Category: movie (Page 3 of 7)

A soccer film festival to kick off (get it?) in Portland

August 3, 2012 / Mad About Movies

A festival of films about soccer celebrates the rich tradition of passionate rivalries.

Guess who won: fans of the Mexican and US soccer teams from "Gringos at the Gate"

Even if the Portland Timbers sophomore season in Major League Soccer hasn't been an on-field success, you certainly can't say it's lacked drama. And there's nothing quite so dramatic as a rivalry match such as the September 15 visit of the Seattle Sounders.

In anticipation of that epochal tilt, a film festival that has been making appearances in New York and England is coming to Portland for three nights of movies and storytelling. Kicking + Screening will be held at Northwest Portland's Urban Studios on September 13 and 14 and feature films on the theme of soccer rivalries.

The fare includes the feature films "Argentina Futball Club," about the legendary competition between the Buenos Aires clubs Boca Juniors and River Plate, and "Gringos at the Gate," a look at the growing rivalry between the men's national teams of the United States and Mexico.

The festival will launch on September 12 with an evening of storytelling entitled K+S Word, in which fans, players and observers of the beautiful game will share tales of great iivalry matches they have known. Time and location for that event still TBD.

Auteur! Auteur! In ‘Total Recall’ and ‘The Bourne Legacy,’ the printed page informs the screen.

August 3, 2012 / Mad About Movies

Sometimes -- rarely -- the principal creative force of a movie is an honest-to-heavens writer.

Bourne again: Jeremy Renner in "The Bourne Legacy"

We speak of film most often as a director's medium, although sometimes we allow that producers or actors have an important say in the way a movie turns out, and, more rarely, when we're feeling magnanimous, we even look to screenwriters as the most crucial innovator in movies.

But only in literature-and-film classes, it seems, do we speak of the writers of the books and stories on which films are based as having a true authorial stamp on the movies. We don't, for instance, think of the "Harry Potter" films as a series of J. K. Rowling movies, or the "Twilight" films as being the expression of the aesthetic notions of Stephenie Meyer. And yet those wildly popular movies would be unimaginable, in any shape or form, without the books that preceded them.

They're not the only ones, of course. Since the silent era, filmmakers have turned to books -- classic and contemporary, literary and popular -- as sources for new movies. And as a result, some authors of fiction who never considered writing screenplays have wound up with sizeable catalogues of films derived from their books.

There are authors who seem as though they write as a preamble to seeing their books transformed into movies, and a large portion of what they publish finds its way to the screen (take a bow, Elmore Leonard). Others create their works with no apparent concern for film adaptations and yet draw the attention of moviemakers more often than one might expect (are your ears burning, Philip Roth?). And there are certain writers whose work is made into films that never quite capture the quintessence that makes the books so alluring (Jack Kerouac, sigh).

Recalled: Colin Farrell in "Total Recall"

These musings are occasioned by two late-summer releases, the sci-fi remake "Total Recall," now in theaters, and the spy thriller "The Bourne Legacy," which opens on Friday, August 10.

The new "Total Recall," like the 1990 film of the same title and plot, is adapted from a short story called "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" by Philip K. Dick, the renegade author whose complex works have formed the basis of such movies as "Blade Runner," "Minority Report," and "A Scanner Darkly."

"The Bourne Legacy" is the fourth film based on the character and spy world milieu imagined by author Robert Ludlum in his novels "The Bourne Identity," "The Bourne Supremacy" and "The Bourne Ultimatum," all of which have been made into hit films. A novel by the name "The Bourne Legacy" was written by Eric Van Lustbader in 2004, three years after Ludlum's death, but the new film, according to its director and co-writer Tony Gilroy, is not an adaptation of that book but is, rather, inspired, like Van Lustbader's seven "Bourne" novels, by elements of Ludlum's work.

Right there, of course, we have two differing attitudes toward the authors whose books originated the movies. The folks behind the new "Total Recall" have, at least nominally, gone back to Dick's story as if the 1990 film didn't exist, restoring some elements which that film dropped and erasing changes that its screenwriters added to Dick's original. The creators of "The Bourne Legacy," on the other hand, have avowed no specific affinity to the original other than the title the setting and some general thematic elements, just as Van Lustbader was, in a sense, writing what Ludlum might have had he lived to create more Bourne books. (Indeed, Van Lustbader actually continued the story of the spy Jason Bourne, whereas the lead character in the new "Bourne Legacy" film has a different name altogether.)

Philip K. Dick

In some sense, these approaches ideally suit the authors to whom they've been applied. Dick, who died in 1982, is a notoriously knotty and perverse writer whose films mix themes of spirituality, libertarianism, paranoia, drug abuse, despair, sexual infidelity and totalitarian government. He is categorized as a science-fiction writer, but, truly, he's sui generis: there are Philip K. Dick books, and there are other books.

It's actually wondrous that so many films have been made from Dick's works, which were never particularly hot-sellers in his life time (add to the above list such movie titles as ("Paycheck," "Next," "Imposter," and "The Adjustment Bureau"). Dick never wrote for TV or the movies, but he's had more films made from his books and stories than Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke or Robert A. Heinlein, all of whom outsold him in print by large margins.

Perhaps it's because Dick's heirs have made his writings readily available to filmmakers (Clarke, in contrast, was notorious for resisting adaptations of his works). But it seems, too, that Dick's vision of future society as a spiritually abject place dominated by thought-controlling governments and humanity as a victim of its own ability to empathize or remember resonates with contemporary directors as diverse as Ridley Scott ("Blade Runner"), Steven Spielberg ("Minority Report") and Richard Linklater ("A Scanner Darkly").

In hindsight, Dick's signature on those film is stronger than those of the filmmakers, on whose resumes the Dick adaptations stand out as curious tangents. (Was Spielberg, for instance, ever so hopelessly dark as in "Minority Report"?) True, the movies based on Dick's works have been, like the books and stories, something less than blockbusters, even when they've been really great. But it's no stretch to say that Dick is the auteur of these films, the two "Total Recalls" included, rather than the directors whom we might normally credit as the presiding geniuses of them. And that -- like Dick's canonization in the Library of America, which has devoted three volumes to him -- seems kind of a triumph.

Robert Ludlum

Ludlum (and, more pointedly, Bourne), on the other hand, seems more like a brand name on which the filmmakers have hung a big-budget production. Just as happened with Ian Fleming's James Bond novels and stories, the "Bourne" books that Ludlum wrote have been exhausted and now the movies, as did his publishers, have asked new talents to come on board and continue the series without him.

You can't blame them for carrying on: Ludlum's novels are reckoned to have sold as many as 500,000 copies around the world. And while the efforts to capture their energy on screen in the '80s ("The Osterman Weekend," "The Holcroft Covenant") were only spottily successful, the three "Bourne" made with Matt Damon since 2002 grossed nearly $1 billion worldwide and were stirring fun to boot. Continuing that legacy is exactly the sort of thing Hollywood studios do. Add to that the fact that Ludlum's heirs, like Dick's, haven't exactly kept the author's name sacrosanct, and the door is wide open for sequels that are merely inspired, like many James Bond films, by the original works.

In the end, neither approach is preferable. You can make a rotten film that's faithful to a brilliant novel or an exciting film out of a lousy one. You can celebrate an author's genius by giving cinematic life to his or her creations as they were written or you can turn a hack into a movie hero by improving his or her words as you adapt them to the screen. And if the author's fans don't like what you've done, they can always return to the books. Because, in the movies, in the beginning is almost always the word.

Levy’s High Five, August 3 – 9

August 2, 2012 / Mad About Movies

The five films playing in Portland-area theaters that I'd soonest see again.

Kara Hayward and Jared Gilman (and Jason Schwartzman's head) in "Moonrise Kingdom"

1) "Beasts of the Southern Wild" A dreamy and joyous film about life, death, hope, dreams and wonder on an island in the Mississippi Delta. The miraculous young Quevezhané Wallis stars as Hushpuppy, a wee girl who experiences life in the feral community known as the Bathtub as a stream of wonder and delight, even though her dad (Dwight Henry) is gruff, her mom is absent and a killer storm is bearing down on her home. Writer-director Behn Zeitlin, in his feature debut, combines poetry and audacity in ways that recall Terrence Malick, but with a light and spry touch. Still, all his great work pales in comparison to the stupendous little Wallis, whom you'll never forget. Cinema 21, Kiggins

3) "The Story of Film: An Odyssey" Irish filmmaker Mark Cousins has gumption, all right. He has crafted a 15-hour tour through the century-plus of cinema, all over the world, filled with cranky opinions, beguiling finds, glimpses of forgotten history and interviews with accomplished masters. Starting with Edison and the Lumière brothers and ranging to the modern day, touching on all continents, this is an informative, enlightening and remarkably entertaining history, in the vein of Martin Scorsese's "A Personal Journey Through American Film." Cousin's epic screens throughout August in five three-hour chunks, starting this weekend. Visit the Northwest Film Center, which is presenting, for full details.

4) "Ai WeiWei: Never Sorry" A documentary that feels as current as a news alert on your smart phone. American director Alison Klayman was granted remarkable access to the famed Chinese artist and activist Ai WeiWei, peering into his atelier and private life and traveling with him to exhibitions in Europe and public-interest investigations in Sichuan. She reveals a robust, lusty, bold, and playful spirit, a man with voracious appetites, fearless convictions, and a spry aesthetic. The film goes backward to tell the story of Ai's father, a noted poet crushed in the Cultural Revolution, and takes us to the brink of Ai's 2011 arrest on charges of tax evasion -- a matter which has only been (partly) resolved this summer. An invigorating and intimate portrait. Living Room Theaters

5) "Bernie” It’s a term of deep praise to note that writer-director Richard Linklater (deepbreath: “Slacker,” “Dazed and Confused,” “Before Sunrise,” “Before Sunset,” “Waking Life,” “School of Rock”) is capable more than any contemporary American filmmaker of making terrific movies about nearly nothing. Here, working with a based-on-truth story, he gives us life in the small East Texas town of Carthage, where a beneficent funeral director (Jack Black) and a mean, wealthy widow (Shirley MacLaine) become unlikely chums and companions...under she mysteriously goes missing. Linklater weaves the dramatized version of the story with dry and deft interviews of actual Carthaginians (is that what they’re called?) and even several musical numbers in a perfect frappe of a black comedy. Hollywood Theatre, Mission Theater

‘Ai WeiWei: Never Sorry’ review: a portrait of the artist as moving target, in nearly-real time

August 2, 2012 / Mad About Movies

A documentary about the Chinese artist and dissident has a breaking-news immediacy.

Ai WeiWei in "Ai WeiWei: Never Sorry"

Few movies can claim to be ripped from the headlines in the fashion of “Ai WeiWei: Never Sorry,” a portrait of the Chinese artist and activist most famous for his work on the Beijing Olympic stadium (aka the Bird’s Nest) and his cheeky attacks on his government on his massively popular Twitter feed. In 2011, Ai was held for months by Chinese authorities on charges of tax evasion that were widely believed to be a means of stifling his brazen anti-government speech and activities; only this summer was he granted bail and the permission to leave Beijing, with many restrictions on what he may say and do.

The career, private life and personality of the provocateur who brought such unwelcome attention on himself is the subject of an absorbing film by Alison Klayman, a journalist to whom Ai granted extremely close access both in his workplace and in his home.

Klayman’s film chiefly captures Ai in real-time: creating new works for exhibits in London, New York and Munich, agitating for governmental accountability in the wake of the Sichuan earthquake of 2008, fighting off art critics, censors and bureaucrats, balancing a complex family life, eating his favorite meals. But she looks backward as well, to tell the story of his father, Ai Qing, a noted poet who suffered during the Cultural Revolution, and to track Ai’s formative years as a young artist in New York.

You come away with an appreciation of the abstraction, scale and daring of Ai’s art and, even more, a sense of the living man in his courage, humor and restlessness. It’s an invigorating experience.

(91 min., R, Living Room Theaters) Grade: B-plus

‘The Queen of Versailles’ review: you know, maybe there IS such a thing as being too rich….

August 2, 2012 / Mad About Movies

A portrait of a family building a 90,000-square foot house gives life to the cliche "filthy rich."

Jackie and David Siegel in "The Queen of Versailles"

Watching “The Queen of Versailles” you don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Lauren Greenfield’s documentary is a portrait of the Siegels, David and Jackie and their eight kids, who have put some of the mega-millions they’ve made on the world’s largest time share resort business toward construction of the largest private home in the United States (90,000 square feet! 17 bathrooms! 10 kitchens!) and then watched their dreams of glory crumble along with the post-2008 economy. Not only is their unfinished dream home increasingly beyond their means, the house they live in is threatened, along with David’s business.

The sheer lavishness of the Siegels’ lifestyle can appall: a pet lizard dies for want of food and at least one of the kids is surprised to learn that the poor thing lived among them at all; Jackie stupefies a car rental clerk at a small airport by asking for the name of the chauffeur whom she assumes comes with her vehicle; a Christmas shopping spree results in several SUV loads of needless junk.

Superficially, the couple aren’t exactly advertisements for some Fair Play for the One Percent movement. Jackie, with her $17,000 purses, artificially enhanced physique, and taste for massive take-out orders from McDonald’s, is a cartoon trophy wife; David is a slob and a lecher and something of a misanthrope who credits himself with winning Florida for George W. Bush in 2000 and shrugs off the Iraq War with an “oops.”

But Greenfield pierces the vulgar and easy-to-mock façade and gives us a more human and decent portrait. No, we never feel that the Siegels deserve their Xanadu. But at the same time we’re abashed to see them ground down, and in their oldest daughter and David’s adult son from a previous marriage we see that they have managed to teach compassion and loyalty and a work ethic -- a job well done.

Yes, “The Queen of Versailles” offers the undeniable fun of seeing a rich fellow getting his top hat knocked off with a snowball. But it takes pains, too, to show us how embarrassing and painful that comeuppance is for the victim, which ought to temper our schadenfreude somewhat.

(100 min., PG, Fox Tower) Grade: B

‘Ruby Sparks’ review: a writer’s dream girl turns into a nightmare

August 2, 2012 / Mad About Movies

A lonely man dreams up the perfect sweetie, then wishes he hadn't.

Paul Dano in "Ruby Sparks"

“Ruby Sparks” is a fantasy romcom that’s chiefly notable for its acknowledgement that what we want most in love might actually be bad for us.

