Our favorite movie theaters are closed, necessarily but depressingly, though the month will come when they reopen. (And the concession stands will sell out of popcorn and Junior Mints within hours, I predict.) Until that glorious day, weâre reliant on home entertainmentâchess and Monopoly are OK if you wash your hands regularly, but no Twister, please!âwhich for most people, my little joke notwithstanding, means watching images on a screen. And that means streaming.
With our favorite haunts largely off-limits, I dove into the platforms in search of San Francisco-set films that would (virtually) put us back on the streets. Perhaps itâs not surprising that I was mostly drawn to paranoid thrillers which are scarily relevant right now and may be too horrifying to âenjoyâ in the not-too-distant future. If you donât find fear cathartic, well, I promise to amass a list of comedies for the next installment.
D.O.A., 1949Amazon Prime Poisoned in a San Francisco bar while on holiday, doomed small-town accountant Edmond OâBrien races to discover the hand behind his fate in this pitiless 1949 noir.
Zodiac, 2007Amazon Prime Death is delivered by another phantom in David Fincherâs moody, manipulative movie about the hunt for the killer who spread terror once upon a time in Northern California.
Dirty Harry, 1971Netflix If youâre in need of a happy ending, where âjusticeâ prevails, revel in Clint Eastwoodâs reactionary, renegade S.F. cop with a gift for catchphrases. Don Siegelâs exploitative film tapped into the law-and-order zeitgeist in 1971 and spawned four sequels, but itâs not a very good movie.
The Birds, 1963Amazon Nature comes a-knock-knock-knocking on Bodega Bay doors in Alfred Hitchcockâs perfect, and perfectly brilliant, 1963 classic.
We Were Here: The AIDS Years in San Francisco, 2011Kanopy David Weissmanâs powerhouse 2011 documentary finds inspiration in the gutsy response of ordinary San Franciscans to the devastatingly lethal virus.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1978Amazon Prime Philip Kaufman reimagined Don Siegelâs McCarthy-era indictment of groupthink as a New Age bad trip in (where else?) post-hippie San Francisco. Imagine seeing it in a S.F. theater when it opened, a month after Jonestown.
OK, thatâs enough dark fare (for now). Let Robin Williams, and the sunshine, in.
Mrs. Doubtfire, 1993HBO Williamsâ stardom gave him leverage, which he used to prod studios into shooting his movies in San Francisco. (It gave local folks lots of work, in addition to reducing the starâs commute to the set.) This flick is still paying dividends, attracting visitors from all over to the city and the house where it was shot. Well, it did. And it will again.
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