Don't get too excited by the title of the new Norwegian film, “Sex.” The act itself is actually only briefly discussed in this fascinating film, the first in a new trilogy from writer-director Dag Johan Haugerud, relying mostly on the words and descriptions of the main characters rather than much visual information. Haugerud, winner of the Europa Cinemas label for best European film in the Panorama section of the current Berlin Film Festival, where it had its world premiere this week, has announced this as the first of three films – “Sex, Dreams” and then “Love” – ​​with the same cast and which, overall, will explore themes of desire, identity and freedom, not to mention sexuality and the place of gender in our lives and society. This first standalone film also leans heavily on masculinity in ways not usually discussed by men, but here they do in a profound way in this thought-provoking film that also puts Norway's most famous city, Oslo, in the spotlight.

Haugerud's dialogue-driven script is full of monologues delivered in conversational dialogues with either two male colleagues (never named) from a chimney sweeping company and/or their wives. It begins with the boss (Thorbjørn Harr) telling an unseen person about a dream in which he encounters David Bowie, who thinks he is a woman. The dream is described in detail and clearly disturbs him, as he has never experienced such a vivid depiction of gender, his sex and his image from the perspective of others, in such a graphic situation, whether in a dream or not. The camera soon reveals that he is not speaking to a therapist (my first thought) but to a colleague (Jan Gunnar Røise), who then decides, albeit hesitantly at first, to tell of a recent real-life encounter he had with a man in the kitchen of a house where he was working on the chimney, a stranger who, he says, saw him as an object of desire and asked him point blank if he wanted to have sex with him. He tells his colleague that he immediately refused – they are both married – but that he quickly returned after leaving and, he says, ended up having sex with the man. What's more, he even tells his wife (Siri Forberg) all about it in a matter-of-fact way afterwards.

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One can imagine that the story didn't go down well, and for the rest of the 2 hours and 5 minutes, her character is all about becoming more and more deeply disturbed about what this all means, not just for their marriage, but for her, her family, and whether her husband is actually gay. In these intimate and lengthy conversations, he assures everyone that just because he did it once with a man doesn't mean he's an alcoholic. Harr's character also confesses to his wife (a more understanding Birgitte Larsen) his own strange dreams in which David Bowie sees him as a woman, and has to digest the fact that this has more of an impact on his marriage than on his lifelong understanding of his identity and the way he is seen.

Once we're past these heavy, if sometimes tedious, discussions, Haugerud manages to lighten things up a bit, as Harr's character takes his son Hans Petter (Adrian Jenure Skaaland) to a doctor (a wonderfully incisive and natural Anne Marie Ottersen) to examine the boy's injured hand, but at the same time asks her about his own ailments. In a somewhat whimsical way, she begins a story about two young gay men, one of whom is seriously ill. Haugerud suddenly thrusts us into flashbacks to tell this story within a story. I, for one, was glad to get out of the claustrophobic conversations sparked by the chimney sweeps' revelations and into something else, anything else. The slow and deliberate pacing, with minimal camera movement in so many scenes between them and their wives, makes everything seem longer than it is.

Aside from that, Sex is full of wry observations about human behavior and life's unanswered questions about who we really are. The superbly chosen actors, especially Røise and Harr, tell the story in a subdued, almost deadpan style. The camerawork, which also puts Oslo himself in the spotlight, is masterfully executed by Cecile Semec. And as befits such a profound film, it all ends with a musical dance sequence – of course – in which Harr's character performs on stage with his choir while Røise's character and his entire family, now seemingly content to carry on with their lives as before, watch from the audience. No explanations are needed, but perhaps we'll get one as the trilogy moves into the next chapter.

Producers are Yngve Saether and Hege Hauff Hvattum.

Title: sex
Festival: Berlin (Panorama)
Director-Screenwriter: Tag Johan Haugerud
Pour: Jan Gunnar Roise, Thorbjörn Harr, Siri Forberg, Birgitte Larsen, Nasrin Khusrawy, Hadrian Jenure Skaaland, Theo Dahl, Anne Marie Ottersen
Sales agent: M Appeal
Duration: 2 hrs 5 mins

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By Daniel Lazare

After premiering at the New York Film Festival in 1979, this powerful documentary about one of the most dramatic periods in American labor history has been newly restored.

The Wobblies (1979), directed by Stewart Bird and Deborah Shaffer.

[Screens across the country for International Workers’ Day (May 1). Cities include: New York, Los Angeles, Washington, DC,  Seattle, San Francisco, Detroit, Cleveland, Denver, Austin, Park City, Omaha, Portland, and others.]