Paul Dano stars as a boy-genius author who’s been unable to write a second book for years and is friendless -- and, chiefly, girlfriend-less -- to boot. His psychiatrist (Elliott Gould) suggests he write about the girl of his dreams, and so ardently does he take to the task that he actually whips her up, in the flesh, out of his imagination and typewriter.

This is a scenario out of a Woody Allen comedy, but screenwriter Zoe Kazan, who also stars as the magical girl, ventures into the darker implications of domination, free will, and possession suggested by the set-up. Directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris don’t quite blend the somber and frivolous as breezily as in their “Little Miss Sunshine,” but they construct certain moments from all ends of the emotional spectrum well.

Dano is nicely flustered and plausibly dark, and he plays well off of Kazan (his real-life girlfriend), the droll Gould and, especially, Chris Messina as his smarmy brother. If “Ruby Sparks” doesn’t warm you much or form a seamless whole, it’s nevertheless got pieces that you can genuinely admire.

(104 min., R, Fox Tower) Grade: B

‘Klown’ review: boy-men will be boy-men

August 2, 2012 / Mad About Movies

A gross-out comedy from Denmark has laughs but little heft.

One-and-a-half men: "Klown"

In "Klown," Danish TV comedians Casper Christensen and Frank Hvam join the ranks of Sacha Baron Cohen and the "Jackass" mob by turning their antics into a semi-improvised comedy about the vulgar and sometimes very funny antics of confused men behaving like witless boys.

Married Casper is planning on a weekend at a brothel and wants to bring uptight Frank along. But Frank, to score points with his pregnant sweetheart, drags along her pudgy nephew, which you would think would curtail Casper's coarsest and most explicit plans -- but, then, of course, you'd be thinking, which is something that people in comedy of this stripe don't often do.

There are real laughs in the film, yes, and enough sex and scatology to make anyone in the Apatow-verse blush. It isn't art, it's will-o-the-wisp thin, but it might well make you squirt your soda through your nose. And as there seem to be a number of people willing to pay good money for that sensation, there's glory for you!

(89 min., R, Hollywood Theatre) Grade: B-minus

A Peripheral Produce reunion, Governor ‘Conan’, an ‘Angry Inch’ and more

August 2, 2012 / Mad About Movies

New releases in Portland-area theaters not reviewed in this week's A&E.

“Auto-Cinematic Video Mixtape” The dormant experimental film collective Peripheral Produce reemerges for a screening of its very rare 1996 compilation video, soon on DVD, featuring early works from Miranda July, Jon Raymond and Vanessa Renwick, among others. New films, too! (Hollywood Theatre, Saturday only)

“Canyon Cinema Avant-Garde Fest” A selection of short films from the famed underground distributor, including works by Stan Brakhage and Jay Rosenblatt. (5th Avenue Cinema, Friday through Sunday only)

“Conan the Barbarian” An actor who would later become governor of California wields a sword in this Robert E. Howard adaptation hosted by Cort and Fatboy. (Bagdad Theater, Friday only)

“Donor Milk” Documentary about the issues surrounding breastfeeding. (Hollywood Theatre, Wednesday only)

“Grey Matter” Experimental film from Rwanda. (Northwest Film Center, Sunday only)

“Hedwig and the Angry Inch” Rooftop screening of the great, kinky John Cameron Mitchell musical film. (Northwest Film Center, Thursday only)

“Home: The Story of Valsetz” Documentary about an Oregon Coast Range logging town by director Ronan Feely. (Northwest Film Center, Wednesday only)

“I’m Now: The Story of Mudhoney” Documentary about the great Seattle grunge band. (Hollywood Theatre, Friday only)

“Lady Dragon” Cheesy 1992 action film about a retired CIA agent (Cynthia Rothrock) kicking butt. (Hollywood Theatre, Tuesday only)

“Northwest Visionaries” 1980 documentary about Northwest painters including Mark Tobey, Margaret Tompkins, and George Tsutakawa. (Northwest Film Center, Monday only)

“Taps” Babyfaces Tom Cruise, Timothy Hutton and Sean Penn in a 1981 film about a mutiny at a military school. (Laurelhurst)

“The Wrecking Crew” Documentary about the great Los Angeles studio musicians behind decades of hits. (Hollywood Theatre, Monday only)

‘Red Lights’ review: a film about psychic-debunkers is a sham and a shame

August 1, 2012 / Mad About Movies

A strong cast and a nifty begining quickly unravel into incoherence.

Robert De Niro in "Red Lights"

“Red Lights” presents a strong cast with a promising premise and early on feels like it will rise into something memorable. But before it’s done, the film dissolves into gibberish and hysteria, snuffing out hope like a cigarette beneath the sole of a boot and memorable mostly as a botch.

Sigourney Weaver and Cillian Murphy play a pair of scientists who specialize in debunking claims of paranormal phenomena. The stakes of their work are academic until the news that Simon Silver (Robert De Niro), a renowned blind psychic, is returning to the limelight after decades in seclusion. He has a history with the investigators, and they’re determined to reveal him as a fraud.

It starts well, with Weaver snappy and sassy, Murphy charmingly skittish, and De Niro understated and creepy. But given how badly the script and tenor of the film get away from writer-director Rodrigo Cortés (who previously made the underrated “Buried”), you’d think that ‘fraud’ would be the last thing the fellow would want you to think about. By the time the film reaches its convoluted, bombastic and preposterous climax, any sense of real magic that it once conveyed has utterly vanished.

(113 min., R, Fox Tower) Grade: C-minus

‘Vertigo’ is the greatest film of all time, and there’s a poll to prove it

August 1, 2012 / Mad About Movies

For the first time, the "Sight and Sound" critics poll names a film other than "Citizen Kane" as the best ever made

Baby you're the best: Kim Novak and James Stewart in "Vertigo"

Since 1952, the British film magazine "Sight and Sound" has, every 10 years, polled film critics from around the world to name the top film of all time. The first time, the critics chose Vittorio de Sica's 1948 "The Bicycle Thief" as the best. And for each of the five subsequent polls, Orson Welles' 1941 masterpiece "Citizen Kane," which hadn't even cracked the top ten in the first go-round topped that list, becoming something like the undisputed heavyweight champ of these sorts of things.

No more.

Earlier today "Sight and Sound" released the results of its 2012 critics poll, and the Welles warhorse has been replaced at the top of the heap by Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 romantic thriller "Vertigo." "Kane" is now in second place.

The complete results are as follows:

1. "Vertigo"
2. "Citizen Kane"
3. "Tokyo Story"
4. "The Rules of the Game"
5. "Sunrise"
6. "2001: A Space Odyssey"
7. "The Searchers"
8. "Man With a Movie Camera"
9. "The Passion of Joan of Arc"
10. "8 1/2"

For the third time, the critics poll was accompanied by a poll of film directors from around the world. In their previous two polls, the critics also selected "Kane" as number one.

Again, no more.

The best film ever made according to the world's film directors is Yasujiro Ozu's 1953 "Tokyo Story." "Kane" actually finished third in the directors poll this time, following Stanley Kubrick's 1968 "2001: A Space Odyssey."

The complete directors poll went as follows:

1. "Tokyo Story"
2. "2001: A Space Odyssey"
2. "Citizen Kane"
4. "8 1/2"
5. "Taxi Driver"
6. "Apocalypse Now"
7. "The Godfather"
7. "Vertigo"
9. "The Mirror"
10. "Bicycle Thieves"

So: you've got ten years to argue about these selections and/or watch all the films before we do it all over again....

This week’s last-chance movies: ‘Headhunters’ and ‘Trishna’

August 1, 2012 / Mad About Movies

Catch 'em while you can!

Freida Pinto in "Trishna"

Lots of new titles due to arrive this weekend, but only two films are making their way off of Portland-area screens: "Headhunters," a darkly entertaining Norwegian drama about a yuppie art thief running for his life, and "Trishna," director Michael Winterbottom's transposition of Thomas Hardy's "Tess of the d'Urbervilles" to modern India.

Retro-a-gogo: classic films on Portland screens, August 3 – 9

August 1, 2012 / Mad About Movies

Everything old is new again.

"Conan the Barbarian" The future governor of California plays a sword-weilding barbarian -- as good a credential for public office as any, most likely -- in this late-night screening hosted by Cort and Fatboy. (Bagdad Theater, Friday)

"Emperor of the North" The late Ernest Borgnine stars as a sadistic train conductor in this 1973 film that was shot in Oregon. (Hollywood Theatre, Saturday and Sunday only)

"Hedwig and the Angry Inch" The audacious transvestite musical written by, directed by and starring John Cameron Mitchell is shown under the stars. (Northwest Film Center, Thursday August 9 only)

"Lady Dragon" Cheesy 1992 action movie about a CIA agent trying to stay retired is the occasion for a game of B-Movie Bingo. (Hollywood Theatre, Tuesday only)

"Taps" The teenaged (or thereabout) likes of Tom Cruise, Timothy Hutton and Sean Penn star in a 1981 drama about a mutiny at a military school. (Laurelhurst)

‘The Story of Film’ review: an opinionated 15-hour portrait of a century-plus of cinema

July 31, 2012 / Mad About Movies

An epic film informs -- and sometimes rile -- but never bores: a feat in itself!

Mark Cousins, director and narrator of "The Story of Film: An Odyssey"

If nothing else, count Irish filmmaker Mark Cousins as audacious.

His 15-hour made-for-TV documentary “The Story of Film: An Odyssey” is a one-stop history of the medium, in all of its forms, all over the world, from the groundbreaking laboratories of Thomas Edison and the Lumière brothers to the contemporary use of digital filmmaking in special effects spectaculars and personal documentaries.

In a breezy brogue that sounds more suited to a fireside conversation than an academic lecture, Cousins discourses knowledgeably on the materials of the medium -- lenses, lighting, sound, editing -- and the innovations of its various masters: Griffith, Chaplin, Ozu, Rossellini, Hitchcock, Polanski, Nolan. You come to appreciate the work not only of individuals but of whole cultures that have added nuances to the art of film. Just as cinema had more than one origin, so it was moved forward as an artistic medium on every continent, often simultaneously, if not always in the same way.

At times Cousins’ preferences and biases puzzle and even irritate (he’s awfully quick to accuse whole nations and industries of “racism,” for instance), and his homey script can lapse into repetition. But this is smart, entertaining, illuminating and addictive viewing. Even if you already know huge chunks of the story, you never stop learning. Like Martin Scorsese’s “A Personal Journey Through American Cinema” and “My Voyage to Italy,” it’s a tour through a museum with a deeply passionate and engaging guide.

“The Story of Film” is being screened at the Northwest Film Center throughout August in five three-hour chunks, starting this weekend. Visit the website for full schedule details.

(900 min., unrated, perhaps PG-13 overall, Northwest Film Center) Grade: B-plus

Life on Mars? Find out live this Sunday

July 31, 2012 / Mad About Movies

A Portland theater will screen live footage of the landing of NASA's latest Mars rover.

The Mars Science Lab, aka the Curiosity

No, that's not Pixar's "Wall-E" in the accompanying photo. That's the Mars Science Lab, or MSL, or, as it's most commonly known, the Mars rover Curiosity. It was launched by NASA in November and is scheduled to land on Mars on Sunday, August 5 in the evening hours, Pacific time.

Once on Mars, Curiosity will perform experiments and take measurements of the Martian atmosphere in a mission that's partly a search for life and partly a test of potential human habitability of our neighbor planet.

Normally these sorts of landings are consigned to the more obscure outposts of the cable TV schedule, but since this landing is kind of momentous and happening at a time when folks are out for entertainment, the operators of Portland's Living Room Theaters thought it would be cool to show the event live, a sentiment with which I heartily concur.

The doors for the screening will open at 9:00 pm, with landing expected to occur at around 10:30. Admission, which is limited to patrons 21 and over, is FREE, but you must reserve a spot in advance by sending an email to: [email protected].

To infinity and beyond, y'all!

A signed print of a Todd Haynes portrait can be yours, and a good cause will benefit

July 30, 2012 / Mad About Movies

The Portland filmmaker has donated a print to raise funds to promote arts education via The Right Brain Initiative

Doug Beghtel, The OregonianThis portrait of Todd Haynes hung until recently at Portland's City Hall.

Last year we reported on a ceremony in which local filmmaker Todd Haynes was honored when a portrait of him hung hung at Portland's City Hall. At the time, we noted that the portrait, painted by Haynes' brother-in-law, Steven Cohn, a local artist who works under the pseudonym Jasper Marks, had been autographed by both subject and creator and would be auctioned off to benefit The Right Brain Initiative, a program which fosters arts education in the public schools.

Well, a signed high-quality giclee print of the painting is now up for auction. Haynes has written a brief essay about his belief in the work of the Right Brain Initiative, and the print has been made available for preview at the Lara Sydney Framing Gallery, which, conveniently, will be open late for First Thursday this week.

The auction ends on Sunday, August 5 at just after noon, Pacific time, and as of this writing there were NO bids on the portrait yet. So take a flier, why don't you, and help a worthy effort in the bargain.

Actor Paul Dano grabs hold of the strings as producer of ‘Ruby Sparks’

July 27, 2012 / Mad About Movies

The star's new film is a homey affair, written by his girlfriend and co-star Zoe Kazan and directed by his "Little Miss Sunshine" collaborators.

Paul Dano

“The more personal it is the more fun I seem to have,” says Paul Dano.

He’s phoning from Chicago, discussing his twin roles as producer and star of the offbeat romantic comedy “Ruby Sparks,” and it’s about as personal a project as you can imagine. The film was written by and co-stars Dano’s girlfriend, Zoe Kazan and it’s directed by the spouses Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton, in whose 2006 hit “Little Miss Sunshine” Dano had his first popular success.

Since then, Dano has been widely acclaimed for his electric performances as a set of twins in “There Will Be Blood” and appeared in such disparate films as the action blockbuster “Knight and Day,” the sci-fi western “Cowboys & Aliens,” the shot-in-Oregon pioneer tale “Meek’s Cutoff” and, earlier this year, the father-son drama “Being Flynn.” He’s shown intelligence and daring in his roles as well as droll comedy and a strange, gangly physicality. He’s 28 and has been in movies for more than a decade, but he feels like a still-emerging talent.

