Film recommendations by Ky
updated daily!

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While we are all staying at home, we thought we would highlight a movie each day from our history and let you know where you can watch it at home...

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For our next Rialto Recommends we return to the work of writer/director Gurinder Chada (What's Cooking?, Bend it Like Beckham, Blinded by the Light) with her first film 1994's BHAJI ON THE BEACH...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is 1989's THE MIGHTY QUINN which showcases the early screen magnetism of star Denzel Washington. Police chief Xavier Quinn investigates the gruesome murder of Donald Pater...

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We previously have featured the work of writer/director Kasi Lemmons in our recommendations of the films Harriet and Talk To Me. Today our Rialto Recommends is her first feature 1997's EVE'S BAYOU which stars Samuel L. Jackson, Jurnee Smollett, Meagan Good and Lynn Whitfield...

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Our next Rialto Recommends isn't a movie but rather a captured live performance of Holland Taylor's one-woman play ANN which she both wrote and performed. ANN is a no-holds-barred theatrical portrait of Ann Richards...

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The heartbreaking situation in Texas reminded us of Alex Gibney's 2005 Oscar-nominated documentary ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM. While no one has linked Enron to the current crisis, it is hard to believe that the greed Enron personified did not in some...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is writer/director Nadine Labaki's 2007 debut feature CARAMEL. In a beauty salon in Beirut the lives of five women cross paths. The beauty salon is a colorful and sensual microcosm where they share and entrust their hopes, fears and expectations...

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Tim Reid's 1995 film ONCE UPON A TIME...WHEN WE WERE COLORED based on Clifton L. Taulbert's book and featuring Phylicia Rashad, Leon, and Isaac Hayes is our next Rialto Recommends. It's 1946 in Mississippi, and young Cliff...

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Our next Rialto Recommends takes you to musical theatre summer camp in writer/director Todd Graff's 2003 film CAMP. At Camp Ovation, kids of all ages spend their summer expressing themselves through dance, music and theater...

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Our next Rialto Recommends definitely falls into the category of "forgotten indies." Released in 2001 after debuting at the Sundance Film Festival JUMP TOMORROW is a light-hearted romantic comedy that charms with its whimsy...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is Carl Frankin's 1995 film adaptation of Walter Mosley's novel DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS starring Denzel Washington. In late 1940s Los Angeles, Easy Rawlins (Denzel Washington) is an unemployed black World War II veteran with few job prospects...

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Julianne Moore, Dennis Quaid and Dennis Haysbert star in our next Rialto Recommends, Todd Hayne's 2002 drama FAR FROM HEAVEN. The story - which crosses both sexual and racial lines - revolves around a privileged suburban...

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We were saddened to learn of the recent passing of legendary actor Christopher Plummer. Our next Rialto Recommends is his Oscar winning 2011 role in Mike Mills' film BEGINNERS. After his mother dies, Oliver (Ewan McGregor) is stunned when his father, Hal (Christopher Plummer)...

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For our next Rialto Recommends we are highlighting National Theatre Live's home streaming program NTatHome. We have been proud to be an partner of NT Live exhibiting all of the National Theatre Live productions since the very first presentation of Phedre in the summer of 2009...

Our next Rialto Recommends is 1995's wonderful family film BABE. Babe is a little pig who doesn't quite know his place in the world. With a bunch of odd friends, like Ferdinand...

Classic plays have been reinterpreted and reinvented into unique new works for centuries. In our next Rialto Recommends writer/director Michael Blakemore takes Chekov's Uncle Vanya and transports it to rural Australia in the 1920's...

We were saddened to learn of the passing of actor Hal Holbrook and at the same time reminded that we have not yet featured Steven Spielberg's 2012 LINCOLN in which Mr. Holbrook was featured as influential Republican Preston Blair. With a script by Tony Kushner LINCOLN...

Our next Rialto Recommends is Robert Redford's 1988 directorial film THE MILAGRO BEANFIELD WAR. In the tiny town of Milagro, New Mexico, where the local water is a premium resource, shady developer Ladd Devine...

We kick off Black History Month at Rialto Recommends with Stephen Hopkins' 2016 film RACE. Young Jesse Owens (Stephan James) becomes a track and field sensation while attending the Ohio State University...

We were saddened to learn of the passing of the extraordinary actress Cicely Tyson. Our next Rialto Recommends is SOUNDER for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1973...

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Reality television is awash in cooking and competition shows but none them quite delivers like Chris Hegedus and DA Pennebaker's 2010 documentary KINGS OF PASTRY...

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While there is no question that Woody Allen has behaved despicably in his life, we can't discount his contribution to the art of cinema as a filmmaker. Our next Rialto Recommends is his 1987 memory film RADIO DAYS...

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Today is our 300th Rialto Recommends and our choice for today is Julie Taymor's 2007 film ACROSS THE UNIVERSE. The songs of the Beatles provide the sonic framework for this musical tale of romance, war and peace...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is a film that had a blink and you missed it theatrical release in the US in 2009 after debuting at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is Alonso Ruizpalacios 2018 caper film MUSEO starring Gael Garcia Bernal. Mexico, 1985. Juan and Wilson, two perennial Veterinary students, perpetrate an audacious heist in the National Museum of Anthropology...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL, a romantic drama that plays on the chemistry of its stars Robert Redford and Michelle Pfeiffer. Sally Atwater has a dream: to be a prime-time network newscaster...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is acclaimed filmmaker Eytan Fox's 2003 US release YOSSI & JAGGER. Romance blooms between two soldiers (Knoller, Levi) stationed in an Israeli outpost on the Lebanese border...

January 19th was National Popcorn Day which is our inspiration for choosing Martha Coolidge's 1985 film REAL GENIUS starring Val Kilmer as our next Rialto Recommends. Chris (Kilmer)...

Director Richard Lester celebrates his birthday today so it is a great day to recommend his iconic 1964 film A HARD DAY'S NIGHT for our Rialto Recommends. Capturing John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr...

Our next Rialto Recommends is the fourth film of Barry Levinson's "Baltimore Films" following Diner, Tin Men and Avalon. Released in the fall of 1999 LIBERTY HEIGHTS got lost in the glut of year end films but remains worth seeing. Baltimore, Fall 1954...

We return to the gorgeous filmmaking of Hayao Miyazaki with PONYO 2008's which is our next Rialto Recommends. A five-year-old boy develops a relationship with Ponyo, a young goldfish princess who longs...

Two weeks ago we recommended director Richard Pearce's directorial debut film Heartland. Today our Rialto Recommends is his 1990 drama THE LONG WALK HOME starring Whoopi Goldberg and Sissy Spacek...

In our next Rialto Recommends Robert Altman takes on Hollywood in THE PLAYER starring Tim Robbins, Greta Scacchi, Fred Ward, Whoopi Goldberg, Peter Gallagher, Vincent D'Onofrio, Dean Stockwell, Richard E. Grant and others...

Our next Rialto Recommends returns us to the world of Snoopy, Charlie Brown and the lovable Peanuts gang with their second big screen outing 1972's SNOOPY COME HOME! When Snoopy receives a letter from a girl named Lila, who's in a hospital...

Our next Rialto Recommends is a film that many people thought they knew what it was going to be based upon the title and the key art. But though A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD does feature Fred Rogers as a key character, the film is ultimately not his story...

We were saddened to learn today of the passing of British director Michael Apted. Known for his groundbreaking Up documentary series (Seven Up, Seven Plus 7, 21 Up, 28 Up and so on through 2019's 63 Up), Apted was also an acclaimed narrative filmmaker having helmed...

Our next Rialto Recommends is Gregg Araki's challenging 2004 indie MYSTERIOUS SKIN starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. One youth (Brady Corbet) becomes obsessed with UFOs, while another (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) becomes a gay hustler in the years following a childhood trauma...

Our next Rialto Recommends is a movie we had hoped to show in our theatres but because of the pandemic it went directly to streaming. Disney/Pixar's new film SOUL is another masterpiece of animation expanding the storytelling potential of the form in ways similar to Inside Out...

