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A noisy ‘Snow White,’ a daring ‘Not a Film,’ a choppy ‘Polisse’ and more

June 1, 2012 /

This week's new releases in Portland-area theaters.

Snow White and the Huntsman 2.jpgCharlize Theron in "Snow White and the Huntsman"
The big multiplex opening this weekend is "Snow White and the Huntsman," but we've also got reviews of the daring Iranian documentary "This Is Not a Film," the French police story "Polisse," the French buddy tale "The Intouchables" and the low-fi American indie comedy "The Color Wheel."  And, yes, "Also Opening," "Indie/Arthouse" and "Levy's High Five."

A gorgeous ‘Stallion,’ a lovely ‘Otter,’ a stoned ‘School’ and more

June 1, 2012 /

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

The Sand Pebbles.jpg
“The Black Stallion” The gorgeous 1979 Carroll Ballard film about a boy and a horse.  (Hollywood Theatre, Saturday only)  

“Hard to Kill” Hard not to make fun of Steven Seagal; B-Movie Bingo makes a community event of it.  (Hollywood Theatre, Tuesday only)  

“High School” Stoner comedy that they forgot to screen in time for print deadlines.  (multiple locations)  

“My American Cousin” Prize-winning 1985 film by Sandy Wilson about growing up in British Columbia  (Northwest Film Center, Monday only)  

“My Grandmother” A Russian silent film from 1929 is accompanied by a live score.  (Alberta Rose Theatre, Sunday only)  

“Otter 501” Documentary about the tumultuous young life of a sea otter pup.  (Fox Tower)  

“The Sand Pebbles” From 1966, a slice of macho starring Steve McQueen.  (Laurelhurst Theater)  

"Total Recall" Those purveyors of late-night fun, Cort and Fatboy, kick off a Summer of Schwarzenegger with the 1990 sci-fi mind-bender.  (Bagdad Theater, Friday only)

“Valhalla Rising” Before “Drive,” director Nicolas Winding Refn made this nearly-silent sort-of action film about medieval barbarism.  (5th Avenue Cinema, Friday through Sunday only)  



Levy’s High Five, June 1 – 7

May 31, 2012 /

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

The Deep Blue Sea window.jpgRachel Weisz and Tom Hiddleston in "The Deep Blue Sea"
1) “The Deep Blue Sea” Terence Davies is the finest director you’ve likely never heard of, probably because his best films -- the quiet, devastating semi-autobiographical “Distant Voices, Still Lives” and “The Long Day Closes” -- were made more than two decades ago and he’s only had one film (“The House of Mirth,” an anomaly, really) get even a modest release since.  Here, adapting Terence Rattigan’s 1952 play about a passionate woman (Rachel Weisz), her stodgy husband (Simon Russell Beale) and her unreliable lover (Tom Hiddleston), his immense, inimitable gifts for image-making and, especially, turning film into something like music are in full power.  The effect is sometimes funny, sometimes dramatic, sometimes absolutely ravishing.  Davies is a master, and this is his most accessible film.  See it.  Living Room Theaters

2) "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. multiple locations

3) "Sometimes a Great Notion" Before the Oscar-winning classic "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," another film crew came to Oregon to adapt a Ken Kesey novel for the big screen. Paul Newman, Henry Fonda, Richard Jaeckel, Michael Sarrazin and Lee Remick were the stars, and Newman produced and, after a dust-up with the guy he first hired, also wound up directing. The result was something of a misfire, but a spirited one (with a singularly indelible death scene), but the stories about wild times during its making are legendary and a real hoot. Oregon author Matt Love has written a charming book about the shoot, "Sometimes a Great Movie: Paul Newman, Ken Kesey and the Filming of the Great Oregon Novel," and -- schedule permitting -- he'll share some of the amazing tales he's uncovered after each screening. Hollywood Theatre, Friday through Monday only

4) "This Is Not a Film" While under house arrest and facing an insanely harsh sentence for his moviemaking, the Iranian director Jafar Panahi filmed an ordinary day in his life: watching TV, making phone calls, drinking tea, feeding his son's iguana, staring out the window, taking out the trash. He edited the footage and smuggled it out of Iran inside a cake, premiering it at Cannes and reminding the film world of the plight of creative artists under the Islamic regime in his country. It's a movie in which the most ordinary details -- that lizard, the trash run, the celebratory fireworks in the street -- serve as subtle metaphors for Pahani's situation. It all seems offhanded, but it's ingenious and, taken in context, devastating. Hollywood Theatre Theatre

5) “Jiro Dreams of Sushi”  Jiro Ono is the owner of a Tokyo sushi bar with 10 seats and 3 Michelin stars, and David Gelb’s gorgeous and intimate documentary about the man and his obsession gives you an idea of how that can not only be so but be fitting.  Jiro and his two sons (bound to the chef’s apron strings, almost literally) devote untold hours of work and thought to the perfection of sushi-making, turning a sometimes makework form of cookery into indisputably high art.  At 85, the old master still works virtually every day, and the fruit of his focus is in servings of raw fish and warm rice photographed so lusciously that you can almost taste them.  A mouthwatering film:  literally.  Lake, Laurelhurst, Living Room Theaters

Movies: a breezy ‘Men,’ a hard ‘Hit’ and more

May 25, 2012 /

This week's new releases in Portland-area theaters.

Men in Black 3 2.jpgJosh Brolin (left) and Will Smith in "Men in Black 3"
Not a heck of a lot new at the multiplex this weekend, but the big picture, "Men in Black 3," a sequel that nobody eagerly awaited, is a nice surprise. We've got only one other in-house review:  "Hit So Hard," a documentary about grunge drummer and addiction survivor Patty Schemel.

Other than that, the old standbys:  "Also Opening," "Indie/Arthouse" and "Levy's High Five."

‘Angry Men,’ ‘Girl Power,’ Jon Jost and more

May 25, 2012 /

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

12 Angry Men.jpg
“12 Angry Men” Sidney Lumet’s classic 1957 courtroom (well, jury room) drama, with Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb and 10 other fired up actors.  (Laurelhurst)  

“Ambrosia” Free premiere of a 39 minute sci-fi action film made in Oregon.  (Living Room Theaters Thursday only)  

“Chinese Take-Away” Story of an unlikely friendship between a Chinese emigrant and a Buenos Aires shopkeeper.   (Living Room Theaters)  

“Drone: Minimalism and Meditation” A selection of avant garde and experimental short films.  (Hollywood Theatre, Monday only)  

“Girl Power” A compilation of vintage Saturday morning cartoons originally geared toward young girls.  (Hollywood Theatre, Wednesday only)  

"Jon Jost at the Northwest Film Center” The great independent filmmaker (and sometime resident of Oregon) presents two films -- the 1977 classic “Last Chants for a Slow Dance (Dead End)” and the 2008 “Parable” -- as the kickoff to several days of screenings and workshops.  (Northwest Film Center, Thursday)  

“Michael Crichton Double Feature” Portland State professor Dustin Morrow presents and discusses “Looker” (1981) and “Runaway” (1984), both of which the famed sci-fi author wrote and directed.  (Hollywood Theatre, Thursday only)  

“Mighty Fine” Chazz Palminteri and Andie MacDowell in the story of a family that moves from New York to New Orleans.  (Fox Tower)  

“Point Break” The great surfing bank robbers film (shot partly in Oregon) presented in Hecklevision, which allows you to text your jokes and jabs to the screen.  (Hollywood Theatre, Friday only)  

“Saving Private Ryan” Steven Spielberg’s monumental 1998 World War II film.  (Hollywood Theatre, Saturday and Sunday only)  

“Squirm” Killer worms!  1976 cult fare.  (Hollywood Theatre, Tuesday only)  

“Ten” Abbas Kiarostami’s 2002 meditation on womanhood in modern Iran, built around ten conversations between female passengers in a moving car.  (5th Avenue Cinema, Friday through Sunday only)  

“Trannysnatchers!” Avant-garde horror with demon worship, gender-play and whatnot, all of it made in Portland.  (Clinton Street Theater, Friday only)  



Levy’s High Five, May 25 – 31

May 24, 2012 /

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

Sometimes a Great Notion poster.jpgView full size
1) “The Deep Blue Sea” Terence Davies is the finest director you’ve likely never heard of, probably because his best films -- the quiet, devastating semi-autobiographical “Distant Voices, Still Lives” and “The Long Day Closes” -- were made more than two decades ago and he’s only had one film (“The House of Mirth,” an anomaly, really) get even a modest release since.  Here, adapting Terence Rattigan’s 1952 play about a passionate woman (Rachel Weisz), her stodgy husband (Simon Russell Beale) and her unreliable lover (Tom Hiddleston), his immense, inimitable gifts for image-making and, especially, turning film into something like music are in full power.  The effect is sometimes funny, sometimes dramatic, sometimes absolutely ravishing.  Davies is a master, and this is his most accessible film.  See it.  Living Room Theaters

2) "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. Fox Tower

3) "Sometimes a Great Notion" Before the Oscar-winning classic "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," another film crew came to Oregon to adapt a Ken Kesey novel for the big screen. Paul Newman, Henry Fonda, Richard Jaeckel, Michael Sarrazin and Lee Remick were the stars, and Newman produced and, after a dust-up with the guy he first hired, also wound up directing. The result was something of a misfire, but a spirited one (with a singularly indelible death scene), but the stories about wild times during its making are legendary and a real hoot. Oregon author Matt Love has written a charming book about the shoot, "Sometimes a Great Movie: Paul Newman, Ken Kesey and the Filming of the Great Oregon Novel," and he'll be sharing some of the amazing tales he's uncovered after a screening of the film at the Hollywood Theatre on Saturday night at 7 p.m.

4) “Jiro Dreams of Sushi”  Jiro Ono is the owner of a Tokyo sushi bar with 10 seats and 3 Michelin stars, and David Gelb’s gorgeous and intimate documentary about the man and his obsession gives you an idea of how that can not only be so but be fitting.  Jiro and his two sons (bound to the chef’s apron strings, almost literally) devote untold hours of work and thought to the perfection of sushi-making, turning a sometimes makework form of cookery into indisputably high art.  At 85, the old master still works virtually every day, and the fruit of his focus is in servings of raw fish and warm rice photographed so lusciously that you can almost taste them.  A mouthwatering film:  literally.  Lake, Laurelhurst, Living Room Theaters

5) "The Cabin in the Woods" A slasher movie inside a horror movie of another sort inside yet another narrative, one which looks out and the audience and asks why they (that is, we) keep lining up to watch other people get slaughtered.  A group of college students head to the titular location for a weekend’s bacchanal, only to be preyed upon and killed in grisly fashion, as per the familiar genre rules.  At the same time, a group of bureaucrats/scientists in a control room manipulate the victims and their killers in the service of...something.  Director Drew Goddard and his co-writer Joss Whedon have fun in the vein of “Scream” and in the vein of “The Truman Show” -- and they come up with an intriguing theory to explain the allure of horror films as well as a (literal) hell of a climax. Bloody, funny, clever. multiple locations