Looking for a way to celebrate May Day now that mass demonstrations no longer seem to be in style? The Wobblies might be a good place to start. Directed by Stewart Bird and Deborah Shaffer, it’s been given a full 4k restoration more than 40 years after it came out, and it’s opening up across the country just in time for International Workers’ Day. Although some might be inclined to dismiss it as an exercise in leftwing nostalgia – I confess I was part of that group – it’s in fact a powerful look at one of the most dramatic periods in American labor history. It features people like Roger Baldwin, a leftwing firebrand in his day who went on to found the American Civil Liberties Union, and a dozen or so lesser-known souls declaiming passionately about events in their youth.

The story they tell is about a vast upwelling of class conflict that is now largely forgotten. It takes us back more than a century to the days when America was the economic wonder of the world, an industrial colossus outproducing Britain, France, and Germany combined. To run its mines and mills, it was bringing in 15 million people a year, mostly from southern and eastern Europe. But considering that the country had nothing by way of welfare, unemployment insurance, labor law, or workplace regulations, immigrants who could barely speak English were at the mercy of one of the most rapacious business classes the world had ever seen. A coal-mine owner summed up the prevailing attitude in 1902 when he declared that “the rights and interests of the laboring men will be protected and cared for – not by the labor agitators, but by the Christian men to whom God in his infinite wisdom has given control of the property interests of this country.”

With God on the side of the bosses, whispering the word “strike” was blasphemous.

It was into this breach that the Industrial Workers of the World, better known as the Wobblies, stepped in 1905. In contrast to the frankly racist American Federation of Labor, a collection of elite craft unions run by the cigar-chomping Samuel Gompers, the IWW organized entire industries from the bottom up without regard to color, ethnicity, or gender. “The working class and the employing class have nothing in common,” the Wobbly constitution declared. “…Between these two classes a struggle must go on until all the toilers come together on the political, as well as on the industrial field, and take and hold that which they produce by their labor through an economic organization of the working class.” All the toilets, that is, not merely those who were white, male, native-born, and in possession of certain high-value skills.

Mass strikes erupted from the textile mills of Massachusetts to the logging camps of the Pacific Northwest. The times were not gentle. The Wobblies shows police cracking heads and blasting away with guns. One nonagenarian recounts an astonishing incident in Bisbee, Arizona, in July 1917 when the local sheriff deputized a mob of 2,000 vigilantes at the behest of the Phelps Dodge Corporation, loaded more than a thousand striking copper miners onto a freight train, transported them 200 miles into neighboring New Mexico, and then dumped them off in the middle of the desert. “There were machinegun,” the woman – unidentified, unfortunately – recalls in an Italian accent undiminished by age. “They were gonna shoot if anybody gonna jump from train.”

“1,270-some men,” she adds, “in boxcars – boxcars – like cattle! And then they take them down … to Columbus, New Mexico, without water, without anything.”

“Conditions became worse and worse,” recalls a veteran of an IWW strike in Paterson, New Jersey, the center at the time of the US silk industry. “And there was only one thing to do. You either had to just stop living or become a rebel. And that is when the IWW came in.”

“Agitators, a bunch of agitators are in Paterson,” another woman says. “Agitators! I used to get mad. I said, ‘they’re not agitating us, they just telling us the truth.’”

When 300 Wobblies took the ferry from Seattle to the town of Everett, 30 miles up the Washington coast, to support a strike by local lumber workers, hundreds of vigilantes met them at the dock and opened fire. At least five were killed. “I don’t know how many they shot,” another ex-Wobbly recounts. “Nobody knows. Lots of them went overboard, some jumped, some fell…it was terrible.”

That was in 1916. The next year saw worse as the US entered the war and newspaper headlines blared that the Wobblies were in league with the Kaiser. Repression was massive. The Russian Revolution meanwhile ended up splitting the IWW from within. After all, the Wobbly preamble, true to the union’s anarcho-syndicalist roots, had called on workers to avoid “affiliation with any political party.” Yet the Bolsheviks were a vanguard party par excellence. Lumber camps resounded with debate. “They had terrific arguments in the bunkhouses,” a veteran remembers. “The chairman, he’d get up and open the meeting and … he’d say, ‘Gather round here, fellow workers, we’ve got a goddamn revolution to talk about.’” The next year, 101 Wobblies received sentences of up to 20 years each after being found guilty of preventing the draft, encouraging desertion, and labor intimidation in a mass trial in federal court in Chicago. Membership recovered in the early ’20s, but the overall trajectory was clearly downwards.

The Wobblies is moving and intense, so it’s good to have it back after all these years. But the restoration is not without its poignant side. It would be easy to say that the movie is a reminder that such struggles are never-ending and that we’re all indebted to an earlier generation of rebels for putting their lives on the line. But decades later, we’re left with the uneasy feeling that despite such efforts, conditions have gotten worse, ie more atomized, more commodified, more fractious, and more discouraged. It’s not merely that today’s conditions are more complicated, but that society is losing ground. The Wobblies is not a feel-good movie, and that’s entirely to its credit.