Our next Rialto Recommends THE LOST CITY was a 2005 passion project for actor/director Andy Garcia. In Havana, Cuba in the late 1950's, a wealthy family, one of whose sons is a prominent nightclub owner, is caught in the violent transition from...

Our next Rialto Recommends is MGM's omnibus film celebrating it's 50th Anniversary and its legacy of magical movie musicals THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT! The last major film to be shot at MGM's world famous Hollywood backlot, THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT! is a star-studded...

Our next Rialto Recommends is Japanese animation master Hayao Miyazaki's 1997 masterpiece PRINCESS MONONOKE which upon its US release in 1999 was Miyazaki's commercial breakthrough into the US arthouse market...

Our next Rialto Recommends is Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith's compelling 2009 documentary THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA: DANIEL ELLSBERG AND THE PENTAGON PAPERS. This acclaimed documentary provides insight into the actions of Daniel Ellsberg, a leading American military strategist...

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I've been thinking recently about the movies I saw growing in up Great Falls Montana where we didn't have an arthouse and my movie diet consisted almost entirely of mainstream Hollywood fare of the 70's and early 80's...

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We were saddened to learn of the recent passing of writer/director Joan Micklin Silver who was perhaps best known for her 1988 film adaptation of the play CROSSING DELANCEY starring Amy Irving...

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Our next Rialto Recommends comes to us from India and is the definition of an epic. LAGAAN: ONCE UPON A TIME IN INDIA is lavish, rousing entertainment in the old-fashioned tradition of Hollywood musicals...

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As we close out 2020 and head into 2021 our next Rialto Recommends is about change, adaptation and new beginnings. Carroll Ballard's 1996 film FLY AWAY HOME stars Jeff Daniels and Anna Paquin...

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Today, I received an e-mail from noted cinema enthusiast and pundit Bill Dever celebrating the 125th anniversary of film exhibition this week...

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In the summer of 2011 during our Rialto on the Road phase in Sonoma County we presented a compelling documentary on banned and rescued art in the Soviet Union titled THE DESERT OF FORBIDDEN ART...

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Dame Maggie Smith celebrates her 86th birthday on December 28th so in honor of her continued contribution to independent cinema our next Rialto Recommends is the 2005 release LADIES IN LAVENDER...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is a small Irish film that is set at Christmastime in Dublin. KISSES from writer/director Lance Daly...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is Michael Mann's 1999 whistleblower film THE INSIDER starring Russell Crowe and Al Pacino. After seeking the expertise of former "Big Tobacco" executive Jeffrey Wigand (Russell Crowe)...

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Our next Rialto Recommends was nominated for two Academy Awards in 1998 for Best Original Song and Best Original Score. Don Bluth's ANASTASIA is an animated fantasy rather than an animated history lesson...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is 1983's classic Christmas tale A CHRISTMAS STORY. Though not initially considered a hit the film has grown from a cult following to become a Christmas Classic and has been on the National Film Registry...

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There are so many great Christmas movies but one of our favorites is Richard Curtis' 2003 opus LOVE ACTUALLY which follows the lives of eight very different couples in dealing with their love lives...

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40 years ago this week the characters of Judy, Violet, and Doralee leapt off movie screens across America and into the hearts of moviegoers. Part satire, part farce, part social commentary...

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Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach adapted Roald Dahl's novel FANTASTIC MR. FOX in 2009 which is our next Rialto Recommends. After 12 years of bucolic bliss, Mr. Fox (George Clooney) breaks a promise to his wife (Meryl Streep)...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is Jim Henson and Frank Oz's magical 1982 creation THE DARK CRYSTAL. On another planet in the distant past, a Gelfling embarks on a quest to find the missing shard of a magical crystal...

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Our next Rialto Recommends comes to us from Danish director Lone Scherfig known for her films Italian for Beginners, Wilber Wants to Kill Himself, and An Education. Her 2011 film ONE DAY...

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Walter Matthau's son Chris Matthau takes the director's chair in THE GRASS HARP which is our next Rialto Recommends. Based on the novel by Truman Capote, this often-witty coming-of-age drama looks...

December 16th would have been Beethoven's 250th birthday. As part of our 2020 special programming before the pandemic we had scheduled a series of films titled In Search of Great Composers which was to conclude with a documentary titled Concerto: A Beethoven Journey this month...

Our next Rialto Recommends is a historical epic from Istvan Szabo who directed the wonderful film Being Julia which we previously recommended. Szabo's 2000 film SUNSHINE (not to be confused with the 2007 Danny Boyle film of the same name) is a sprawling epic starring Ralph Fiennes, Rosemary Harris and Rachel Weisz. The story of three generations of the Sonnenscheins, a Jewish-Hungarian family that began when Hungary...

With Patty Jenkin's new Wonder Woman movie about to come out, our next Rialto Recommends takes a look at the story behind the creation of this legendary comic book character. Released in 2017 PROFESSOR MARSTON & THE WONDER WOMEN was written and directed by Angela Robinson and stars Luke Evans, Rebecca Hall and Bella Heathcote...

Our next Rialto Recommends is the film that made Clive Owen a star in the US and around the world. Produced and released in Britain in 1998, CROUPIER was not released in the United States until 2000 and it wasn't until the US release that the film attracted much notice or acclaim. Jack Manfred (Clive Owen)...

Our next Rialto Recommends is a movie that we would have opened on Fri, Dec 4th had we been able to be open and showing movies. Based on the acclaimed 2019 Broadway musical THE PROM is Ryan Murphy's celebratory film adaptation starring Meryl Streep, James Cordon, Andrew Rannells, Nicole Kidman, Kerry Washington, Keegan-Michal Key, Ariana DeBose...

Our next Rialto Recommends is a film that we have been wanting to recommend for months but wasn't available on any streaming service. Fortunately, Steven Soderbergh's 1993 film KING OF THE HILL based on A.E. Hotchner's memoir is now available for viewing on The Criterion Channel...

In honor of Hanukkah our next Rialto Recommends is Don Bluth's 1986 animated film AN AMERICAN TAIL. How is AN AMERICAN TAIL a Hanukkah film you ask? According to BuzzFeed "In this animated film, a young Russian-Jewish mouse, Fievel, flees persecution by the cats. As the movie begins, Fievel and his family are celebrating Hanukkah and his father...

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As a writer and director, Tim Robbins has proven to be an interesting filmmaker from his debut feature Bob Roberts to his highly acclaimed Dead Man Walking...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is director James Marsh's 2008 documentary MAN ON WIRE. Using actual footage from the event seamlessly mingled with new re-enactments, filmmaker James Marsh masterfully recreates high-wire daredevil...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is Tom Ford's 2009 directorial debut A SINGLE MAN starring Colin Firth. The life of George Falconer, a British college professor...

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Our next Rialto Recommends stars Dakota Fanning, Jennifer Hudson, Queen Latifah, Alicia Keys and Sophie Okonedo in writer/director Gina Prince-Bythewood's 2008 adaptation of Sue Monk Kidd's novel...

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On December 8, 1980 John Lennon was murdered outside the Dakota in New York City. In honor of the 40th anniversary of this tragic event our Rialto Recommends selection tonight is Andrew Solt's 1988 documentary...

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The place is Los Angeles. The time is Christmas Eve. Well, well, well our next Rialto Recommends says DIE HARD is a Christmas movie. Yippee-Ky-Yay! High above the city of L.A. a team of terrorists...

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Our next Rialto Recommends takes us to a WWI battlefield on Christmas Eve in 1914. Released in 2005 JOYEUX NOEL (MERRY CHRISTMAS) stars Diane Kruger, Benno Furmann, Guillaume Canet and Gary Lewis Against all odds...