‘Men in Black 3’ review: an unsought sequel affords surprising delights

May 24, 2012 /
Josh Brolin adds a dash of droll magic to a time travel subplot and lifts a film above its expected quality.
Men in Black 3.jpgJosh Brolin (l.) and Will Smith in "Men in Black 3"
It’s rarely worth assessing a movie by considering what it might have been, but in the case of the third film in a series that has been dormant for a decade after a brilliant launch and a catastrophic follow-up, it’s almost unavoidable. “Men in Black 3” reunites stars Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith with director Barry Sonnenfeld in a sequel that almost nobody but corporate moneymen was itching for.  The Lowell Cunningham comic book series that inspired the previous two films about secret government agents keeping a lid on the activities of alien creatures who live on Earth hasn’t been active for almost 20 years, there haven’t been new episodes of the animated version of the material since 2001, and the 2002 “Men in Black II” seemed to have effectively killed off the franchise, possessing none of the verve or charm of its 1997 predecessor. Factor in Sonenfeld’s absence from the big screen since the horrific 'comedy' “RV” (2006) and Smith’s steadily diminishing boxoffice stature, and it’s no wonder that expectations for a new “MIB” should be at rock bottom, a premonition only bolstered by word that the new film would have a plot involving time travel -- frequently a mark of creative desperation in these sorts of things. How pleasant, then, to find that “Men in Black 3” is a fairly brisk, sometimes funny, periodically inspired film.  Yes, it’s a special-effects sequel, with all the noise and excess that implies.  But there’s more freshness to it than you would expect, and there’s a performance in the center that honestly makes it all worthwhile. That would be the work of Josh Brolin, who is simply astounding as the 1969 version of Agent K (Jones in the present tense), whom Agent J (Smith) must go back in time to rescue from  a time-traveling bad guy (the blustery Jemaine Clement) who seeks to kill the young K both for personal reasons and to facilitate an invasion of the Earth by his species. Brolin does an uncanny Jones -- the still, probing eyes; the stiff, hunched shoulders; the brow and mouth pursed in doubt; the deadpan voice that somehow mixes a drawl with staccato.  It’s an impression, yes, but also an interpretation:  Brolin’s K hasn’t hardened into the Jones incarnation yet; his youthful verve and openness continually surprise J.  And the wit comes as much from Brolin’s timing and control as from the sheer fun he obviously has playing the part.  It’s not the sort of thing that will be remembered come awards time, but it’s one of the most enjoyable performances you’ll see in a movie this year. Actually, “MIB 3” has a couple other terrific acting turns --  Michael Stuhlbarg (“A Serious Man,” “Hugo”) plays a sweetly prescient alien and Bill Hader, joins the ranks of, among others, David Bowie, Crispin Glover and Jared Harris in creating a droll and sharp Andy Warhol for the screen. The latter appears as part of the time-travel story (turns out, per the script, that Andy was an MIB agent and his scenesters were mostly aliens), as are the 1969 Mets and the Apollo 11 space mission.  These are all woven cleverly into a script credited to Etan Cohen (with, it seems, a small team providing assists) that manages to accrue depth and layers as it moves forward toward an action finale (something which “The Avengers,” which is a better movie in many ways, did not).  And Sonnenfeld, who has sometimes been guilty of gratuitous garishness, keeps the gimmickry minimal, employing flourishes only occasionally and using 3-D almost naturalistically -- or as naturalistically as can be hoped for in a movie in which the villain has a deadly dart-spewing spider-thingy living inside of his palm. So did the world need another “Men in Black”?  No, not at all.  But if there had to be one, then it’s certainly a relief that it should be one as agreeable as this. (105 min., PG-13, multiple locations) Grade: B

‘Hit So Hard’ review: a grunge musician’s real-life survival story

May 23, 2012 /

She drummed for Hole and babysat for Kurt and Courtney -- and lived through hell and tells the tale.

Hit So Hard.jpgDrummer Patty Schemel, star and subject of "Hit So Hard"
In many ways, “Hit So Hard,” the story of Patty Schemel is familiar to the point of being clichéd:  a ‘90s Seattle rocker spirals into alcoholism and drug abuse until she winds up homeless, then slowly achieves sobriety and a new life.

But Schemel ran in heady circles:  she was chummy with Kurt Cobain and his missus, Courtney Love, and she played drums in Love’s band Hole at that group’s height. So her tale of downfall and survival has absorbing echoes and connections.  What’s more, Schemel was an ardent videographer who, somehow, held onto her tapes, which means that her personal archives provide a truly rare view into the musical world known as grunge at something like its media-hyped height.

Director P. David Ebersole combines frank interviews with Schemel, her family and friends, and her bandmates to assemble this portrait of a talented woman dealing with the weighty pressures of the rock world, the drug world, and her own sexuality.  But it’s a long film for such a familiar story.  And, despite Schemel’s appealing candor, the highlight of the film is, by far, those precious images of Cobain horsing around with his baby daughter, helping Love write songs, and behaving like an ordinary fellow:  peace, love and normalcy in the midst of madness and pain.
    
(103 min., unrated, probably R, Hollywood Theatre) Grade: B-minus

This week’s last-chance movies: ‘We Have a Pope,’ ‘Mansome,’ ‘Sound of My Voice’ and more

May 23, 2012 /

Catch 'em while you can!

We Have A Pope.jpgMichel Piccoli in "We Have a Pope"
The busy spring cleaning of local moviehouses continues this week, with a number of notable titles on their way out of Portland-area theaters after Thursday's final shows.  These include the Italian papal comedy "We Have a Pope"; Morgan Spurlock's male grooming documentary "Mansome"; the tale of a creepy religious cult "Sound of My Voice"; and two maligned film: the raunch-comedy sequel "American Reunion" and the shaggy dog (literally, in this case) marital comedy/drama "Darling Companion."

Washington moviegoer charged with slapping someone who wouldn’t stop talking

May 22, 2012 /

We've all wanted to do it. One dude did, and now probably wishes he hadn't.

theater talker.jpgunrealitymag.com
We've all wanted to do it, and now we know why we shouldn't.  A Seattle-area man has been charged with felony assault for slapping the face of a fellow moviegoer who wouldn't stop talking or throwing popcorn at others during an April film screening. As irresistable as it may seem to champion the slapper at the expense of the boor, it turns out that the person who was ruining the movie for others was a 10 year-old boy who lost a tooth in the incident and his assailant was a 21 year old man. Which kind of puts a different spin on things. 

I have no doubt the little so-and-so needed to be tossed from the theater.  But as a parent (whose kids were taught IMPECCABLE theater manners), I can't condone this particular outcome.  I can get behind the corporal punishment of in-theater talkers, texters and food-throwers, no question.  But when minor children are involved, I think that the parents should be summoned and that the offended party should be allowed one free shot at each of 'em, with the tacit understanding that mom and dad will determine appropriate justice for their little darlings when they get 'em home.

Thanks to Movieline for posting the story, which leaves out one vital detail:  what film were they watching?  Given the date of the incident -- April 11 -- and the fact that 3-D glasses and a 10-year-old were involved, I'm guessing "The Hunger Games".....which is, of course, about violence among children. 

You. Cannot. Make. This. Stuff. Up.

Woman making a film in Oregon or SW Washington? You’ve got a Faerie Godmother with funding money!

May 21, 2012 /

Applications for a $3000 grant are now open.

Faerie Godmother2.jpg
Filmmaking is an expensive enterprise, which makes it hard. And indepedent filmmaking in a town like Portland is even harder. And it almost goes without saying, sadly, that it can be harder still for women filmmakers in Portland or hereabouts to raise money for their projects than it is for their male peers.

Heartening to learn, then, of a potentially game-changing grant being offered by Women in Film, Portland Oregon, an organization dedicated to supporting and promoting the work of women filmmakers in Oregon and Clark County, Washington.

In conjunction with the Faerie Godmother Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation, WIF-PDX is accepting applications for its 2012 Faerie Godmother grant, a package of services, goodies and support topped by a $3000 cash grant.  The completed application, which is available online, is due on July 31.  Bon chance!


Tugg combines crowdfunding and video-on-demand to let moviegoers program the theater

May 18, 2012 /

A new online system allows film lovers and local communities to bring special film events to theaters near them.

One Day on Earth.jpgfrom "One Day on Earth"
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could reconfigure the moviegoing experience, if you go out to see a film and feel relatively confident that the people you’d be seeing it with would be were sufficiently invested in the show that they’d treat it -- and you -- with the appropriate attention, decorum and courtesy?

Heaven knows the modern multiplex experience -- a torture of in-theater advertising, unrepentant texting and telephoning, noisy snacking, and various other indicators of impending cultural collapse -- isn’t like that any more.  And that’s without even factoring in the quality and monotony of the films that you can choose from, which, as we all know, are rarely as good as the best of what’s on TV on a given night.

But now there may be another way to go to the movies, to see films with a like-spirited community, to select what you’d like to see and when you’d like to see it, and to be joined in the screening by others, known to you or not, who share a similar passion for the same sort of thing, no matter how unusual or specialized it may be.

That’s part of the idea behind TUGG,  a new service that combines crowd-funding, like Kickstarter, with the build-your-own-entertainment model of video-on-demand -- but in a movie theater. With relationships with movie theaters all across the country and a library of more than 400 feature-length films, including new independent films, classic Hollywood and foreign movies, dramas, documentaries, and genre pictures, Tugg allows film lovers or people with a common interest in a particular subject matter to create a screening at a local theater at a time and date of their choosing.  

The system was developed over the past two years in Austin, Texas, and it has been out in the world in beta format since the South by Southwest festival in March.

In mere months, Tugg has been used across the US to spread new independent films outside of the traditional channels of distribution, to showcase small films that can’t necessarily sustain an weeklong run at a theater in certain communities, and to combine social issue campaigns with nights out at the movies.  In April, an Earth Day screening of the documentary "One Day on Earth" resulted in 1800 tickets being sold through TUGG to screenings in 11 different cities; one Los Angeles theater alone had 400 attendees.

It’s a truly simple system:  You create an account on Tugg and connect it to your social networks (Facebook, Google+, or Twitter), select a movie from Tugg’s library, choose a date and time, and select from among the theaters in your area that work with Tugg (the list includes many Regal and Cinemark theaters as well as local houses such as Portland’s Living Room Theaters).  An invitation goes out to the people on your network, who can then reserve a seat for the event with a credit card.  When a minimum percentage of the seats has been reserved, the screening is guaranteed as a go and credit cards are charged for the tickets.  And then you and your friends (and friends of your friends) attend just as you would any ordinary movie screening -- with the novelty that everyone in the theater is connected by the fibers of social networks as well as by the desire to see this film at this particular time with this particular group.

ReGeneration.pngfrom "#ReGeneration"
Portland has already seen one successful Tugg event -- a screening of “#ReGENERATION,” a documentary about the contemporary wave of social activism among young people, held at the Living Room Theaters earlier this month.  Chris Baker, a Lake Oswego native who co-produced the film, says that he and his colleagues immediately recognized that Tugg was particularly well suited to a film like theirs about new ways of imagining society.

“We heard about Tugg through our distributors,” Baker explains, “and we decided it was a great way to promote our project.”  In Portland, Baker and company had a triple-threat of promotional tools:  a strong interest in the subject matter of the film, a community which is already very supportive of independent movies, and Baker’s own web of personal connections.  “Being born and raised in Portland,” he says, “I reached out to several people within the community to help spread the word.  And of course I had some family and friends take part in the screening.”

“#ReGENRATION” is coming back for another bite of the apple in Portland, on June 6 (details). But another screening, of the documentary “El Bulli,” about the famed chef Ferran Adrià, was due to be held at the Living Room but failed to garner enough ticket reservations in time for the film to be shown.

Tugg co-founder Nicolas Gonda explains that, so far, the system works just as well for classic or narrative films as for new and issue-driven movies.  “The films we’ve shown have really run the gamut, from classics like ‘Dr. Strangelove’ and ‘The Good, The Bad & The Ugly,’ to recent releases like ‘The Tree of Life’ and cult films like ‘The FP.’”

According to Gonda, “It may not make sense for a theater to program a weeklong run of a small independent film with no marketing budget attached.  But in almost every community there is potential for like-minded individuals or organizations to facilitate a one-off screening through Tugg.”

The films are principally shown in the digital DCP format, but Tugg can also work with 35mm film prints and other formats.  Currently, Tugg is in negotiations with major distributors to get even more films -- both back-catalogue and current releases -- into its system, and is seeking more theatrical venues in more communities as potential host sites.

“People nationwide are using Tugg to bring their communities together,” says Gonda. “We’ve received feedback from Tugg users who say it’s particularly rewarding to share a film with a theater packed full of your friends, family and fellow film fans.”