Daniel Lazare is the author of The Frozen Republic and other books about the US Constitution and US policy. He has written for a wide variety of publications including Harper’s and the London Review of Books. He currently writes regularly for the Weekly Worker, a socialist newspaper in London.

The post Movie Overview: “The Wobblies” – A Transferring Story of a Largely Forgotten American Class Battle appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

By Gary M. Kramer–

The title of a new film, compartment no. 6, refers to the second-class berth on a train that travels from Moscow to Murmansk. It is a journey of several days, and Laura (Seidi Haarla) a Finnish grad student interested in archaeology, is headed to this arctic circle town to see the petroglyphs. To understand the present, she claims, she needs to know the past. (The film, which is now playing in the Bay Area, is set in the pre-Glasnost era.)

That idea may also be a metaphor for her personal life. She was supposed to make the trip with her girlfriend Irina (Dinara Drukravo), whom she was living with in Moscow, but Irina canceled at the last minute. Laura is unhappy to be making journey alone—and even unhappier when her compartment mate on the train is Ljoha (Yuriy Borisov). The young Russian man, who is headed to the port city to work in mining, is drunk and verbally abusive when Laura first meets him. Laura tries to change compartments, but that is not possible. However, through a series of interactions, the two strangers come to a detente.

Compartment no. 6 is, thankfully, not an opposites-attract love story—Laura’s sexuality assures this—but it does show how these two lonely strangers on a train make an unexpected connection. Director Juho Kuosmanen—who cowrote the screenplay, an adaptation of Rosa Liksom’s novel—concentrates on the shifting balance of power between these two characters, and that is what makes his film so engrossing.

Laura is justifiably wary of Ljoha when they first meet, and she does not appreciate his boorish behavior. He challenges her perceptions, however, protecting her space when she leaves the compartment (with all her stuff) and asking her if she thinks he is a thief. Trust is also critical in Laura’s relationship with Ljoha when the train makes for an overnight stop. Arriving in a car that appears out of nowhere, Ljoha offers to take Laura on a ride out to see his friend Lidia (Lidia Kostina). Laura lacks a better option, and eventually joins him, leading to a sweet scene between the two women.

Laura is certainly distracted by her tenuous situation with Irina. Her girlfriend does not want to talk to Laura when she calls her at every train stop. The details of their relationship are vague, but Kuosmanen drops just enough clues in the early scenes of the women at a party, or in bed together, to indicate who has control. And much of the film involves Laura losing control to find herself and feel good again.

Laura gets frustrated when she tries to manipulate things to her advantage. When she meets Sasha (Tomi Alatalo), a Finn who boarded the train—and can’t communicate with the implacable conductor (Yuliya Aug)—Laura invites Sasha to stay in her compartment, despite his third-class ticket. It is a power move to upset Ljoha, and it does irritate him, but it also backfires on her. That said, it prompts Laura to give a very moving speech where she provides Ljoha with some context of her life.

The expected bond that develops between these characters provides Compartment No. 6” with its magic. The performances by Haarla and Borisov are so real that one might think they are non-professional actors. (They are not; both have numerous credits, though this is Haarla’s first lead in a feature, and she is particularly ingratiating.) They needle each other in ways that may seem to provoke, but in hindsight, reveal how they express themselves and communicate .

Ljoha has the same insecurities and fears as Laura does, but he internalizes them where she expresses hers. A terrific scene in a dining car on their last night together shows the dynamic of their relationship. While Laura gives Ljoha a picture she secretly drew from him, and asks him to do the same, he denies her request. Whenever they try to find a level playing field, there is an imbalance.

Compartment no. 6 wisely extends the story beyond just the train ride, into Murmansk, and it is seeing how things play out with the characters that makes this film so emotionally satisfying.

Kuosmanen’s film is appropriately claustrophobic—the tight compartment on the train is, of course, a metaphor for the characters’ trapped emotions. In Murmansk, where scenes are shot in the vast, snowy outdoors, it is hard not to shiver at the cold. Viewers practically eavesdrop on the characters throughout the film, and the handheld camerawork creates a you-are-there feeling. The cramped spaces are so vivid that viewers can practically smell what is on screen, which is not a bad thing. The realism here is effective. Like the two central performances, everything feels lived in.

Ultimately, the film shows how these characters connect and grow as a result of knowing one another. In the process, viewers will likely feel that they know these people too, and will be glad that they spent quality time with them.

© 2022 Gary M Kramer

Gary M. Kramer is the author of “Independent Queer Cinema: Reviews and Interviews,” and the co-editor of “Directory of World Cinema: Argentina.” Follow him on Twitter @garymkramer

Published on February 24, 2022

The post New Movie Chronicles the Bond Between Strangers – San Francisco Bay Instances appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

“This city blows,” one of the women huffs out. “Big time.”

“I mean, whatever, I’m not above living in a former crack house, you know?”