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Some would say that the phrase good disaster movie is an oxymoron. Our next Rialto Recommends, Juan Antonio Bayona's THE IMPOSSIBLE starring Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor from 2012, is an exception...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is another film that we first saw at TIFF, in 2008, that we enjoyed and was later harshly denounced by many critics. If you chose movies solely based on Rotten Tomatoes scores this one would never make it on your radar. Spike Lee's MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA chronicles the story...

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Tuesday, December 1st is both World AIDS Day and #GivingTuesday so our next Rialto Recommends is Bill Sherwood's 1986 drama PARTING GLANCES. Groundbreaking in its sensitive, nuanced depiction of gay relationships in the midst of New York’s AIDS crisis...

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With Sunday being the end of Thanksgiving weekend and Tuesday being #givingtuesday we couldn't think of a more appropriate film than our 18th Rialto Recommends choice as our Encore Recommendation. Danny Boyle's Spring 2005 release MILLIONS is the embodiment of generosity...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is a recent discovery. Writer/Director Lucia Castro's debut feature END OF THE CENTURY has drawn comparisons from critics to both Richard Linklater's Before trilogy and the movie Sliding Doors. When Ocho (Juan Barberini)...

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Released in 2004 in the US THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE is one of the most beloved films we've ever shown. When her grandson is kidnapped during the Tour de France, Madame Souza and her beloved pooch Bruno team up with the Belleville Sisters...

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In honor of Thanksgiving we are encoring our 24th Rialto Recommends choice from last Spring. It's worth noting that since we made this recommendation, we've recommended an additional 220 films!...

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Before To Die For, Days of Thunder, Far and Away and Eyes Wide Shut, Nicole Kidman starred in a tense Australian thriller called DEAD CALM which is our next Rialto Recommends. Released in 1989 DEAD CALM was directed by Phillip Noyce and also stars Sam Neill and Billy Zane...

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Our next Rialto Recommends choice definitely fits into the category of trashy fun B movie. Starring Cher and Christina Aguilera in her first film role 2010's BURLESQUE turns 10 this week and its time we celebrate this campy achievement. Ali (Christina Aguilera), a small-town gal with a great voice, leaves a troubled life behind and follows...

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I've been watching the fourth season of The Crown on Netflix. Our next Rialto Recommends takes a look at the effect of Margaret Thatcher's policies through the impact on one family...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is 2008's delightful MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY starring Frances McDormand and Amy Adams. It's 1939 and governess Guinevere Pettigrew finds herself out of work and on the bread line.

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Not all of our film choices can be uplifting or positive. Cinema has the power to make us look at the bleaker parts of our world with new eyes. That is very much the case with our next Rialto Recommends. Released in 1999 LA CIUDAD (THE CITY) tells the stories of four Hispanic immigrants...

Our next Rialto Recommends is an indie film that barely had a release in theatres. UNHOOK THE STARS is writer/director Nick Cassavetes debut feature. Nick is the son of legendary filmmaker John Cassavetes and actress Gena Rowlands. Rowlands stars alongside Marisa Tomei.

Janet McTeer won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in Motion Picture Comedy or Musical and was nominated for an Oscar as Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in TUMBLEWEEDS which is our next Rialto Recommends choice...

Our next Rialto Recommends is the 1986 LGBT classic DESERT HEARTS from director Donna Deitch with a screenplay by Natalie Cooper based upon Jane Rule's novel. DESERT HEARTS tells the story of straight-edge literature professor Vivian...

Our next Rialto Recommends is another caper flick that we really like - Spike Lee's 2006 film INSIDE MAN starring Christopher Plummer, Jodi Foster, Clive Owen, Denzel Washington, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Willem Dafoe...

We love a good caper flick and our next Rialto Recommends, 2001's THE SCORE, is a good one. Robert De Niro, Edward Norton, Marlon Brando, and Angela Bassett star. An aging thief hopes to retire...

Before he wowed us with his film adaptation of Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnin impressed with his 2010 release I AM LOVE starring the incomparable Tilda Swinton. I AM LOVE is our next Rialto Recommends...

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Something fun for our next Rialto Recommends. Several months ago we recommended Rain Johnson's debut feature Brick. Our recommendation today is his second film THE BROTHERS BLOOM starring Adrien Brody, Paul Rudd and Rachel Weisz...

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Our Rialto Recommends choice for Veterans Day is 1963's THE GREAT ESCAPE from director John Sturges and starring Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenorough, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence and James Coburn...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is MY FAVORITE YEAR and the film was comedic gold when it was released in the Fall of 1982. MY FAVORITE YEAR is a joyful ode to the early days of television...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is 2004's THE SEA INSIDE starring Javier Bardem. Ramón Sampedro (Javier Bardem) is a Spanish ship mechanic and part-time poet who is left a quadriplegic after a diving accident...

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Been sitting on our next Rialto Recommends choice for a while now but today it feels like a good day to recommend this one. Starring Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver, and Frank Langella DAVE is Ivan Reitman's 1993 While House comedy...

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While the baseball season has ended its never too late to enjoy a baseball movie. Our next Rialto Recommends is Bennett Miller's 2011 film MONEYBALL starring Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill...

Something different, definitely indie for our next Rialto Recommends. URBANIA was released in the fall of 2000 after premiering in January of that year at Sundance. Welcome to URBANIA, where your life can change in a second. An enigmatic and engaging young man named Charlie has experienced a trauma...

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I don't know about you, but we need a distraction. Something silly, light, fun and not at all serious. Our next Rialto Recommends DOWN WITH LOVE starring Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor is just the ticket...

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While the votes are being counted and the pundits pundit why not take enjoy a heartwarming story of friendship. Our next Rialto Recommends is Peter Chelsom's 1998 film THE MIGHTY...

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We return to the sometimes wacky world of the Coen Brothers for our next Rialto Recommends. RAISING ARIZONA was their second feature and first to be released a major studio - 20th Century Fox. When a childless couple...

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We finish up our thrills and chills Rialto Recommends suggestions with Ridley Scott's 1979 sci-fi/horror classic ALIEN. In deep space, the crew of the commercial starship Nostromo is awakened from their cryo-sleep capsules...

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In honor of the passing of Sir Sean Connery we are choosing his 1990 film THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER as our next Rialto Recommends. Based on the popular Tom Clancy novel, this suspenseful movie tracks Soviet submarine captain Marko Ramius (Sean Connery)...

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We continue with thrills and chills for our next Rialto Recommends with Alfred Hitchcock's iconic 1963 film THE BIRDS. Chic socialite Melanie Daniels enjoys a passing flirtation with an eligible attorney in a San Francisco...

We continue with thrills and chills in our Rialto Recommends this week with Clint Eastwood's directorial debut PLAY MISTY FOR ME from 1971...

It is the season for the chills and thrills so our next Rialto Recommends is 1967's WAIT UNTIL DARK starring Audrey Hepburn, Alan Arkin and Richard Crenna. After a flight back home, Sam Hendrix returns with a doll he innocently acquired along the way...

Today's Rialto Recommends is a the landmark documentary THE CASE AGAINST 8. A behind-the-scenes look inside the case to overturn California's ban on same-sex marriage...

Several months ago we recommended Rose Troche's directorial debut Go Fish. Our next Rialto Recommends is her second feature the British comedy BEDROOMS & HALLWAYS. A light, soap-operatic satire of shifting sexual orientation from Rose Troche, the director of "Go Fish," this Brit import was a buzz flick...

Following 2013's Lone Survivor director Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg reunited in 2016 along with John Malkovich and Kurt Russell for DEEPWATER HORIZON...

We previously featured director Jocelyn Moorhouse with our selection of The Dressmaker for Rialto Recommends. Today we feature her 1995 film HOW TO MAKE AN AMERICAN QUILT starring Winona Ryder, Ellen Burstyn...

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We have been fans of Aaron Sorkin's work for a long time now and earlier this year we recommended his directorial debut Molly's Game. Our next Rialto Recommends is his new feature THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7...

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Today's Rialto Recommends is a wonderful film that we discovered at TIFF in 2017 which subsequently got lost when it was released theatrically. Starring Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy BREATHE brings to life the inspiring true love story between Robin and Diana Cavendish, an adventurous...