The dazzling ‘Cunningham,’ the lost ‘Jobs,’ Chilean zombies and more

May 18, 2012 /

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

Bill Cunningham New York.jpg"Bill Cunningham: New York"
“Bill Cunningham: New York” Dazzling and delightful Oscar-nominated documentary about a New York Times photojournalist and unlikely pillar of the fashion world and high society.  (5th Avenue Cinema, Friday through Sunday only)  

“Daughters of the Dust” Director Julie Dash will be present for a screening of her 1992 feature about life in the Gullah regions of Georgia and South Carolina.  (Northwest Film Center, Monday only)  

“H. P. Lovecraft double feature” The silent short feature “The Call of Cthulhu” and the full-length “The Whisperer in Darkness” help keep Portland’s love of the cult writer alive.  (Clinton Street Theater, Friday to Sunday only)  

“The Killing” Stanley Kubrick’s great, tense, doomy 1956 heist movie. A perfect film noir.  (Laurelhurst Theater)  

“NW Animation Festival” A selection of short films from around the world.  (Hollywood Theatre, Friday to Sunday only)  

“Payback” Documentary, based on a Margaret Atwood book, about the culture of debt and bankruptcy.  (Living Room Theaters)  

“The Perfect Family” Kathleen Turner in a dark comedy about a mom trying to reshape her family into an ideal.  (Living Room Theaters)  

“Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview” Feature-length chat with the computer guru from the days when he was running the doomed company NeXT.  (Hollywood Theatre)  

“Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” Before the internet meme featuring a sarcastic Gene Wilder, before Johnny Depp and Tim Burton, um, revisited it, the original 1971 adaptation of Roald Dahl’s book became a classic for good reason.  Presented in a sing-along version. (Hollywood Theatre, Saturday only)  

“Zombie Dawn” Low-budget zombie movie from Chile. And if that isn’t intriguing enough, you get a free comic book with your ticket.  (Kiggins Theatre)


Levy’s High Five, May 18 – 24

May 17, 2012 /

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

Jiro Dreams of Sushi.jpg"Jiro Dreams of Sushi"
1) “The Deep Blue Sea” Terence Davies is the finest director you’ve likely never heard of, probably because his best films -- the quiet, devastating semi-autobiographical “Distant Voices, Still Lives” and “The Long Day Closes” -- were made more than two decades ago and he’s only had one film (“The House of Mirth,” an anomaly, really) get even a modest release since.  Here, adapting Terence Rattigan’s 1952 play about a passionate woman (Rachel Weisz), her stodgy husband (Simon Russell Beale) and her unreliable lover (Tom Hiddleston), his immense, inimitable gifts for image-making and, especially, turning film into something like music are in full power.  The effect is sometimes funny, sometimes dramatic, sometimes absolutely ravishing.  Davies is a master, and this is his most accessible film.  See it.  Living Room Theaters

2) “The Raid: Redemption” An ultra-violent, wildly kinetic martial arts film that virtually strips itself of the narrative conventions of plot, theme and characterization to create a white-knuckle thrill ride.  Writer-director Gareth Evans, a Welshman living in Indonesia, takes the simplest story -- a squad of cops attacks a Jakarta apartment house where a crime lord is ensconced -- and uses it to string together wild action sequences that leave the viewer as exhausted as if he or she had fought them.  His stars -- Iko Uwais as a baby-faced cop and Yayan Ruhian (who also choreographed) as a stringy-haired bad guy -- are dazzling.  The whole thing is pure cinema: the human body rendered as a machine capable of mayhem, daring, and, yes, grace. Academy, Laurelhurst

3) “The Portland Queer Documentary Festival” Now marking its sixth year, QDocs, as it’s known, continues on as the only festival in the hemisphere dedicated to non-fictional films dealing with LGBT issues (there’s also one in Australia, which is rather a schlep...).  This year’s crop is predictably diverse, with several films on contemporary political issues such as marriage rights (“Question One”) and gay clergy (“Love Free or Die”) and a number of portraits of artists who have carved out space in fields not immediately associated with gay and lesbian performers such as country music (“Chely Wright: Wish Me Away”) and comic books (“King of Comics”). A particular highlight is “Vito,” a compelling, smart and moving portrait of the late film historian and activist Vito Russo. Many of the films will be presented by their directors or subjects; all screenings will be held at McMenamins Kennedy School. Full ticket and schedule information

4) “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. Fox Tower

5) “Jiro Dreams of Sushi”  Jiro Ono is the owner of a Tokyo sushi bar with 10 seats and 3 Michelin stars, and David Gelb’s gorgeous and intimate documentary about the man and his obsession gives you an idea of how that can not only be so but be fitting.  Jiro and his two sons (bound to the chef’s apron strings, almost literally) devote untold hours of work and thought to the perfection of sushi-making, turning a sometimes makework form of cookery into indisputably high art.  At 85, the old master still works virtually every day, and the fruit of his focus is in servings of raw fish and warm rice photographed so lusciously that you can almost taste them.  A mouthwatering film:  literally.  Laurelhurst, Living Room Theaters




‘Bernie’ review: Richard Linklater’s light and lighthearted Texas true-crime story

May 17, 2012 /

The unlikely comic trio of Shirley MacLaine, Jack Black and Matthew McConaughey brings a sordid little tale to sparkling life.

Bernie.jpgShirley MacLaine and Jack Black in "Bernie"
Based on a true story, filled with real people, and deftly mixing comedy, pathos and the macabre, “Bernie” is a delightful and compact confection from director Richard Linklater (“Dazed and Confused,” “Waking Life,” “Before Sunrise,” “Before Sunset”), who’s just as good with a pair of unlikely costars as he is with the ordinary Texas townsfolk who populate the film.

The film tells the story of Bernie Tiede, an East Texas mortician beloved in his community for his charitable works, his cheerful spirit and his attentiveness to widows.  After the death of one of the town’s richest men, Bernie befriended the fellow’s irascible -- nay, mean -- wife, Marjorie, and became her unlikely best friend, to the point that the suspicious and sharp old gal gave him control of her fortune.  It was eyebrow-raising stuff, and then Marjorie stopped being seen around town and some folks got more suspicious than ever.

Working from a script he co-wrote with Skip Hollandsworth, who chronicled the story in a magazine article, Linklater intermixes the recollections of actual denizens of Carthage, Texas, where it all took place, with the dramatic telling of the story as acted by Jack Black as Bernie, Shirley MacLaine as Marjorie and Matthew McConaughey as a district attorney.

The three are marvelous.  Black espouses a mincy fussiness, uses his powerful singing voice beautifully, and stretches more than he ever has, even in Linklater’s “School of Rock.”  MacLaine, 57 years into a movie career that began when she was 21, plays her wicked role with just the right blend of comedy and villainy.  And McConaughey (whom Linklater discovered, recall) manages subtly to expose the dumb core of his prima donna prosecutor.

“Bernie” is slight but terrific.  The intertwining of the sharply tuned actors and the guileless (and often hilarious) townspeople is seamless, the tale is sometimes despairing but never heavy, and the blend of drama, comedy and music is brisk and fresh.  Linklater has many estimable qualities, but with this film he reminds us that he can craft a cinematic soufflé better than just about any director in America.
    
(104 min., PG-13, Fox Tower) Grade: A-minus


QDocs, "Plymptoons" and EFF Portland make for a busy week of film festivals

May 17, 2012 /

A diversity of film events turn up at once, making for a rich and hectic week.

Vito.jpgVito Russo from "Vito" at QDocs
The weather may be hollering, ‘get outside,’ but Portland filmlovers have ample reason to head for the great indoors in the coming week.

Two festivals of note and a barnstorming film tour highlight a truly eclectic crop of movie choices, and we’ve got the skinny on all three.


QDoc
(by Grant Butler)

Portland’s Queer Documentary Film Festival, kicked off at McMenamins Kennedy School on Thursday night with “Wish Me Away,” about country singer Chely Wright, followed by a big party at downtown’s new restaurant Corazon. But the festival kicks into high gear today, with screenings of 11 additional films being held Friday through Sunday. Here are five of the standouts:

“King of Comics”  German cartoonist Ralf König has been shocking and entertaining readers since the 1980s with his graphic and often hilarious comic books “Gay Comix.” His drawing style is reminiscent of R. Crumb, with a touch of delicious crude humor. This portrait of the artist shows him giving a hilarious reading of some of his best stories, intermixed with a melancholy look at his life, which has involved broken relationships and loneliness, showing there can be tears behind the laughter. This is a 21-and-over screening. (9 p.m. Friday; 80 minutes; Germany) B+

“Question One”  President Obama’s endorsement of same-sex marriage earlier this month is just the latest chapter in the ongoing debate over marriage equality, and this documentary offers an even-handed look at the emotions on both sides of the issue. In 2009, Maine’s state legislature approved same-sex marriage, prompting a constitutional ballot battle that ended with voters overturning the right to marry by a significant margin. Filmmakers Joe Fox and James Nubile follow both gay activists fighting the ballot measure, as well as Christian supporters and ministers who believe that marriage can only be defined as between a man and a woman. The film captures the complex thoughts and concerns of people on both sides of the referendum — no easy task. The filmmakers and one of their subjects, Darlene Huntress, will be in attendance. (6 p.m. Saturday; 113 minutes; United States) A

“This Is What Love In Action Looks Like” Gay-conversion therapy is one of the most-controversial practices by some churches today. It prompted a national firestorm in 2005 when a Tennessee program called Love In Action became the focal-point of protests after a 16-year-old gay boy was forced into the program by his parents against his wishes. Memphis bloggers and activists began protesting outside the treatment facility, eventually getting the attention of national TV news, leading to the eventual dissolution of the program. This film asks questions about the intersection of Christian faith and free will, and whether any gay-conversion programs have any merit — not just those directed at teens. Director Morgan Jon Fox will be in attendance. (11:30 a.m. Sunday; 70 minutes; United States) B+

“Love Free or Die”  Gene Robinson made international news when he was made a bishop of the Episcopal Church in New Hampshire in 2003, prompting the Anglican Church to ban him from its 10-year conference of bishops five years later. But Robinson went to England anyway, shadowing the conference with speeches at a handful of churches that dared to invite him to preach. The portrait shows how Robinson’s efforts to get the Episcopal Church to recognize same-sex marriage and the role that gays and lesbians have in the clergy is fleshed out with snapshots of his homelife, including his own marriage to his longtime partner when it became legal in New Hampshire. Director Macky Alston will be in attendance. (4 p.m. Sunday; 82 minutes; United States) A-

“Vito”  Gay film historian Vito Russo helped show the dismal way that Hollywood has treated gays and lesbians on film with his landmark book “The Celluloid Closet” and his live presentations in the 1980s that showed hundreds of examples of homophobia on film. But Russo was more than a scholar, becoming an outspoken activist in the early years of the AIDS crisis, before the disease cut his own life short. Interviews with family, friends, and archival interviews with Russo create a full portrait of someone who loved cinema, and wanted to see gays and lesbians depicted fairly in the medium. Director Jeffrey Schwarz will be in attendance. (7 p.m. Sunday; 93 minutes; United States) A

Full ticket and program information


Adventures in Plymptoons.jpgView full size
The Great Northwest Film Tour
(by Shawn Levy)

The Oscar-nominated cartoonist Bill Plympton is, of course, a native son of Oregon, so it’s only right and proper that he bring a film about his life and art to his home state.  And by that you can take it to mean the whole state -- or as much of it as hosts a McMenamins brewpub movie theater.

“Adventures in Plymptoons,” directed by Alexia Anastasio and featuring interviews with a great many of Plympton’s peers and chums, both local and national, will play at no fewer eight of the McMenamin brothers’ theaters in a span of nine days.  And Plympton and Anastasio will be on hand throughout the event to discuss their project.  

The tour, which has been mounted by the Oregon Media Production Association trade group, begins on Saturday at the Mission Theater in Portland, followed by screenings at the Old St. Francis School in Bend (Sunday), the Kennedy School in Portland (Tuesday), the Grand Lodge in Forest Grove (Wednesday), the Olympic Club in Centralia, Washington (Thursday), the Edgefield Powerstation in Troutdale (Friday, May 25), the Bagdad Theater in Portland (Saturday, May 26) and the St. Johns Theater in Portland (Sunday, May 27).

Saturday’s event is being billed as an “Industry Premiere,” with many of Portland’s famed animators and filmmakers expected to attend.  And the next-to-last show, on May 26, is a gala fundraiser for the OMPA, with musical performer Weird Al Yankovic  adding to the festivities.

Full ticket and schedule information


EFF Portland.jpgView full size
Experimental Film Festival Portland
(by Shawn Levy)

It’s been a few years since Peripheral Produce has held one of its seminal PDX Film Fests, and that hasn’t been because there’s been a lack of new experimental film projects created in this most creative of towns.  Rather, PDX Fest honcho Matt McCormick has been working busily films of his own and simply hasn’t been up to the heavy task.