In “Ruby,” which opens in Portland on Friday August 3, Dano plays Calvin Weir-Fields, a novelist who had massive critical and commercial success a decade ago with his first book and has been unable to follow it up. Hobbled by writer’s block, he follows the advice of his therapist and starts to write about a girl who could accept him flaws and all. The experiment is so successful that he not only writes dozens of pages but the girl herself -- the Ruby of the title -- shows up in his house in the flesh. He has, in effect, created his own real-life sweetheart out of his head.

Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan in "Ruby Sparks"

The skinny, skittish Calvin, with his fastidious manners and nerdy spectacles marks, another absorbing turn for Dano. As the actor explains, although Calvin has the trappings of success, what appeals about him as a character is the way that he’s broken and needy despite his superficial good fortune.

“As an artist I was immediately empathetic toward the idea of people asking something of you and wanting you to be something,” he says. “I don’t think being labeled as a genius at 17 or 18 is a great thing, so there’s some sort of arrested development there, potentially. And I think of the other things about him: He’s lonely. He’s got love from his brother, but that’s about his only friend. His father has passed away, and he has a significant ex-girlfriend and he has this dog to try to help him meet people. But that’s not really working. I think those are all emotional things, and I guess I felt empathy or sympathy for him immediately.”

Dano was aware from the start of Kazan’s screenwriting process that he was intended to play the role, but he says that he kept as much distance from her creative work as he could.

As he remembers, “About three to five pages into reading it for the first time, I said, ‘Are you writing this for us?’ And she said ‘Yeah.’ She would show me pages and I’d try to a) be a good boyfriend and b) be a good bounce-board and ask good questions. But I didn’t want to have a say in it, because I like to be surprised, and I want to be challenged, and it was better to engage her in talk about the whole thing and not just about Calvin.”

Other than acting the lead, he also took on some of the responsibilities of a producer, in part, he explains, to protect Kazan’s vision of the story. “We knew that we wanted to be in it,” he says, “but we also knew that we wanted to see it get made in the right way. So it was important to us to be involved to a certain degree, and mostly that meant sending it off to the right people to start with. Jonathan and Valerie were our dream directors and out first choice. And from that point on it was a collaboration: getting involved in more aspects of the filmmaking process than I normally do as an actor -- casting and little parts of pre-production.”

It’s only coincidental, according to Dano, that he appears as a writer in two films this year: “Ruby” and “Flynn.” In fact, he continues, the characters he plays in the films are, in his mind, completely distinct. “The Nick Flynn character, I don’t think of as being bookish,” he says. “I think he discovered himself being a writer. The defining quality of him for me was being an addict and having issues with his father. Calvin is defined by being a writer and by being a writer who’s had success and is having writer’s block.”

And, of course, Flynn’s is more or less a real-life story while Calvin’s tale is purely fantastical -- even though it has emotional reality to ground it. “Flynn” can feel gritty and despairing; “Ruby” recalls the romantic whimsy of Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris.” “I think the beauty of (‘Ruby’) is that it walks a line tonally,” Dano says. “It was important for us to have the highs -- the magic of romance and of fantasy. But also to explore the full range of it, and hopefully there’s depth and even moments of darkness. One of my favorite things about the film is that it has an element of the unexpected to it. You don’t know where it’s gonna go with what it’s doing.”

Paul Dano with Abigail Breslin in "Little Miss Sunshine"

Dano has many more films in the pipeline as an actor, but he admits that “Ruby” has definitely given him a taste for producing films. “I’d like to be able to help get more films made that I’d want to appear in or want to see or that I think I have something to offer an audience,” he says. “I’d like to be more proactive in that.”

But acting, he explains, will remain his chief pursuit. “Once we were filming, it was all Calvin for me,” he explains, “and that’s how it would always have to be. Setting up the film and helping find the right people was where my producing duties fell, and then, when you’re working with people you trust, you don’t have to worry about small things. Finding people you share a point of view with is what’s important. On this film, I was working with people who I had a rapport with and a friendship with and trusted 1000%, but at the same time we were doing something new together, and we had an intimate collaboration.”

Aliens challenge a neighborhood patrol in ‘The Watch,’ lovers in ‘Extraterrestrial,’ and more

July 27, 2012 / Mad About Movies

Reviews of this week's new releases in Portland-area theaters.

Ben Stiller in "The Watch"

Pretty light schedule this week, with a strange coincidence between our two featured reviews. Both "The Watch" and "Extraterrestrial" deal comically (or at least attempt to) with the results of an alien invasion, the first on the denizens of an American suburb, the second on a pair of lovers in Madrid. Other than those two, we have only the stalwarts: "Also Opening," "Indie/Arthouse" and "Levy's High Five." Much, much more next week, we promise....

Levy’s High Five, July 27 – August 2

July 26, 2012 / Mad About Movies

The five films playing in Portland-area theaters that I'd soonest see again.

Shirley MacLaine and Jack Black in "Bernie"

2) "Moonrise Kingdom" Wes Anderson films are such a specific taste that I'm a bit hesitant to suggest that this might be his most approachable (but surely not crowd-pleasing) work. In the wake of the delightful "The Fantastic Mr. Fox," Anderson returns to live-action and his familiar tics and habits in a tale of young (as in 'pre-teen') lovers on the run. Newcomers Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward fill the lead roles delightfully, and Anderson's muses Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman are joined ably by Edward Norton, Bruce Willis and Frances McDormand, among others. It's a light and breezy film with a very sweet heart and old-fashioned sturdiness. Even if you were left puzzled by the likes of "Rushmore" or "The Royal Tenenbaums" (still his best non-animated films, for me), this is likely to win you over. multiple locations

3) "Bernie” It’s a term of deep praise to note that writer-director Richard Linklater (deepbreath: “Slacker,” “Dazed and Confused,” “Before Sunrise,” “Before Sunset,” “Waking Life,” “School of Rock”) is capable more than any contemporary American filmmaker of making terrific movies about nearly nothing. Here, working with a based-on-truth story, he gives us life in the small East Texas town of Carthage, where a beneficent funeral director (Jack Black) and a mean, wealthy widow (Shirley MacLaine) become unlikely chums and companions...under she mysteriously goes missing. Linklater weaves the dramatized version of the story with dry and deft interviews of actual Carthaginians (is that what they’re called?) and even several musical numbers in a perfect frappe of a black comedy. Hollywood Theatre

4) "Your Sister's Sister" Seattle filmmaker Lynn Shelton spins a sweet and sad and true-feeling variation on a Hollywood romcom, with shlubby leading man Mark Duplass caught unexpectedly between two half-sisters, Emily Blunt and Rosemarie DeWitt. There are machinations that could have been drawn from a higher-gloss (and less appealing) film. But, as in her not dissimilar "Humpday," Shelton finds real grounding for the story in the personalities of her cast, who improvised some of their scenes within guidelines. The result feels theatrical and human at once, with three wise, low-key performances and a credible air of confusion and hope. A sly winner. Fox Tower

5) "Monsieur Lazhar" This delicate, sweet and, surprisingly, harrowing little drama was nominated for an Oscar as best foreign language film, and it's a mark of its quality that it's a very good film despite that sometimes dubious distinction. Mohamed Fellag stars as the title character, a secretive and formal man who arrives at a Montreal school out of the blue and volunteers to take the place of a teacher who has left under horrid circumstances. Gradually his compassion and wisdom come to heal wounds, just as his own personal pains are revealed. Writer-director Philippe Falardeau dances around the clichés inherent in the scenario as if they didn't exist, eliciting wonderful performances from his cast (especially the kids) and real emotions from the audience. Laurelhurst, Living Room Theaters

A troubled ‘Matchmaker,’ a strange ‘Big Man,’ a band that chooses to ‘Shut Up’ and more

July 26, 2012 / Mad About Movies

New releases in Portland-area theaters not reviewed in this week's A&E.

"The Matchmaker"

“Big Man Japan” Surreal comic story of an ordinary man who grows into a giant. (5th Avenue Cinema, Friday through Sunday only)

“Carnival of Souls” Super-creepy low-budget 1962 horror film. (Clinton Street Theater, Friday only)

“Craft” Brazilian drama about the life and career struggles of an actress. (Northwest Film Center, Sunday only)

“The Deep” The 1977 film of Peter Benchley’s novel of drama and adventure, famous chiefly for Jacqueline Bisset and her wet, white shirt. (Laurelhurst Theater)

“The Ghost and Mr. Chicken” Don Knotts investigates a haunted house. (Northwest Film Center, Thursday only)

“Grindhouse Trailer Spectacular” A collection of trailers and teasers from the golden age of exploitation. (Hollywood Theatre, Tuesday only)

“I’m Not Like Everybody Else” Selected films, videos and ephemera from the garage rock era. (Hollywood Theatre, Monday only)

“In This Together” Premiere of a documentary about PHAME, the Portland arts organizations serving adults with developmental disabilities. (Hollywood Theatre, Wednesday only)

“Inni” Dreamy concert film of Icelandic band Sigur Ros. (Hollywood Theatre, Thursday only)

“The Matchmaker” Drama about an Israeli boy going to work for a matchmaker who survived the Holocaust. (Living Room Theaters)

“OC87” Documentary about a filmmaker confronting his OCD, Asperger’s, depression and other haunting mental syndromes. (Fox Tower)

“Shut Up and Play the Hits” An account of the final days of LCD Soundsystem. (Hollywood Theatre)

“Technicolor Dreams” A journey through the history of psychedelic film courtesy of cinema historian and archivist Christian Divine. (Hollywood Theatre, Thursday only)

“Wet Hot American Summer” Cult comedy set at a summer camp. (Academy Theater)

This week’s last-chance movie: ‘Neil Young Journeys’

July 25, 2012 / Mad About Movies

Catch it while you can!

Hitting the road: Neil Young in "Neil Young Journeys"

Not very much turnover at local movie theaters this week. Only one of the films we've recently reviewed is on its way out of town: "Neil Young Journeys," Jonathan Demme's third documentary/concert film featuring the great Canadian rocker on a journey to his Ontario home town and in concert at Toronto's Massey Hall. It's final show is Thursday night.

Retro-a-gogo: classic films on Portland screens, July 7 – August 2

July 25, 2012 / Mad About Movies

The coming week's menu of revival movies in Portland theaters.

"Big Man Japan" Surreal Japanese film about an ordinary man who turns into a giant. (5th Avenue Cinema, Friday through Sunday only)

"Carnival of Souls" Creepy low-budget horror film from 1962. (Clinton Street Theater, Friday only)

"The Deep" The Peter Benchley adaptation that followed "Jaws," chiefly remembered for the ads featuring Jacqueline Bisset in a wet t-shirt. (Laurelhurst Theater, all week)

"The Ghost and Mr. Chicken" Don Knotts as a small-town reporter chasing down a ghost story. (Northwest Film Center, Thursday August 2 only)

"Grindhouse Trailer Spectacular 3" A night of classic trailers and teasers for movies from the golden age of exploitation. (Hollywood Theatre, Tuesday only)

"Wet Hot American Summer" Cult comedy set in a summer camp. (Academy Theater, all week)

Oregon filmmaker named one of ’25 New Faces of Independent Film’

July 24, 2012 / Mad About Movies

Ian Clark of La Grande is named to a prestigious honor.

Oregon filmmaker Ian Clark

One of the most exciting thing about the digital age of filmmaking is that the tools are so readily available that new artists can emerge anywhere. Take Ian Clark, a native of La Grande, in Eastern Oregon, and current student at the University of Oregon in Eugene. Last week, Clark, a photographer, experimental filmmaker and film festival organizer, was named to Filmmaker Magazine's presitigious "25 New Faces of Independent Film" list.

In the past 15 years, the magazine has selected for recognition such then-fledgling filmmakers as Lena Dunham ("Tiny Furniture," "Girls"), Craig Brewer ("Hustle and Flow," "Black Snake Moan"), Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden ("Half Nelson"), and one-time-Portlander Miranda July ("Me and You and Everyone We Know") and such then-unknown actors as Ryan Gosling, Peter Sarsgaard, Ellen Page and Rooney Mara.

Clark was cited for his two one-hour films "Pool Room" and "Country Story" and for his work with the Eastern Oregon Film Festival, which is held in the spring in his home town. In Eugene, he's at work on an MFA in digital art and has created another short film, "Searching for Yellow." (You can watch all of the films by clicking on the links, btw....)

Bravo to Mr. Clark, and here's hoping this is the first of many times we get to celebrate his work.

‘The Dark Knight Rises’ does record business despite shootings

July 23, 2012 / Mad About Movies

The film earns more than $160 million in the wake of the massacre at an early screening in Colorado.

The Dark Knight Rises -- Bane vs Batman.jpg

Bane (Tom Hardy) vs. Batman (Christian Bale) in "The Dark Knight Rises"

In the aftermath of the deadly attack on a premiere night audience for Christopher Nolan's new Batman movie, "The Dark Knight Rises," there was widespread speculation about what sort of impact the movie's distributors, Warner Bros., would feel at the boxoffice.

Very little, as it turns out.

Warner Bros. pulled televised and online advertising for the film, and the studio did not release any public statements about grosses, but strong advance sales and the expected eager turnout by fans of the films resulted in "TDKR" earning an estimated $162 million from Thursday midnight through Sunday evening -- a record sum for a non-3-D movie.

In the minds of moviegoers, at least, there was no connection between the shootings and the film. And while that may seem heartless in some respects, it's equally heartening, it would seem, to see that North American moviegoers saw the Aurora tragedy as the singular act of a single insane person and not a reason to curtail their ordinary lives. That, alas, might be the only positive note to emerge from the entire event.

When real-life tragedy strikes, Hollywood can suffer collateral damage

July 20, 2012 / Mad About Movies

A mass shooting at a screening of "The Dark Knight Rises" recalls other movie releases affected by acts of violence.

In recent years, several movie studios have been forced to alter the content or premiere dates of a yet-to-be-released films because of violent events that too closely mirrored the plots of the movies.

In 1999, in the wake of the shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. (not far from Aurora, where last night's killings occured), the unreleased film "Killing Mrs. Tingle," about high school students taking revenge on a despised teacher, was retitled "Teaching Mrs. Tingle." Its release was delayed and it showed on fewer screens than initially planned.

After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, the Arnold Schwarzenegger action film "Collateral Damage," about a firefighter seeking revenge after his family is killed by terrorists, was pulled from release and heavily edited, to the point that expensive reshooting was required. When the film debuted the following year, it grossed $40 million, the weakest performance of a Schwarzenegger film in a decade.