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Last year was the 50th Anniversary of the first moon landing and we loved the documentary APOLLO 11 that was released last year so it is our next Rialto Recommends. Never-before-seen footage...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is filmed version of Heidi Schreck's play WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME. In high school, 15-year-old Heidi Schreck won enough prize money giving Constitution-themed speeches at American Legion halls...

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Jacques Demy elevates the basic drama of everyday life into a soaring opera full of bittersweet passion and playful charm, featuring a timeless performance from Catherine Deneuve in our next Rialto Recommends THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG. Geneviève (Catherine Deneuve), a beautiful young Frenchwoman who works at a small-town boutique selling umbrellas...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is Spike Lee's newest film his in performance film of DAVID BYRNE'S AMERICAN UTOPIA filmed at the Hudson Theatre on Broadway in New York. We had the opportunity to see the show when we were in New York last November and loved it. Helmed in elegant and exhilarating style by Spike Lee...

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In September we were able to participate in this year's virtual Toronto International Film Festival where we saw our next Rialto Recommends choice, THE WAY I SEE IT which follows Pete Souza who was an official White House photographer in the Reagan White House as well as the chief photographer in the Obama White House...

Our next Rialto Recommends is 2013's THE LUNCHBOX from first time director Ritesh Batra. A mistaken delivery in Mumbai's famously efficient lunchbox delivery system (Mumbai's Dabbawallahs) connects a young housewife...

Sometimes good movies don't find the audience they deserve. That was very much the case with the 2006 film LITTLE CHILDREN starring Kate Winslet, Patrick Wilson and Jennifer Connelly...

Tonight is our 200th Rialto Recommends post and our selection for tonight is George Clooney's 2005 gem GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK...

We return to the work of director Steven Soderbergh again with our next Rialto Recommends 2019's THE LAUNDROMAT. When her idyllic vacation takes an unthinkable turn, Ellen Martin begins investigating...

Our next Rialto Recommends is a film that was better received by audiences than it was by critics upon its release in 2001. Directed by Irwin Winkler LIFE AS A HOUSE stars Kevin Kline, Kristin Scott Thomas, Hayden Christianson, Mary Steenburgen, and Jean Malone...

We continue our selection of indie romances with 1996's BEAUTIFUL THING as our next Rialto Recommends. Jamie is a shy teenager...

Our next Rialto Recommends is another indie romance. BETTER THAN CHOCOLATE premiered at LGBT film festivals during the summer of 1999 before going out on a theatrical release in September. Not long after moving into her own place...

It's hard to believe that it has been 20 years since Cameron Crowe's autobiographical film ALMOST FAMOUS premiered in theatres but it has been 20 years. ALMOST FAMOUS is our next Rialto Recommends...

Several months back in our Rialto Recommends we featured Pamela Gray's film A Walk On The Moon. Today our Rialto Recommends is another film that was written by Pamela Gray...

Writer/Director Alan Rudolph made his film debut as a writer/director of his own work in 1977 with Welcome to L.A. Throughout the 80's, 90's and 2000's he continued to forge his own path...

Richard Linklater is one of those directors who has the ability to move from genre to genre, big studio movies like School of Rock to small character gems...

Before Gravity, before Y Tu Mama Tambien, before Roma, Alfonso Cuaron made his North American directorial debut with an adaptation of a beloved children's novel that was nominated for two Academy Awards...

In 1995 writer director Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy made an indie film that captured moviegoer's hearts and has become the first chapter in a trilogy...

Our next Rialto Recommends is Stephen Frears 1985 classic MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE. Stephen Frears was at the forefront of the British cinematic revival of the mid-1980...

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In the late 80's two different film adaptations of Choderlos de Laclos's 1782 four part novel Les Liasons Dangereuses were commissioned. One film version directed by Stephen Frears titled Dangerous Liasons was further based on Christopher Hampton's stage adaptation of the material in 1985. Our next Rialto Recommends is the lesser seen film version VALMONT by Milos Forman and starring Colin Firth...

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Well it's debate season, if you can call it that. So our next Rialto Recommends is Denzel Washington's 2007 film THE GREAT DEBATERS. Poet and professor Melvin B. Tolson (Denzel Washington) teaches at the predominately black Wiley College in 1935 Texas. He decides to start a debate team, something nearly unheard of at a black college. While at first he butts heads with the influential father (Forest Whitaker) of one of his best debators...

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We resume our Rialto Recommends with a bit of cinematic comfort food. WILBY WONDERFUL is a bittersweet comedy about the difference a day makes. Over the course of twenty-four hours, the residents of the tiny island town of Wilby try to maintain business as usual in the face of an emerging sex scandal. Featuring a stellar ensemble of Canada's most talented performers...

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The cinematic world is littered with film adaptations of novels that don't really work. Our next Rialto Recommends is one that did work quite well. Starring Matthew McConaughey as Michael Connelly's recurring character Mickey Haller THE LINCOLN LAWYER dazzled critics and audiences becoming a surprise hit in the Spring of 2011. Mick Haller (Matthew McConaughey) is a charismatic defense attorney...

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Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature 1984's STREETWISE is our next Rialto Recommends. Seattle, 1983. Taking their camera to the streets of what was supposedly America's most livable city, filmmaker Martin Bell, photographer Mary Ellen Mark, and journalist Cheryl McCall set out to tell the stories of those society had left behind: homeless and runaway teenagers living on the city's margins...

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Cinema has the ability to take the complex issues of our world and put a human face on them through powerful storytelling. Which is why we often say "believe in the power of film." Our next Rialto Recommends is 2016's EYE IN THE SKY which premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival...

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Wednesday's eerie reddish-orange skies inspired the selection of our next Rialto Recommends. Released in 2015 Ridley Scott's film THE MARTIAN is smart, thrilling, and surprisingly funny. THE MARTIAN offers a faithful adaptation of the bestselling book that brings out the best in leading man Matt Damon and director Ridley Scott...

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At the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival we saw a powerhouse film that knocked our socks off at a late night screening in the beautiful Elgin Theatre. The film written and directed by Dan Gilroy and starring Jake Gyllenhaal is NIGHTCRAWLER...

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Our next Rialto Recommends puts a musical spin on Shakespeare at an all boys prep school. Tom Gustafson's WERE THE WORLD MINE dazzled audiences at LGBT film festivals in 2008 ahead of a 2009 theatrical release. If you had a love-potion...

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Our Rialto Recommends for Labor Day is LABOR DAY, Jason Reitman's 2014 film based on Joyce Maynard's novel of the same name. Starring Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin, LABOR DAY centers on 13-year-old Henry Wheeler, who struggles to be the man of his house and care for his reclusive mother Adele while confronting all the pangs of adolescence. On a back-to-school shopping trip...

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Our next Rialto Recommends takes us back to Paris and the theatre. From acclaimed French director Jacques Rivette (La Belle Noiseuse), VA SAVOIR (Who Knows?) centers on three men and three women whose lives converge during the run of a play in Paris...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is 2000's THE CUP. While the soccer World Cup is being played in France, two young Tibetan refugees arrive at a monastery/boarding school in exile in India. Its atmosphere of serene contemplation is disrupted by soccer fever, the chief instigator...

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Christopher Nolan's latest film Tenet begins opening at theatres that are allowed to operate around the country this week. Meanwhile our locations continue to be closed by governmental orders. So making lemonade out of lemons, our next Rialto Recommends is a throwback to the spring of 1999...

Our next Rialto Recommends 2011's WE BOUGHT A ZOO is in a category of films that critics like to deride as heartwarming. But we like heartwarming. Don't we all need some joy and cinematic comfort food now and then? Cameron Crowe (Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous) directs an amazing and true story about a single dad who decides his family needs a fresh start...