“Dude, I’ve been saying for months, let’s just move to East LA This city’s dead.”

A second later, a young Black man clad in red flannel and a beanie interrupts them, telling them, “You don’t get to hate San Francisco … You don’t get to hate it unless you love it.” They haven’t earned the right to hate this place — they just got here, he explains, summing up the message at the center of “The Last Black Man in San Francisco.” This Muni dweller is Jimmie Fails, a local in a bustling and indifferent San Francisco that is quickly slipping from his grasp.

“The Last Black Man in San Francisco” centers on fails’ desperate efforts to hold on to the Victorian house his grandfather built in the heart of the city, and to find belonging in a community that is rapidly changing in the face of an unclear future.

The film is Joe Talbot’s directorial debut, for which he picked up the Best Director prize at Sundance 2019. It is a thoughtful, tender glimpse into gentrification, the affordable housing crisis and toxic masculinity. Whether you are from the city like myself, or have experienced the effects of these issues in your own hometown, this film is universal in its meditations on the human desire for belonging and what defines a home.

As a child, Jimmie lived in the house with his father, who inherited it from his own father, who supposedly built the house with his own two hands. After his father lost their home, it stood abandoned until a couple moved into it. Although he has not lived in the house for years, Jimmie, often with his best friend Mont (Jonathan Majors) at his side, trespasses on the property to make repairs and help with its upkeep. Even after the older couple living there mocks his devotion and throws them off the property, Jimmie refuses to let go of the house. However, when a family dispute forces the couple to vacate the house, he enlists Mont to reclaim his old home, refilling it with his own furniture and memories.

The film is semi-autobiographical, loosely inspired by Fails’ own life and his friendship with Talbot, the film’s director. Both are lifelong San Franciscans, and clearly care about the story they’re telling, imbuing their characters with their own lived experiences, with their love, frustration and resentment of the city. The realism of this film is palpable. The two main actors were virtually unknown faces at the time of its release, allowing the audience to truly envision them as their characters.

Although “The Last Black Man in San Francisco” is, in essence, a love story between a man and a house, the relationship between Jimmie and Mont is indelible to the film. The two are inseparable, their brotherly friendship loving and gentle. It’s not typical in film to see men cry so openly in front of each other, and yet these two do so without shame. Their touching brotherhood works with Emile Mosseri’s poetic, heart-aching score and Adam Newport-Berra’s cinematography to create an atmosphere that is warm and welcoming, like an old classic.

while it’s obvious that Fails’ real life story is special and worth telling, Talbot’s inclination toward sparse, sleek storytelling inhibits the film’s ability to tell that story in full depth. Jimmie or Mont will often hint at some idea to the viewer, giving them a vague glimpse into their perspectives or relationship. However, the film’s overly minimalist script will cut them off. This film lets us learn little about the characters beyond what is essential to moving the plot forward. Its long lapses of silence — which are stylistically moving, yet lack the dynamic quality of dialogue — cause it to drag.

The film tends to hide behind its ethereal cinematography and dreamy score, shying away from exposing the rough, gritty edges of its subject. In doing so, it engages quite passively with how Jimmie’s Blackness shapes his struggles for belonging and for ownership of his family home. I wish that it leaned harder into its depiction of gentrification, and did so on a wider scale (using the side characters, for example) rather than solely through personal storytelling centered around Jimmie and the house.

“The Last Black Man in San Francisco” is a love letter to San Francisco, a city “plagued with idealism,” as explained by former mayor Willie Brown in a recent interview with The New York Times. It’s heart-achingly clear that Jimmie is a victim of this same idealism. He has held onto this one hope for so long. Even though deep down he knows that it’s an illusion, that it’s unlikely he will ever be able to reclaim his grandfather’s home, his struggle forces us to ask whether believing in something that isn’t real is better than believing in nothing at all.

Hannah Eliot SC ’24 is from San Francisco, California. She likes to surf and is learning (trying) to play the guitar.

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In the sign of the times, the Sundance Film Festival announced today that it will go live in 2022.

The original plan was to hold the prestigious indie festival founded by Robert Redford in 1981 in a hybrid form, with a combination of online events and “personal Utah elements”. Unfortunately, all that has changed with the Omicron variant. This is what the organizers say in the announcement:

“We were looking forward to our first full hybrid Sundance Film Festival and our teams spent a year planning a festival like no other. But despite the most ambitious protocols, the Omicron variant, with its unexpectedly high transmission rates across the country, is reaching the limits of health security, travel and other infrastructures. And so we announce today: The personal Utah elements of the festival will go online this year. “

…

“While it is a huge loss not to have a personal experience in Utah, we don’t believe it is safe or doable while overwhelming thousands of artists, audiences, staff, volunteers and partners from around the world for Eleven Day Festival Communities are already struggling to provide basic services. “

The Sundance Film Festival – a program organized by the nonprofit Sundance Institute – is scheduled to begin Thursday, January 2022, and last eleven days.