With the thought that it would take a whole collective of people to replace McCormick and his team, the filmmakers in the group called Grand Detour have combined their talents to mount a new festival dedicated to film on the margins.  Experimental Film Festival Portland (or, cheekily, EFF Portland) will run from Tuesday, May 22 through Sunday, May 27, with premieres of new works from, among many others, Portlanders Vanessa Renwick, Pam Minty, and Karl Lind.

The several programs, comprising dozens of films in all, bear names like “Eruption,” “Mycology” and “Magma Flow” and screen at various locations around town.  It all climaxes on May 27 with the Dill Pickle Club history group hosting a symposium on experimental film at the Clinton Street Theater,featuring new work from McCormick, Brooke Jacobson and Jim Blashfield, and, later in the day, the premiere of Renwick’s new film, “Charismatic Megafauna,” presented at the Hollywood Theatre with live musical score.

Full ticket and schedule information


This week’s last-chance movies: ‘Bully,’ ‘Damsels in Distress,’ ‘Marley,’ and more

May 16, 2012 /

Catch 'em while you can!

Bully.jpgfrom "Bully"
For some reason, we've got one of the busiest movie weeks of the year about to hit Portland:  almost 20 feature films and 8 new or continuing festivals or special events.  So it's no wonder that the local movie screens need to get out the broom and sweep clean.  Thing is, they're sweeping out some very good films in the process.  Wednesday and Thursday mark your last chances to see the well-worthwhile "Bully," "Damsels in Distress," "The Kid with a Bike," "Marley" and "The Salt of Life," as well as the locally-made indie "Blue Like Jazz" and the action film "Safe House."  Choose accordingly and get watching!

‘The Dictator’ review: in a tired fiction, Sacha Baron Cohen loses his comic bite

May 15, 2012 /

He's still crude and sometimes quite funny, but there's little electricity in the make-believe compared to his real-world exploits, and the result is Sandler-esque.

The Dictator.jpgSacha Baron Cohen in "The Dictator"
Sacha Baron Cohen occupies a unique space in the comedy world.  In three personae invented on TV and enlarged for movie screens -- Ali G, Borat and Bruno -- he ambushed celebrities, public figures and ordinary Britons and Americans, reveling in crude humor, trafficking in vile stereotypes, and, alarmingly often, getting his subject/victims to reveal their own prejudices and dark sides.

It was frequently sophomoric and often quite hilarious, but it was also a finite enterprise:  as the career of Michael Moore demonstrates, a fellow can only catch other folks by surprise for so long before the echo of his own fame precedes him and his access to unguarded sources dries up.

And so Cohen and his team -- director Larry Charles and a cohort of writers who worked on “Seinfeld” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” -- have invented a new character who shares some attributes with the comedian’s other false faces but who lives inside a fictional world, which rather blunts the satire.  “The Dictator,” the lumpy comedy in which this new fellow appears, feels not so much like a sibling of Cohen’s brilliant TV work or the stupefying “Borat” and “Bruno” movies as it does a cousin with only some of the genetic gifts its relatives enjoys.

Cohen plays Supreme Leader Aladeen, president-for-life of the fictional North African nation of Wadiya, which he rules with callous brutality.  When Aladeen addresses the United Nations on the subject of Wadiya’s nuclear weapons program, he is kidnapped and stripped of power by a scheming underling (Ben Kingsley) who plans to democratize the nation in order to exploit its oil reserves.  Aladeen survives the coup but is left to the mercies of modern New York, which is filled with the sorts of people whom he has mercilessly despised and belittled throughout his life.  

He’s taken in by Zoe (Anna Faris), the over-eager operator of a politically correct grocery, and has a chance encounter with Nuclear Nadal (Jason Mantzoukas), a Wadiyan scientist whom Aladeen had ordered to be executed years earlier (all of his victims, learns, actually had their lives spared by an executioner disloyal to the regime).  Together, the two exiles plan to scuttle the plans for regime change in Wadiya, restore Aladeen’s despotic monarchy, and get back to building nukes.

All of this is an excuse for one outrageous, grotesque, gratuitous joke after another.  Like Cohen’s other personae, Aladeen is a seething mass of biases and bigotries, and he continually hates on and debases women, minorities, celebrities, children, old folks, ordinary Americans, and, really, anyone who wanders through into his gaze.  Some of it is funny, and much of it is shocking, but little of it has the satiric impact or sense of danger that accompanied the antics of Cohen’s previous characters, who risked the chance of having political or cultural figures explode at them or ordinary folks -- often mobs of them -- beat them up.  Here, in a purely fictional context, it’s all make-believe, and the sparks that occasionally result from the cheek and the crudeness aren’t nearly so bright.  (And Charles, needless to remind anyone, is no one’s idea of a master comic filmmaker.)

For all its boundary-pushing, “The Dictator” only once makes you feel truly uncomfortable, very near the end, when Aladeen lists the qualities that make a nation a dictatorship and virtually anatomizes the contemporary American political, economic, journalistic and cultural milieu.  But that moment, a weird inversion of Charlie Chaplin’s famous paean to human rights at the end of “The Great Dictator,” doesn’t resonate amid the caustic frivolity of the rest.  “The Dictator” has a few laughs along its bumpy path, but not enough of them to indicate that Cohen has found a means to escape the shadows of his early career and forge a second act for himself.

(82 min., R, multiple locations) Grade: C-plus


Cruel ‘Games,’ tireless ‘Searchers,’ several fests and more

May 11, 2012 /

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

The Searchers.jpgJohn Wayne in "The Searchers" (1956)
“Funny Games” Writer-director Michael Haneke’s terrifying 1997 film about a pointless and sadistic home invasion (he later remade it himself in Hollywood, to far lesser results).  (5th Avenue Cinema, Friday through Sunday only)  

“HDFEST” A selection of new films from around the world made for and projected in high-definition formats.   (Living Room Theaters, Tuesday through Thursday only)  

“Inter-Action: Animated Shorts” A collection of recent animated films by SEAT (the Seattle Experimental Animation Team), presented by Seattle animator Tess Martin.  (Northwest Film Center, Thursday only)  

“The Invisible War” Documentarian Kirby Dick (“This Film Is Not Yet Rated,” “Derrida”) looks into the under-reported phenomenon of sexual assault in the American military.  (Hollywood Theatre, Thursday only)  

“Jesus Henry Christ” A boy conceived in a laboratory seeks his biological father; stars include Toni Collette and Michael Sheen.  (Living Room Theaters)  

“Pacific University Senior Theses Films” A presentation of the work of soon-to-be graduates of Pacific University’s Media Arts Department.  (CLinton Street Theater, Thursday only)  

“Sprout Film Festival” A collection of films about the lives and accomplishments of people with learning disabilities.   (McMenamins Kennedy School, Saturday only)  

“The Searchers” John Wayne stars as the brutal, dogged, racist Ethan Edwards, who spends years seeking a neice who has been kidnapped by Native Americans, in John Ford’s 1956 classic.  (Laurelhurst Theater)  


Summer Movie Roundup: ‘Sumer is icumen in’ with a bang and lots of echoes

May 11, 2012 /

All the summer movie news you need for only-in-Portland film events, big global blockbusters and everything in between.

The Dark Knight Rises.jpgChristian Bale as Batman in "The Dark Knight Rises"
Today's paper includes my massive Summer Movie Preview, which may have appeared before you earlier this morning in a stream of blog posts, tweets and social media detritus.

As my small gesture toward decluttering your heads, I've (trendy verb alert) aggregated the whole shebang here.

To wit:

Mini-essay on Summer Movies 2012
May releases
June releases
July releases
August releases
Films with undetermined release dates
Photo slide show of dozens of images from the summer's releases and events

It's a lot, yes.  How nice of somebody (and I only take partial credit here) to break it all down and map it out.

Levy’s High Five, May 11 – 17

May 10, 2012 /

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

The Deep Blue Sea window.jpgRachel Weisz and Tom Hiddleston in "The Deep Blue Sea"
1) “The Deep Blue Sea” Terence Davies is the finest director you’ve likely never heard of, probably because his best films -- the quiet, devastating semi-autobiographical “Distant Voices, Still Lives” and “The Long Day Closes” -- were made more than two decades ago and he’s only had one film (“The House of Mirth,” an anomaly, really) get even a modest release since.  Here, adapting Terence Rattigan’s 1952 play about a passionate woman (Rachel Weisz), her stodgy husband (Simon Russell Beale) and her unreliable lover (Tom Hiddleston), his immense, inimitable gifts for image-making and, especially, turning film into something like music are in full power.  The effect is sometimes funny, sometimes dramatic, sometimes absolutely ravishing.  Davies is a master, and this is his most accessible film.  See it.  Living Room Theaters

2) “The Raid: Redemption” An ultra-violent, wildly kinetic martial arts film that virtually strips itself of the narrative conventions of plot, theme and characterization to create a white-knuckle thrill ride.  Writer-director Gareth Evans, a Welshman living in Indonesia, takes the simplest story -- a squad of cops attacks a Jakarta apartment house where a crime lord is ensconced -- and uses it to string together wild action sequences that leave the viewer as exhausted as if he or she had fought them.  His stars -- Iko Uwais as a baby-faced cop and Yayan Ruhian (who also choreographed) as a stringy-haired bad guy -- are dazzling.  The whole thing is pure cinema: the human body rendered as a machine capable of mayhem, daring, and, yes, grace. Academy, Laurelhurst

3) “Bully” An emotionally overwhelming documentary about threads of violence in our social fabric.  Focusing on five or children who’ve been tormented and abused by schoolmates, two so relentlessly that they took their own lives, documentarian Lee Hirsch advocates without the use of any talking heads, statistics or editorial posturing.  Rather, his film actually depicts everyday acts of bullying and -- worse -- the ineffective and even hurtful responses of school authorities.  At times, the pity, outrage and empathy the evokes threaten to drown you.  But there’s a hint of light, too.  At moments you might feel slightly manipulated.  But when you look into the eyes of two fathers whose sons killed themselves rather than continue to be bullied, quibbles about journalist practice vanish from your mind. Fox Tower

4) “Jiro Dreams of Sushi”  Jiro Ono is the owner of a Tokyo sushi bar with 10 seats and 3 Michelin stars, and David Gelb’s gorgeous and intimate documentary about the man and his obsession gives you an idea of how that can not only be so but be fitting.  Jiro and his two sons (bound to the chef’s apron strings, almost literally) devote untold hours of work and thought to the perfection of sushi-making, turning a sometimes makework form of cookery into indisputably high art.  At 85, the old master still works virtually every day, and the fruit of his focus is in servings of raw fish and warm rice photographed so lusciously that you can almost taste them.  A mouthwatering film:  literally.  Laurelhurst, Living Room Theaters

5) "The Cabin in the Woods" A slasher movie inside a horror movie of another sort inside yet another narrative, one which looks out and the audience and asks why they (that is, we) keep lining up to watch other people get slaughtered.  A group of college students head to the titular location for a weekend’s bacchanal, only to be preyed upon and killed in grisly fashion, as per the familiar genre rules.  At the same time, a group of bureaucrats/scientists in a control room manipulate the victims and their killers in the service of...something.  Director Drew Goddard and his co-writer Joss Whedon have fun in the vein of “Scream” and in the vein of “The Truman Show” -- and they come up with an intriguing theory to explain the allure of horror films as well as a (literal) hell of a climax. Bloody, funny, clever. multiple locations



‘Headhunters’ review: the tables turn terrifyingly on a yuppie art thief

May 10, 2012 /

An agreeable Norwegian comic thriller with touches of the Coen brothers.

Headhunters.jpgAksel Hennie in "Headhunters"
Like a Norwegian cousin of a Coen brothers film, “Headhunters” presents us with a dislikeable protagonist and then heaps so much woe and misfortune on him so gleefully that we come to feel a rising sympathy for the poor devil.  

Aksel Hennie stars as Roger Brown, an obnoxious corporate headhunter who’s self-conscious about being married to a gorgeous (and taller) woman.  Feeling he must keep his missus happy, he augments his already sizeable income -- by stealing works of art from his business clients and replacing them with near-replicas.  In the process what ought to be the biggest score of this second ‘career,’ Roger discovers a secret which shatters him and then must flee for his life from a bloodthirsty mercenary (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau).