The 9/11 attacks also affected the advertising campaign for 2002's "Spider-Man," which originally featured the title character spinning a web between the twin towers of the World Trade Center to catch bad guys. Shots of the World Trade Center spinning in the mind of a drug-addled New York publicist also were removed from the Al Pacino film "People I Know."

More recently, the shooting of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin by neighborhood watch patrolman George Zimmerman has caused problems for 20th Century Fox, which had plans to release a comedy called "Neighborhood Watch" about the misadventures of inept volunteer crimefighters confronted by an invasion of space aliens. When outrage about the Martin case grew nationwide, the studio renamed the film "The Watch." It's due to open next Friday.

Summer nights were made for movies — outdoor movies, that is

July 20, 2012 / Mad About Movies

There are still plenty of great movies-under-the-stars nights ahead, including the annual "Top Down" festival.

A typical night of "Top Down: Rooftop Cinema"

One reason moviegoing is such a popular summer activity is surely....air-conditioning. Among the best ways to beat the heat of the season is to sit still in a chilled, dark space and distract yourself from the experience of having a body that’s subject to the discomforts of weather.

But summertime is prime outdoor time, too, and, increasingly, people are finding that another fine way to enjoy the season is to watch a movie under the stars on one of Portland’s perfectly-pitched summer nights. Each year, more and more opportunities to screen films outdoors emerge, turning Portland’s parks -- and a least one parking garage -- into seasonal movie houses.

This week, the Northwest Film Center launches its annual “Top Down: Rooftop Cinema” series, a collection of six feature films shown on the rooftop of the Hotel deLuxe parking structure at SW 15th and Yamhill when the night gets dark enough for proper viewing. The first film in this year’s line up is a treat: “The Palm Beach Story,” Preston Sturges’ delicious 1942 screwball romance starring Joel McCrea and Claudette Colbert as two sets of identical twins on the marital make. It plays on Thursday, July 26, and it’s a joy.

The subsequent weeks of “Top Down” are as diverse and appealing as possible: a Don Knotts comedy (“The Ghost and Mr. Chicken,” August 2), a drag queen musical (“Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” August 9), a wild zombie movie (“Dead Alive,” August 16), a tale of Portland banditry (“Drugstore Cowboy,” August 23), and a time capsule of 1960s rock and soul music (“The T. A. M. I. Show,” August 30).

Doors for all “Top Down” shows open at 7:00 p.m., with live entertainment before the screening and food and drinks available for purchase. You’re encouraged to bring a blanket or low chair to sit on, but no coolers or outside treats are permitted. (Complete information)

There are plenty of other films to see outdoors in what’s left of the summer, and there’s probably one right in your neighborhood, too. Portland Parks and Recreation is in the midst of its annual “Movies in the Park” program, bringing a diverse roster of films to every portion of the city.

Many of the PPR films are, of course, specifically geared to kids, and among the most enticing are “Toy Story 3” (July 28, Wilshire Park), “The Goonies” (July 29, Lents Park), “Akeelah and the Bee” (August 18, Warner Pacific College), the 1971 “Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” (August 31, Dawson Park), “The Adventures of Tintin” (August 31, Mt. Scott Park), and “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure” (September 8, Wallace Park). Two Oscar-winning family-friendly films from 2011 will get multiple screenings: “Hugo” (August 17, Irving Park; August 24, Laurelhurst Park; September 7, Multnomah Arts Center) and “The Muppets” (August 5, Sellwood Park; August 9, Caruthers Park; August 10, St. Johns Park).

But there’s also a wide variety of fare that will appeal to grown-ups who are neither accompanied by children nor channeling their children-within. These include “Pretty in Pink” (July 26, DeWitt Park), “Citizen Kane” (August 3, Laurelhurst Park), “Moneyball” (August 7, Peninsula Park), and “Funny Face” (September 7, Director Park). Amid all these choices, two shows stand out in particular: Ed Wood’s confounding masterwork “Plan 9 from Outer Space” (August 12, Washington Park) and the 1971 Japanese monster movie “Gamera vs. Zigra” (August 25, Sewallcrest Park), both of which will be presented with live musical accompaniment by the Filmusik ensemble.

Admission to all PPR movies is free. The evenings begin at 6:30 p.m. with pre-movie entertainment, and screenings start at dark. (Full list of all “Movies in the Park” titles and additional information)

Another venue for outdoor movies is Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse Square, where free films screen on Friday nights. The 1984 version of “The Karate Kid” launches the series on July 27, followed by “Clueless” (August 3), “A League of Their Own” (August 10) and “E. T.: The Extra-Terrestrial” (August 17). (Complete information)

The movies-under-the-stars fun isn’t limited to Portland. In Lake Oswego, Millennium Park Plaza will host free screenings Thursdays at dusk through August 30. Titles include “Tangled” (August 2) and “How to Train Your Dragon” (August 16). (Complete information)

In Beaverton, Friday is free movie night, Beaverton City Park is the place, and the film menu includes “Up” (August 3), “Grease” (August 10) and “The Goonies” (August 17). (Complete information)

Vancouver, too, offers free Friday night movies. The venue is LeRoy Haagen Memorial Community Park and the features are “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” (July 27) and “E. T.” (August 3). (Complete information)

Early ticket sales for ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ show no post-shooting impact

July 20, 2012 / Mad About Movies

Did the Colorado shooting actually raise interest in the film?

from "The Dark Knight Rises"

It might seem that news of an in-theater massacre at a midnight premiere screening of a new movie would deter some people from hurrying to see it for fear of, I don't know, copycat shootings or an appearance of disrespect or simple bad juju.

Not necessarily so.

A Warner Bros. studio source speaking to the Deadline.com movie industry analysis blog claims that early ticket sales for "The Dark Knight Rises," the movie which was playing when a Colorado man shot dozens of people last night, are higher than expected.

"East Coast numbers are coming in like nothing ever happened," says the unnamed source. 'We grossed half a million dollars by 10 AM just in Manhattan."

The film, which was budgeted at an estimated $250 million, plus distribution and marketing costs, saw as much as $30 million in ticket pre-sales before the Colorado massacre. Last night's midnight shows -- at 3800-plus locations -- generated $30 million total (some of that figure is included in the pre-sale total).

"The Dark Knight Rises" was originally projected to gross $180-200 million in its opening weekend, and after news of the shootings in Colorado box office analysts began to wonder if that sum might be affected. That seemed a reasonable assumption, but it now appears that Batman fans aren't reasonable in that way....

No changes in Portland-area showings of ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ despite Colorado shooting; police increase patrols near theaters

July 20, 2012 / Mad About Movies

Screenings of one of the year's most anticipated film releases will carry on as planned, despite the tragedy near Denver.

Colorado shooting during 'Dark Knight Rises'

Century 16 movie theatre in Aurora, Colo., scene of a mass shooting early Friday morning. (AP Photo/The Denver Post, Karl Gehring)

In the wake of the horrific shooting in Colorado at a midnight screening of "The Dark Knight Rises," no Portland theaters seem to be making changes to their scheduled showings of the film.

The epic Batman movie is playing on a record 4,404 screens nationwide, at least 30 of which are in the Portland metropolitan area. Most of those are owned by two chains: Regal Cinemas of Tennessee and Cinemark Theatres of Texas, the latter of which owns the multiplex where the Colorado shooting occurred. Neither of those chains announced that showings of the film would be curtailed. AMC Theaters of Missouri, which doesn't operate in the Portland area, has not cut back on screenings either, but the company announced that it would ban people from entering its theaters wearing costumes or carrying toy weapons, as many comic book movie fans do on big opening weekends. (A scheduled premiere screening of the film in Paris was canceled on news of the shooting.)

We have reached out to the operators of the independently owned Portland-area theaters showing the film -- Cinemagic, Cinetopia, the Lake Twin, the Oak Grove 8, the Roseway and the St. Johns Twin. None of the theater owners who have responded so far have any plans to cancel or postpone screenings or to augment their normal security procedures.

Earlier this afternoon, the Portland Police Bureau announced plans to increase patrols in areas near theaters showing the film.

A grim ‘Knight,’ a melancholy ‘Waltz’ and more

July 20, 2012 / Mad About Movies

Reviews of this week's new releases in Portland-area theaters.

Christian Bale in "The Dark Knight Rises"

The big release of the weekend -- and likely the month and maybe the season or even the year -- is "The Dark Knight Rises," the final installment in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy. We've also got reviews of Michelle Williams and Seth Rogen in the marital drama "Take This Waltz," the musical documentary "Neil Young Journeys," and "Trishna," a reimagining of Thomas Hardy's "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" in India starring Freida Pinto. All that plus "Also Opening," "Indie/Arthouse" and "Levy's High Five."

Levy’s High Five, July 20 – 26

July 19, 2012 / Mad About Movies

The five films playing in Portland-area theaters that I'd soonest see again.

"Beasts of the Southern Wild"

‘Neil Young Journeys’ review: Demme and Young together again, to lesser effect

July 19, 2012 / Mad About Movies

A third pairing of the great director and the great musician is strictly for die hards.

Neil Young in "Neil Young Journeys"

“Neil Young Journeys” is the third documentary/concert film focusing on the great Canadian songwriter that director Jonathan Demme has made since 2006, and it’s the weakest of the three, even as it sporadically charms.

The film combines a road trip Young takes through the Ontario towns of his youth with a 2011 solo performance at Toronto’s Massey Hall. The show, which consists of a lot of material from his 2010 album “Le Noise,” will primarily be of interest to fans (although, one song, the lacerating “Ohio,” is expanded grippingly with a glimpse back at the 1970 tragedy at Kent State which inspired it). The tour of Ontario, too, lacks virtually any context for those who don’t already feel an affinity toward the artist.

In a sense, this film finishes a cycle that began with the homey and impressive “Neil Young: Heart of Gold” and continued with the raucous “Neil Young Trunk Show” of 2009. In that regard, it’s almost not even a stand-alone but rather a piece of a triptych. And, as it happens, the creation was far more compelling in its origin than in this final act.

(87 min., PG, Fox Tower) Grade: B-minus

‘The Cockettes’ return, Liza does ‘Cabaret’, talking back to ‘Showgirls’ and more

July 19, 2012 / Mad About Movies

New releases in Portland-area theaters not reviewed in this week's A&E.

“Amelie” The swoony French romance that introduced a thankful world to Audrey Tautou. (Academy Theater)

“Cabaret” Bob Fosse’s saucy, Oscar-winning film of the great stage musical, with Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey. (Clackamas Town Center, Wednesday only)

“The Cockettes” The fabulous 2002 documentary about the famed hippy transvestite performance troupe from 1960s San Francisco. (Clinton Street Theater, Saturday only)

“Dirty Dancing” Nobody puts Swayze in the corner. (Hollywood Theatre, Saturday only)

“Ecstasy of Order: The Tetris Masters” Portland documentarian Adam Cornelius celebrates the DVD release of his film about the world Tetris championships with a screening and party. (Hollywood Theatre, Friday only)

“MSG” Selection of short comedies by filmmaker and musician Tim Wenzel. (Clinton Street Theater, Sunday only)

“Once Upon a Time, Beirut” Rarely-screened 1995 film about two Lebanese girls seeking to learn about their city. (outdoors on North Park Blocks at Portland State University, Saturday only)

“The Palm Beach Story” The great 1942 Preston Sturges screwball comedy, under the stars in the kickoff of this summer’s “Top Down: Rooftop Cinema” series. (Northwest Film Center, Thursday only)

“Paul Williams: Still Alive” Documentary about the ups and downs of the singer-songwriter and his battles with substance abuse. (Fox Tower)

“The People vs. the State of Illusion” Documentary about metaphysical investigations into the nature of society and reality. (Clinton Street Theater, select nights, Monday July 23 through Wednesday August 1 only)

“Showgirls” The bawdy Las Vegas stripper story -- “All About Eve” with pasties -- projected in Hecklevision for your mocking pleasure. (Hollywood Theatre, Friday only)

“Sound + Vision” Three days of collaborations between filmmakers and musicians kicks off with “New Skin for the Old Ceremony,” a selection of short films inspired by the works of Leonard Cohen. (Hollywood Theatre, Thursday through Saturday July 28 only)

“Sunset Blvd.” The brutally dark and toxic 1950 film noir about the movie business, with William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim and a monkey. (5th Avenue Cinema, Friday through Sunday only)

“Three Days of the Condor” The paranoid 1975 thriller with Robert Redford as a CIA researcher running for his life. (Laurelhurst)

“Toll Booth” Semi-comic tale of a Turkish man’s woes at work and home. (Northwest Film Center, Wednesday only)

‘The Dark Knight Rises’ review: Batman, resurrected, in an epic, downbeat battle

July 19, 2012 / Mad About Movies

The final chapter in an gigantic trilogy is more impressive as spectacle than as story or meditation.

Bane (Tom Hardy) vs. Batman (Christian Bale) in "The Dark Knight Rises"

It’s been eight years, in movie time, since the hooded vigilante known as Batman cleared Gotham City of the deranged scourges of the Joker and Harvey Dent and took the blame for what should have been deemed an act of heroism.

In that time, Dent has become an emblem of the city’s purity and unity, Batman has vanished, and billionaire Bruce Wayne, the man behind Batman, has become a recluse, hiding his broken body and spirit behind the walls of his mansion, making quixotic business decisions, speaking only to servants, lost to the world.

Thus begins “The Dark Knight Rises,” the final entry in a Batman trilogy by director Christopher Nolan, co-written with his brother, Jonathan. In three films approaching eight total hours in length, the Nolans have drawn from some of the grimmest Batman comics to bring forth a deeply conflicted, eternally mournful, gravely reluctant hero who seeks inner peace by imposing justice -- real moral justice -- on the outer world, no matter the personal cost. Defying terrorists, organized criminals, corrupt politicians, a ravaging media, and a fickle public, sacrificing his body, heart and soul for the greater good, he’s an unnerving enigma, a man with everything who fights as if he had nothing, a shrouded beacon of light, a faceless icon.

The Gotham City of “The Dark Knight Rises” has no need for Batman -- or so it thinks. And then the crimes start. Some are little, such as the body of a homeless teen washing up in a storm drain. And some are massive, such as the invasion of the stock exchange by a masked vigilante known as Bane, a villain so horrifying that his emergence occasions the unthinkable: the reappearance of the Caped Crusader.