Like so many arts organizations here in the San Francisco Bay Area and around the country (and in the world), Covid has been an ubiquitous and daunting challenge to live programming.

We hope that these nonprofits can continue to navigate these troubled waters and soon enough achieve the semblance of normalcy we are all looking for.

Main Photo: A still from “Nanny” by Nikyatu Jusu, an official selection of the US Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival 2022. Courtesy of the Sundance Institute.

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In addition to music, theater, and other performances, the Vilar Performing Arts Center in Beaver Creek also hosts film screenings. On Sunday, Monday and Tuesday the Vilar Center shows “Metallica & San Francisco Symphony: S & M2”. (Day file photo)

Headbanging and heavy metal riffs don’t seem to harmonize easily with a symphony orchestra, but in Metallica & San Francisco Symphony: S & M2 they do just that.

The film shows a world in which violins, violas, horns, xylophones and electric guitars appear in such harmony that one can easily imagine what heavenly music is about. Originally filmed during the sold out Metallica and San Francisco Symphony shows in September 2019 at the opening of the Chase Center in San Francisco, the show reunited the band and the symphony for the first time since the 1999 Grammy-winning S&M album.

The “S & M2” film presents more than two and a half hours with James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo, who play 20 songs with almost 80 orchestral musicians. The newly edited film includes remixes and remastered audio that delivers fresh audios and visuals from the original October 2019 theatrical release.

“’S & M2′ does a fantastic job capturing what it feels like to be in the audience,” said The Mercury News review. “(It shows) a legendary rock band at a very different, if no less satisfying, point in their musical career.”

The film presents versions of “All Within My Hands”, “Nothing Else Matters”, “Moth Into Flame” and “For Whom the Bell Tolls”. It’s part of the Vilar Center’s film series that began last fall.

“We love and miss the large format concerts,” said Owen Hutchinson, General Manager of the Vilar Center. “This film brings a piece of it to our stage in a unique way. We also appreciate the collaboration between Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony. The two musical superpowers combine to create an experience that has to be seen on the big screen. “

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When the Kansas City Chiefs entered their first preseason match against the San Francisco 49ers on Saturday night, they looked a little understaffed on the defensive. Due to short-term injury issues, key players such as defensive ends Frank Clark, Taco Charlton and Alex Okafor did not fit.

This meant an increased workload for the remaining defensive linemen – and at first glance these players improved and showed depth of quality for defensive line coach Brendan Daly.

Defense run

In general, the line did a solid job of keeping the point of attack on the front of the running game.

Chiefs DL showed promising game identification and strength to the point of attack last night. Here Danna, Wharton, and Reed all flow down the line, holding gaps. Jones also demonstrates the workmanship and athleticism required to close on the back of SF’s stretch runs. pic.twitter.com/xatRNHGvZz

– Bryan Stewart (@BryanStewart_) August 15, 2021

Another high quality demonstration of strength, leverage, and toughness from Saunders, Danna, and Reed. Linebackers fill up well. Only in the back is there not much space to work. pic.twitter.com/VRo6XvCb8e

– Bryan Stewart (@BryanStewart_) August 16, 2021

In his first start as the primary defensive end, Chris Jones showed the quickness and agility to avoid blocks and showed that he won’t just be a great target for offensive tackles and tight ends.

One small but important thing in my opinion: see how quick and agile Jones is to avoid the TE clipping to him on the back. In addition, Danna again with textbook pad level and overall technique on the front of this run. pic.twitter.com/gD5t3IIWfO

– Bryan Stewart (@BryanStewart_) August 16, 2021

Mike Danna, who ended up on the defensive in his sophomore year, was also a steady, constant presence against the run, picking up where he left off last year.

But it wasn’t all perfect. Although exhibiting several exciting traits at other moments in the game, player identification and decision-making occasionally won the best of some of the young defenders.

Kaandoh had some rookie moments on Saturday, in addition to some positive flashes to be expected in his first game action. Late to see the reverse action in the first clip, he jumps in a little too quickly in the second, allowing the RB to ricochet off over 10 yards. pic.twitter.com/Gm9iVurCPa

– Bryan Stewart (@BryanStewart_) August 16, 2021

Despite the impressive sophomore defensive tackle that Tershawn Wharton continues to see in one-on-one situations – especially as a pass rusher – asking him to hold out against doubles is still a big job.

Wharton has freaky athletic traits and the strength required to do well in most 1-on-1 situations, but here the lack of size / strength means he’s being washed away by a Guard + Tackle combo block. TE Slice Block gets a solid piece of harris, but Thornhill scrapes over to make a nice tackle. pic.twitter.com/b74FdODDBX

– Bryan Stewart (@BryanStewart_) August 15, 2021

Passport Defense

Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo wasted no time in throwing lightning bolts of five and six at 49ers rookie quarterback Trey Lance. These were largely successful in various ways for the defense line.