Director Morten Tyldum (“Fallen Angels”), working from a novel by Jo Nesbø, nicely balances slickness, terror, comedy and the grotesque, and Hennie is almost too perfect in the lead, particularly in his insufferable early stages.  

It’s a light entertainment -- provided you can be entertained by watching Roger suffer and quake as he does.  And, almost inevitably, it’s been identified for a potential Hollywood remake.  Do yourself a favor and see this one before some Yank director gets it all wrong.
    
(100 min., R, Cinema 21) Grade: B-plus


The toon-master is bona fide: Portland to declare Bill Plympton Day

May 9, 2012 /

The Oregon-born cartoonist's barnstorming tour of the region will end with a proclamation.

bill-plympton.jpgBill Plympton will get his day -- officially.
We've previously made note of the exciting news that "Adventures in Plymptoons," a new documentary about Bill Plympton, the Oregon native and two-time Oscar nominee, would be playing throughout the state (indeed, the region) in a barnstorming tour of McMenamins theaters.  Now we learn that the final day of the tour -- Saturday, May 26 at the Bagdad Theater -- will be declared Bill Plympton Day by the City of Portland, with an official proclamation, resolution, certificate and all of that.  That particular showing of "Adventures of Plymptoons" will be a benefit for the Oregon Media Professionals Association, which is sponsoring the film tour, and there will be a number of surprise added attractions to that night's show.  But whoever shows up, I guarantee that the affable Mr. Plympton will remember that proclamation best of all.  Mazel tov!

The Northwest Film Center prepares to celebrate its 40th birthday in style

May 5, 2012 /

Bill Foster, who's been director of the NFC for 31 years, reflects on some highlights of his tenure and of Portland's growth as a film town.

Bill Foster.jpgMichael Lloyd, The OregonianBill Foster has been director of the Northwest Film Center for 31 of its 40 years.
A fortieth birthday is a fairly big deal in any lifetime, but for a not-for-profit arts institution, it’s practically miraculous.  

And yet that’s just where the Northwest Film Center finds itself:  at the dawn of a fifth decade and, in many ways, bigger and more robust than ever.

In February, the NFC’s Portland International Film Festival drew more than 37,000 ticket-holders to nearly 140 films at locations throughout the city and as far afield as Lake Oswego.  The NFC’s tentpole exhibition programs (including the Northwest Filmmaker’s Festival, the Portland Jewish Film Festival, and the Reel Music and Top Down film series) roll on heartily, some of them decades into their lives, and one-off events, such as Ernest Borgnine’s recent visit to town, can be electric.  The NFC continues to offer a full slate of classes for young people and college-aged (and older) filmmakers, to support independent filmmakers on their projects, and to form a nexus for filmmakers from throughout the Northwest, from Montana through British Columbia to Alaska.

It’s a whirling dervish of an institution even in years that aren’t marked by nice round numbers.  But throughout this milestone 40th-anniversary year, the NFC has been pausing from its busy routine to celebrate itself, and there’s no bigger celebration in store than “Lights! Camera! Action!,” a gala party being held on Saturday, May 12, in celebration of the big birthday and raising money that will help fund the NFC’s various activities.

On tap is a full-fledged evening of celebration and celebrity (well, Portland-scale celebrity).  The evening’s honorary chair is Cannes-winning and Oscar-nominated director Gus Van Sant, who was first heard from as a young filmmaker honing his chops in NFC programs.  The evening’s entertainment will be provided by singer China Forbes and a big band orchestra, and there will be live and silent auctions, some special film programming, and other surprises to keep the evening buzzy.  (For information about attending the event or donating to it, visit the web page for the event.)

Prior to the big night, Bill Foster, who has been director of the NFC since 1981, spoke with The Oregonian about some of the milestones and mainstays of the organization’s four decades.  His comments have been edited for brevity and clarity.

The Northwest Filmmaker’s Festival
(The NFC’s longest-running annual event, having just completed its thirty-eighth year (when it was redubbed after being known as the Northwest Film and Video Festival), it brings together new works from filmmakers throughout a massive geographical region for evaluation by an outside juror.)

Foster:  “That was the event I actually started on:  the first thing I actually did.  It was supposed to be a three-month project.  I’d worked for the museum (the Portland Art Museum, which operates the NFC) as a curatorial assistant and assistant registrar.  I didn’t know anything about the Film Center, which wasn’t connected to the museum.  I got involved by accident.  The Film Center’s director, Bob Sitton, had come from California and didn’t know many people in town.  I had left the museum and he called me up and asked if I’d be willing to help him with this project.  The previous year, they had put on an Oregon filmmakers festival, so the local filmmaking community knew about the Film Center.  There were about 60 or 70 entries, compared to about 450 nowadays, and we showed probably 15 or 20. The Film Center was never intended to be a film society, though it does serve that function.  It was meant to be a community catalyst, a means of creating a viable media community in Portland.  And this has become the flagship event that says to the filmmaking community and the larger community, ‘There are filmmakers in the Northwest, and movies don’t just come from Hollywood or France, and we should celebrate those voices.’”


PIFF35 logo.jpg
The Portland International Film Festival
(Since 1977, the NFC’s most visible and popular annual event, with a gala opening night, scores of local and regional premieres, visiting filmmakers, and a chain of downtown -- and, in recent years, outer-lying -- theaters choked with film buffs trying to take in dozens of movies in less than three weeks time.)

Foster:  “When PIFF started, we were already showing lots of classic and foreign films, and this was the era when film festivals were really becoming a phenomenon in lots of cities around the country and the world.  Seven Gables, who were based in Seattle, was the premiere art film exhibitor in the region, and they operated the Movie House theater here.  We struck a partnership with them on a film festival, with Seven Gables using the Movie House the more commercial films, the ones that were likely to return for regular runs, and the Film Center showing the more recondite films.  We collaborated on a balanced program.  We had maybe 40 movies and maybe 8,000 people showed up.  That was a big success.  And then after a couple of years, Seven Gables contracted its operations and moved out of Portland, and we’ve been running it ever since.”


Gus Van Sant.jpgView full sizeGus Van Sant
Gus Van Sant
(No single filmmaker has been more associated with the NFC over the decades than the man who will serve as honorary chair for Saturday’s gala.  The first public screenings of Van Sant’s films were held at the NFC, he has held local premieres of several of his best-known films as benefits for the NFC, and he continues to support the institution in a number of ways, some splashy and some quiet.)

Foster:  “He’s been involved at every level you can think of, from making movies to teaching to making PSAs to starring in trailers for PIFF to letting us show his work to loaning us his equipment to serving as a juror for the Northwest Filmmaker’s Festival.  He’s been a steady inspiration and force since the mid-‘70s.  And he isn’t only supportive of the NFC but of the whole community.  He’s accessible and willing and serves on committees and comes to screenings.  He’s fascinating to watch.  I really can’t say what he’ll do next.  He can synthesize so many types of film and art; he’s really unique.  He could go off in the world of commerce, but he doesn’t.  And he certainly doesn’t flaunt his success.  For one thing, he’s stayed here.  Portland is a place that attracts people who want to shape their own lives, and if you’re in the film business in New York or Los Angeles, there are forces that shape you, no matter how big you are.  Your career takes on a life of its own, and you can’t veer off and make little films or take months of and sit on Sauvie Island and do watercolors, like Gus has done.”


Visiting Filmmakers
(Gus Van Sant is a big name, yes, but the NFC has attracted some pretty remarkable folks to its programs.)

Foster: “We’ve had more than 3000 visiting filmmakers over the years -- maybe 60 or more every year.  And, sure, they’re not all Ernie Borgnine, but we did have (legendary directors) Frank Capra and King Vidor.  Werner Herzog has been here a few times, and that’s always memorable.  And Oliver Stone was pretty wild to host, and Michael Moore in his heyday.  One of the most palpably exciting events was when Pauline Kael was here:  you can’t imagine such electricity being generated by a critic today.  In PIFFs over the years, we’ve had people like Steven Soderbergh and M. Night Shyamalan. Those sorts of visits are the value-added that get people excited about the festival.”


coraline.JPG"Coraline"
“Coraline” and Portland animation
(One of the ongoing themes of Portland film history has been the strength of the local animation community, with such pioneers as Will Vinton, Jim Blashfield and Joan Gratz paving the way for the big-budget work being done at Laika Entertainment, which held the world premiere of its acclaimed feature “Coraline” on opening night of the 2009 Portland International Film Festival.)

Foster: “Since day one the Film Center has taught animation, and we’ve had animators on our faculty like Joanna Priestley, Chel White, Jim Blashfield and Will Vinton.  Portland has always had an amazing indigenous animation community.  And Vinton built a substantial infrastructure that’s still thriving in the shape of Laika.  That year, we had the perfect storm of “Coraline”’s premiere and the start of PIFF, and that was a huge event.  It all gets back to the community idea and the idea of celebrating what goes on in Portland.  Laika has an amazing talent base and resources.  But like a lot of things in Portland, it takes being recognized outside of town for people here to acknowledge it.  That’s one of the reasons it was so nice to be able to premiere that film here.”


The Portland arts and filmmaking scene today
(Several of the strains of contemporary Portland culture have their roots in the works of filmmakers whom the NFC has nurtured and supported over the years -- the likes of Aaron Katz (“Quiet City,” “Cold Weather”), Matt McCormick (“Some Days Are Better Than Others”) and James Westby (“The Auteur,” “Rid of Me”).  Even in an era when there are more films being made in Portland than ever, the NFC remains a hub.)

Foster: “You used to feel like you knew everything that was going on in Portland.  It was the biggest a town could be without being a truly metropolitan city.  Now there are people from all over whom you’ve never heard of making all kinds of exciting things.  People are living all over town, relatively stably and comfortably, finding their creative spaces and voices.  It’s very fertile.  You get people like Gus and (fellow directors) Todd Haynes and Lance Bangs, who live here and work all over.  Artists can be out in the world but they continue to live here and stay infused with the Portland ambience and not lose their bearings or become overwhelmed with the struggle to survive.  And all the time new people are popping up and doing premieres and I think, ‘I didn’t even know they existed.’  And that’s exactly what you hope for:  nurturing a community that does its own creative thing.  As an arts organization, we want to help people thrive.  And it’s satisfying even if we didn’t have a part in it.  People emerge here, and they stay here as part of the community, and they almost always want to give back and help the community thrive.”


NFC 40 logo.jpg
IF YOU GO
WHAT:  “Lights! Camera! Action! 40th Anniversary Gala and Fundraiser”
WHEN: Saturday, May 12, with red carpet starting at 6 p.m.
WHERE: Portland Art Museum, 1119 SW Park Ave.
TICKETS: starting at $150
For more information, visit the Northwest Film Center's web site.


Movies: The ‘Avengers’ assemble, the ‘Pope’ has cold feet, Studio Ghibli is celebrated, and more

May 4, 2012 /

Reviews of this week's new releases from today's A&E.

Avengers -- Thor Cap Am.jpgThor (Chris Hemsworth) and Captain America (Chris Evans) in "The Avengers"
The one big deal movie out there this weekend is, of course, "The Avengers," and I've got a review and a brief introduction to the characters.  Other movies were mostly scared away from opening opposite such a blockbuster, but we review the Italian comedy "We Have a Pope" and a new retrospective of films from Japan's Studio Ghibli.  And -- but you knew it, didn't you -- there's "Also Opening," "Indy/Arthouse," and "Levy's High Five."

