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If you’re looking for a sweet romance bookended in tender, cuddly moments, better run far away from “Love Lies Bleeding.” But we liked its daring wild-at-heart, R-rated ways. We also fell for the R-rated coming-of-age comedy “Snack Shack,” featuring a breakthrough performance from talented San Jose native Conor Sherry. He’s an actor on the rise, and deserves to be. And while we loved Annette Bening in “Apples Never Fall,” we found that, at its core, the domestic potboiler was one bad apple of a limited series. But we…

From side-splitting stage comedies to a mandolin love story and a look at Ayesha Curry’s burgeoning acting career, there is a lot to see and do this weekend in the Bay Area. Here is a partial rundown. Theater picks: ’39 Steps,’ hoop dreams, ‘Mean Girls’ Here are three productions Bay Area theater fans should know about. Hitchcock on speed: Alfred Hitchcock’s iconic works are ripe for satire, and one of the most consistently amusing of these is getting a new production by San Francisco Playhouse. “The 39 Steps,” by Simon…

Whether or not you’re celebrating the Luck of the Irish, this weekend has plenty of charms to offer, from great movies, concerts and shows to a most appropriate brewery day trip. So let’s get to it, shall we? As always, be sure to double check event and venue websites for any last-minute changes in health guidelines. Meanwhile, if you’d like to have this Weekender lineup delivered to your inbox every Thursday morning for free, just sign up at www.mercurynews.com/newsletters or www.eastbaytimes.com/newsletters. 1 SEE &…

When Emma Stone’s name was announced Sunday night as the winner of best actress at the 96th Academy Awards, she looked genuinely stunned, as many pundits had said that Lily Gladstone was the frontrunner and predicted she would make history as the first Native American woman to win an acting Oscar. But in the run-up to Sunday’s ceremony, some awards watchers were skeptical. They expressed doubt that Gladstone would achieve this historic milestone and not because she didn’t give a superb performance in “Killers of the…

LONDON (AP) — Atom bomb epic “Oppenheimer” won seven prizes, including best picture, director and actor, at the 77th British Academy Film Awards on Sunday, cementing its front-runner status for the Oscars next month. Gothic fantasia “Poor Things” took five prizes, and Holocaust drama “The Zone of Interest” won three. Chart: How the BAFTAs stacked up against this year’s other major film awards Christopher Nolan won his first best director BAFTA for “Oppenheimer,” and Cillian Murphy won the best actor prize for playing…

Celeste Glazer, left, walks with her daughter Bridget, right, 15, in Capitola, Calif., on Friday, Dec. 29, 2023. Glazer was nearly swept into the ocean Thursday in Capitola, but her gymnast daughter Bridget saved her.  (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group)  It was Celeste Glazer’s athletic daughter Bridget who saved her from a potential watery grave in Capitola this week, but it was 21st-century technology that saved the San Jose biotechnology executive’s phone. Glazer and seven family members had evacuated Thursday morning…

Once upon a time, there was this dapper lad – an astute chocolate connoisseur – who went on a quest to come up with the right recipe for the best sweets. That could serve as the opening line for a novelization of one of this holiday season’s most anticipated confections, “Wonka,” director Paul King’s eye-popping origin story for the iconic character, Willy Wonka, created by author Roald Dahl. He’s that quirky guy and talented chocolatier who stole the show in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” The film opens Friday.…

Local Dungeness crab is off the Christmas menu. And probably the New Year’s one also. California Fish and Wildlife officials have again delayed the start of the state’s commercial Dungeness crab fishing season. The risk of whales becoming tangled in crab fishing gear remains high for most of the coastal waters from the Mendocino County line south to the Mexican border, director Charlton H. Bonham announced Thursday night. In addition, the state reported a recent confirmed entanglement of a leatherback sea turtle in…

It’s time once again to find Zuzu’s petals, say “Merry Christmas!” to the Emporium and scratch our heads over how scatterbrained Uncle Billy kept a job for so long. For the first time since December 2019, Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” is returning to the Stanford Theatre in Palo Alto for Christmas Eve. The two Dec. 24 screenings — at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. — will cap a month of holiday favorites (and Deanna Durbin movies) with a lineup that includes “Show Boat” (Nov. 25-26); “It Started With Eve” (Dec. 2-3); “White…

Sometimes, it’s the little things that make a weekend perfect. A warm-hearted comedy to take the edge off. Or the exact-right beer to serve with that heavenly slice of pizza. We’ve got both on tap here, and more, so let’s dive in, shall we? Note that if you are headed into San Francisco, the massive APEC international conference running Nov. 11-19 is going to pose traffic issues. More about that is here. And here is a map detailing the more heavily affected areas. And, as always, be sure to double check event and venue…