If you are new to SF and want to navigate the city as seen on the big screen, or just want some movie recommendations, here’s a list of the best movies based in San Francisco:
1.The Princess Diaries
This Disney classic follows a shy San Francisco teenager Mia Thermopolis (Anne Hathaway) as she learns of her new royal status and tries to navigate princessship. You can visit many of the local filming locations such as Mia’s Firehouse home, her school, and many more.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzcGwB7qat8
2. Gattaca
If you like dystopian or speculative fiction stories, or just like hot people, this is the movie for you. Vincent Freeman (Ethan Hawke) has long wanted to fly to space but is limited by his status as a genetically inferior. He defies his fate by obtaining Jerome Morrow’s (Jude Law) “valid” DNA. He then joins the Gattaca space program, but his preparations are complicated by the murder of a Gattaca officer. Although this movie is set in a dystopian future, The exteriors, and some interiors, of the Gattaca complex were filmed at Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1960 Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael, California.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_KruQhfvW4
3. Zodiac
If you are a true crime gal like me, you have probably already seen this one. The film was based on two non-fiction books by Robert Graysmith that detailed the killer’s biography as well as his own investigations into the killings. Zodiac follows San Francisco cops, reporters, and a political cartoonist as they attempt to bring the Zodiac killer to justice. Some of the SF filming locations include Original Joe’s Italian Restaurant, the Earl Warren Building, and the San Francisco Chronicle.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNncHPl1UXg
4. The Last Black Man In San Francisco
This is an A24 film about Jimmie, a young Black man, raised in his grandfather’s Victorian mansion in San Francisco. The plot is based on Jimmie Fails’ own family. In a rapidly changing San Francisco, Jimmie and his friend attempt to re-obtain their house. Their adventure puts their relationship and feeling of belonging in their hometown to the test. You can visit many of the Victorian homes shown in the movie as well as Shipwright’s cottage/docks.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0FnJDhY9-0
5. Big Hero 6
For animation lovers, Big Hero 6 explores San Fransokyo, since San Francisco was rebuilt by Japanese immigrants utilizing seismic-resistant technology. The movie is about Hiro, a robotics prodigy, Tadashi, his older brother, and Baymax, a robot whose only job is to care for people. Baymax and his friends become a group of high-tech heroes when Hiro is drawn into a perilous plot by a devastating turn of events.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3biFxZIJOQ
6. Diary Of A Teenage Girl
(One of my personal favorites) A precocious 15-year-old begins her enthusiastic sexual odyssey with her mother’s boyfriend in 1970s San Francisco. The beginning of the film occurs at the nexus of the emerging punk rock scene and the waning hippie movement, so the soundtrack is great. In the distance, news reports about the Patty Hearst trial can be heard. Young artist Minnie struggles with low self-esteem. Her creative, occasionally drug-induced imagination frequently distorts reality and she descends into teenage chaos as the plot thickens.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9LNsSjnqBM