At the 2005 Sundance Film Festival filmmaker Rian Johnson made an auspicious debut with his dynamite feature BRICK. A twisty mash-up of 40's noir and a Southern California high school set-up, BRICK is our next Rialto Recommends. The log line for the film seems simple: A teenage loner pushes his way into the underworld of a high school crime ring to investigate...

Peter Dinklage, Patricia Clarkson, and Bobby Cannavale star in our next Rialto Recommends 2003's THE STATION AGENT. A sweet and quirky film about a dwarf, a refreshment stand operator, and a reclusive artist connecting with one another...

Our next Rialto Recommends is writer-director Tim Kirkman's little seen 2005 indie LOGGERHEADS. A troubled woman seeks out the child she gave up for adoption; a gay motel owner takes in a handsome drifter...

We were saddened to learn of the passing of Chadwick Boseman who's work we have previously highlighted with our selections of 42 and Marshall. Today our Rialto Recommends is his 2014 portrayal of James Brown in GET ON UP. Based on the incredible life story of the Godfather of Soul, the film will give a fearless look inside the music...

Yesterday we recommended The Young Victoria which looked at the beginning of Queen Victoria's reign. Today our Rialto Recommends is 1997's MRS. BROWN starring Judi Dench as Queen Victoria following the death of Prince Albert...

Before he created Downton Abbey, Julian Fellows wrote a movie called THE YOUNG VICTORIA which starred Emily Blunt and Rupert Friend and was directed by Jean-Marc Vallee. THE YOUNG VICTORIA is our next Rialto Recommends. On the eve of her 18th birthday and succession to the English throne...

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In 2006 Emilio Estevez delivered his long anticipated passion project BOBBY which premiered at the Venice FIlm Festival. The story of the assassination of U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, who was shot in the early morning hours of June 5, 1968 in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California, and twenty-two people in the hotel, whose lives were never the same...

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Our next Rialto Recommends 2011's THESE AMAZING SHADOWS tells the history and importance of The National Film Registry, a roll call of American cinema treasures that reflects the diversity of film, and indeed the American experience itself. The Washington Post raved "Shadows" is an 88-minute valentine to cinema...

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We discovered our next Rialto Recommends in the final days of the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival prior to its 2010 commercial release in theatres. From acclaimed writer/director Faith Akim (Head On, The Edge of Heaven) SOUL KITCHEN is a delicious, free spirited story of food, friends, and rock & roll...

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Bruce Springsteen added director to his list of credits with the film WESTERN STARS which premiered last fall at TIFF. Part concert film, part documentary WESTERN STARS is our next Rialto Recommends. Springsteen performs his critically acclaimed latest...

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Our next Rialto Recommends premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2013. An audacious act of filmmaking, ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW was shot surreptitiously in black and white without permission at Disneyland. In a world of fake castles and anthropomorphic rodents, an epic battle begins when an unemployed father's sanity is challenged...

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Our next Rialto Recommends takes us to Paris in 1936 in the aptly titled PARIS 36. A star is born in a time of both celebration and instability in this historical drama with music from director Christophe Barratier. In the spring of 1936, Paris is in a state of uncertainty; while the rise of the Third Reich in Germany worries many...

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In honor of the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment our next Rialto Recommends is 2015's SUFFRAGETTE. Academy Award nominees Carey Mulligan and Helena Bonham Carter, and three-time Academy Award winner Meryl Streep, lead the cast of a powerful drama about the women who were willing to lose everything in their fight for equality...

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For our 150th Rialto Recommends we have chosen a film that is very close to our owner's heart. Released in 1982 Blake Edwards" VICTOR/VICTORIA was marketed as "the disguise surprise comedy of the year." Starring Julie Andrews, James Garner, Robert Preston and LesleyAnn Warren...

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In 1995 writer/director Richard Linklater's film Before Sunrise premiered. In 2016 first time writer/director Richard Tanne used a similar concept in SOUTHSIDE WITH YOU. SOUTHSIDE WITH YOU chronicles the 1989 summer afternoon when the future President...

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Following his beautiful films The Black Stallion (1979), Never Cry Wolf (1983), and Fly Away Home (1996) legendary director Carroll Ballard returned in 2005 with DUMA which is our next Rialto Recommends. With a deceptively simple log line DUMA is an adventure for everyone...

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Sometimes films don't need great reviews and perfect plots to be entertaining. Sometimes compelling performances from likable leads can help smooth over plot issues. Such is the case with our next Rialto Recommends NOW YOU SEE ME. Released in the summer of 2013...

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Back in June we recommended Dan Ireland's film The Whole Wide World. Today's Rialto Recommends is another film from this talented director and former exhibitor. MRS. PALFRY AT THE CLAREMONT stars Dame Joan Plowright, Rupert Friend...

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Sometimes we need cinematic comfort food. It doesn't have to be groundbreaking. It doesn't have to be big, loud and noisy. But it needs to be relatable. Our next Rialto Recommends fits the bill. THE BROKEN HEARTS CLUB is Greg Berlanti's feature film debut as a writer/director...

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Our next Rialto Recommends selection premiered at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival. When we saw it we quite enjoyed the film. However when it was released in NY/LA at Christmas and nationwide in early January the market was crowded and the film got lost...

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Sometimes a filmmaker will make a film that seems on its surface to be the antithesis of their prior filmography. In 1999 David Lynch pulled off such a feat with the Academy Award nominated THE STRAIGHT STORY. Our next Rialto Recommends...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is 2013's THE WAY WAY BACK. A summer picture in the best sense of the term. THE WAY, WAY BACK is the funny and poignant coming of age story of 14-year-old Duncan's (Liam James) summer vacation with his mother, Pam (Toni Collette), her overbearing boyfriend, Trent (Steve Carell), and his daughter...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is a film we liked a great deal when we saw it at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival prior to its 2014 spring theatrical release. BELLE is inspired by the true story of Dido Elizabeth Belle (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), the illegitimate mixed race daughter of Admiral Sir John Lindsay (Matthew Goode). Raised by her aristocratic great-uncle Lord Mansfield...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is THEIR FINEST. With London emptied of its men now fighting at the Front, Catrin Cole (Gemma Arterton) is hired by the British Ministry of Information as a "slop" scriptwriter charged with bringing "a woman's touch" to morale-boosting propaganda films. Her natural flair quickly gets her noticed by dashing movie producer Buckley (Sam Claflin) whose path would never have crossed hers in peacetime...

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Through the years we've seen many movies that trace their origins to plays. Our next Rialto Recommends won two Tony Awards in 1983 for Best New Play and Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play for its author and star Harvey Fierstein. Adapted into a feature length film in 1988 TORCH SONG TRILOGY was directed by Paul Bogart...

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Sometimes a movie doesn't need to be a great work of art to be enjoyable. A 90 minute or two hour diversion can be just the ticket to nuture one's soul. Our next Rialto Recommends is 2012's PEACE LOVE & MISUNDERSTANDING starring Jane Fonda and Catherine Keener. A comedy about an uptight New York City lawyer who takes her two spirited teenagers...

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Sometimes movies get released in periods of time when there are too many similar films chasing the same audience. This happens particularly in the Fall and Winter with the films aimed at adult audiences. Sometimes talent insists on an awards season release time frame. Sometimes the distributors think a film needs to be in theatres...

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Sean Penn proves himself both a vital director and a great screenwriter in his big screen adaptation of Jon Krakauer's book INTO THE WILD starring Emile Hirsch. 2007's INTO THE WILD is our next Rialto Recommends selection...

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Tonight is my 175th Rialto Recommends which means we've been closed and I've been doing this for 175 days. This Thursday, September 17th marks the beginning of our seventh straight month of closure due to COVID-19...

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From their first feature, Bound to their breathtaking Netflix series Sense8 and the much loved Matrix films, the Warchowski's are visionary filmmakers. Our next Rialto Recommends is their 2012 film CLOUD ATLAS which was co-written and co-directed with another visionary, Tom Tykwer (Run, Lola, Run). CLOUD ATLAS explores how the actions and consequences of individual lives impact one another...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is Preston Sturges' 1941 comedy SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS starring Veronica Lake. Successful movie director John L. Sullivan, convinced he won't be able to film his ambitious masterpiece until he has suffered, dons a hobo disguise...