A devilish ‘Carnival,’ a slick ‘Manhunter,’ an Angry Filmmaker and more

May 4, 2012 /

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

The Devil's Carnival.jpgfrom "The Devil's Carnival"
“The Devil’s Carnival” A wild combination of film and theater from the makers of, and in the vein of, “Repo! The Genetic Opera.” Director Darren Lynn Bousman and writer/actor Terrance Zdunich will be on hand for this one-time only event, combining music, the macabre and the unimaginable.   (Clinton Street Theater, Thursday only)

“Invincible Shaolin” Classic 1978 martial arts film, in the only 35mm print known to exist. (Hollywood Theatre programmer Dan Halsted will also give a presentation on his museum-quality collection of martial arts films.)  (Hollywood Theatre, Tuesday only)  

“Kelley Baker” Portland’s one-and-only Angry Filmmaker, Baker will speak, show clips from his career, and sign copies of his new book, “The Angry Filmmaker Survival Guide Part Two: Sound Conversations with (un)Sound People.”   (Northwest Film Center, Wednesday only)  

“Manhunter” Michael Mann’s 1986 drama, the first film to bring the immortal Hannibal Lecter to the big screen, presented in conjunction with the Portland State University film studies program.  (Hollywood Theatre, Wednesday only)  


A Tech Sabbath offers a chance to unplug, recharge

May 4, 2012 /

In imitation of the traditional religious day of rest, an increasing number of people, including hard-core techies, are turning off their screens once a week.

Tammy Strobel.jpgView full sizePortland writer Tammy Strobel is dedicated to the simple life, including a weekly hiatus from her computer.
We have screens on our walls and screens on our desks. Screens in our laps and screens in our pockets and screens in our cars. Before long — if Google delivers the computers-inside-of-eyeglasses it’s been advertising — we’ll have screens on lenses before our very eyes.

We go online to check a weather report, a movie time, a sports score, and we slip into a rabbit hole, losing hours, chasing one urge to find out some new thing after another, answering the ever-growing piles of emails, private messages and texts, reading news (or, more often, newsy) stories, playing games, downloading apps, watching viral videos....Is it any wonder many of us feel that we have given our brains over to technology?

“The Internet is a vortex,” says Portland writer Tammy Strobel. “I can get lost in it for hours. And time is something we can never get back.”

Strobel, who shares her thoughts on keeping life simple on the blog rowdykittens.com, is one of a growing number of people who have committed themselves to dealing with the time-suck of the digital world by taking what we might call a Tech Sabbath, a regular day each week in which they turn off computers, TVs and cellphones and spend time doing the things we all did for fun before the Internet emerged.

Each Sunday, Strobel and her husband avoid computers and spend the day doing simple offline things: reading books, taking walks, visiting new neighborhoods, engaging in outdoor activities. She allows herself to work if an idea strikes, but she does it using pen and paper.

“Whenever I do it,” she declares, “I always feel recharged.”

An idea as old as the Web

The idea of spending a day or weekend or more without computers has been around at least as long as the World Wide Web. But it has become more alluring in the past few years as it becomes more portable, says Mark Glaser, editor of the MediaShift blog on PBS.org.

Mark Glaser.jpgView full sizeMark Glaser, who edits a blog about the media, takes a day away from his screens each weekend.
“The culture of iPhones and tablets gives us so much at our fingertips,” he says, “but while we appreciate the convenience we really haven’t fully understood the negatives. The idea of taking time away from the computer comes up more and more frequently, and it always seems to have a deep resonance.”

In March, thousands observed a National Day of Unplugging, organized loosely by a group known as Sabbath Manifesto, which has called for people to recognize a technology-free time dedicated to connecting with family, community and nature.

In some ways, the Tech Sabbath is, as the name implies, built along the model of traditional religious practices, such as those of Orthodox Jews, who refrain from the use of technology each week for 24 hours during Shabbat, or the Amish, who avoid modern technology altogether. Secularized, these practices offer a means to restore balance in a world increasingly cluttered by digital noise.

“I’ve been doing it for a year, and it’s changed my life,” says Tiffany Shlain, a Bay Area filmmaker who founded the Webby Awards in 1996 to recognize excellent design on the Internet.

Coinciding with the Jewish Sabbath, which runs from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, Shlain and her family turn off all screens and cellphones in their home.

Tiffany Shlain.jpgView full sizeBay Area filmmaker Tiffany Shlain has made two films -- "Unplugged" and "Yelp" (see below) -- about the human effects of excessive technology use. She and her family take weekly breaks from virtually all electronic devices.
“It’s rebalanced my brain,” she says. “Every interaction we have with technology reprograms the brain somewhat. We’re remaking our minds and we’re not necessarily aware of it. I don’t need to see a study to know that it’s not good for me.”

In fact, there is plenty of evidence to show that using digital technology affects the brain. For instance, a 2009 study in California demonstrated the revival of dormant areas of the brain in elderly people upon their initial exposure to the Internet. But a 2011 study of people in Britain who spend many hours online chronicled brain impairments similar to those found in people addicted to cocaine and alcohol.

For good or ill, the fact that using the Internet changes the way our minds work is undeniable. Unplugging, even for 24 hours, might be a way to stave off the ill effects. Shlain says that her Tech Sabbaths have refreshed her: “I have this beautiful, gloriously slow day every week, and I interact with my family and my own mind differently.”

She also feels that her regular time offline has helped her in her work.

“I don’t act on every impulse or idea the second I have it,” she explains. “There’s a value in letting things sit. And by Saturday night I’m refreshed and really energized to get back to work.”

How to make it work

Those who observe regular technology Sabbaths indicate that the practice is most successful when it’s built with a view toward practicality and flexibility. Portlander Strobel, who has gone entire weekends and, last year, a whole month offline, has made some exceptions. She checked email once a week during her monthlong hiatus, and she keeps her cellphone turned on during her Sunday breaks so she can stay in touch with family.

Suzy Vitello.jpgView full sizePortland writer Suzy Vitello-Soule
For some, the lure of living offline for a day is greater than the ability to do so regularly. Portland writer Suzy Vitello-Soule decided about 18 months ago to observe a Tech Sabbath on Sundays and made sure she wasn’t tempted to lapse: “I put something in place of the usual sitting around,” she explains. “I went off and skied four Sundays in a row.”

But, after a month, Vitello-Soule was drawn back to her online life. “The whole Sunday night getting-ready-for-the-week ritual demanded it,” she says. “The compulsion for that was bigger than my need to take a break.”

As Vitello-Soule’s story indicates, it’s not necessarily technology that’s the root of the problem for many people, but an addiction to work.

MediaShift’s Glaser practices a variation of the Tech Sabbath that’s keyed to avoiding the never-ending work that has arisen as the workplace has become portable.

“Some of the things that other people do for fun — Facebook, Twitter, blogs — are really connected to work for me,” he says. “And that means that my work is with me all the time, wherever I go.”

For Glaser, the Tech Sabbath (which he observes in the Jewish Friday-night-to-Saturday-night pattern) is a break from the computer, principally.

“I still use my phone for personal calls, I use a tablet to read books, I watch TV,” he says. “Those things don’t feel all-consuming. There’s a difference between being entertained and something that feels like an obsession.”

The benefits of a Tech Sabbath seem to speak for themselves: a day to unclutter the mind, to slow down the world, to reconnect with the outdoors, to commune with family and friends, to re-encounter simple.

But there’s a bonus, too, for those of us tethered to computers for the rest of our wired weeks: “By sundown on Saturday,” says Tiffany Shlain, “I’m completely refreshed and I can’t wait to get back online and put my new energy to good use.”

Some helpful steps in planning a digital Sabbath:

Set realistic parameters:  Don’t swear off every electronic device absolutely.  If watching a movie with the family is old-fashioned leisure to you, allow yourself to use the TV and make it a centerpiece of your day off-line.  If you don’t have a landline, allow yourself use of a cellphone for important calls but don’t use it to text.

Choose the day that suits you best:  Being off-line every Sunday may not suit your life.  A number of people recommend using the Jewish Sabbath as a guideline because 1) it comes at the very end of the work week and seems truly celebratory as a result, and 2) it allows you to be online for at least part of every day.  

Ramp Up Slowly: If you can’t see dedicating a day each and every week to a Tech Sabbath, start, perhaps, with dedicating one day -- or one weekend -- a month.  Build the practice gradually until you’re comfortable with making something more regular of it.

Don't Rely on Randomness: Plan activities designed to keep you from being reminded of what you’re not doing.  If you’re skiing or hiking or taking a long bike ride, that day offline will feel shorter.  If you’re sitting around the house bored, chances are you’ll lapse and turn on your computer.


FOR MORE INFORMATION

Portland writer Tammy Strobel describes her “Digital Sabbaticals.”

Bay Area filmmaker Tiffany Shlain describes her “Technology Shabbats”

The blog Tech Sabbath Habit offers many articles about the ill effects of excessive exposure to digital media and ways to combat them.


WATCH "YELP," FILMMAKER TIFFANY SHLAIN'S PAEAN TO UNPLUGGING:





Levy’s High Five, May 4 – 10

May 3, 2012 /

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

The Deep Blue Sea pub.jpgTom Hiddleston and Rachel Weisz in "The Deep Blue Sea"
1) “The Deep Blue Sea” Terence Davies is the finest director you’ve likely never heard of, probably because his best films -- the quiet, devastating semi-autobiographical “Distant Voices, Still Lives” and “The Long Day Closes” -- were made more than two decades ago and he’s only had one film (“The House of Mirth,” an anomaly, really) get even a modest release since.  Here, adapting Terence Rattigan’s 1952 play about a passionate woman (Rachel Weisz), her stodgy husband (Simon Russell Beale) and her unreliable lover (Tom Hiddleston), his immense, inimitable gifts for image-making and, especially, turning film into something like music are in full power.  The effect is sometimes funny, sometimes dramatic, sometimes absolutely ravishing.  Davies is a master, and this is his most accessible film.  See it.  Cinema 21

2) “The Raid: Redemption” An ultra-violent, wildly kinetic martial arts film that virtually strips itself of the narrative conventions of plot, theme and characterization to create a white-knuckle thrill ride.  Writer-director Gareth Evans, a Welshman living in Indonesia, takes the simplest story -- a squad of cops attacks a Jakarta apartment house where a crime lord is ensconced -- and uses it to string together wild action sequences that leave the viewer as exhausted as if he or she had fought them.  His stars -- Iko Uwais as a baby-faced cop and Yayan Ruhian (who also choreographed) as a stringy-haired bad guy -- are dazzling.  The whole thing is pure cinema: the human body rendered as a machine capable of mayhem, daring, and, yes, grace. Academy, Laurelhurst

3) “Bully” An emotionally overwhelming documentary about threads of violence in our social fabric.  Focusing on five or children who’ve been tormented and abused by schoolmates, two so relentlessly that they took their own lives, documentarian Lee Hirsch advocates without the use of any talking heads, statistics or editorial posturing.  Rather, his film actually depicts everyday acts of bullying and -- worse -- the ineffective and even hurtful responses of school authorities.  At times, the pity, outrage and empathy the evokes threaten to drown you.  But there’s a hint of light, too.  At moments you might feel slightly manipulated.  But when you look into the eyes of two fathers whose sons killed themselves rather than continue to be bullied, quibbles about journalist practice vanish from your mind. Fox Tower

4) “Jiro Dreams of Sushi”  Jiro Ono is the owner of a Tokyo sushi bar with 10 seats and 3 Michelin stars, and David Gelb’s gorgeous and intimate documentary about the man and his obsession gives you an idea of how that can not only be so but be fitting.  Jiro and his two sons (bound to the chef’s apron strings, almost literally) devote untold hours of work and thought to the perfection of sushi-making, turning a sometimes makework form of cookery into indisputably high art.  At 85, the old master still works virtually every day, and the fruit of his focus is in servings of raw fish and warm rice photographed so lusciously that you can almost taste them.  A mouthwatering film:  literally.  Hollywood Theatre, Living Room Theaters

5) "The Cabin in the Woods" A slasher movie inside a horror movie of another sort inside yet another narrative, one which looks out and the audience and asks why they (that is, we) keep lining up to watch other people get slaughtered.  A group of college students head to the titular location for a weekend’s bacchanal, only to be preyed upon and killed in grisly fashion, as per the familiar genre rules.  At the same time, a group of bureaucrats/scientists in a control room manipulate the victims and their killers in the service of...something.  Director Drew Goddard and his co-writer Joss Whedon have fun in the vein of “Scream” and in the vein of “The Truman Show” -- and they come up with an intriguing theory to explain the allure of horror films as well as a (literal) hell of a climax. Bloody, funny, clever. multiple locations


‘The Avengers’ review: They assemble, they fight, and then they fight some more

May 3, 2012 /

Joss Whedon's film manages the hard part of building a team of superheroes but is a bit puzzled trying to figure out what to do with them

Avengers -- Thor Iron Man Cap Am.jpgView full sizeAvengers assembled: Thor, Iron Man and Captain America (from l.)
It may not be based on a work of, in the old-fashioned sense, literature, but a movie like “The Avengers” is, in some crucial ways, quite like an adaptation of Shakespeare or Dickens.  