But the reborn Batman is no match for the musclebound, determined Bane. Tapping deep, mysterious resources of money, science, and ordnance, possessed of savage ruthlessness and intelligence, Bane is set on crippling Gotham City and, indeed, the very culture and economy at the center of which it stands. And, of course, he’ll happily crush Batman in body and heart in the process.

There’s more to “The Dark Knight Rises” -- much more, actually. The film’s threads include Catwoman, an accomplished jewel thief involved in a come-hither tango with both Wayne and Batman; John Blake, a decent cop who senses something bigger behind the small crimes he’s investigating; a business plot in which Wayne staves off a hostile takeover of his empire and considers a partnership on a clean energy project with a beautiful philanthropist; and a sentimental dance of loyalty and sadness between Wayne and his butler/confidant Alfred.

It’s a lot of movie, but if there’s one thing we know for sure about Christopher Nolan is that he’s capable of telling massive, multilayered stories with agility and verve. “The Dark Knight Rises” is overstuffed, and sometimes its components are drawn out excessively, but Nolan always infuses it with energy and grace. It approaches three hours in length but never feels that long.

But that isn’t to say that all of its part are rewarding or that it always compels. Particularly in its first hour or so, this is a glum and chatty movie, and even when it perks up with action and multiple plot lines it never quite shuts up: you can’t imagine a comic book panel crammed with all the verbiage that portions of this script are forced to bear.

And, too, there’s little to lighten the load. The first film of the trilogy, “Batman Begins,” carried a predominantly leaden, sober tone that the second, “The Dark Knight,” shattered, chiefly through the epic performance of Heath Ledger as the Joker. Bane, though, is humorless, his baroque voice (imagine Sean Connery providing the vocals for a cartoon opera tenor) spewing monotone taunts and insults. And while Catwoman is a droll presence (especially as played by Anne Hathaway, confidently scene-stealing), she’s never around long enough to truly lighten the mood. Not even the ostensibly merry bits of this film exactly shine.

Catwoman (Anne Hathaway) in "The Dark Knight Rises"

Elsewhere in the cast, Christian Bale once again brings earnest doggedness to the lead, Michael Caine provides genuine pathos as Alfred, Joseph Gordon-Levitt brings an air of street smarts to the Boy Scoutish Blake, and Tom Hardy is mainly a swaggering body as Bane, hidden behind a baroque mask and a fog of insinuating declamations. No one particularly ignites the screen, and you get the feeling that no one is meant to. Like their director, the actors are in the service of a Big Thing, and the emphasis is on streamlining rather than showcasing.

There is tremendous technical ability on display in “The Dark Knight Rises.” Nolan may not have as strong a personal stamp as, say, Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson or Sam Raimi, but he is a gifted filmmaker and, especially, orchestrator. The action sequences are tight and coherent, and the inevitable climactic battle brings new stakes and dimensions to the film (unlike that of “The Avengers,” a more entertaining film with a rather redundant final act). The film is shot, blessedly, in only two dimensions, but never lacks visual immediacy or authority.

It does, though, lack a certain coherence of thought. Bane and company co-opt some of the rhetoric and look of Occupy protestors and unleash a latent fascism when they become ascendant. Wayne is a child of privilege whose Batman persona depends on his colossal wealth, yet he yearns to be free of money and encumbrance. This may sound heavy for a comic book movie, but “The Dark Knight Rises” is not only heavy but heavyhanded on these points. Worse, the points are mud: clichés of left and right mixed willy-nilly until they have no real color, flavor or meaning.

And such musings on wealth and power feel particularly inappropriate when couched inside the $250 million entertainment product of a multinational megacorporation based on a brand that has produced billions of dollars of revue in its 75 years. Nolan is many things as a filmmaker: athlete, visionary, even magician. But deep thinker: not so much. “The Dark Knight Rises” is reasonably accomplished as a gigantic superhero movie; as a meditation on capital and its personal and social discontents, it’s strictly from the funny pages.

(164 min., PG-13, multiple locations) Grade: B

‘Take This Waltz’ review: marriage, interrupted

July 18, 2012 / Mad About Movies

A chance encounter tests a woman's marital resolve.

Michelle Williams and Seth Rogen in "Take This Waltz"

“Take This Waltz” is a film about a romance that looks hotter than it is. It’s a tale of lust-at-first-sight between a writer (Michelle Williams) and her artist neighbor (Luke Kirby). She’s married, mostly happily, albeit with childish undertones, to a cookbook author (Seth Rogen, born to play cuckolds), and she tries to resist temptation. But it’s summer, and she’s stifled, and that intense fellow across the street keeps popping up with soulful looks and leering innuendoes.

“Waltz” is written and directed by Sarah Polley, the actress who made the highly regarded “Away from Her.” Like that film, which starred Julie Christie as a woman disappearing into dementia, the new one is built around a strong leading lady and painted with genuinely brilliant light and color. It’s somewhat less affecting, though, as the heroine here is less formed and her plight less moving. The marriage in which she’s involved is flawed, yes, but the chemistry she’s supposed to feel for the fellow across the street doesn’t quite translate for the viewer. It feels more like mooning than wild passion.

Williams, as ever, fills an ordinary person with credible emotion, but little around her feels equally real (one exception: a remarkable scene in the shower of a women’s locker room at a swimming pool). There’s often real beauty and poetry in the moviemaking, but “Waltz” requires you to be on board with it from the start and doesn’t often enough rouse itself to magnetize you if you’re not.

(116 min., R, Living Room Theaters) Grade: B-minus

This week’s last-chance movies: ‘Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Killer,’ ‘People Like Us’ and more

July 18, 2012 / Mad About Movies

Catch 'em while you can.

Benjamin Walker in "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter"

A few noteworthy titles to catch before "The Dark Knight Rises" takes over the area's screens. On their way out of local theaters this week are the deliriously goofy mock-history "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter," the dysfunctional family drama "People Like Us," and the meditation on sectarian war in Lebanon "Where Do We Go Now?"

Retro-a-gogo: classic films on Portland screens, July 20 – 26

July 18, 2012 / Mad About Movies

The coming week's menu of revival movies in Portland theaters.

"Amelie" The great, swoony French romance that launched Audrey Tautou. (Academy, all week)

"Cabaret" Bob Fosse's Oscar-winning film of the classic musical. (Clackamas Town Center, Wednesday July 25 only)

"The Cockettes" The glorious 2002 documentary about hippy drag queens in the San Francisco '60s. (Clinton Street Theater, Saturday only)

"Dirty Dancing" Swayze and Grey 4EVA! (Hollywood Theatre, Saturday only)

"The Palm Beach Story" The great 1942 screwball comedy about two pairs of identical twins (played by Joel McRae and Claudette Colbert) opens the annual "Top Down: Rooftop Cinema" series. (Northwest Film Center, Thursday only)

"Possession" Original director's cut of Andrzej Zulawski's 1981 psychological marital drama starring Isabel Adjani and Sam Neill. (Hollywood Theatre, Saturday and Sunday only)

"Showgirls" Paul Verhoeven and Joe Eszterhas transformed "All About Eve" to a tale of exotic dancers on the Vegas strip; now you can lampoon it in Hecklevision. (Hollywood Theatre, Friday only)

"Sunset Blvd." The timeless Billy Wilder film about decadence and fame in Hollywood, with William Holden and Gloria Swanson. (5th Avenue Cinemas, Friday through Sunday only)

"Three Days of the Condor" Robert Redford is a CIA clerk uncovering deadly secrets. (Laurelhurst, all week)

"Twilight" The clever rascals of Master Pancake Theater, a comedy troupe from Austin, TX, eviscerates Bella and the boys live. (Cinema 21, Friday and Saturday only)

Desert fox: Boris Karloff in “The Lost Patrol” (via…

July 17, 2012 / The Junk Drawer of Shawn's Mind

Desert fox: Boris Karloff in “The Lost Patrol” (via FYeahJohnFord)

‘Top Down’ could use a leg up: help fund a new outdoor screen

July 17, 2012 / Mad About Movies

The Northwest Film Center's movies-under-the-stars series needs a Kickstart for a new screen.

A typical night of "Top Down: Rooftop Cinema"

One of the regular highlights of the movie year in Portland is the Northwest Film Center's annual "Top Down: Rooftop Cinema" series, in which a selection of quirky classic films are shown on summer nights atop a parking garage in SW Portland. It's a grand time, with live music before the show, food and drink for sale, and a wide and wily collection of movies. This year's event launches Thursday, July 26 with Preston Sturges' classic screwball comedy "The Palm Beach Story," and will include, on later dates, the likes of "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," "Drugstore Cowboy" and "The T.A.M.I. Show."

But before the first show starts, the NFC would like to replace its rather worn outdoor screen with a new model, and it has begun a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to that end. As of this writing, a little more than $2000 of the hoped-for $7000 has been pledged, and there are 9 days left in the campaign. Why not throw a few bucks toward the cause, and then go check out the fruit of your donation at a "Top Down" screening? Heck, if you pledge a mere $20, you'll get two "Top Down" tickets in return. A cheaper way to be a patron of the arts I can't think of.

Peripheral Produce returns with a screening of a famed 1996 compilation

July 16, 2012 / Mad About Movies

A DVD release party for legendary Portland experimental film, plus other goodies.

Miranda July in her 1996 film "Atlanta"

It's been a while since we've heard from Peripheral Produce, the Portland experimental film collective that created the PDX Fest and other seminal events. But word comes from Peripheral Produce ringmaster Matt McCormick that an event is planned for next month at the Hollywood Theatre.

The occasion for the event is the DVD release of "Auto-Cinematic Video Mix Tape," a 1996 compilation project that featured early work from McCormick, Miranda July, Jon Raymond, Vanessa Renwick and other familiar names from the local experimental film scene. "ACVMT" was originally released on VHS and hasn't been available for years, so that in itself is news.

On August 4, "ACVMT" will screen at the Hollywood along with some new works by some of the folks on the original tape and some other lights on the local scene. It should be quite the old-home week for Portland's cinematic avant garde.

‘How to Die in Oregon’ nominated for an Emmy

July 16, 2012 / Mad About Movies

The emotionally devastating 2011 Oregon film continues to reap kudos.

Peter D. RichardsonFrom left: Dr. Katherine Morris, Cody Curtis, and Stan Curtis in "How to Die in Oregon," by Portland director Peter D. Richardson.

Portland director Peter Richardson's harrowing and humane film "How to Die in Oregon," which won the top documentary prize at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, has been nominated for a News and Documentary Emmy Award as Best Documentary. The film, which aired on HBO last year, details the impact of Oregon's Death with Dignity law on a number of terminally ill subjects and follows a campaign in Washington state to pass a similar law. The awards will be presented on October 1.

Once a fan, always a fan: Portland’s comic book elite pick their most beloved (and bemoaned) comics movies

July 13, 2012 / Mad About Movies

Local comic book creators and connoisseurs weigh in on the subject of movie adaptations of their favorite funny book titles.

"The Dark Knight Rises": the next comic book movie in the pipeline

This weekend finds us in a trough at the multiplex, a rare pause without a new superhero movie to make into a megahit. Of course, “The Amazing Spider-Man” is still raking it in at the boxoffice, and you can still catch “Men In Black 3” and “The Avengers” in theaters, and “The Dark Knight Rises” will open on Friday, July 20. But there’s nothing new TODAY, which may actually be kind of vexing to a certain turn of mind.

Still, just as there is seemingly no end to film adaptations of comic books, there is no end to thinking and opining on such movies, and Portland is particularly fertile ground for such conversations.

As is widely known, Portland is the home to a tremendous community of comic book writers, illustrators, editors, publishers and connoisseurs, and we thought it would be fun, during this unnerving downtime, to ask some of them what they think of on-screen versions of comic books.

We hunted down a baker’s dozen of Portland comic luminaries and polled them on a few pointed questions, and, as you can see, they responded with great enthusiasm and at great length.

(And for a truly brilliant explanation at why we love comic book movies so much, check out this cartoon from Mike Russell and Bill Mudron, which ran in Friday's A&E.)

THE QUESTIONS

1) What's your favorite film of a superhero comic book and why?
2) What favorite superhero comic of yours was, in your view, botched in its screen version and why?
3) What superhero comic that you love hasn't been made into a film and ought to be?
4) What's your favorite non-superhero comic/graphic novel adaptation and why?
5) Why (besides money) do you think the movies and comics/graphic novels have become such a potent union?

Scott Allie, Senior Managing Editor for Dark Horse Comics and author of, among other titles, “Exurbia,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” and “The Devil’s Footprints”

Fave: “The Avengers.” It made superheroes fun again, and I'd gotten a little bored with the brooding grim stuff. There's something fun in every minute of The Avengers, and it's about time someone's making superheroes fun again.

Botch: A lot of my favorite comics were written by Alan Moore, and I've avoided most of those films. What made them great comics wasn't going to translate to 2-hour films. There was a time I really loved the “Batman” comics, and I hated the couple “Batman” movies that followed the Tim Burton ones.

I wish: “The Umbrella Academy.” That story would lend itself to a film structure, if it were adapted properly, and it'd sell a boatload of comics for us, which is the best thing about comics-to-films. Umbrella Academy is also a good next step in the evolution of superhero films, post-modern yet classic, not all grim and gritty, which has been done to death.

"The Avengers" (2012)

Non-superhero: “Road to Perdition,” because it was just a great film in its own right. I remember reading someone criticizing the glut of bad comic-book movies -- and they referenced “Charlie's Angels,” which was never a comic book -- and how those movies drew attention away from good movies, like “Road to Perdition.” Do some damn research, I thought.

Why: Hollywood loves a franchise, and comics companies were building franchises before they were even thinking of it that way. Comics specialize in big visuals, iconic characters, and high concepts. Those work well in film, and nowadays special effects have gotten to the point where just about anything an artist can imagine, filmmakers can pull off on screen.

Brian Michael Bendis, five-time Eisner Award-winning writer, artist and editor of such series as “Powers,” “Ultimate Spider-Man” and “New Avengers”

Fave: “The Rocketeer.” It's not the most well-known comics of all time but years ago Disney went to great lengths to capture this Valentine to Sunday serial action adventures.