Spags throws a six man pressure on Lance and he certainly isn’t getting the ball out as fast as he’d go back and would like to. What is remarkable, however, is the lateral speed that “Bink” Saunders flashes to beat the LG here. pic.twitter.com/l5bBFvsx9S

– Bryan Stewart (@BryanStewart_) August 15, 2021

#Chiefs send five on this 3rd-and-8, and while the pressure is limited elsewhere, Jones just does what he does and dominates his 1-on-1 match (Sorensen may have had an easy assist; either way it was ) shortly before victory when his hips had free the RG). pic.twitter.com/XApQDTzdbZ

– Bryan Stewart (@BryanStewart_) August 16, 2021

It was great to see Chris Jones pick up right where he left off and quickly win from inside. The team’s new free-agent defensive tackle, Jarran Reed, also showed off some of the reasons he’s now part of the Chiefs roster, and demonstrated high productivity among the offensive guards.

Another 3rd-and-14 game, and Jarran Reed is very close to beating Garoppolo after battling his way through the repetition with good hands and mental strength. Danna and Harris lose on the edge even though they were both chipped before attacking the OT. pic.twitter.com/O0S5yaiFAz

– Bryan Stewart (@BryanStewart_) August 16, 2021

One area where the 49ers offense succeeded was in play-action-pass concepts. Given San Francisco’s propensity to rely on these games for explosive profits, this came as no surprise.

SF is notoriously good at game action concepts, and the Chiefs DL plays a disciplined, task-oriented style. On moves in which the DL does not get a lot of penetration and there are gaps in cover at the rear end, you have to forego some explosive moves. pic.twitter.com/pGeUTznGdH

– Bryan Stewart (@BryanStewart_) August 15, 2021

As the game progressed, the defensive linemen began to see more of what the offense was doing – resulting in intelligent, strenuous games like this one from Danna and Wharton.

Could be something or nothing, but Danna’s speed at changing direction seems to me to be improved on this piece. Starts the game with a great game ID, maintains good leverage. Plus, Wharton’s chase is second to none (!!) pic.twitter.com/4iV1MyGsgw

– Bryan Stewart (@BryanStewart_) August 15, 2021

In obvious passing situations throughout the game, the defense did a really solid job of putting pressure on quickly with at least one player. This is what you want – and expect – from a good, tenacious defensive front.

3rd and 14th The front four all poke their ears back, so you want them to win quick and get at least one body to QB quickly. Wharton, Kaindoh and Harris do just that, while Danna forms the double team (lined up above the LG). pic.twitter.com/wQcPEXxDGJ

– Bryan Stewart (@BryanStewart_) August 15, 2021

Defensive end Tim Ward – who was entering his third Chiefs season after developing on injured reserves and the training team over the past two years – shone with his passing noise. If he keeps making preseason appearances like on Saturday night, he’ll be a tough player to let out of the 53-man roster.

#Chiefs DE Tim Ward adjusted the snap a couple of times last night from a 3 point stance that would have been difficult with any offensive tackle. Also impacted the QB in both games. The last clip shows an enormous amount of effort, which apparently played a role in the fiddling. pic.twitter.com/7CbgafYXVG

– Bryan Stewart (@BryanStewart_) August 16, 2021

looking ahead

Deep players in the Chiefs’ defensive line usually continue to shine when opportunities arise. Daly deserves credit for developing many young talented players who constantly put tremendous efforts.

When the defensive ends, Clark, Charlton and Okafor can all come back – which helps increase the edge rush and general discipline of the group – there are many advantages among these players. Defensive tackles Derrick Nnadi combined with Reed to form an enormous number of run stuffers inside. Meanwhile, Jones is on a path that could make him a candidate for Defensive Player of the Year.

At full strength, the Chiefs’ current line of defense is bigger, stronger, smarter – and perhaps deeper – than it has been in some time. Both now and in the future, wear and tear will be your greatest opponent.

The post Movie assessment: Chiefs’ line of defense depth shines in San Francisco appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

“My favorite Disney / Pixar movie is Inside Out. We’re so happy and extroverted that we spend a lot of time studying Joy, ”says Berman with a smile.

Berman has always been passionate about acting.

“I really enjoyed playing in school. I always wanted to be the main character, so my mom signed up for summer camp where I did the theater for “Annie” and when Annie was cast. “I have,” says Berman. That’s how I started. “

In late 2019, Berman’s agent auditioned for her new Disney / Pixar film Luka. She couldn’t get any more excited.

“‘Luka’ is a moving story about the friendship and summer adventures of Luka, Alberto and Julia,” explains Berman. “I noticed the character a lot because we are very passionate, determined and hardworking as well as very extroverted and stupid.”