Certain characters, plots, phrases, even props must be handled just so or the director risks losing the good will of those who know a thing or two about it all.  Yes, there must be enough in the final product to appeal to non-initiates.  But if the core audience is lost -- as it was, say, with “Hulk” (2003) and “The Incredible Hulk” (2008), to pick two loaded examples -- then the filmmakers might as well have stayed home with their comic collections, because they’ll find little love from outside the target crowd.

The happy news, then, about “The Avengers” is that the screenwriters (director Joss Whedon and Zak Penn), have done a splendid job of bringing an entire universe of characters together and to life with fidelity to the letter and the spirit of the source material.  Gathering threads from a string of franchise-type films featuring Captain America, Iron Man and Thor, resurrecting the Hulk convincingly after two botched films in less than a decade, adding new characters and an overarching plot that intertwines it all, “The Avengers” pretty much offers up anything a fanboy (or -girl) would want from such a film.  

And neutrals are likely to go for it as well, I reckon, for its wit, its pace, and its bang, even if it does expend itself on a third act that doesn’t add much to the drama.  Save for that showy finale -- which endures quite a while, although not without some highlights and pizzazz -- it’s a pip.

The fulcrum of “The Avengers” is Nick Fury, the eyepatch-sporting spymaster who has been played by Samuel L. Jackson in a number of teasers leading up to this film.  Fury and his organization, S. H. I. E. L. D., serve as a liaison between military-slash-political powers and various superheroes scattered around the world.  In the course of his work, Fury has thawed Captain America from decades of icy sleep, worked with Tony Stark (aka Iron Man) on developing weapons, served as a contact with the Norse god Thor during his time on Earth, and employed the assassins Black Widow and Hawkeye in various shadowy missions.  

When “The Avengers” starts, Fury is in possession of the tesseract, a mysterious and powerful cube which Captain America prised away from the Nazis long ago.  Fury’s scientists are attempting to turn the mysterious whatsits into a source of clean, cheap energy -- among other things -- when it’s stolen from them by Loki, Thor’s evil brother, who wishes to rule mankind as a tyrant.  Loki plans to use the tesseract to open a gateway through space and facilitate an alien invasion of Earth, and Fury must roundup all his superhero buddies to stop him.

And so, as in “Seven Samurai” and “Mystery Men” and other films about gaggles of do-gooders, a team is gathered.  Captain America (Chris Evans) is, of course, on board from the get-go, as is Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), who is in mid-mission when she’s summoned.  Stark/Iron Man is recruited with relative ease, but it takes real delicacy to bring in Bruce Banner (aka the Hulk, played as a man by Mark Ruffalo and as a CGI beast with the voice of TV’s Hulk, Lou Ferrigno).  Thor (Chris Hemsworth) appears out of thin air, ready to help, but Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), has been brainwashed into badness by Loki (Tom Hiddleston), and must regain his senses to round out the classic Avengers lineup.

This portion of the film -- the assembling of the team -- is the best part of “The Avengers.”  There’s real humor in the byplay of altruistic Captain America and cynical Iron Man, and real wit, mystery and tension as Banner tries to control his inner behemoth.  (If nothing else, this is easily the best Hulk on film:  Ruffalo’s slightly twitchy chagrin is a perfect vessel for such a Jekyll-and-Hyde personality.)  Johansson brings a pleasant heft to her role; Hemsworth, achieving the impossible, makes Thor both human and funny; and Hiddleston relishes the chance to play a classic upper-crust English-accented villain with a sneer worthy of Alan Rickman.

Once they’re all in place, though, the film falters -- although, to be fair, it never exactly stalls or gets dull.  There’s a long sequence of plot exposition and fighting aboard Fury’s impressive flying fortress, followed by a long sequence of plot exposition and fighting in midtown Manhattan.  Some of this is spectacular and some of it is funny (two sight gags involving the Hulk and the Norse gods are priceless).  But it isn’t exactly novel or inspired.  And there’s a lot of it.

For the most part, Whedon has made a light and spry film out of humongous, cumbersome parts, and that’s to be lauded.  But he’s not a natural director of action sequences, and perhaps this is why he builds them bigger than they need to be -- as if to compensate for their lack of sharpness.  Writer Whedon is clever enough to add moments of levity even to the gigantic action sequences, but director Whedon is sufficiently pedestrian to require them, and the latter fellow’s sensibility too often blunts that of the other, brighter fellow.  

Perhaps this is too much attention to the film’s weaknesses, because even with the flaws of the final half, “The Avengers” is grand, brisk fun.  It comes tantalizingly close to reaching the level of the very best comic book films of the current generation:  Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies, Sam Raimi’s first two “Spider-Man” films, and the debuts of Iron Man and Captain America.  That “The Avengers” is as good as it is should be celebrated, by fans and noobs alike.  But that it might have been better can’t be denied, even by zealots.
    
(140 min., PG-13, multiple locations) Grade: B


‘We Have a Pope’ review: the wrong man for the job

May 3, 2012 /

Overwhelmed by the thought of his new position, a would-be-Pope flees the Vatican -- and silliness ensues

We Have A Pope.jpgMichel Piccoli in "We Have a Pope"
There’s a peach of a set-up to Nanni Moretti’s new comedy, “We Have a Pope,” and a fine performance in the middle.  But the film wastes itself on silliness and scattered threads before very long, truly squandering a brilliant promise.

At the start, a Pope has died, and the College of Cardinals is united in the Vatican to elect a successor.  After a few days of balloting, a dark horse is chosen, Cardinal Melville (Michel Piccoli), and just as he is to be presented to the waiting world he suffers a crisis of nerve, bellowing “I can’t do it!” and fleeing into the privacy of the papal apartments.  

His colleagues can’t budge the new Pope into service, so a psychiatrist (Moretti) is called in to help, which becomes impossible with so many prying eyes at the Vatican.  A lay official (Jerzy Stuhr) has the idea to take the Pope out to see a therapist who doesn’t know his true identity, but the slippery pontiff escapes his handlers and vanishes into greater Rome.

The premise is truly inspired, the settings are handsome, and the 86-year-old Piccoli is superb in the role of a reluctant Vicar of Christ, his doubts and hopes and fears playing across his face like clouds (and recalling his role in Manoel de Oliveira’s 2001 film “I’m Going Home”).   

But Moretti fritters away his star’s fine performance amid side plots about a theatrical troupe among whom the Pope hides and a volleyball tournament which the psychiatrist organizes for the cardinals, and the human and religious drama is lost in grating frivolity.  “We Have a Pope” didn’t need to be a stone-serious film, but little is served by turning it into a farce.
    
(105 min., unrated, probably PG, Living Room Theaters) Grade: B-minus


New model of moviegoing comes to Portland with ‘#ReGeneration’ and Tugg, a movies-on-demand system

May 3, 2012 /

A new service lets you and your friends book a film in a local theater -- kind of like Kickstarter meets movies-on-demand, but on the big screen.

ReGeneration.pngfrom "#ReGeneration"
"#ReGeneration" is a film about the Occupy movement and, as the film's website says, "the challenges facing today’s youth and young adults as they attempt to engage on a myriad of social and political issues."  It plays tonight at the Living Room Theaters in a one-shot-only screening coinciding with similar events around the country.

That may or may not be newsy, depending on your interest in the film or the subject matter.  What is newsy, though, is the means through which the screening was arranged. By using a new service called Tugg, Portlanders who wanted to see "#ReGeneration" paid for their tickets in advance, in a Kickstarter-style model, and guaranteed sufficient interest to get the theater to promise to book the film. 

Tugg allows you, your friends, and people who share your interests to pick a movie, pick a theater, pick a date and time, and watch a movie together, on the big screen.  Currently, there's a campaign in progress on Tugg to bring the film "El Bulli," a documentary about the revolutionary Spanish restaurant, to Living Room Theaters on May 17. 

Have a look at that screening -- or at the Tugg model in general -- and share your thoughts about whether it sounds like something you can imagine pursuing.

‘The Avengers’: You can’t tell the players without a scorecard, so here’s a scorecard

May 3, 2012 /

Being a brief introduction to the key characters in the mega-superhero movie

Avengers -- Black Widow.jpgScarlett Johansson plays Black Widow in "The Avengers"
BLACK WIDOW
Alter-ego of:  Natasha Romanoff (aka Natasha Rushman)
Played by: Scarlett Johansson
First appeared in comics: as an enemy of Iron Man in "Tales of Suspense," April, 1964
First appeared on TV: “The Marvel Super Heroes” animated show, 1966
First appeared in movies:  supporting role in “Iron Man 2” (2010)
Who and what:  One of a series of women, all using the same code name, who were trained from childhood in Soviet-era Russia as assassins with expertise in weapons, martial arts and the techniques of spycraft.  She has been an enemy of various of the Avengers over the years, but in the incarnation presented in this film she’s on the side of good.  She is romantically linked with Hawkeye, who has also been (or been perceived to be) on both sides of the law.


Avengers -- Cap Am.jpgMatt Salinger in "Captain America" (1990)





CAPTAIN AMERICA
Alter ego of: Steve Rogers
Played by: Chris Evans
First appeared in comics: “Captain America Comics,” March, 1941
First appeared on TV: “The Marvel Super Heroes”
First appeared in movies: chapter serial (1944); two made-for-TV films (both 1979); “Captain America” (played by Matt Salinger, son of J. D. Salinger); “Captain America: The First Avenger” (2011)
Who and what: A decent, patriotic fellow who was deemed too scrawny for military service but was then transformed into a super-soldier in a scientific experiment.  He battled the Nazis but was presumed dead in a plane crash during the war, only to be discovered frozen but still alive and then thawed in the modern era.  A stalwart, brave and true fellow with impressive abilities to fling a shield and take a punch, his most recent big-screen incarnation was a rousing success, both critically and commercially, and helped make “The Avengers” an event to anticipate.


Avengers -- fury.jpgDavid Hasselhoff as Nick Fury (1998)
NICK FURY
Alter ego of: um, Nick Fury
Played by: Samuel L. Jackson
First appeared in comics: “Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos,” May, 1963
First appeared on TV: bit parts and supporting roles in various Marvel Comics-inspired animated series from 1994 onward
First appeared in movies: made-for-TV feature (played by David Hasselhoff!) (1998); cameos and supporting roles in “Iron Man” (2008), “Iron Man 2,” “Thor” (2011) and “Captain America: The First Avenger”
Who and what: A World War II hero recruited after the end of the war into the CIA and then into S.H.I.E.L.D. (currently an acronym for Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division), which he runs as a super-secret espionage and paramilitary organization with special ties to the superhero community.  He has barely aged over the decades, thanks to some special use of pharmacology, and he sports an eye patch related to an old war wound.  As head of S.H.I.E.L.D., he answers to a committee of superiors from around the world, but they seem to have no practical influence over him.  


Avengers -- hawkeye.jpgJeremy Renner as Hawkeye in "The Avengers"
HAWKEYE
Alter ego of: Clint Barton
Played by: Jeremy Renner
First appeared in comics: “Tales of Suspense,” September, 1964
First appeared on TV: “The Marvel Super Heroes”
First appeared in movies: cameo in “Thor”
Who and what: A master marksman (bow-and-arrow division) and martial artist who chose to emulate Iron Man as a superhero but was taken, at first, as a bad guy, a reputation that was enhanced when he fell under the spell of Black Widow in her pre-good guy phase.  Now on the side of the right and the true, he still has a moody aspect and can seem a bit wobbly in his allegiances.


