{"id":153775,"date":"2026-01-28T20:12:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T20:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/153775\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T20:12:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T20:12:13","slug":"san-franciscos-castro-theatre-to-reopen-with-a24s-pillion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/153775\/","title":{"rendered":"San Francisco’s Castro Theatre to Reopen with A24’s ‘Pillion’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Castro Theatre in San Francisco has been a landmark for the gay community for decades, with its facade literally the face of the Castro neighborhood, and it has hosted LGBTQ+ events and screenings, including the famous \u201cMilk\u201d premiere in 2008. After being closed for renovations since 2022, the historic theater is reopening with one of last year\u2019s best queer films.<\/p>\n

A24<\/a> announced on Wednesday, January 28, that its film<\/a> \u201cPillion<\/a>\u201d will launch the grand re-opening of the Castro Theatre, with the venue hosting the San Francisco premiere of director Harry Lighton\u2019s film on Thursday, February 12. Both Lighton and star Harry Melling will attend the film\u2019s premiere.<\/p>\n

\"HAPPY<\/a> \"A<\/a> <\/p>\n

The Castro, as part of this $41 million renovation, is now capable of hosting standing-room-only musical performances and comedy shows, and, in addition to other special repertory events, will host the San Francisco Silent Film Festival in May. The renovation helped restore the ceiling\u2019s original artwork and the sgraffito murals alongside the theater\u2019s hidden proscenium. It also modernized the historic chandelier, restored the neon blade sign and marquee, and it now installed a digital organ to the specifications of longtime Castro organist David Hegarty. Other improvements include new HVAC, restrooms, and ADA-accessible orchestra, stage, and dressing rooms.<\/p>\n

The theater was originally built in 1922 by San Francisco architect Timothy Pfleuger and has influences from Spanish, Asian, Italian, and Art Deco designs. <\/p>\n

\u201cPillion<\/a>\u201d stars Alexander Skarsg\u00e5rd and Harry Melling, with Skarsg\u00e5rd as a hunky, commanding, leather-clad biker who takes on Melling\u2019s character as his submissive in a surprisingly touching BDSM romance. IndieWire\u2019s Cannes review<\/a> said that the film finds \u201cthe sweet center of a story marked by clamps, cages, and assless unitards.\u201d It won a Gotham Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and got a DGA nomination for Lighton for Best First-Time Theatrical Feature Film.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat makes \u2018Pillion\u2019 so thrustingly good is how much the movie teases and tantalizes us, getting off on withholding, until finally unleashing in all its graphicness once Colin is face down, plunging his mouth on Ray\u2019s quite large, pierced cock, plunging ever deeper into Ray\u2019s expansive kinky social world,\u201d IndieWire\u2019s Ryan Lattanzio wrote in his review. <\/p>\n

\u201cPillion\u201d opens in theaters Feb. 6. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Castro Theatre in San Francisco has been a landmark for the gay community for decades, with its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[49037,1924,75691,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-153775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-a24","tag-film","tag-pillion","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153775","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=153775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}