Botch: “Daredevil” is the one that breaks my heart the most. I was writing the comic book when the movie came out and I had such high hopes for it. but something happened on the way to the screen. I'm very happy to be in the documentary on the DVD though. a lot of my heroes are on that documentary. I still think if someone decided to take a decidedly lo fi gritty action look at the character something very special could happen. But the really most heartbreaking is “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.” It's so hard to tell someone what a masterpiece the book is and continues to be when all they know from it is that terrible movie that will always be known as the movie that was so bad that Sean Connery decided never to make another movie.

"Daredevil" (2003)

I wish: Luke Cage

Non-superhero: “Ghost World.” It's an exceptional adaptation. And a very close second is “American Splendor.” I actually like “American Splendor” the movie more than I like the comic

Why: Because they share the incalculable ways you can wed words and pictures. What I love about comics books is we are always 5 to 10 years ahead of the curve, at least. First we do it right and then the movies come along and see if they can try to match us. They rarely do and they never top us.

David Chelsea, cartoonist and illustrator and author of “David Chelsea in Love” and “Perspective!”

Fave: The 1978 “Superman” with Christopher Reeve. I lived in New York back then, and even though they call it Metropolis, the movie is full of details that evoke that time for me. I love that Lex Luthor has his hideout in Grand Central Station, and there's a great shot of Clark Kent glancing dubiously at one of those newfangled telephone non-booths when he needs to change into Superman.

Botch: I've never been much of a superhero reader, so it's hard to make comparisons. It did strike me as not quite Supermanly that Christopher Reeve kills a helpless opponent at the end of “Superman II.”

"Hugo" (2011)

I wish: This dates me, but I think it would be a gas to see “Wonder Warthog” on the screen.

Non-superhero: I think pretty much every film version of a graphic novel that I've seen, from "The Rocketeer" to "American Splendor," has been better than the original simply because its script went through more than a first draft. Probably my favorite that I can remember is “Hugo.” Why? I love Scorsese, Sacha Baron Cohen and movies set in the 1930s, and it had the most stunning use of 3-D ever.

Why: Anthony Burgess once said that movies were more about flying than walking, and that filmmakers should stop trying to adapt Tolstoy and instead make movies from mythic sources like Beowulf. Comics are the mythology of our time.

S. W. Conser, animator and illustrator who produces the KBOO-FM interview programs “Words & Pictures” and “The Film Show"

Fave: Well, I hope my answer won't be considered cheating. I honestly can't think of any superhero films that have made a better transition from the printed page to the big screen than the animated Superman shorts produced by the Fleischer Studios in the 1940's.

Botch: George Lucas' decision to gear the 1986 movie version of “Howard the Duck” to tween audiences not only created one of the most notorious flops in Universal's history, it sadly also tarnished the reputation of the source material. That said, any reader who wants to dig up old issues of the original Howard the Duck comic book will find bitingly funny allegories of the faltering American dream which still hold up after all these years.

I wish: Even readers who don't care much for superhero comics find an allure in “Wonder Woman,” with her heady mix of vulnerability and fierce determination. Over the years, the character has grown well beyond her quirky World War II-era origins to become a worldwide emblem and inspiration.

from "The Adventures of Superman"

Non-superhero: As the director of the film version of “Persepolis,” Marjane Satrapi expertly adapted her own graphic novels to the screen. With over 300 pages of criss-crossing personal, political, and cultural narratives, reshaping both Persepolis books into a 90-minute film must have been a delicate balancing act. Satrapi (and co-director Vincent Paronnaud) made clever use of camera angles and movement, editing and compositing, and subtle variations in sound and color to create a "you are there" moviegoing experience with deep emotional impact.

Why: Humans have a thing about iconic images, whether we see them on a tapestry or a cave wall, the screen or the page. These days, the lit-crit crowd is fond of saying that comic books represent our modern mythology, which may be laying it on a bit thick. But there's no denying that humble comics creators -- once the bane of every literature professor -- have stumbled in a big way onto the power of epic themes and dynamic iconography.

Colleen Coover, comic book artist and illustrator, author of “Small Favors” and “Banana Sunday”

Fave: “The Phantom.” Here was a movie that took a classic adventure comic strip about a guy who runs around in the jungle, and they did nothing to screw up that core concept! Also, Billy Zane was clearly having the time of his life.

Botch: I've pretty much blocked Ang Lee's “Hulk” from my memory. I have a vague impression of it being really boring, with a weird conflict with Bruce Banner's dad tacked on? I'm sure there are worse films, (“Catwoman” comes to mind as a strong possibility) but if I think it's going to be a stinker, I generally stay away.

"The Phantom" (1996)

I wish: Gosh I can't even think of any who don't have a movie already! A “Submariner” period film, maybe, set in the Pacific Theatre of WWII.

Non-superhero: I'm going to have to go to Japan for this one! “Ping Pong” (aka “Pingu-Pongu”) is a freakishly good sports movie based on a manga by Taiyo Matsumoto. It's about a ping pong star who has to learn the hard way that he can't fake his way to greatness on talent alone.

Why: I think for action pictures, they're attractive for being really big, colorful concepts that basically come with ready-made storyboards.

Rachel Edidin, Associate Editor at Dark Horse Comics, freelance writer and editor

Fave: “The Rocketeer,” hands down. It manages to key into exactly what makes the comic great without clinging so slavishly to the details that it fails to take advantage of its new medium. I was so happy when they announced that Joe Johnston was directing “Captain America.” I mean, he'd already put together what has to have been the greatest WWII-era-pulp-superhero-with-a-ton-of-heart audition tape of all time. “Captain America”'s probably a better movie--definitely a more sophisticated one--but “Rocketeer”'s still my favorite and probably always will be. I'm a sucker for that kind of sincerity.

Botch: “Watchmen.” It's insidious, too, because it's such a picture-perfect replica in some ways, but I think Zack Snyder got so wrapped up in the minutiae and shiny aesthetics that he altogether missed much of what informed them and made them relevant in the comic. The result is very much like walking up to what appears to be a recreation of a beautiful piece of classic architecture, tastefully updated to fit modern sensibilities and safety codes; then opening the door and discovering that it's actually a theater flat.

"The Rocketeer" (1991)

I wish: That's a hard one, because a lot of my favorite comics are my favorites because the story is woven so inextricably with the medium. So, while I think some of them could be made into good movies, I'm not entirely sure they ought to be. Not everything needs to be adapted, and it bugs me that adaptation into film is seen as the highest achievement in comics: what it means for a comic to be good, what it means for a movie to be good, and what it means for either to be critically or commercially successful are only marginally overlapping categories.

Non-superhero: “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” for pretty much the exact same reasons I dig “The Rocketeer”: It stays true to the spirit and tone of the comics, and it pushes and plays with its medium in ways that parallel what Bryan Lee O'Malley did with the original; and it's generally just a hell of a lot of fun. I like “Sin City,” too, but for the opposite reason. That was such a cinematic, and cinematically informed, comic to begin with that moving it from page to screen feels more like evolution than translation, and the result is aesthetically recursive in ways I find really cool.

Why: This is going to sound super cynical, but: Comics are visual stories that have been market tested and essentially pre-storyboarded. Looking at a comic and seeing how it could translate to a movie takes a whole lot less imagination than doing the same with a prose novel or a straight-up pitch.

Paul Guinan, multi-media artist and co-creator of the comics “Boilerplate,” “Heartbreakers” and “Chronos”

Fave: “Captain America” was not just beautifully designed and crafted, it captured the earnestness of the character, and tone of the original comic book. It trusted the strength of the material, and serviced it without irony or cynicism. That's rare in modern movies.

Botch: “Green Lantern” film overburdened itself with a backstory that took the comic title decades to develop. The legendary comic artist Alex Toth, who worked on "GL" in the '60s, would've make the notation "K.I.S.S.!": keep it simple, stupid!

Captain America -- standing w bad guys.jpg

"Captain America: The First Avenger" (2011)

I wish: A WWII “Wonder Woman” movie -- think “Thor” meets “Saving Private Ryan.”

Non-superhero: “Lone Wolf & Cub”: As a film series it was able to capture the epic quality of the long running manga series.

Why: Superheroes have been popular since the 1930s, but the digital age makes it possible to depict super heroics in new ways that are exciting for moviegoers.

Steve Lieber, Eisner Award-winning illustrator of such comics as “Batman,” “Superman,” “Hellboy,” “Star Trek,” “Road to Perdition” and “GI Joe” and the graphic novel series “Whiteout.”

Fave: Richard Donner's first “Superman” movie from 1978. I don't tend to seek out flashy action, which is a staple of most superhero films. “Superman”'s focus on creating a sense of wonder puts it ahead of the pack for me.

Botch: “The Fantastic Four.” I don't think much of the heart or the fun of the original comics survived the translation to the screen.

I wish: “The Interman” by Jeff Parker, published by Octopus Press. It's a sort of “Bourne Identity” story with a super-powered spy on the run from killers sent to eliminate all traces of the program that created him. It's smart and stylish, and delivers plenty of impressive spectacle without ever losing the human connection.

"Superman: The Movie" (1978)

Non-superhero: “American Splendor.” Paul Giamatti was fantastic as Harvey Pekar, and I loved the multiple depictions between documentary footage, film drama, stage acting and animation.

Why: If you're making movies, your job is to tell stories with images. Comics artists have spent the past century telling all sorts of stories, but we have one thing in common: We make our points visually. Our collective body of work is an incredibly rich vein for them to mine.

Dylan Meconis, writer-illustrator of such online and print comics titles as “Bite Me!” and “Family Man.”

Fave: I really liked “Iron Man.” That was a great example of taking a brand with only a medium level of cachet outside the comic book-reading public and just making some smart, funny summer pulp with it that really revived a whole character. I never cared for the Tony Stark character at all -- in the ongoing grim-ification of superhero worlds, he came off as a booze-wrecked, mega-rich jerk in a nuclear suit - until Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr. et al. retrofitted him into a funny, likable character, one who's MORE likeable for being a bit flippant and spoiled.

Botch: I only see the ones that enough people assure me are worth the price of admission, and combined with my typically low expectations, I haven't been seriously disappointed as a result. I also don't read many superhero titles, so I don't have a burning desire to see that one story arc of “Ant-Man” made into a movie.

I wish: It seems pretty silly that nobody's managed to get a “Wonder Woman” movie out yet.

"Persepolis" (2007)

Non-superhero: “Persepolis.” The (animated) movie was an expansion and a deepening of what Marjane Satrapi did with her original two-book series about her youth in Iran. She was heavily involved in the creation of the film version, and the animation art keep very close to the style of her own drawing and presenting information.

Why: Because special effects technology has advanced to the point where movies can actually show all the crazy (and exciting) stuff that happens in a superhero comic, and in many cases do it with more dynamism and coherence than on the printed page. Movies also tend to understand that the audience is starting at Square One (ie, need to see Peter Parker get bitten by the spider at the beginning) and wants to finish a complete story arc in one sitting (the villain is defeated). In comics, there's often a great deal of complicated back-story that you need to know about to understand what you're reading. It can be hard to know where to start, whereas with a movie, you just buy a ticket and walk in and feel pretty certain that you're not going to leave confused. So in I think that, in some ways, movies do superheroes better than comic books do, now.

Natalie Nourigat, creator of the illustrated autobiography “Between Gears” and illustrator of titles for Oni Press, Graphic Universe, Image Comics and others.

Fave: “Iron Man” is great because in a very short amount of time it explains Tony Stark's origin and makes you really root for him, without getting bogged down by irrelevant details from the comics.

Botch: I think it was a missed opportunity to make a “Green Lantern” movie about Hal Jordan rather than John Stewart. John is the Green Lantern from the “Justice League” cartoons that aired 2001-2004; I think a lot of people my age and younger would have been more into a movie about him. He's a fantastic character and he's one of the most prominent African-American superheroes, of which there have been precious few in Hollywood adaptations.

"Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" (2010)

I wish: “Batgirl: Year One,” “Wonder Woman: The Circle,” or “Mysterius the Unfathomable,” if we can stretch the definition of superhero a bit!

Non-superhero: “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” is everything an adaptation should be -- true to the spirit of the source material but unafraid to explore new ground in the film. Edgar Wright was the perfect choice for director, and I think it was really smart that he consulted the comic's creator, Bryan Lee O'Malley.

Why: There are just so many good comic stories out there; Hollywood could never exhaust the potential adaptations (especially if they mine deeper than superhero titles). Popular superheroes like Batman span multiple generations; they appeal to young people but they're also nostalgic for people who grew up with other versions of the character. Film technology has also reached a point recently where it can keep up with the visuals that many action comics require (human flight, intergalactic battles, transforming into the Hulk, etc.).

Jeff Parker, writer and illustrator for such comics as “X-Men: First Class,” “Agents of Atlas” and his own “The Interman”

Fave: If you consider him a superhero -- he does fly -- “The Rocketeer,” from Dave Stevens' comics. It captures the spirit of old serial adventures with solid story and talented cast.

Botch: “Superman Returns” gave us this dour, creepy take on Superman that got everything about the hero wrong. And it doesn't work as a story, no one's motivations make sense. It's no fun.

I wish: Jack Kirby's “Machine Man” is a natural! An android built for war with endless visual possibilities and you can put him in any scenario.

"Danger: Diabolik" (1968)

Non-superhero: I like ones that build up the world of the characters and get the feel right. Right now I'm between “Hellboy” and “Danger: Diabolik.”

Why: Movies now can convincingly show you the unabashed power fantasies that comics have always excelled at telling. Of course, it takes a fortune and years to make the same story the books can give you in a couple of months.

Jamie S. Rich, author of such graphic novels as “You Have Killed Me,” “It Girl and the Atomics” and “Spell Checkers.”

Fave: “Iron Man” continues to be the most spontaneous, fun, and action-packed realization of its hero's four-colored adventures. While “The Dark Knight” is probably the better film, it's more specialized; “Iron Man” is universal. As an aside, the best overall superhero movie was not based on a comic. Brad Bird's “The Incredibles” is pretty much a perfect movie. It's full of pathos, action, humor, and unbelievable visual feats --everything a superhero story should have.

Botch: “X-Men: First Class” has a smarmy tone, like the filmmakers were above the material and could only approach it with their tongues in their cheeks. Plus, very few actual X-Men made it into the cast.

