Celebrating Van Sant’s S.F. films

Gus Van Sant broke into the feature-film game with “Mala Noche,” a raw, dirtcheap and uncompromising movie about a gay store clerk and his complicated relationship with two young Mexican men. But he found his way into San Francisco’s heart with “Milk,” the Oscar-nominated film about Harvey Milk.

“Mala Noche” is more than 30 years old, and while “Milk” is only 10, it’s already one of the greatest San Francisco movies. Oh, how time flies.

The two films make up an excellent double feature in 35mm at the Roxie Theater on Sunday, July 15. Good to see also, because Van Sant’s newest, the excellent biopic “Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot,” opens later this month.

Van Sant stopped by San Francisco recently when that film, about the late quadriplegic cartoonist John Callahan (played by Joaquin Phoenix), closed the SFFilm festival; read more about it in The Chronicle on Wednesday, July 18.

Laura Morton / Special to The Chronicle 2008 Sean Penn plays Harvey Milk in “Milk” at San Francisco’s Civic Center Plaza.