Berman played this role three months after her first audition. As the story unfolds in the fictional Italian town of Portorosso, she had to prepare to master the Italian accent.

“There were certainly some challenges with this new accent, a new dialect,” recalls Berman.

Berman trained with acting coach Bettina Devin, but also found additional support from waiters who worked in his favorite Italian restaurant, Trattoria David Rio.

“I did a few zoom sessions where he taught me a little Italian,” reveals Berman. “He read me the whole menu with Italian pronunciation. It definitely helped. “

“His accent was like a very heavy Italian accent because he had just come from Italy,” adds restaurant owner Vittorio Durzo.

Playing Julia in “Luka” was an unforgettable experience. Therefore, Berman wants to work with Pixar again in the future.

“I really want to keep acting. I really want to work for a Pixar that does animation, ”says Berman. “I really want to know more about it.”

12 year old Pixar fan from San Francisco Emma Berman gets role in new Pixar movie “Luca” Source link 12 year old Pixar fan from San Francisco Emma Berman gets role in new Pixar movie “Luca”

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Is Hollywood running out of titles or is it just trying to confuse everyone? Judging by a spate of films with similar names this year and next, the answer seems to be both. Consider some examples:

“The price of everything”, “The price of fame”

“Free Solo”, “Solo: A Star Wars Story”

“King of the outlaws”, “King of the philosophers”, “The king”

“Overboard”, “Overlord”

“American Animals”, “We the Animals”, “Social Animals”, “Animal Crackers”, “Eating Animals” (all that’s missing is a 40th anniversary re-release of “National Lampoon’s Animal House”)

“Cold War”, “A Private War”, “Private Life”

“Early Man”, “First Man”

“In search”, “In search of Ingmar Bergman”, “In search of greatness”

“Mary Queen of Scots”, “Mary Poppins Returns”

At this rate, it can be difficult to keep things straight on Oscar night. Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway had nothing to do with it. Gone are the days of distinctive, memorable film titles like “Casablanca”, “Jaws”, “The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill but Came Down a Mountain” and “Dude, Where’s My Car?”

Instead, we are exposed to a plethora of copycat films including “Dark Crimes”, “Dark Money”, “Dark River”, “Down a Dark Hall”, “The Dark”, “The Darkest Minds” and “In der.” Darkness.”

Unfortunately, it gets worse. More new movies that sound suspiciously like existing movies will be released soon at a theater near you.

First, on the heels of “Black Panther” and “BlacKkKlansman” …

“Black Panther Clansman”

After ingesting a heart-shaped herb, Donald Trump’s first candidate for the African American Supreme Court develops superhuman originalism, an uncanny ability to see each case as if it were happening in 1789.

“There’s something about Mary Poppins, Queen of Scots”

Roy Rivenburg takes a comical look at how studios might mix up their tried and true metaphors when naming films in the future.

(Greg Houston / For the Times)

The story of a magical but ruthless nanny who overthrows Elizabeth I with the help of a chimney sweep wearing a kilt. The bagpipe heavy soundtrack includes “A Spoonful of Sugar (Helps the Haggis Go Down)” and “Supercalifragilistic-Loch-Ness-alidocious”.

“Beautiful boy deleted”

A transgender teen is defined as non-existent by regulations that say a person’s gender is determined at birth by the genitals with which he or she was born.

“A Starship Trooper is Born”

In the distant future, film critics will pull against the 1,000. Remake of “A Star Is Born” in the war. Possible continuation: “Throw ‘Mamma Mia’ off the train.”

“Stirring Crazy Rich Asians”

A wealthy young couple return to the United States from a friend’s wedding in Singapore and are jailed by immigration officials. It comes to comedy.

“Ben Hur is back”

Confusion reigns during the awards season when movie titles mirror each other or use overlapping language. Roy Rivenburg takes a comical look at how studios might mix up their tried and true metaphors when naming films in the future.

(Greg Houston / For the Times)

Julia Roberts plays a suburban mother whose drug addict son comes home on Christmas Eve and hallucinates that he’s a Roman chariot racer.

“The girl in Charlotte’s network”

A Swedish hacker and a gifted spider forge an unusual plan to expose prominent #MeToo perpetrators.

“Bohemian Rhapsody in Blue”

Queen sings Gershwin.

“Hunter Killer Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy who dumped me”

A Russian double agent escapes the United States in a stolen submarine after rigging an election and breaking up with his American girlfriend. Based on novels by John le Carre, James Comey, and Stormy Daniels.

