{"id":131142,"date":"2026-01-13T03:47:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T03:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/131142\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T03:47:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T03:47:13","slug":"movies-noir-city-in-oakland-father-mother-sister-brother-obex-magellan-the-choral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/131142\/","title":{"rendered":"Movies: Noir City in Oakland, \u2018Father Mother Sister Brother,\u2019 \u2018Obex,\u2019 \u2018Magellan,\u2019 \u2018The Choral\u2019\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Film festivals are back, and the 2026 crop starts with a cool one: the 23rd Noir City celebration, which opens Friday and continues through Jan. 25 at the Grand Lake Theatre, in Oakland.\u00a0Also\u00a0this week: Jim Jarmusch\u2019s latest, plus more new releases.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Presented by the Alameda-based Film Noir Foundation, Noir City is the largest film-noir-specific annual event in the United States.\u00a0Historian Eddie Muller, the foundation\u2019s creator, has assembled a lineup of 24 films.\u00a0Most are from the mid\u201320th century and include noir staples: hardboiled detectives, femme fatales, gangsters, nightclubs, the darker aspects of human nature\u2026.\u00a0The role of music, especially jazz,\u00a0is the theme of Noir City 23. Music giants as well as movie stars will appear prominently.\u00a0Opening night begins with \u201cBlack Angel\u201d (1946),\u00a0director\u00a0Roy William Neill\u2019s thriller about a wife who, to save her innocent husband from the gas chamber, seeks help from an alcoholic pianist. June Vincent and Dan Duryea star.\u00a0Also screening\u00a0on\u00a0Friday is \u201cBlues in the Night\u201d (1941), Anatole Litvak\u2019s early jazz noir with Richard Whorf as the struggling leader of a touring big-band ensemble.\u00a0Featured classics include \u201cTo Have and Have Not\u201d (1944), Howard Hawks\u2019 romantic war adventure with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall; Charles Vidor\u2019s \u201cGilda\u201d (1946) with Glenn Ford and Rita Hayworth; and Michael Curtiz\u2019s \u201cYoung Man\u00a0With\u00a0a Horn\u201d (1950) with Kirk Douglas.\u00a0Additional\u00a0highlights include Alfred Hitchcock\u2019s \u201cThe Wrong Man\u201d (1945) with Henry Fonda and a Bernard Herrmann score; Bertrand Tavernier\u2019s \u201cRound Midnight\u201d (1986) starring saxophonist Dexter Gordon in his Oscar-nominated performance; and Laszlo Kardos\u2019 lesser-known \u201cThe Strip\u201d (1951) featuring Mickey Rooney and Louis Armstrong.\u00a0Tickets are about $23 for a double feature and about $212\u00a0for an all-film pass at\u00a0noircity.com.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"L-R, Luka Sabbat and Indya Moore appear in \u201cFather Mother Sister Brother,\u201d screening in Bay Area theaters. (Vague Notion\/ Carole Bethuel via Bay City News) <\/p>\n

Idiosyncratic indie icon Jim Jarmusch (\u201cDead Man\u201d;\u00a0\u201cPaterson\u201d) brings his trademark\u00a0offbeat\u00a0quality\u00a0and simplicity to \u201cFather Mother Sister Brother,\u201d\u00a0a\u00a0simultaneously sad and funny new movie about disconnected family relationships.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0a tryptic, in the vein of\u00a0his\u00a0\u201cMystery Train.\u201d This time, Jarmusch presents three separate stories about parents, adult children,\u00a0siblings\u00a0and estrangement.\u00a0In part one, Jeff (Adam Driver) and Emily (Mayim Bialik) are driving on a snowy New Jersey road to visit their estranged father (Tom Waits), who may not be as destitute as he seems. At his rundown home, awkward pauses mark the conversation among the three.\u00a0\u00a0Next come\u00a0mismatched sisters Lilith (Vicki Krieps) and Timothea (Cate Blanchett), who arrive at the Dublin home of their bestselling-author mother (Charlotte Rampling) for her annual tea party \u2014 the only time the three get together every year. Here, too, are family members who hardly know what to say to one another. A memorable line: \u201cWe\u2019re accidentally color-coordinated \u2014 how embarrassing!\u201d\u00a0In the final, and warmest, segment, American twins Skye (Indya Moore) and Billy (Luka Sabbat) meet up in Paris to visit their recently deceased parents\u2019 apartment one last time. They look at old photographs and reminisce, making discoveries about their parents and themselves.\u00a0\u00a0Mundane bits \u2014 skateboarders; a \u201cRolex\u201d;\u00a0the expression \u201cBob\u2019s your uncle\u201d \u2014\u00a0recur. Everyday moments supply the spark in the\u00a0movie.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Jarmusch\u2019s avoidance of sentimentality and melodrama allows the essential emotion \u2014 a heap of unstated love \u2014 to feel genuine. There are quietly moving moments, as when Billy and Skye reconnect over coffee, and modestly enlightening character details, like the political books on Waits\u2019 character\u2019s shelf.\u00a0The ensemble cast \u2014 both Jarmusch veterans (Blanchett, Driver, Waits) and newcomers \u2014 makes\u00a0seemingly unexciting\u00a0characters never dull.\u00a0\u201cFather Mother Sister Brother,\u201d not\u00a0profound,\u00a0but relatable and touching, is currently in theaters.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Actor-director Albert Birney plays Conor in \u201cObex,\u201d screening at the Roxie in San Francisco. (Oscilloscope via Bay City News)<\/p>\n

