Best Movie Theater for Parents

Red Vic Movie House

1727 Haight (at Cole), 668-3994, www.redvicmoviehouse.com

For years Oakland's Parkway Theater showed this town up with its "Baby Brigade" screenings, a weekly infants-welcome movie night that proved so popular the theater drew crowds of parents from San Francisco and beyond. It took a while for city theaters to follow suit. The Metreon started doing "Reel Moms" every Tuesday at 11 a.m. last year, but its showings (and $7.75 tickets) are downtown megaplex mainstream. Now we have an inexpensive indie flavor to rival the Parkway's: the Red Vic's "Bring Your Own Baby" screenings. Kid-friendly shows are scheduled on the last Wednesday of each month, generally around 4 p.m. (an unfortunate time for working parents, but nicely situated between nap- and dinnertime for the stay-at-home crowd), with admission set at $5 for big folks and free for babes-in-arms and toddlers. Best of all, the fare consists of intelligent documentaries and art-house flicks, a pleasant departure for parents who fear that only kids' movies will avoid drawing dirty looks and whispers.