Email Author Jonathan Kiefer

2013 Stories by Jonathan Kiefer

• "Berberian Sound Studio": The Sounds of Italian Horror

  published June 19, 2013

  Berberian Sound Studio This would-be cerebral thriller shows us how to squeeze some black comedy from a dry Gothic culture shock, but... More >>

• "Somm": The Toughest Test You Never Heard Of

  published June 19, 2013

  Jason Wise's documentary follows four young men, including some San Franciscans, into the outer limits of wine knowledge. They're cramming for... More >>

• FEATURED STORY

  The Director and Stars of "This Is the End" Talk About Getting Away With It

  published Jun 11, 2013

  This is the plot of This Is the End: Visiting from the Canadian motherland, Jay Baruchel meets up with his pal and countryman Seth Rogen in L.A., where they try to get past post-Rogen-sellout estr... More >>

• Binge-Watching: The Excellence of Three Bummers

  published June 12, 2013

  It's anyone's guess how to situate Ulrich Seidl's Paradise on the continuum of movie trilogies, but safe to say that unlike your... More >>

• "Becoming Traviata": Behind the Scenes of Opera Is Sexy, Too

  published June 12, 2013

  Becoming Traviata Here's your chance to look behind the scenes of the 2011 Aix-en-Provence Festival production of Verdi's La... More >>

• "Man of Steel": Why So Serious, Latest Superman?

  published June 12, 2013

  In Zack Snyder's annihilative, 97-percent-humorless Superman movie, Henry Cavill plays the strapping orphan from another world, pursued to... More >>

• Time Piece

  published March 27, 2013

  Since the beginning, artists have yearned to stop time, or at least to examine their nagging awareness that it's unstoppable. But only San... More >>

• Art House Rules

  published May 22, 2013

  Say this for Mexican director Carlos Reygadas: His films are not predictable. The Latin title of Post Tenebras Lux translates as... More >>

• Watch Your Vegetables: SF DocFest Appreciates Tradition

  published June 5, 2013

  With the "documentary" form having broadened its horizons so much in recent years, getting a little wild and crazy in the process, it can be... More >>

• "The Kings of Summer": Spielberg Meets Wes Anderson

  published June 5, 2013

  The exact origins of this feature debut from writer Chris Galletta and director Jordan Vogt-Roberts are unclear, but it sure captures the vibe... More >>

• "Rebels With a Cause": Saving Point Reyes and Other Environmental Challenges

  published May 29, 2013

  Nancy Kelly and Kenji Yamamoto's documentary is hereby recommended for anyone who's ever crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and nearly wept with... More >>

• "We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks": From a Trickle to a Flood

  published May 29, 2013

  Alex Gibney's new documentary charges keenly into the dense meta-fog of an information-age war between transparency and opacity. There's never... More >>

• Where Monsters Love to Tread: The City Certainly Lends Itself to Picturesque Disaster, Doesn't It?

  published May 29, 2013

  In retrospect, it was sporting of Star Trek Into Darkness to retain San Francisco as headquarters for the United Federation of Planets.... More >>

• Noah Baumbach on Frances Ha, Using Black and White, and Not Ripping Off Woody Allen Too Much

  published May 24, 2013

  When not exuding urbane, Salinger-weaned New Yorker chic, or, relatedly, co-writing the occasional Wes Anderson film, Noah Baumbach makes movies of his own, typically involving witty portrayals of fla... More >>

• Caterpillars and Mushrooms

  published May 8, 2013

  Nepal has a subterranean caterpillar prone to infection by a fungus that mummifies its body before it bursts out of its head and gets harvested by... More >>

• "Frances Ha": Noah Baumbach Finds Greta Gerwig's Best Side

  published May 22, 2013

  A visually pithy victory of bittersweetness over cynicism, and therefore arguably a career highlight for director Noah Baumbach, Frances... More >>

• "Elemental": Three Visions for Saving the World

  published May 22, 2013

  Locally based director-producers Gayatri Roshan and Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee structure their environmental documentary as a triptych of profiles in... More >>

• "Sun Don't Shine": Naturally Lit Killers

  published May 15, 2013

  The foundation for Amy Seimetz's directorial debut, which she also wrote, produced, and co-edited, is boilerplate film noir: There's a dude... More >>

• "Something in the Air": Just in Time for May '68

  published May 15, 2013

  World-cinema mainstay Olivier Assayas' inviting new film is about young French people and the lived legacy of May '68. Interestingly, these are... More >>

• "The Iceman": The Cliche of the Cold-Hearted Hitman

  published May 15, 2013

  Its title and the gentle stress on Chris Evans in a supporting role notwithstanding, The Iceman is in no way another comics spinoff, but... More >>

• "Stories We Tell": Documenting Family Secrets

  published May 15, 2013

  Where fact-fiction hybrid documentaries are concerned, the game of wondering what's really "true" can too easily degenerate into mere... More >>

• "In the House": Hitchcock Gets Meta

  published May 8, 2013

  Yes, the French still love Jerry Lewis, but they also still love Hitchcock -- irrepressibly, deconstructively. More an impassioned... More >>

• Schlock and Awe: A Festival of Flesh Piers, Ghost Cats, and Japan's First Nude Scene

  published May 8, 2013

  "Since last night it's been one horror after another," says a guy in Ghost Cat of Otama Pond, suggesting one possible tagline for the... More >>

• Refill Your Popcorn: San Francisco International Film Festival, Week 2

  published May 1, 2013

  Invasion of the Body Snatchers May 5 at the Castro Theatre This 1978 remake of the sci-fi staple, shrewdly set in San... More >>

• "Bert Stern: Original Madman": A Pioneer of Famous-Naked-Lady Photography

  published May 1, 2013

  Having come up through Look magazine with Stanley Kubrick, whom he recalls, not unapprovingly, as "like his movies: mean, cruel, and... More >>