"The Incredibles" (2004)

I wish: Mike Allred's “Madman.” Allred has hatched many a plan with Robert Rodriguez to make the film in a manner similar to the “Sin City” movie, and the character has the potential for the sort of gonzo fun-fest that the genre so far lacks. I wish it would happen.

Non-superhero: “American Splendor” captures the spirit of Harvey Pekar -- arguably a superhero himself -- and manages to find an inventive way to cover the man's entire career without losing sight of the small stuff, which is what made his autobio comics so great.

Why: Given the advances in special effects technology, I think audiences crave material that is larger than life. Comics come with a huge back catalogue full of the most imaginative visuals from the last 100 years. It's like the movies have finally started catching up with us in terms of the size of their canvas. Comic books have never been restrained by budget or aspect ratio.

Bobby “Fatboy” Roberts, podcaster, film critic, movie screening host, trivia emcee, and creator of the famed “Geek Remixed” music series

Fave: I maintain the best superhero film ever made was Brad Bird's "The Incredibles," but since that wasn't actually adapted from a comic (although it pulls very heavily from both the “Fantastic Four” as well as, believe it or not, “Watchmen” and James Bond), I'd probably have to go with “The Dark Knight.” Then probably “Superman: The Movie,” and then maybe “Spider-Man 2.”

Botch: The biggest botch job has to be "The Spirit," directed by Frank Miller, from the works of his mentor, Will Eisner.

I wish: I would like to see “Nextwave” by Warren Ellis make it to the screen, “Runaways” by Brian K. Vaughan, and a CG animated "Kingdom Come" by Mark Waid and Alex Ross, animated/art designed in Ross' painterly style.

"The Spirit" (2008)

Non-superhero: There are a LOT of graphic novel adaptations that are really well done. “Persepolis” is up there, “Road to Perdition” is up there, as is “Ghost World.” It's weird, but I think I'd have to call it a toss-up between “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” and “A History of Violence.” Those two couldn't be any more different, but there you go.

Why: Easy mythology. Easy blockbuster potential. Easy brand recognition. I'd say "They're already storyboards" as many producers have and continue to say, but considering most movies aren't directly adapted from any one specific arc or graphic novel, I don't think that factors in. But it's a lot easier to just grab a character that was already pretty large on the pop-culture landscape and put him in a movie than it is to dream up your own take on Campbellian myth-making. Especially if he wears underwear on the outside that you can turn into some weird leathery-fishscale looking thing in the name of "reality."

Malick’s ‘Heaven’, Demy’s ‘Americano’, Fred and Ginger ‘Swing’ and more

July 13, 2012 / Mad About Movies

New releases in Portland-area theaters not reviewed in this week's A&E.

Salma Hayek in "Americano"

“Americano” Feature debut of director Mathieu Demy (son of Jacques) who stars as a man investigating his late mother’s legacy. (Living Room Theaters)

“Beyond the Black Rainbow” Trippy tale of life inside a futuristic commune. (Clinton Street Theater, Saturday through Monday only)

“Days of Heaven” Terrence Malick’s classic 1978 drama about a pair of con artists (Richard Gere, Brooke Adams) and an ailing farmer (Sam Shepard). (Laurelhurst)

“An Evening with Bill Plympton” The Oregon-born cartoonist holds court. Always a treat. (Northwest Film Center, Wednesday only)

“Forbidden Zone” “Rocky Horror”-style sci-fi/fantasy musical starring the immortal Hervé Villechaize. (Clinton Street Theater, Saturday through Thursday only)

“Friday the 13th Part III” The 1982 slasher sequel, in 3-D. (Bagdad, Friday only)

“Grosse Pointe Blank” The gloriously cracked hitman comedy/romance with John Cusack. (Academy)

“Mind Zone: Therapists Behind the Front Lines” Work-in-progress screening of a documentary about mental health care of combat soldiers in Afghanistan. (Northwest Film Center, Thursday only)

“Night of the Living Dead” and “Night of the Living Dead Reanimated” A screening of George Romero’s landmark 1968 zombie movie is bracketed by two showings of an animated feature, created by multiple artists, reimagining the film. (Clinton Street Theater, Friday only)

“North by Northwest” The great Alfred Hitchcock thriller starring Cary Grant, James Mason, Eva Marie Saint and a cropduster. (Clackamas Town Center, Wednesday only)

“Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow” and “Sabertooth Dragon vs. the Fiery Tiger” A pair of rare martial arts gems in 35mm. (Hollywood Theatre, Tuesday only)

“Swing Time” Fred Astaire + Ginger Rogers = perfection. (Hollywood Theatre, Saturday only)

“Taxi Driver” The stupefyingly powerful 1976 Martin Scorsese/Robert De Niro drama about a psychotic cabbie. (5th Avenue Cinema, Friday through Sunday only)

“Turn Me on, Dammit!” Norwegian comedy about a teenage girl becoming aware of her sexuality. (Living Room Theaters)

“We Grew Wings” Documentary about the University of Oregon women’s track team. (Hollywood Theatre, Sunday only, with repeat showings July 22 and July 29)

“You All Are Captains” Drama about a filmmaker manipulating street children in a film-with-a-film. (Northwest Film Center, Saturday and Sunday only)

Levy’s High Five, July 13 – 19

July 12, 2012 / Mad About Movies

The five films playing in Portland-area theaters that I'd soonest see again.

"Moonrise Kingdom"

‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’ review: joy, danger and beauty in the bayou, through a child’s eyes

July 12, 2012 / Mad About Movies

A triumphant debut blends dreams, fears and hardscrabble life in sometimes breathtaking fashion.

There’s a sense in watching any movie that you’re dreaming, albeit wide awake and amid a community of strangers. We sit with our eyes open and we gaze at the impossible: instant shifts of space and time, improbable plots, music from nowhere, animation, computer effects, montages.

So if all movies are, to some extent, living dreams, what to say about a film like “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” which is dreamlike and poetic and symphonic and magical in ways beyond the ordinary movie -- and beyond quite a few extraordinary ones, too.

“Beasts” is a fantasy, perhaps, or maybe an alternative history of recent events, or it could simply be a depiction of the world as seen and felt by a curious, apt, precocious, and intuitive young child. At times it moves like a hallucination; at times it feels like journalism or, perhaps more to the point, sociology. You’re continually leaning into it, wondering what’s real and what’s imaginary, what the physical and moral laws of its universe are, and where it all might go. The only thing you’re sure of, virtually from the very start, is that you’ve never seen anything quite like it.

The film is the feature debut of director Benh Zeitlin, who is adapting (albeit, surely, very loosely) a play by Lucy Alibar. It centers on a little girl named Hushpuppy who lives on an island in the Mississippi Delta known by its couple of score of inhabitants as the Bathtub.

The Bathtub sits outside of what Hushpuppy calls “the Dry World,” that is, the land protected by the levees, just as it sits outside of what the rest of us might call ‘civilization.’ It’s a broken-down place, built of and strewn with garbage, overrun by weeds and feral animals, bereft of work and school and government and media, and yet (or, perhaps, ‘hence’) it’s a paradise. The children are raised communally, the lines between the manmade and natural worlds have dissolved, a sense of play permeates the lives of young and old alike, there’s little longing or despair because there’s little need or want. From some vantages, life on the Bathtub might look like mere subsistence; from others, maybe, it looks like purity.

And yet, even through the eyes of wise-beyond-her-years Hushpuppy, who narrates and is largely the focus of the film, we can see that there are things missing from the Bathtub, and dangers in it. For one thing, Hushpuppy has no mother, and is being raised, if that’s the word, by her gruff and often drunken dad, Wink. And for another, an apocalyptic storm a la (if not actually) Hurricane Katrina hits the Delta, inundating the Bathtub and threatening its way of life. The residents take drastic measures to save their community, and Hushpuppy herself sets out on a personal voyage of discovery.

Zeitlin, in the vein of Terrence Malick, dances through his story like a milkweed seed in the thrall of a breeze. He brings us close to Hushpuppy but never quite puts us inside her head; she informs us and counsels us, but we’re mostly on our own in trying to puzzle out who the inhabitants of the Bathtub are to one another and which of the events that we watch are actual and which make-believe. The ominous, destructive creatures Hushpuppy refers to as aurochs, for instance: do they exist only in myth, or are they real, or can’t she tell the difference? And, finally, does it matter? What Hushpuppy believes is, in this universe, what we must take to be true. And whether she’s dreaming or hoping things rather than experiencing them in an objective fashion matters not from the side of the screen through which we experience the movie.

“Beasts” is shot, quite beautifully, by cinematographer Ben Richardson on 16mm, which gives it a raw, documentary feel, but it gracefully includes some moments of computer-generated magic which give life to Hushpuppy’s speculations on the nature of time and the universe. And it moves to strange and intoxicating music Zeitlin composed with Dan Romer.

But for all the beguiling quality brought to the film by its creators, the most unforgettable contribution is made by Quvenzhané Wallis, the tiny slip of a girl who plays Hushpuppy with enormous heart, authority and daring. Looking impossibly fragile and yet enduring whatever the Bathtub and the fates throw at her, she turns Hushpuppy into the most unlikely movie hero you can imagine: a child of nature able not only to withstand but to comprehend the infinitude around her. Wallis is, like crusty Dwight Henry, who plays Wink with offhanded, hazy humor, a newcomer to acting. But despite her greenness she carries the film on her wee little shoulders like a titan. It’s breathtaking.

“Beasts” won the Grand Jury and cinematography prizes at January’s Sundance Film Festival and four prizes, including the one for best first feature, at Cannes in May. Inevitably, that has led to a backlash, with some people complaining that the film is a muddled headscratcher and others that Zeitlin infantilizes and patronizes Hushpuppy and the other inhabitants of the Bathtub in a way that reeks of colonialism, white privilege and liberal guilt.

I would argue, rather, that what disconcerts here is not only deliberate but liberating: just as she lives outside of what the rest of us think of as civilization, Hushpuppy has no concern for ordinary notions of narrative, whether that mean causality or the obligation to differentiate realism from fantasy. As for Zeitlin somehow demeaning his subjects, surely that charge is leavened by the deep intimacy the viewer feels with Hushpuppy. “Beasts of the Southern Wild” brings you into a world you didn’t know existed with a closeness that the movies almost never achieve. If that constitutes exploitation, then it’s a crime which all works of art should aspire to commit.

(91 min., PG-13, Cinema 21) Grade: A-minus

‘Lola Versus’ review: a drab comedy centered on a rising star

July 12, 2012 / Mad About Movies

Greta Gerwig shines through a dim and uninspired indie romcom.

Zoe Lister Jones (l.) and Greta Gerwig in "Lola Versus"

The best thing about the wan comedy “Lola Versus” is the extended opportunity to watch the emerging star Greta Gerwig, even if the material she has to work with isn’t always worthy of her offbeat gifts and charms.

The film, co-written by director Daryl Wein and Zoe Lister Jones (the latter of whom plays Gerwig’s best chum), is the tale of a woman who’s about to get married and finish her Ph.D. on the cusp of her thirtieth birthday. It all falls apart, and in the ensuing throes of angst she relies heavily on her pals (Jones and Hamish Linklater) and her parents (Debra Winger and Bill Pullman) and endures the sort of embarrassing miscues and coincidences that only befall the heroines of bad romantic comedies.

Gerwig manages to infuse her role with dignity and heart, despite the goofy permutations of the script. As in “Damsels in Distress” and “Greenberg,” she combines a real-girl aspect and an arch, knowing calm that feels theatrical and distanced and yet intimate and warm. That strong presence in the center almost makes “Lola Versus” watchable even as it starts to get formulaic, preachy and tiresome.

(87 min., R, Fox Tower) Grade: C-plus

Retro-a-gogo: classic films on Portland screens, July 13 – 19

July 11, 2012 / Mad About Movies

The coming week's menu of revival movies in Portland theaters.

at the Hollywood Theatre, Saturday July 14

"Days of Heaven" Terrence Malick's gorgeous 1978 romance. (Laurelhurst: full week)

"Forbidden Zone" "Rocky Horror"-style fantasy musical with Herve Villechaize and Susan Tyrell. (Clinton Street Theater: Saturday through Thursday)

"Friday the 13th Part III" 1982 slasher sequel in 3-D. (Bagdad: Friday only)

"Gross Point Blank" Jon Cusack may never have been better than in this neurotic hit man comedy. (Academy: full week)

"Lost in the Desert" 1970 drama about a boy wandering the Kalahari after a plane crash. (Hollywood Theatre: Saturday only)

"Modern Times" Charlie Chaplin's great 1936 talkie with live musical accompaniment by the Filmusik gang. (Hollywood Theatre: Thursday only)

"Night of the Living Dead" George Romero's unparalleled 1968 zombie film, playing with a new film, "Night of the Living Dead Reanimated," in which animators re-imagine passages from the original. (Clinton Street Theater: Friday only)

"North by Northwest" For some, this is Alfred Hitchcock's shining hour, with Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint. (Clackamas Town Center: Wednesday only)

"Return to Waterloo" Kinks frontman Ray Davies will be on hand to present this 1984 feature which he wrote and directed. (Hollywood Theatre: Sunday only)

"Snake in the Eagle's Shadow" and "Sabertooth Dragon vs. the Fiery Tiger" A pair of 1970s martial arts films shown in the original 35mm. (Hollywood Theatre: Tusday only)

"Swing Time" The perfection that is a Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers film, from 1936. (Hollywood Theatre: Saturday only)

"Taxi Driver" Still stunning decades later, Martin Scorsese's portrait of a psychotic New York cabbie, built around an immortal Robert De Niro performance. (5th Avenue Cinema: Friday through Sunday only)

This week’s last-chance movies: ‘Grand Illusion’ and ‘The Do-Deca-Pentathalon’

July 11, 2012 / Mad About Movies

Catch 'em while you can!

"Grand Illusion" (1937): coming to Cinema 21

I'm not sure if you could find a more distinct pair of films than this week's class of soon-to-be-gone movies: Jean Renoir's immortal 1937 World War I drama "Grand Illusion" and the Duplass brothers' pleasantly goofy sibling rivalry comedy "The Do-Deca-Pentathalon." Both are worth leaving the house to see, though: they have that in common.

Adieu, O’Toole: a great actor bids farewell to his trade

July 10, 2012 / Mad About Movies

From "Lawrence of Arabia" and "The Lion in Winter" to "My Favorite Year" and "Ratatouille," he was born to be a star, whether he wanted to be one or not.

