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In "The Late Wedding," San Francisco playwright Christopher Chen, inspired by the author Italo Calvino, imagines the marriage customs of a bunch of fictional tribes. Perhaps in one culture, couples are so steeped in nostalgia that they even have fond memories of the last time they fondly reminisced together. Perhaps in another, couples so venerate the moment of the vow that they go on separate honeymoons afterward, lest time actually together should sully the pinnacle of their love. And as this imaginative derring-do unfolds, the playwright documents his own process as a writer, complete with notes to self that are part of the script. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Dear Mmmmick: I watched "Basic Instinct" again and can't help but wonder if Sharon Stone hurt her career by playing this foul-mouthed, oversexed woman. Have there been other roles that have damaged a career? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Hungover and a little sleep deprived, Vivian Kleiman was still trying to process the previous day's overload of pleasure. After nearly a decade in the works, her documentary "No Straight Lines: The Rise of Queer Comics" made its world premiere June 12 at the Tribeca Film Festival "on one of those giant Jumbotrons on a pier over the Hudson, next to a heliport, with tugboats and seagulls and drones buzzing by," she said. "Kind of perfect for a film about comic books." [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Lucy has a perfect, privileged life. She is rising in a Manhattan advertising startup, husband Adrian is a successful surgeon, and they have friends, connections and a sweet condo. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Liam Neeson's very particular skill in "The Ice Road" is semi-truck driving - across frozen Canadian lakes, as indicated by the title of his new movie, which streams on Netflix starting Friday, June 25. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Margaret Cho goes over the top in the new Netflix comedy "Good on Paper," mugging and delivering lines too emphatically. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Some movies are too enormous to be streamed, no matter how big your TV is or how much you've spent on the sound system. "F9: The Fast Saga" was supposed to premiere more than a year ago but was postponed until it could be shown safely in theaters, and that was the right decision. This movie doesn't fit inside your house. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Margaret Cho goes over the top in the new Netflix comedy "Good on Paper," mugging and delivering lines too emphatically. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

HBO's "I'll Be Gone in the Dark: Special Episode," premiering Monday, June 21, puts a cap on the Golden State Killer case explored in the six-part 2020 documentary based on Michelle McNamara's 2018 book while also investigating the 1984 Illinois murder that first sparked the late author's interest in true crime. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Emma Berman was 11 years old and starting sixth grade at the Stratford School in San Francisco in the fall of 2019 when she heard that Pixar was casting a key role in its next animated feature, "Luca." The budding young actor was a huge Pixar fan and was already active in the San Francisco theater scene, including performing in American Conservatory Theater's "Christmas Carol" and in musicals with Bay Area Children's Theatre and 42nd Street Moon, and she was starting to gain attention for her voice-over work. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There's a recurring line in Pixar's exuberant new summer release "Luca" - "Silenzio, Bruno!" - that's sure to strike a chord with children who have ever experienced anxiety, not to mention adults who can relate to the discomfort of having anxious thoughts that keep them from embracing new experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The summer of 2021 should bring us closer to answering the key cultural question of this moment: Did the pandemic interrupt and divert the direction we were heading, toward increased isolation and virtual living? Or did it accelerate it? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In 2015, Academy Award-winning director Debra Chasnoff made an interesting decision when she was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer: She decided she didn't want to know how much time she had left. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

How would Pixar's new, brightly colorful animated film "Luca" have performed as a theatrical-only release? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

On May 24, 2019, Taiwan became the first Asian country to legalize same-sex marriage. It was a watershed moment culturally, and in the two years since, its ripple effects are still being felt in the country, including in its national cinema. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although she had been primed to one day take over the family business, Cree Ray did not expect to have to step up so soon. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Steven Spielberg wanted to make a James Bond movie. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

If there's one film that could make you wish that all theaters had not only stayed shuttered after the pandemic but burned down, it's "The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard," a totally unnecessary sequel to the 2017 hit "The Hitman's Bodyguard." Full of action without thrills, comedy without laughs, noise without meaning and violence without reason (or even any cool combat choreography), it's a headache with a Hollywood marketing budget. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This is the moment when I realized that I liked "Infinite": Mark Wahlberg is driving a motorcycle and heading toward a cliff. A plane is flying perpendicular to the cliff. So, he does what all of us would do - he drives off the cliff and lands the motorcycle onto the plane's wing, and then brakes to a stop. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The bland but bearable "Queen Bees," about finding love in a retirement home, is a movie that insists on being undemanding - a little too undemanding. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Frameline, San Francisco's iconic LGBTQ film festival, will have its longest run in history, from Thursday, June 10, through June 27. The package includes drive-in showings, streaming across the country, indoor screenings and even outdoor movie nights at Oracle Park. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

June marks the 70th anniversary of "Ace in the Hole," a cynical 1951 Billy Wilder film. That length of time is pretty remarkable when you consider how much of what this movie talks about is still present in American life. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

"In the Heights" is a celebration of a neighborhood, a culture and a type of music. But with its release now, after a year of delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it also feels like it's celebrating the return of movies and the slow but steady return to normal life. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

"Awake" is a new Netflix movie that takes one idea and hits it from every angle. It gets every drop of life out of it and produces lots of strong moments. But sometimes a movie needs more than one idea, and that's where "Awake" falls short. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It's the same physical equipment - a wooden body, four strings and a bow - but there are subtle and telling differences in execution between the fiddle and the violin. The divergence is between the vivid, rhythmically forthright lexicon of traditional folk music and the more sheltered chamber world in which the classical violin took root. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Every year the world gets a little gayer - or so you'd think given the growing list of queer films available to anyone who subscribes to a streaming service. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Dear Mick: NBC's announcement that it would not continue to air the Golden Globes is no bad thing. It needs a new look, a new format and new governing principles. How would you reimagine the Golden Globes? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Depending on what reference point you come in from, "Spirit Untamed" is a gorgeous DreamWorks animated feature that is either a more kid-friendly reboot of 2002's majestic "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron" or a better-looking, star-studded origin story for Netflix's girls' adventure cartoon series "Spirit Riding Free." [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Any child from the mid-20th century can tell you about the Moomins, a beloved hippopotamus-like family living in - where else? - Moominland. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The "Conjuring" series has taken horror out of the secular universe - where it has been mired for the last two generations - and has returned it to a world of metaphysical good and evil. In doing so, it has given horror back its power. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Paula Beer is a young German actress who has been generating a lot of excitement over the past five years. Virtually every time she makes a movie, she gets nominated for major awards. She won best young actress at the Venice Film Festival in 2016 for "Frantz," and recently won best actress at the Berlin Film Festival for "Undine," which opens Friday, June 4, in theaters and video on demand. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The recently reopened Roxie Theater plays host to a Mission District legend, former San Francisco Poet Laureate Alejandro Murguia, when "Keeper of the Fire" screens Saturday, June 5, as part of the 20th San Francisco Documentary Festival - the city's annual showcase of documentary cinema running June 3-20. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Borat has a new mission: Make Americans better. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Pride Parade has been canceled for the second year in a row because of the pandemic, but what's shaping up as an epic Frameline film festival is trying its best to fill that void on the Pride Month calendar. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]