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"Let the world change you and you can change the world" was the tag line for THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES which is our next Rialto Recommends film. In 1952, two young Argentines, Ernesto Guevara and Alberto Granado, set out on a road trip to discover the real Latin America. Ernesto is a 23-year-old medical student...

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As promised our next Rialto Recommends is CHICO & RITA which like A Cat In Paris was one of two foreign language animated films nominated at the 84th Academy Awards in 2011 for Best Animated Feature. CHICO & RITA is a Spanish adult animated music romantic film with Spanish and English languages directed by Tono Errando...

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The 84th Oscars in 2011 marked the 11th year the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave out an award for Best Animated Feature and the first time that two foreign language animated features were amongst the nominees...

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Some days you just need a good laugh. For those of you that need a laugh about now our next Rialto Recommends is the Coen Brothers 2008 romp BURN AFTER READING starring George Clooney, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton and Brad Pitt. The one sentence description of the plot from IMDB is in itself a Coen Brothers gem: A disk containing mysterious information from a CIA agent ends up in the hands of two unscrupulous and daft gym employees...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is Deepa Mehta's 2006 film WATER. The year is 1938, and Mahatma Gandhi's groundbreaking philosophies are sweeping across India, but 8-year-old Chuyia, newly widowed, must go to live with other outcast widows on an ashram. Her presence...

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We've mentioned before how we enjoy caper films. But sometimes the plot is secondary to the chance to watch great actors make the most of average material. WHERE THE MONEY IS is just such a film. Starring Paul Newman and Linda Fiorentino, WHERE THE MONEY IS is our next Rialto Recommends. Henry Manning (Paul Newman) has come up...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is THE LONG DAY CLOSES the 1992 film from Terence Davies. THE LONG DAY CLOSES is the most gloriously cinematic expression of the unique sensibility of Terence Davies, widely celebrated as Britain's greatest living filmmaker. Suffused with both enchantment and melancholy, this autobiographical film takes on the perspective of a quiet, lonely boy growing up in Liverpool in the 1950s...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is THE LOOKOUT starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Released in the Spring of 2007 THE LOOKOUT marks Academy Award nominated screenwriter Scott Frank's ("Out of Sight"), directorial debut. The intelligent crime drama is centered around Chris, a once promising high school athlete whose life is turned upside down following a tragic accident...

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Between 1968 and 1972, nine American spacecraft voyaged to the Moon, and 12 men walked upon its surface. They remain the only human beings to have stood on another world. Our next Rialto Recommends, IN THE SHAOW OF THE MOON brings together for the first, and possibly the last...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is 2014's THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING starring Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones. Based on the memoir Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen, by Jane Hawking, THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING is the extraordinary story of one of the world's greatest living minds, the renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is a charming romantic comedy about two people who meet when their work brings them into each other's orbit. Starring Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt and directed by Lasse Hallstrom, SALMON FISHING IN THE YEMEN premiered at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival before going...

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It is always wonderful to see a film that transcends it genre to speak to a wider than originally thought audience. The was definitely the case for our next Rialto Recommends. Released in August of 2016 KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS appeared to be another well crafted Laika animated feature. It turned into a film that was embraced by critics...

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Our 120th Rialto Recommends choice was in theatres last November. Directed by Kasi Lemmon (Talk to Me) HARRIET stars Cynthi Erivo in an Oscar nominated performance as American Hero Harriet Tubman. HARRIET tells the extraordinary tale of Harriet Tubman's escape...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is the 2016 film LION starring Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman and Rooney Mara. At the beginning of LION five-year-old Saroo gets lost on a train which takes him thousands of Kilometers across India, away from home and family...

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Over the last twenty years we've shown quite a few below the radar documentaries. Many of them are great films. Today's Rialto Recommends is one of those films. We presented A MAN NAMED PEARL in the summer of 2008...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is another of our favorite Alfred Hitchcock films THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY. We think Variety described THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY best when they said "This is a blithe little comedy, produced and directed with affection by Alfred Hitchcock, about a bothersome corpse that just can't stay buried..."

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Sometimes movies resonate more with audiences than with the critics. That was definitely the case with our next Rialto Recommends. MONA LISA SMILE was released for Christmas in 2003 with a stellar cast that included Julia Roberts, Julia Stiles, Kristen Dunst, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gennifer Goodwin, Dominic West, Juliet Stevenson, Marcia Gay Harden, John Slattery, and Marian Seldes. In 1953, a time when women's roles...

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In honor of Bastille Day our next Rialto Recommends is 1983's LA NUIT DE VARENNES or THAT NIGHT IN VARENNES. It should come as no surprise to anyone watching LA NUIT DE VARENNES that its maker, Ettore Scola, studied law before turning to filmmaking, and became an expert at socially conscious satire and parody...

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The road movie is a classic movie plot that has been used through the decades of cinema. One of our favorite road movies is the original THE MUPPET MOVIE from 1979 which was the first big screen outing for Jim Henson's beloved characters. Of course in the parlance of today THE MUPPET MOVIE...

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Continuing our run of comic films to lift your spirits we bring you one of the funniest LGBT films we have ever seen. Our next Rialto Recommends is 2011's CLOUDBURST starring Olympia Dukakis and Brenda Fricker as an elderly lesbian couple who break out of a nursing home...

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The late Carl Reiner was more known for his television work than for his theatrical features but his first theatrical feature was a major success in 1977. Our next Rialto Recommends is OH GOD! starring the unlikely pairing of George Burns as the Almighty and John Denver as the grocery...

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Sometimes we all need a good laugh. Unfortunately, Hollywood doesn't make screwball comedies like they used to. Our next Rialto Recommends is one of the best screwball comedies ever produced. Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant and a leopard named Baby are the key ingredients in Howard Hawk's BRINGING UP BABY. Originally released in 1938...

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Our next Rialto Recommends happens to the film debut of Reese Witherspoon. In 1991 she starred in a film titled THE MAN IN THE MOON. It is the story of two sisters who fall for the same new neighbor boy in rural Louisiana...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is Ang Lee's 2009 film TAKING WOODSTOCK. Lee's film tells the story of Elliot Tiber and his family, who inadvertently played a pivotal role in making the famed Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the happening that it was. When Elliot...

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Our next Rialto Recommends feature is SMOKE SIGNALS with a screenplay by Sherman Alexie. SMOKE SIGNALS tells a familiar story from an underrepresented point of view, proving that a fresh perspective can help subvert long-established expectations...

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In honor of Ennio Morricone's passing our next Rialto Recommends is 1998's landmark film CINEMA PARADISO. A filmmaker recalls his childhood when falling in love with the pictures at the cinema of his home village...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is both a charming indie and a food movie. EAST SIDE SUSHI (2015) introduces us to Juana, a working-class Latina single mother. Forced to give up her fruit-vending cart in order to find a more secure job, Juana lands a position as a kitchen assistant at a local Japanese restaurant and discovers a whole new world of cuisine and culture...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is Jim Sheridan's 2003 film IN AMERICA, A rich and moving story about an immigrant family adjusting to life in New York. The Detroit Free Press called IN AMERICA "An achingly intimate and beautifully observed account...

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Sometimes independent movies come along that surprise you by being more than what a high-concept pitch line reveals. Such was the case with our next Rialto Recommends Jason Bateman's directorial debut BAD WORDS. Our owner didn't think the movie sounded like much...

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Our next Rialto Recommends takes you to Istanbul viewed through the eyes of its many street cats. KEDI is a cat fancier's dream, but this thoughtful, beautifully filmed look at Istanbul's street feline population offers absorbing viewing for filmgoers of any purr-suasion. The Boston Globe purred "Those who don't especially like cats...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is 2018's thriller WIDOWS. From Academy Award (R)-winning director Steve McQueen ("12 Years a Slave") and co-writer and bestselling author Gillian Flynn ("Gone Girl") comes a blistering, modern-day thriller set against the backdrop of crime...

