CONTRIBUTORS The writers

Contributors

Peter Crooks Cinema’s Crystal Ball

What movies have you enjoyed the most this year? My favorite film of 2018, thus far, is Ari Aster’s spectacularly scary Hereditary. After that: Alex Garland’s Annihilation, Paul Schrader’s First Reformed, Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here, Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman. It has been a good year for Oakland on screen with Sorry to Bother You, Blindspotting and Black Panther.

What was the most challenging part of this assignment? I was able to think of a number of films that were prescient in their political content or used the sciencefiction genre to comment on things to come. The challenging part was knowing if I was picking the best examples for the article.

Where has your work appeared before? I’m a longtime senior editor at Diablo magazine and my first book, The Setup: A True Story of Dirty Cops, Soccer Moms, and Reality TV, has been optioned for a feature film adaptation.

Kirsten Jones Neff Doclands

What’s your earliest film memory? My first memorable movie experience was watching The Shaggy D.A. (the sequel to The Shaggy Dog) on the big screen, munching from a brown bag of homemade popcorn. I thought it was the perfect comedy, the perfect popcorn, and an all-around perfect night. I’ve been a movie fiend ever since.

Biggest movie theater pet peeve? I hate it when people let their phones light up, buzz, vibrate and ring in the theater. The other night we were in the luxury loungers and the guy next to me took a call.

Where has your work appeared before? Besides Marin Magazine, my recent work has appeared in Edible Marin & Wine Country, Modern Farmer, Stanford Magazine, Ms. Magazine, GreatSchools.org, and Grown and Flown, among other print and digital publications.

Zack Ruskin Paul Dano; Book vs. Movie; Test Your Film IQ

Do you have an MVFF memory that stands out in particular? So many contenders, but I’ll always remember seeing Spotlight in 2015 and instantly knowing with complete certainty that I’d just seen the film that would win that year’s Academy Award for Best Picture. My intuitions were correct.

What’s your favorite movie that features the Bay Area? While it’s hard not to go with Vertigo, I’m extremely partial to the 1997 David Fincher film The Game. What could possibly top Michael Douglas plunging into the San Francisco Bay while trapped in a taxicab?

Where has your work appeared before? My writing has appeared in Vanity Fair, Billboard, the San Francisco Chronicle, Paste, Bandcamp, San Francisco Weekly, Maxim, Uproxx, Everfest, and more. Follow me on Twitter @zackruskin.