “Street Smart,” 3 p.m. Oct 9, Lark Theater. Filmmaker Catherine Hardwicke (“Thirteen”) follows a group of homeless young people in this drama set in Venice, California.
• “Crocodile,” 9 p.m. Oct. 10, Smith Rafael Film Center. Members of a young Nigerian art collective named “The Critics” create films with homemade equipment, documenting their lives while exploring alternate possibilities in this documentary directed by Pietra Brettkelly and The Critics themselves.
Visit mvff.com for more information.
Having already saved the world in nearly a dozen movies, Tom Cruise is back on that track with a twist or two in “Digger,” filmmaker Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s long, loud doomsday romp and misfire, currently playing in Bay Area theaters. Cruise, having undergone an “uglification” transformation for the movie, plays Digger Rockwell, an oil tycoon and the most powerful person on Earth. Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki brings forth the creepiness in Digger’s lavish mansion, where animal heads adorn the walls and cronies take the form of fascists, climate deniers and buffoons.
When Digger learns that his negligent business practices have led to a methane disaster that could destroy the world, he shifts into damage-control mode. Audiences follow him as he maniacally acts to spin the truth and present himself as a savior. The movie isn’t without promise. The story is original and ambitiously presented. Cruise, with a fresh and outrageously ranting protagonist to play, gives one of his most in-character and committed performances to date.
But unfortunately, Digger is a tediously unpleasant presence. The screenplay, attributed to Inarritu and three cowriters, goes nowhere extraordinary, a big twist notwithstanding. The abundance of shouting and yelling in the movie becomes off-putting. Particularly shortchanged is the capable supporting cast: John Goodman playing as the despotic president; Michael Stuhlbarg as his vice president; Sandra Huller as Digger’s half-sister and business partner; Riz Ahmed as a truth-telling scientist. Nothing here is astute, funny, or surprising enough to justify the film’s 129-minute runtime.
Filmmaker Dave Boyle, whose credits include the San Francisco–set indie gem “Man From Reno,” shines again with “Never After Dark,” a small but well-made genre thriller delivering fresh ideas and intrigue. Opening at San Francisco’s New People Cinema Friday, Boyle’s ghost story follows a Japanese spiritual medium named Airi (Moeka Hoshi), who specializes in guiding uneasy spirits out of the land of the living. Hired to rid a spooky-looking Japanese country house of the spirit that is haunting it, Airi gets cracking, assisted by candles, visual and sound effects, and a spinning mirror contraption.
The spirit proves too menacing for Airi to handle and she becomes caught between supernatural forces and real-world terror. Most affecting is the emotional bond Airi shares with a ghost of her own, the spirit of her long dead older sister, Miku (Kurumi Inagaki). An efficient storyteller, Boyle creates an absorbing mood drama about life, death, grief and dread.
“Once Upon a Time in the Middle East,” a box-office hit in China and globally, opens Friday in Bay Area theaters. Directed by Wen Muye (“Dying to Survive”), the film is a brutal but uplifting antiwar drama. Popular Chinese actor Shen Teng plays Xu Fu, a chef at a Chinese restaurant who relocates to the Middle East to improve his financial state. There, in an unnamed Iraq-like country, he transforms a struggling restaurant into a thriving establishment. When war with the United States breaks out, Xu risks everything to protect and give hope to his new community—which includes orphaned children trapped in war-zone nightmares.