Peter O'Toole in "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962)

Peter O'Toole, age 79, has announced that he will no longer perform in films or on stage or TV, and with his retirement the world shrinks just a little.

From 1962, when the relatively unknown Irish actor with the piercing sky blue eyes dazzled the world in "Lawrence of Arabia," O'Toole appeared for all the world to be born to act, with a booming voice, insanely good looks, a rakish way with booze and ladies, and an outsized personality. He was of the generation that included such epic lads as Richard Burton, Oliver Reed, Alan Bates and his longtime friend Richard Harris, reprobates all, and he is the last of them alive.

I can think of perhaps a dozen O'Toole roles that will always stay with me. "Lawrence," of course, and the great historical follow-ups "Becket" and "A Lion in Winter," which seemed of a piece with "Lawrence," somehow, revealing O'Toole's curious combination of grandeur and fragility. (The decision to cast him opposite Katherine Hepburn as feuding royal spouses in the latter was the sort of thing the word 'inspiration' was coined to describe.) In Clive Donner's "What's New, Pussycat?" and Peter Medak's "The Ruling Class" he put his good looks and perverse sense of humor to fine use, revealing a twisted sensibility that felt at once modern and classic.

And then the good roles seemed to stop coming to him as his love of drink and distaste for professional discipline became as legendary as those blue eyes. There were still great film roles -- the rascally director in "The Stunt Man," the Errol Flynn-inspired alcoholic actor in "My Favorite Year" -- but more frequently he appeared to be showing up to be paid rather than to deliver a performance. Very late, he had two fine autumnal roles: one as the aged actor inspired by lust in "Venus," the other as the voice of the acerbic food critic Anton Ego in "Ratatouille." But by then the memory of the brilliant young man seemed almost disconnected from the fellow in front of you.

He never quit working on stage, and I was lucky enough to see him. In 1982, traveling through London after college, I bought the cheapest ticket in the house to watch O'Toole perform George Barnard Shaw's "Man and Superman." Sitting way up in the gods of the Haymarket theater, and even though he was handicapped with a hoarse voice and his arm in a sling, I was bowled over by his energy, magnetism, force and intensity. He had something, alright, even when his reputation said that he'd lost it.

Peter O'Toole in "Venus" (2006)

I speak about O'Toole as if he has died, which, of course, he has not. The irony is that a full decade ago, offered a lifetime achievement Oscar (he has never won an Academy Award competitively, despite eight nominations), he nearly declined because he declared himself far from finished in the craft. And, in fact, "Venus," his final Oscar-nominated performance, was yet to come. But his output since accepting that award wasn't very different from what he'd done. Announcing his retirement seems a fitting farewell, and even as a fan I feel

His retirement comes just days after the death of Ernest Borgnine, who lived to 95 and never quit working -- perhaps because he was of a stronger constitution, perhaps because success and stardom came to him later in life and had less to do with the random gift of physical beauty. O'Toole was one of those blessed to look like a movie star even when he taxed his body with hard living. You can't be sad to see him depart the stage, not when he seemed so shy about filling it maximally, not when he's leaving behind so many wonderful hours for us to watch and watch again forever.

The well-respected Ray Davies will screen his ‘Return to Waterloo’ in Portland

July 10, 2012 / Mad About Movies

As part of this coming weekend's epic Ray Davies Day, the rock legend will present the 1984 film he directed at the Hollywood Theatre.

Ray Davies nowadays

There aren't many rock icons on the scale of Ray Davies, the leader and chief songwriter of The Kinks, who was wailing on power chords nearly 50 years ago with the likes of "You Really Got Me" and "All Day and All of the Night" and moved into more sophisticated fare with such hits as "Dedicated Follower of Fashion," "Waterloo Sunset" and "Lola."

Davies will be in town on Sunday, July 15, to perform at the Aladdin Theater, but before that show he'll appear at the Hollywood Theatre to present a super-rare screening of "Return to Waterloo," a fantasy-thriller which he both wrote and directed. The film, which features a young Tim Roth in a small role, hasn't, to my knowledge, played theatrically in Portland before, so this is a treat indeed.

Ray Davies back in the day

All of these events, by the way, have been ingeniously packaged as Ray Davies Day, with official mayorial certification and everything. So if you attend the film, not only will you behold a legend in the flesh and catch a film you'd likely never see otherwise, you'd actually be doing your civic duty as a citizen of our fair metropolis. Win-win-win, if you ask me.

(BTW, Ringo Starr will also be in town to perform on Sunday. I'm smellin' all-star jam or all-night booze session, but maybe that's just the nostalgia talkin'.....)

‘Ernie’s the name!’ A pair of remarkable chats with the late, great Ernest Borgnine

July 9, 2012 / Mad About Movies

A visit to Portland by the legendary actor, who died yesterday, led to a phone call and an unforgettable night.

Ernest Borgnine at the Northwest Film Center, April 2012

When Turner Classic Movies and the Northwest Film Center announced in late winter that Ernest Borgnine would be coming to Portland to introduce a screening of "Marty," I was puzzled. The event, a preamble to the TCM Classic Film Festival, seemed rather a lot to ask of a man who had just turned 95, and "Marty," as estimable as it may be, had no special meaning that I could see for a Portland audience.

Dutifully I reported the news and when I was asked if I'd like to speak to Borgnine to help promote the event, I said 'sure.' I'd known about Ernest Borgnine as long as I could remember, after all, and if I was never a huge fan or a completist, I greatly admired his work in "From Here to Eternity," "Emperor of the North," "The Wild Bunch," "The Vikings," "Escape from New York," "Vera Cruz" and, of course, "Marty," and I remembered watching "McHale's Navy" reruns as a boy with real delight. I respected his longevity, his vigor, his apparent enthusiasm for any kind of work that came his way (such as doing a voice on TV's "SpongeBob Squarepants") and the sheer unlikely good fortune of his career, given his sack-of-potatoes face, meaty body, unglamourous name and late start in the biz (he didn't get his first film credit until age 34).

Came the morning and the phone rang and on the other end was the unmistakable voice of the man himself, and when I greeted him with "Good morning, Mr. Borgnine," he boomed, "What is this ‘Mr. Borgnine’ stuff? Ernie’s the name!" And off we went, starting with his account of enjoying his days in a cabin he once owned along the Rogue River in Southern Oregon. So robust and funny and happy was his talk that I simply ran it all in the Sunday Oregonian in q-and-a fashion; I would have felt like a churl cutting any of it out.

Ernest Borgnine in "Marty" (1955)

A few days after my story ran, the "Marty" screening was held before a packed house at the Whitsell Auditorium of the Portland Art Museum, and I arrived with my 12-year-old daughter early enough to greet Borgnine in the green room. When we got there, he was seated in a chair, dressed in a suit and tie and wearing a cardigan under his jacket as a redoubt to the wet chill of a Portland spring. He was conversing with characteristic animation with a woman who was identified to me as Robert Mitchum's daughter (and who got away before I could chat with her). She was mentioning a pet film project that her father never got to make and how there was a great part in it for Borgnine, and he responded enthusiastically and told her to contact his office when she had an indication that the movie might go forward.

My daughter and I were next, and I was honestly taken aback when Borgnine stood from his chair to shake my hand and thank me for the story I'd run, which he said he enjoyed. (He was looking right in my eyes when he said this, and even though I'm a lousy poker player, I truly don't think he was shining me on.) He then bent over and smiled at my daughter and shook her hand, and when I told him that she, naturally, knew him best from "SpongeBob," he immediately did a bit of dialogue in his Mermaid Man voice, and she literally startled in delight. We spoke with him for another minute or so, and then said goodbye and made way for the other guests whom he was meant to greet and to find some seats in the theater.

I had been recruited to introduce Borgnine and TCM host Ben Mankiewicz, and I did that quickly and left the stage to them. And then I watched Borgnine pretty much do with Mankiewicz in person what he'd done with me on the phone: use him as punctuation for a series of anecdotes and reminiscences and jokes. He went through some of the same stories he'd told me about making "Marty" and winning the Oscar, shared a few laughs about the reactions he'd gotten over the years from Italian tough guys and Los Angeles cops who were ticked off with him for killing Frank Sinatra in "From Here to Eternity," and remembered how he was just about to turn down the lead in "McHale's Navy" ("I'm a movie star," he told his agent) when a kid selling candy bars for his Boy Scout troop rang the doorbell and could name every lead actor on TV but didn't recognize the Oscar winner who was standing in front of him.

Ernest Borgnine (l.) and Ben Mankiewicz at the Northwest Film Center, April 2012

The audience, which had greeted him with a standing ovation, ate it up like the best gelato in the world, and Borgnine was clearly having a gas. But there was a whole feature film to screen, and so he was finally led off the stage, to another standing ovation. He and Mankiewicz and some others headed off to Mother's Bistro, where he held court over dinner, and we all settled in to watch "Marty," which was still vital and entertaining and funny and sweet nearly 60 years after it was made.

Yesterday, when news came of Borgnine's death, I was saddened, but only briefly. The man so exuded verve and joy and bonhomie and gratitude for his life and career that my mournfulness lasted only a moment. Ernest Borgnine was truly filled with life, and simply connecting with him for a few fleeting minutes enriched mine in a way for which I'll always be happy. And the work he left behind: I'll always enjoy that, too.

-- Shawn Levy

As ‘Beasts’ approaches, a question stands: Why do festival-winning films fare so middlingly at the boxoffice?

July 6, 2012 / Mad About Movies

Boosts from Sundance and Cannes prizes don't translate into boxoffice appeal

Quvenzhane Wallis in "Beasts of the Southern Wild"

One of the most eagerly awaited films of the summer is upon us, and it has no special effects, no comic book connections, no action scenes, no raunchy jokes, and no actors that you’ve ever heard of.

Heck, you may not even have heard of the movie -- which, of course, makes it odd that it can be considered “eagerly awaited.”

The film in question is “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” a tiny, poetic and sometimes thrilling movie about life on an island in the Mississippi Delta, a place outside of civilization that’s radically altered by a massive storm. “Beasts” won the Grand Jury and cinematography prizes at January’s Sundance Film Festival, took home four awards from May’s Cannes Film Festival (including the Camera d’Or for best first feature), and has been rapturously received by festival audiences and critics in the other cities where it has appeared. (It opens here on Friday, July 13 at Cinema 21.)

If that gilded pedigree sounds enticing to you, you’re probably aware that you’re not exactly swimming in the widest stream of American moviegoing. “Beasts” began its commercial theatrical run in late June on four (that is FOUR) screens in New York and Los Angeles, or roughly 0.1% of the number of venues that have been or will be devoted to the premieres of “The Avengers,” “The Amazing Spider-Man” and “The Dark Knight Rises,” to name just the biggest of this summer’s blockbusters. A nationwide sensation “Beasts” is, in short, not.

In fact, it turns out that few films that win even the most prestigious prizes at the most prestigious film festivals ever become true boxoffice sensations. Consider these Sundance-winning titles: “Like Crazy” (2011), “Frozen River” (2008), “Sangre de Mi Sangre” (aka “Padre Nuestro”) (2007), “Quinceañera” (2006), “Forty Shades of Blue” (2005), “Primer” (2004), “American Splendor” (2003), and “Personal Velocity” (2002). It’s an estimable list, with some real treats and a couple of Oscar nominations in the bunch. But the eight films made a total of $14,980,000 -- combined. Boxoffice success is surely not a sign of quality, but it seems that films that get such a huge boost from America’s premiere festival ought to do better, no?

You could blame distributors (a few of those titles never even played in indie film-friendly Portland, for instance, let alone other, larger markets). And you can point out that the festival juries who award these prizes are obliged to choose from the films which are officially entered in the competition and thus unable to crown other films at the festival which might be equally worthy -- much in the way political elections are choices between the actual candidates and not always (if ever) a selection of the absolute best people.

But, too, there seems to be a disconnect between what film festival audiences and juries like and what the larger moviegoing public wants to see. As film industry analyst Jeffrey Wells of HollywoodElsewhere puts it, “There's always been a huge aesthetic gap between film journos and cineastes who attend film festivals and Average Joes who buy tickets to see films. Film dweebs tend to regard emotional currents askance, as many of them did with ‘Titanic.’ But a film generally has to deliver a clear and accessible emotional connection to gather boxoffice support.”

Another way of thinking about it is to realize that movies can take on an aura of urgency and impact in the heat of a film festival that doesn’t’ necessarily carry over to the plein aire of ordinary moviegoing. This can, in some cases, mean that distributors pay way more for them than they ought to. And it can mean that juries -- which are, after all, composed of humans and subject to whims, moods and pressures -- can mete out prizes in curious ways. “Like Crazy,” for instance, was selected ahead of “Martha Marcy Mae Marlene” and “Take Shelter”; “Quinceañera” ahead of “Half Nelson”; “Primer” ahead of “Garden State” and “Napoleon Dynamite”; “Forty Shades” ahead of (deep breath) “Brick,” “Hustle and Flow,” “Me and You and Everyone We Know,” and “The Squid and the Whale.” Boxoffice aside, the post-festival critical reception favored the also-rans in virtually all of those cases.

It’s worth noting that some Sundance winners have gone on to boxoffice success and even to make noise during awards season: “Precious” won the festival’s top prize in 2009 and “Winter’s Bone” the following year. And, too, Cannes, where the films in competition aren’t limited by budget size as at Sundance, can anoint some films that go on to do relatively big business: among recent winners of that festival’s top prize, the Palme d’Or, have been “The Tree of Life” (2011), “Fahrenheit 9/11” (2004), and “The Pianist” (2002). (It might also, of course, turn out that "Beasts of the Southern Wild" ends up the next "Avatar," but don't hold your breath until you turn blue....)

But it can be argued that each of those commercially successful titles had something -- a star (or star-making performance), a level of polish, a hot-button subject matter, directorial cachet -- to put it over at the boxoffice. In other words, a prestigious prize was only one of the things they had going for them. As Tom Ranieri, owner operator of Cinema 21, where “Beasts” will debut and where several other festival-winning films have had their Portland premeires, says: “While winning an award obviously raises the profile of a title, it has very little effect on the number of people whom eventually see it. A movie has to have a spark (hot titles seem to spontaneously combust) for there to be any chance of finding an audience. Winning awards is part of the overall marketing can of gasoline. A ton of fuel with no spark equals no fire.”

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