If there's such a thing as a French heimat movie-like the German genre that seeks that nation's heartland—Emmanuelle Bercot's On My Way (Elle S'en va) is it. The star is Catherine Deneuve, but her half-century career in films isn't treated as stuffy material to be honored. It's a playful, loose film with no queening allowed. Deneuve is a prime center for such an examination of France. She once had a government job modeling for the French Republic's Marianne emblem, which is as if the U.S. State Department had hired Bruce Willis to pose as a bald eagle. » Read More

Pretty damned bad. Another example of 2014 CG used to animate 1974's science fiction ideas. After an overlong TED-talk lecture about the importance of AI, Lawrence Livermore scientist Will Caster (a colorless Johnny Depp) is shot with a poisoned bullet by anti-technology terrorists. With the help of Evelyn (Rebecca Hall), his "partner in life and work" as she describes herself, Caster is uploaded first into a program, and then into the Internet. » Read More

When Demone Carter broadened his job description from rapper to rapper/youth arts mentor a decade ago, he was struck by the alarming lack of multicultural leadership in the nonprofit world. A few years later, a study confirmed that observation: fewer than 10 percent of nonprofits are led by people of color. The statistics look worse for boards of directors. » Read More

On a list of places best known for play-Aspen, the Hamptons, Palm Springs-Silicon Valley stands out as a region proud of its renown for work. The Hamptons Expo Group, which holds art fairs in all of the aforementioned spots, as well as in Houston, zeroed in on Silicon Valley as the next logical spot for such an event, because the monetary rewards of all of that work have created an area filled with potential art collectors. » Read More

Every few months or so, I take a moment to pause and reflect on one of the few things in my life that causes me profound and unshakable gratitude. Thank God, or whatever benevolent force there may be in this universe, I think to myself, that Twitter did not exist when I was in high school. Of course, this introspection isn't without cause. Every few months, there seems to arise a new chunk of evidence—or at least a new wave of think pieces—about how the Internet is ruining the lives of young women. » Read More

Earlier this week saw the opening of Shirlie Montgomery: Picturing San Jose Since 1938, a photo exhibit of works by the late local legend, who passed away in 2012 at the age of 94. A freelance photographer for most of the 20th century, Montgomery documented celebrities, politicians, notable folk around town and, especially, professional wrestling during the '40s, '50s and '60s. » Read More

The mid-20th Century was Santa Clara Valley's defining era. It transformed a charming, blossoming agricultural region into an industrial powerhouse. That critical age's physical remnants, out of short-term financial expediency, are being deleted from the landscape's memory files. IBM's modernist Building 25 burned down a few years ago. The Retro Dome was demolished, and the Century domes on Winchester Boulevard are staring down the barrel of the same cruel fate. » Read More