“In search of Ingmar Bergman, Bobby Fischer, Sugar Man, Debra Winger, Et Al”

Filmmakers search unsuccessfully for an uncompromised film title.

kalender@latimes.com

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Secure your ski passes now

Young adults who purchase a Waterville Valley Resort season pass this spring will have unlimited skiing and snowboarding for the remainder of the season and next year. The Young Adult Pass offers skiers and snowboarders aged 18 to 29 unrestricted access to the resort – i.e. no blackout times – for the rest of the 2020/21 season and for the 2021/22 season if it is purchased by April 30th ( USD 532 per person). . Buy an Adult Plus Pass ($ 942) by April 30th and get a Child Ski Free Pass for a child 6 to 12 years old, unlimited access to the Snow Mountain Lift this summer, and 20% off accommodation in the Town Square Condos and the Gasthaus Silberfuchs. 800-GO-VALLEY, www.waterville.com

THERE

Hire a train at the Grand Canyon

These days, finding a fun way to celebrate a milestone event can be difficult, but the Grand Canyon Railway offers options for travelers looking for adventure. Rent a luxury private train – complete with chefs, bartenders, entertainers, and waiters – and bring your family or those in your “pandemic capsule” to ride the rails. The train has luxury cars from the 1940s and 1950s, including a dome / sleeping car, two open-air viewing cars, and two salon / café and lounge cars. Book one to five railcars and welcome up to 200 guests (in full train) thanks to the spacious interior. Depart Williams, Arizona at 9:30 am – just 2.5 hours from Phoenix – and enjoy 65-mile round-trip transportation, stopping at the Grand Canyon’s South Rim for a 2.5-hour layover arrive in Williams at 5:45 p.m. Make stops along the way to enjoy dinner in a Chucks cart, live entertainment, or an overnight stay. Prices start at $ 10,000 for a railcar and $ 16,000 for the entire train. 800-843-8724, www.thetrain.com

Black Tie offers simple ski rentals

Heading west for a spring break or a ski trip in late winter? Make it easy for yourself and rent equipment for your arrival. Black Tie Ski Hire offers ski and snowboard deliveries to your local accommodations (at a time you specify), personalized customization and a free equipment change even at lunchtime on the mountain (they come to you). Another plus: The ski technician who delivers your equipment serves as a local ambassador and provides helpful information on snow conditions, trails, restaurants and sights in the region. At the end of the trip, Black Tie will stop by and shovel your gear – it couldn’t be easier. You will find 16 privately owned and operated Black Tie locations across the west, from Colorado to California. Some carry niche ski brands like Icelantic, Black Crows, and Never Summer skis, while others offer heated boots. All equipment is sanitized between customers and shipped to you in a sanitized bag, and all staff adhere to masks and social distancing guidelines. The service includes a paperless waiver system and a full refund up to 48 hours before your rental. Rent skis / snowboards, shoes, helmets and sticks for all ages. Equipment rentals start at $ 48 per person per day (depending on location) for an adult package that includes skis, sticks, and boots. www.blacktieskis.com

ALL OVER

A portable outdoor pizza oven

Meet outdoors and share homemade pizza made in the Ooni Fyra 12 portable pizza oven. This ingenious wood pellet oven heats up to 950 degrees Fahrenheit in 15 minutes and bakes a pizza in 60 seconds – 90 seconds for a frozen pizza. The Ooni Fyra can be packed up small – it has folding legs and two removable chimneys that can be stowed in the oven – and is still set up in seconds. Set the stove on a sturdy table – ideally a stone, stainless steel, or marble surface (we like the safe and stylish modular table from Ooni) – put a scoop or two of hardwood pellets in the funnel, fire them up, and use that Ooni infrared thermometer to track oven temperature. Mount your pizza on one of Ooni’s 12-inch aluminum or bamboo trays, slide the pizza in the oven – place it on the hot pizza stone – and it’s ready before you can pour the drinks. Use the peephole on the stove door to monitor the fire and pellet supply, and regulate the airflow through the chimney. Ooni also makes propane pizza ovens. $ 299 Fyra; $ 199.99 to $ 249.99 table; € 39.99 Infrared thermometer. ooni.com

Java on the go

If you are a coffee lover, take the new Pocket PourOver bags with you on your next adventure. Kuju Coffee was founded by two Eagle Scout brothers from San Francisco and creates these single-serving coffee bags that make the difference for responsible products. Each bag contains organic, Fair Trade certified coffee – or mixtures from ethical sources – and is packed in a 100 percent wind-powered facility. To top it off, the company donates a portion of its sales to the US National Park Service. Choose from West Sumatra, Papua New Guinea, and Ethiopia varieties, or several creative blends, including Angel’s Landing (a light roast), Basecamp Blend (medium roast), and Bold Awakening (dark roast). To use, tear open the top of each perforated filter, unfold the cardboard wings and carefully anchor the filter to your mug, pour hot water over the coffee grounds and wait for the coffee to brew. Buy a 10-pack for $ 21.99 up to a 60-pack for $ 149.40. www.kujucoffee.com

KARI BODNARCHUK

Kari Bodnarchuk can be reached at travelwriter@karib.us.

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