German cinema, Rose Byrne, and San Francisco’s cable cars have the spotlight today.
Berlin & Beyond, one of the most significant festivals of German cinema outside of Europe, presents it 30th-anniversary edition at the Castro Theatre on March 19; the Vogue Theater on March 20, SFMOMA’s Phyllis Wattis Theater on March 21 in San Francisco; and Rialto Cinemas Elmwood on March 22-23 in Berkeley. More than a dozen films from German-speaking countries screen. “Koln 75” is the opening night feature. Directed by Ido Fluk, the German Film Award–nominated biodrama stars Mala Emde as teenage concert promoter Vera Brandes, who, in 1975, organized Keith Jarrett’s legendary improvised concert in Cologne. Another highlight is “Amrum,” “Head-On” filmmaker Fatih Akin’s loss-of-innocence drama featuring a 12-year-old boy and transpiring on a remote German island during the final days of World War II. Christian Petzhold (“Phoenix,” “Barbara”) again explores past trauma and German history in “Miroirs No. 3,” an enigmatic psychodrama about an emotionally haunted car-crash survivor who is taken in by a country woman. Other selections include “Bad Painter,” directed by painter-musician Albert Oehlen, who presents a fictional version of his life, with Udo Kier portraying him; “A Land Within,” a historical drama set in Italy’s German-speaking South Tyrol province; and “Kreator — Hate & Hope,” a documentary about the German thrash-metal band. Berlin & Beyond is sponsored by the Goethe-Institut, San Francisco. Visit berlinbeyond.com.
“Tow,” opening Thursday in theaters, is a fact-based David and Goliath movie starring the sensational Rose Byrne. It’s about an unhoused Seattle woman who fights a towing company that has made her life a nightmare. Director Stephanie Laing infuses a standard crowd-pleaser with social realism in this feature debut. Byrne plays Amanda Ogle, a financially struggling recovering alcoholic whose blue 1991 Toyota Camry — which has been doubling as her home — is stolen while she’s at a job interview. What follows is a yearlong fight to reclaim the car, which gets towed and impounded, among other fates. Amanda receives a $21,634 bill for towing and storage fees. Support comes from an idealistic young lawyer (Dominic Sessa), who handles Amanda’s case against the malfeasant towing company. It also comes from a church program run by a woman (Octavia Spencer) who offers Amanda shelter, provided she stays sober. While Laing and the film’s three screenwriters don’t do anything surprising with the story (which unfolds predictably and contains cliched characters including a cartoonishly villainous corporate honcho), its realistic depictions of poverty and addiction, which bring “Wendy and Lucy” and “To Leslie” to mind, enrich the picture, and Byrne brings complexity and pulse to the often self-sabotaging character. Portraying anger, chaos and determination, the Oscar-nominated Byrne (“If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”) in another memorable performance, gives the movie a rivetingly human protagonist.
“Slanted,” the feature debut of writer-director Amy Wang now in theaters, is an unfocused but pointed genre hybrid that illustrates the racist nature of beauty standards though the story of a Chinese American teen who takes horrific action to fit in with her white peers. Inspired by personal experiences, the screenplay follows high-school student Joan Huang (Shirley Chen), who lives with her Chinese immigrant parents in suburban Georgia and wants to be popular like classmate Olivia (Amelie Zilber) and her white, blond, shallow friends. She visits a sleazy cosmetic surgeon (R. Keith Harris) who can make people of color look white. “If you can’t beat ’em, be ’em” is his slogan, promising a happier life. Mckenna Grace plays the character who emerges from the procedure as prom-queen material. Those who have seen “The Substance” know that ghastly consequences will occur. As body horror goes, “Slanted” underwhelms and its mean girls and prom-night climax are mild and pat. But Wang effectively addresses how society continues to equate whiteness with worthiness, and how such thinking causes cultural denial and self-loathing. Joan may not be as sharply comic or as profoundly tragic as this tonally hazy movie needs her to be, but Wang’s depiction of her desire to erase her ethnicity feels sadly real. And Vivian Wu as Joan’s traditional mother; Fang Du as Joan’s more assimilative father and Maitreyi Ramakrishnan as Joan’s concerned best friend are particularly impressive.
Jim Van Buskirk, coauthor of “Celluloid San Francisco: The Film Lover’s Guide to Bay Area Movie Locations,” speaks about movies featuring San Francisco cable cars, at noon and 2 p.m. at the Roxie Theater on Saturday. Titled “Halfway to the Stars,” the program includes clips from films such as “Yours, Mine, and Ours” (1968), “The Rock” (1996), and “What’s Up, Doc?” (1972).
“Dog Day Afternoon” (1975), the New Hollywood classic directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Al Pacino, is the subject of a Litquake program at the 4-Star Theater in San Francisco at 7:30 p.m. Thursday. It includes a discussion with film historian Rachel Walther, author of “Born To Lose: The Misfits Who Made Dog Day Afternoon.” A screening of the movie follows at 8 p.m. Visit 4-star-movies.com.