“Anora” is an exceptional movie, but it’s not even close to perfect. It’s a product of director Sean Baker’s amazing control and also of his lack of control. Yet the film overall is extraordinary and ...

In “Center Stage,” released in May 2000, young Jody Sawyer makes it into the school of the fictional American Ballet Academy in New York, where the company’s star dancer Cooper Nielson casts her in ...

Under the baton of Eun Sun Kim, the San Francisco Opera Orchestra is rehearsing with the epic scope of Richard Wagner’s music in mind. Anja Kampe as Isolde, left, and Annika Schlicht as Brangane ...

In the wistful and vivid “Roman Year: A Memoir,” writer André Aciman relives the isolation that honed his gifts of observation. “Roman Year: A Memoir” by André Aciman. Photo: Farrar Straus & Giroux ...

“We Live in Time” follows a couple (Florence Pugh, left, and Andrew Garfield) over the years of their relationship as they have fun times and deal with terminal illness. Photo: Peter ...

Opening a restaurant is notoriously hard. There are staff to train, vendors to secure, inspections to pass and countless other variables — like a ghost witch who puts live insects in the gourmet foams ...

TheatreWorks’ production of Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon’s “Pride and Prejudice” sequel combines holiday confection, spicy debate and sumptuous visuals. The surprise arrival of Anne (Maggie ...

Private investigator Charlie Rapp (Adam KuveNiemann) samples some cake offered by Truly (Rachel Clausen) in “Yaga” at Marin Theatre. Photo: David Allen/Marin Theatre “Do you have a rash?,” people keep ...

Rainer Eudeikis, left, plays cello with the San Francisco Symphony conducted by Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen in the orchestra’s first performance of Salonen’s Cello Concerto on Friday, Oct. 18.

Brittany Newell, the San Francisco author and professional dominatrix whose new book, “Soft Core,” came out Feb. 4, poses for a portrait in the upstairs office at Aunt Charlie’s Lounge in the ...

Theater and opera director Mary Zimmerman laughs during a rehearsal of “The Matchbox Magic Flute” at Berkeley Rep’s rehearsal studios in Berkeley on Wednesday, Oct. 9. The show is based on the Mozart ...

If you live in California — or anywhere in the West, for that matter — fires are a constant threat, and they’re getting worse by the year. In 2021 alone, two of them, the Caldor and Dixie fires, ...