A lo-fi sci-fi adventure imbued\u00a0with analog-age nostalgia, Albert Birney\u2019s 1987-set, black-and-white \u201cObex\u201d follows a recluse named Conor (played by Birney), whose uneventful life turns\u00a0fantastical\u00a0when he begins playing a groundbreaking new computer game. When a monster\u00a0emerges\u00a0from his Apple machine and steals his beloved dog, Sandy, Conor quests through a bizarre landscape to find her.\u00a0The\u00a0engrossing and imaginative film, which also impresses as a consideration of tech-age loneliness, screens\u00a0Tuesday at the Roxie Theater\u00a0in San Francisco, and\u00a0Birney appears\u00a0in a live Q&A after the 6 p.m. screening.\u00a0A regular\u00a0run of the movie\u00a0begins\u00a0on\u00a0Jan. 23.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Gael Garcia Bernal portrays the title character in \u201cMagellan.\u201d (Janus Films via Bay City News)<\/p>\n

Filipino filmmaker Lav Diaz shatters European hero myths in his epic-scale \u201cMagellan,\u201d which presents 16th-century Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan (played by Gael Garcia Bernal) through a post-colonial lens and addresses the effects of European conquests in the Pacific.\u00a0Combining slow cinema with conventional biopic storytelling,\u00a0Diaz\u00a0follows Magellan \u2014 best known for leading the first Spanish expedition to circumnavigate the globe and reach the Moluccas \u2014 through trials that include hunger and mutiny. In the Philippines, he displays a brutal obsession with conquest and Christian conversion.\u00a0While\u00a0its\u00a0165-minute runtime may prove\u00a0trying\u00a0for some,\u00a0\u201cMagellan\u201d\u00a0is a singular piece of filmmaking worth taking a chance on.\u00a0It opens\u00a0Friday\u00a0at the Roxie.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Ralph Fiennes stars as Dr. Henry Guthrie in \u201cThe Choral.\u201d (Nicola Dove\/Sony Pictures Classics via Bay City News)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Choral,\u201d directed by Nicholas\u00a0Hytner\u00a0and written by Alan Bennett, is a period drama and an underdog story set in an English town during World War I. Ralph Fiennes plays Dr. Henry Guthrie, a conductor recruited to be the local music society\u2019s new choirmaster, despite questions about his loyalty (he lived in Germany) and sexuality. His primary mission is to put together the society\u2019s annual choral production \u2014 a challenge because the best local singers are away at war.\u00a0As a very British tale of quirky townsfolk banding together during\u00a0hard times, the movie\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0without appeal.\u00a0\u00a0But\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0too narratively contrived and\u00a0lacking in\u00a0emotional resonance to deliver beyond the surface level.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cThe Choral\u201d screens in\u00a0theaters.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Film festivals are back, and the 2026 crop starts with a cool one: the 23rd Noir City celebration,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[67279,67280,67281,67282,17654,67283,67284,57911,67285,67286,67287,57910,67288,67289,67290,67291,67292,67293,143,145,144,67294,67295,67296,67297],"class_list":["post-131142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-adam-driver","tag-alan-bennett","tag-albert-birney","tag-black-angel","tag-cate-blanchett","tag-charlotte-rampliing","tag-eddie-muller","tag-father-mother-sister-brother","tag-film-noir-foundation","tag-gael-garica-bernal","tag-indya-moore","tag-jim-jarmusch","tag-lav-diaz","tag-luka-sabbat","tag-magellan","tag-mayim-bialik","tag-nicholas-hytner","tag-noir-city","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-obex","tag-ralph-fiennes","tag-tom-waits","tag-vicki-krieps"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}