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With her second feature film as a writer/director Niki Caro created an international profile as one the world's top female directors. Our next Rialto Recommends is that film, her 2003 feature WHALE RIDER. On the east coast of New Zealand, the Whangara people believe their presence there dates back a thousand years or more to a single ancestor...

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Are you ready to rock? Our next Rialto Recommends wants to rock your world. A downtown musical that took NY by storm when it appeared off Broadway, HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH has become a cultural phenomenon. Starring John Cameron Mitchell as the titular character and directed by Mitchell, HEDWIG was written...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is from Bay Area and LGBT film historian Jenni Olson. Her 2015 film THE ROYAL ROAD is a fascinating and unlikely reinvention story. THE ROYAL ROAD simultaneously explores cinematic spiritual channeling, the conquest and colonization of Mexico and the American Southwest, fading historical Californian urban landscapes...

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In 2011 we did a number of Rialto on the Road film festivals at the Sixth Street Playhouse. Our next Rialto Recommends is CIRCO which we presented in the spring. Tino Ponce operates Circo Mexico, which journeys across the Mexican countryside in search of paying customers...

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Our friends at the OUTWatch Film Festival first alerted us to our next Rialto Recommends title and recommend it for our monthly OUTWatch screening series which had to be put on hold due to the pandemic closures. DISCLOSURE: TRANS LIVES ON SCREEN takes an unprecedented look at the depiction of transgender people and experiences throughout the history of film and television...

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Our next Rialto Recommends takes us back to the Spring of 2010 when we presented the wonderful documentary WAKING SLEEPING BEAUTY and the former head of Disney Feature Animation Peter Schneider joined us one evening for a fascinating Q&A about the film and the golden renaissance of Disney feature animation...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is one of those films that came out and then disappeared from theaters all too quickly. Released in January, 1990 Mike Figgis' INTERNAL AFFAIRS stars Richard Gere, Andy Garcia, and Laurie Metcalf. Keen young Raymold Avila (Garcia) joins the Internal Affairs Department...

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It would be baseball season, so for our next Rialto Recommends we have chosen one of the best recent baseball movies 42 starring Chadwick Boseman as Jackie Robinson. "42" tells the story of two men-the great Jackie Robinson and legendary Brooklyn Dodgers GM Branch Rickey-whose brave stand against prejudice...

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We were saddened to learn of the passing of writer/director Joel Schumacher at the age of 80. A director of a number of iconic films as well as a handful of iconic flops Schumacher is also the director who fully leaned...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is a movie that is close to our owner's heart. BIG EDEN is a beautiful coming out story set in a fictional Montana town and film around Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park. Winner of multiple LGBT film festival awards the film went on to a regular theatrical...

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Our next Rialto Recommends celebrates the 45th anniversary of the release of a film that marked a seminal change in the Hollywood studio business model and ushered in the era of the modern studio blockbuster summer movie. Released on over 450 screens (exceptionally wide for the period)...

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We were saddened to learn of the passing of great English actor Ian Holm. Though he is not the lead in the film, our Rialto Recommends is 1994's THE MADNESS OF KING GEORGE from director Nicholas Hynter, whose name you are probably familiar with from his many productions that have been featured in National Theatre Live. Based on Alan Bennett's acclaimed play...

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Several weeks ago we wrote about 80's B movies and provided a couple of our favorite examples. Today our Rialto Recommends is an example of a modern B caper movie that we rather enjoyed when it premiered at TIFF. THE ART OF THE STEAL (not to be confused with the exceptional documentary about the Barnes Collection of the same name from 2009...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is a film our owner has been a supporter of since pre-production. Based on the acclaimed novel SOMETHING LIKE SUMMER the film traces the tumultuous relationship of Ben and Tim, secret high school sweethearts who grow over the years into both adulthood enemies...

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Jon Stewart's second film IRRESISTIBLE comes out later this month, so it seems like a good time to revisit his debut as a feature film writer/director ROSEWATER from the Fall of 2014 which premiered at TIFF ahead of a theatrical launch. In 2009, Iranian Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari was covering Iran's volatile elections...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is the arthouse classic GO FISH from 1995. The selling of GO FISH to distributor The Samuel Goldwyn Company was memorably profiled in film sales rep John Pierson's book "Spike Mike Slackers and Dykes" about taking both GO FISH and Clerks to the 1994 Sundance Film Festival. This hit arthouse ensemble piece traces the romantic and political...

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Dan Ireland (Mrs. Palfry at the Claremont) directs our next Rialto Recommends 1996's THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD. A touching and unusual love story, THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD was based on a memoir by Novalyne Price Ellis...

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Our next Rialto Recommends takes us back to the spring of 2000 when this beautiful Iranian film came out in theatres. THE COLOR OF PARADISE wowed audiences across the country. Director Majid Majidi, whose Bacheha-Ye Aseman/Children Of Heaven was the first Iranian film to be nominated for an American Academy Award...

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Our next Rialto Recommends premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival before going on to theatres later that year. In DOPE, Malcolm (Shameik Moore) is carefully surviving life in a tough neighborhood in Los Angeles while juggling college applications, academic interviews...

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Named after a Sufi word that translates roughly as "breath of life" or "blessing," BARAKA is Ron Fricke's impressive follow-up to Godfrey Reggio's non-verbal documentary film Koyaanisqatsi. Our next Rialto Recommends is a a tour-de-force in 70mm: a cinematic "guided meditation" (Fricke's own description) shot in 24 countries on six continents...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is Jeff Nichol's (Mud) acclaimed 2016 film LOVING. LOVING celebrates the real-life courage and commitment of an interracial couple, Richard and Mildred Loving (portrayed by Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga), who married and then spent the next nine years fighting...

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Somewhere we saw playwright August Wilson referred to as "America's Shakespeare." His ten play The Pittsburgh Cycle certainly has produced some masterpieces. One of those FENCES won both the Pulitzer Prize and the Tony Award for Best Play. In 2016 Denzel Washington directed an acclaimed film adaptation...

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Our next Rialto Recommends is a film that film critics had quibbles with but audiences enjoyed. Starring Chadwick Boseman, Josh Gad, Kate Hudson, Dan Stevens, Sterling K. Brown, and James Cromwell. Director Reginald Hudlin's MARSHALL, is based on an early trial in the career of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall...

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One of the movies we were showing when we had to close our location in Sebastopol was THE BANKER. Inspired by true events, THE BANKER centers on revolutionary businessmen Bernard Garrett (Anthony Mackie) and Joe Morris (Samuel L. Jackson), who devise an audacious and risky plan to take on the racist establishment of the 1960s...

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At the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival the stunning film WAVES premiered. Set against the vibrant landscape of South Florida, and featuring an astonishing ensemble of award-winning actors and breakouts alike, WAVES traces the epic emotional journey of a suburban African-American family--led by a well-intentioned but domineering father...

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In 1997 George Tillman, Jr. directed the movie Soul Food which we loved. In 2018 he directed Audrey Wells adaptation of the young adult novel THE HATE U GIVE and delivers a powerhouse film. In THE HATE U GIVE Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer...

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Our next Rialto Recommends premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last fall before opening in theatres in January of this year. A powerful and thought-provoking true story, "JUST MERCY" follows young lawyer Bryan Stevenson (Jordan) and his history-making battle for justice...

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Our next Rialto Recommends was originally made for the Showtime network but received a theatrical release prior to making its debut on the Showtime network. Directed by Maya Angelou in her feature film directing debut, 1998's DOWN IN THE DELTA stars Alfre Woodard...

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Our Rialto Recommends tonight is Ava DuVernay's stirring 2015 film SELMA. Fueled by a gripping performance from David Oyelowo, Selma draws inspiration and dramatic power from the life and death of Martin Luther King, Jr...

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In honor of Christo's passing our next Rialto Recommends is the 2018 documentary WALKING ON WATER about his Italian project Floating Piers. Bulgarian director Andrey Paounov's documentary chronicles famed environmental artist Christo's first major project...

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Cinema can be a powerful mirror for society. In 1989 Spike Lee delivered a masterpiece in DO THE RIGHT THING. A movie about racism where nobody is right, DO THE RIGHT THING is our next Rialto Recommends selection. Smart, vibrant, and urgent without being didactic, Do the Right Thing is one of Spike Lee's most fully realized efforts...

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Sometimes movies bring to our attention stories about people we didn't know of before or remind us of past events or cause us to look at our past in a different light. Our next Rialto Recommends is 2015's Oscar nominee TRUMBO...

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Our next Rialto Recommends came and went from theatres in 2007 with too little recognition from audiences. TALK TO ME stars Don Cheadle as Petey Green a former convict who becomes an influential DJ in Washington DC and Chiwetel Ejiofor...

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At the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival we discovered a film that we fell in love with and our later engagements of the film went on to become the 3rd and 8th best runs of the film in the country at Rialto Cinemas Elmwood in Berkeley and Rialto Cinemas in Sebastopol. The film is FACES PLACES which chronicles a journey legendary filmmaker...

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Our next Rialto Recommends takes you into a world that could be as close as your own backyard or the meadows and ponds in France where it was filmed. 1996's MICROCOSMOS is documentary of insect life in meadows and ponds, using incredible close-ups, slow motion, and time-lapse photography...

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Indie films come in all shapes and sizes. Yesterday our Rialto Recommends was an indie by superstar director with a big name cast. Today for Rialto Recommends we go 180 degrees in the opposite direction with a film that received some notable acclaim but had very limited theatrical distribution...

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Throughout his career Steven Soderbergh has gone from groundbreaking indie features like his debut film Sex, Lies, and Videotape to slick Hollywood features like his Oceans 11 remake to Oscar fare like Traffic and Erin Brockovich...

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Sometimes you just need to go to Lake Como in the Italian Alps. Our next Rialto Recommends takes you there. 1995's MONTH BY THE LAKE stars Vanessa Redgrave, Edward Fox and Uma Thurman. At a Lake Como resort, Miss Bentley, an attractive older guest, meets a handsome, well-to-do bachelor...

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Friday, May 22nd would have been Harvey Milk's 90th birthday. In 1977, Harvey Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, becoming the first openly gay man to be voted into public office in America. His victory was not just a victory for gay rights...

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As we've mentioned before classic films are a part of our DNA here at Rialto Cinemas so for our next Rialto Recommends we are choosing a classic from 1972 Peter Bogdanovich's WHAT'S UP DOC? starring Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neal that is actually an homage to Howard Hawk's 1939 film Bringing Up Baby...

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There are a number of great food movies, both narrative and documentary. Scrolling through the bountiful offerings on Nexflix JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI caught our eye. Jiro Dreams of Sushi is the story of 85 year-old Jiro Ono, considered by many to be the world's greatest sushi chef. He is the proprietor of Sukiyabashi Jiro...

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I resisted selecting our next Rialto Recommends film as it didn't feel right in March to suggest watching this fine French film about the early days of the AIDS pandemic in Paris during the start of a new pandemic. But with time and positive steps forward...

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Over the years we've shown serious Coen Brothers movies like No Country For Old Men and A Serious Man and some of their less serious films like Burn After Reading. Their 2016 film HAIL, CESAR! is our latest Rialto Recommends selection...

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Our next Rialto Recommends came to our attention via the Sonoma County Jewish Film Festival several years ago the they programmed THE WOMEN'S BALCONY. The women in an Orthodox Jewish community in Jerusalem are appalled when their synagogue gets a strict new rabbi who preaches rigid gender roles. The ladies soon decide to fight back against...

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Our next Rialto Recommends film could easily fall into the category of "Films You've Never Heard Of." A true indie from the 1999 film festival circuit, CHUTNEY POPCORN played regular theatrical engagements in the late summer and early fall of 2000...

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Aaron Sorkin is one of most gifted screenwriters. From movies like The Social Network, Molly's Game, and A Few Good Men (which was based on his play of the same name) to his crackling TV shows like Sports Night...

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Our friend Pamela Gray wrote A WALK ON THE MOON which is our next Rialto Recommends selection. Director Tony Goldwyn's A Walk on the Moon is a wonderfully realized, nostalgic (if you are as old as I am) melodrama set during the summer of 1969. It is a time of change across America--sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll--and a historic year in the space program...

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Before he swept the Oscars this year with his phenomenal film Parasite, Bong Joon Ho wowed us with 2007's The Host and 2014's SNOWPIERCER which is our next Rialto Recommends selection. In this sci-fi epic from director Bong Joon Ho (The Host, Mother), a failed global-warming experiment kills off most...

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Good love stories have both an element of truth and a bit of fantasy in their DNA. Our next Rialto Recommends feature was a big hit on the LGBT film festival circuit in 2007 before going on to theatrical runs and home video. Forced to give up his dreams of art school, Zach works dead-end jobs to support his sister and her son...

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2018 saw Moonlight director Barry Jenkins honored the source material of his second feature with a beautifully filmed adaptation while further strengthening his visual and narrative craft in IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK. Based on James Baldwin's book, IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK is our next Rialto Recommends feature...

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Our next Rialto Recommends film featured the provocative tag line "Let's talk about sex" on its poster art. But far from a titillating sex romp, KINSEY starring Liam Neeson, Peter Sarsgaard and Laura Linney is one of 2004's best films. The Observer raved "The great thing about Kinsey is the triumphant way it entertains...

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During the summer of 1979, a Santa Barbara single mom and boardinghouse landlord (Annette Bening) decides the best way she can parent her teenage son (Lucas Jade Zumann) is to enlist her young tenants - a quirky punk photographer (Greta Gerwig), a mellow handyman...

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Our next Rialto Recommends film is MY WEEK WITH MARILYN starring Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe with a supporting cast that includes Eddie Redmayne, Kenneth Branagh, Julia Ormond, Judi Dench, Emma Watson, Dominic Cooper, and Zoe Wanamaker...

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For our next Rialto Recommends selection we go back to the 80's and a b-picture that movie people used to refer to as programmers. Usually made by independent companies b-pictures and programmers gave a great many filmmakers their initial success...

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Our next Rialto Recommends selection is 2014's joyous film PRIDE starring Imelda Staunton, Bill Nighy, Dominic West, Andrew Scott, Paddy Considine, and many more. PRIDE is inspired by an extraordinary true story. It's the summer of 1984, Margaret Thatcher is in power and the National Union of Mineworkers is on strike...

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Patricia Clarkson takes center stage in CAIRO TIME from 2009. A romantic drama about a brief, unexpected love affair that catches two people completely off-guard. The Seattle Times raves "Clarkson lights up Ruba Nadda's stately drama Cairo Time like the moon on a summer night, making every moment luminous with quiet, resigned longing."

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STRICTLY BALLROOM 1993's feel good arthouse hit from down under is our next Rialto Recommends selection. A top ballroom dancer pairs with a plain, left-footed local girl when his maverick style earns him the disdain of his more conventionally-minded colleagues...

We've got a double feature for you for Earth Day. In THE ELEPHANT QUEEN Athena is a mother who will do everything in her power to protect her herd when they are forced to leave their waterhole. This epic journey, narrated by Chiwetel Ejiofor...

With Earth Day coming up on Wednesday we have a couple of shorter documentaries as our movie choices for Tuesday, April 21st. Our first choice is DANCING WITH THE BIRDS which is streaming on Netflix here. Stephen Fry guides viewers this charming and playful documentary that is suitable for all ages as we journey deep into the forest following...

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MONSOON (England/Vietnam/Romance/Drama) Kit (Henry Golding), a young British Vietnamese man, returns to his birth country for the first time in over 30 years. He was just eight years old when he and his family escaped Saigon...