Avengers -- hulk.jpgLou Ferrigno as The Hulk
THE HULK
Alter ego of: Dr. Bruce Banner
Played by: Mark Ruffalo (with the voice of Lou Ferrigno)
First appeared in comics: “The Incredible Hulk,” May, 1962
First appeared on TV: “The Marvel Super Heroes”; and, more memorably, in “The Incredible Hulk” live-action series (played by Bruce Bixby and Ferrigno) from 1977 to 1982
First appeared in movies: three made-for-TV movies starring Bixby and Ferrigno (1988, 1989, 1990); “Hulk” (played by Eric Bana), (2003); “The Incredible Hulk” (played by Edward Norton, with Ferrigno’s voice), (2008)
Who and what: While attempting to weaponize gamma rays, Banner was dosed by radiation, causing a Jekyll-and-Hyde-like condition which transforms him, whenever his anger or sense of self-preservation rises, from a mild-mannered scientist into a super-powered, raging, incoherent green behemoth.  The Hulk possesses none of Banner’s intelligence or rationality and is a serious danger even to those friendly to him.  In that light, it’s rather ironic that two big-budget efforts to build a movie franchise around him have been unsatisfying critical and commercial disasters, necessitating a third incarnation in nine years.  The good news for Hulk-heads is that they’ve got the character right -- perhaps because he’s not the lead -- this time around.


Avengers -- Iron Man.jpgIron Man from "The Marvel Super Heroes" (1966)
IRON MAN
Alter ego of: Tony Stark
Played by: Robert Downey Jr.
First appeared in comics: “Tales of Suspense,” March, 1963
First appeared on TV: “The Marvel Super Heroes”
First appeared in movies: “Iron Man” and a cameo in “The Incredible Hulk” in 2008; then “Iron Man 2”
Who and what: A feckless but brilliant billionaire playboy whose father, Howard Stark, was a Howard Hughes-style inventor with ties to the military, espionage and superhero communities.  The younger Stark is cursed with a weak heart, but has the technological genius to have crafted a source of power that not only keeps him alive but fuels a suit of armor that gives him stupendous abilities.  The success of director Jon Favreau’s 2008 “Iron Man,” with a tremendously witty performance by Downey, was surely a key in encouraging Marvel and its movie partners to go ahead with “The Avengers,” meaning that Stark’s influence is pervasive not only in the fictional universe of the film but in the behind-the-scenes story of how it was made, as well.


Avengers -- Thor.jpgThe classic Marvel Comics Thor
THOR
Alter ego of: on Earth, the Norse god Thor sometimes uses the identity Dr. Donald Blake
Played by: Chris Hemsworth
First appeared in comics: “Journey into Mystery,” August, 1962
First appeared on TV: “The Marvel Super Heroes”
First appeared in movies: “Thor”
Who and what: Son of Odin, the ruler of Asgard, and brother of the malicious Loki, with whom he perpetually struggles for the favor of their father and for domain over the Earth.  Powered by a supernatural hammer (named Mjolnir), the thoughtful and honest (and, in this film, surprisingly quippy) Thor defends the Earth, which he has come to love, from the machinations of Loki (played here, as last year, by Tom Hiddleston in classic English upper-class villain mode).  A god would be tough to best in any fight, of course, but Hulk does pretty good against Thor in a tussle, and Asgard and other off-planet locales have some impressive muscle of their own to throw at him.  So despite immortality and divinity, he does, sometimes, have his hands full.


Oregon-born cartoonist Bill Plympton to barnstorm the state with "Adventures in Plymptoons"

April 30, 2012 /

A documentary about the cartoonist's life and work will tour McMenamins Theaters for a barnstorming trip in May.

Adventures in Plymptoons.jpg
The great, affable cartoonist Bill Plympton has spent the bulk of his career in New York, but he's a native of Oregon, as he proudly boasts, and he gets back to his home state whenever his film work gives him the chance.

And he's got a heck of a good chance coming up.  "Adventures in Plymptoons," a documentary about the life and work of the twice-Oscar-nominated animator, has been playing film festivals around the world since last summer (including a stop at last fall's BendFilm).  But now, in a unique program, entitled the Great Northwest Film Tour, Plympton will present the film in Portland and then tour with it around the state and, indeed, the region, for a series of one-night only events.

In a special tour organized by the collected efforts of the Oregon Media Professionals Association (OMPA), the Northwest Animation Festival and McMenamins' Theaters, "Adventures in Plymptoons" will play at eight of McMenamin's brewpub theaters.  Opening night, May 19, will take place at the Mission Theater in Portland, followed by screenings at the Old St. Francis School in Bend (May 20), the Kennedy School in Portland (May 22), the Grand Lodge in Forest Grove (May 23), the Olympic Club in Centralia, Washington (May 24), the Edgefield Powerstation in Troutdale (May 25), the Bagdad Theater in Portland (May 26) and the St. Johns Theater in Portland (May 27).

Plympton will be in attendance at all of the shows, as will the film's director, Alexia Anastasio, and producer, Steve Tenhonen.  And they are planning a number of special guests and events around the screenings on the two Saturdays -- the 19th and 26th.

As will surprise no one who's familiar with the full breadth of Plympton's work, all shows of "Adventures in Plymptoons" are for ages 21 and over.  Full details about the series will soon be available at the OMPA and McMenamins web sites.


The Dill Pickle Club gets animated this weekend

April 27, 2012 /

Three of Portland's best animators offer insights into what makes our town a haven for handmade movies.

Dill Pickle Club.jpg
I've previously written about the Dill Pickle Club and its ongoing series, "A Place Called Home," dedicated to telling the story of Portland as a filmmaking and film-watching city.  The latest installment, dedicated to the history of Portland as an animation town, will be held this Sunday, the 29th, at the Hollywood Theatre.  Presenting the story of animation in our city are three of the key innovators in the history of Portland animation: Rose Bond,  Joan Gratz, and Joanna Priestley. The three will tell tales of making movies in our midst and share some of their work. 

Dafoe hunts, Fairbanks thieves, Genghis Khan rises, and more

April 27, 2012 /

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

The Theif of Bagdad 1924.jpg
“Bike Smut Retrospective” A collection of films combining the love of bicycling and the love of, ahem, love.  (Clinton Street Theater, Tuesday only)

“The Hunter” Willem Dafoe and Sam Neill in a thriller about a tiger hunt.  (Living Room Theaters)  

“It Came from Detroit” Documentary about the Motor City rock scene before the rise of the White Stripes.  (Hollywood Theatre, Friday only)  

“Mongol” The rise of the warrior chieftain Genghis Khan.   (5th Avenue Cinema,  Friday through Sunday only)  

“Relation” Rare dramatic feature from Nepal, with some scenes shot in Portland.  (Hollywood Theatre, Saturday only)  

“The Thief of Bagdad” The 1924 Douglas Fairbanks film reimagined with a score by the Electric Light Orchestra, presented by Shadoe Stevens.  (Hollywood Theatre, Saturday only)  

“TRAXX” 1988 shoot-em-up featuring radio dj Shadoe Stevens in an action role.  (Hollywood Theatre, Saturday only)  

“Yeti Bootleg: Howling Like a Wounded Bearcat” A compilation of footage featuring Appalachian music acts Hazel Dickens, Hasil Adkins and Hamper McBee.   (Hollywood Theatre, Monday only)  

“YOUthFILM Project ”  Presentation of the sixth-annual contest featuring student films dealing with civic issues.  (Hollywood Theatre, Thursday only)



Levy’s High Five, April 27 – May 3

April 26, 2012 /

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

The Deep Blue Sea window.jpg Rachel Weisz and Tom Hiddleston in "The Deep Blue Sea"
1) “The Deep Blue Sea” Terence Davies is the finest director you’ve likely never heard of, probably because his best films -- the quiet, devastating semi-autobiographical “Distant Voices, Still Lives” and “The Long Day Closes” -- were made more than two decades ago and he’s only had one film (“The House of Mirth,” an anomaly, really) get even a modest release since.  Here, adapting Terence Rattigan’s 1952 play about a passionate woman (Rachel Weisz), her stodgy husband (Simon Russell Beale) and her unreliable lover (Tom Hiddleston), his immense, inimitable gifts for image-making and, especially, turning film into something like music are in full power.  The effect is sometimes funny, sometimes dramatic, sometimes absolutely ravishing.  Davies is a master, and this is his most accessible film.  See it.  Cinema 21

2) “Bully” An emotionally overwhelming documentary about threads of violence in our social fabric.  Focusing on five or children who’ve been tormented and abused by schoolmates, two so relentlessly that they took their own lives, documentarian Lee Hirsch advocates without the use of any talking heads, statistics or editorial posturing.  Rather, his film actually depicts everyday acts of bullying and -- worse -- the ineffective and even hurtful responses of school authorities.  At times, the pity, outrage and empathy the evokes threaten to drown you.  But there’s a hint of light, too.  At moments you might feel slightly manipulated.  But when you look into the eyes of two fathers whose sons killed themselves rather than continue to be bullied, quibbles about journalist practice vanish from your mind. Fox Tower

3) “Jiro Dreams of Sushi”  Jiro Ono is the owner of a Tokyo sushi bar with 10 seats and 3 Michelin stars, and David Gelb’s gorgeous and intimate documentary about the man and his obsession gives you an idea of how that can not only be so but be fitting.  Jiro and his two sons (bound to the chef’s apron strings, almost literally) devote untold hours of work and thought to the perfection of sushi-making, turning a sometimes makework form of cookery into indisputably high art.  At 85, the old master still works virtually every day, and the fruit of his focus is in servings of raw fish and warm rice photographed so lusciously that you can almost taste them.  A mouthwatering film:  literally.  Hollywood Theatre, Living Room Theaters

4) "The Cabin in the Woods" A slasher movie inside a horror movie of another sort inside yet another narrative, one which looks out and the audience and asks why they (that is, we) keep lining up to watch other people get slaughtered.  A group of college students head to the titular location for a weekend’s bacchanal, only to be preyed upon and killed in grisly fashion, as per the familiar genre rules.  At the same time, a group of bureaucrats/scientists in a control room manipulate the victims and their killers in the service of...something.  Director Drew Goddard and his co-writer Joss Whedon have fun in the vein of “Scream” and in the vein of “The Truman Show” -- and they come up with an intriguing theory to explain the allure of horror films as well as a (literal) hell of a climax. Bloody, funny, clever. multiple locations

5) “Goon” In the spirit of the immortal “Slap Shot,” in which that nice old Paul Newman put on ice skates and got all potty-mouthed, Seann William Scott, of all people, absolutely kills as a sweet knucklehead who finds his niche in life punching out people as a minor league hockey player.  Director Michael Dowse, working from a script co-written by actor Jay Baruchel, who has a key supporting role, dives with real relish into bawdy humor and truly unsportsmanlike conduct.  It’s often hilarious, even if it doesn’t really amount to much.  And Liev Schreiber is dry, flinty fun as a grizzled hockey enforcer.  Hollywood Theatre






‘Goon’ review: in the spirit of ‘Slap Shot,’ a raucous hockey comedy with heart

April 26, 2012 /

A profane and bloody lark...on ice.

Goon.jpgSeann William Scott in "Goon"
“Goon” is a hoot.

Profane, bloody, and sophomoric, it’s a comic adrenaline rush with a surprisingly sweet heart.

Director Michael Dowse, following George Roy Hill’s classic “Slap Shot,” delves into the world of minor league hockey to find a boatload of misfits, neurotics, bullies, freaks and, in one case, a truly nice guy -- albeit one who’s only on the team to fight.

That would be Doug Glatt, a small-town nobody who rises to local fame when he knocks out a player who comes into the stands to fight fans.  Glatt can’t play hockey or even skate.  But his hammer-like fists get him hired as a goon, someone sent onto the ice to distribute justice or take out the other team’s star., and his effectiveness in the role leads to promotion to a higher minor league team, romance with a not-so-nice girl, and a showdown with a legendary goon whom he has always admired.

Selling all of this is a game and well-tuned cast.  Seann William Scott, of all people, plays the polite, doofy, rage-prone Glatt.  Jay Baruchel, who co-wrote the script, is his foul-mouthed buddy.  Marc-André Grondin convinces as a one-time hot prospect who’s fallen into debauchery.  And Liev Schreiber is terrifically dry as the old goon watching a young guy rise to his title.  Combined, they give a human heart to this deeply vulgar -- and deeply funny -- film.
    
(92 min., R, Hollywood Theatre) Grade: B-plus

‘The Five-Year Engagement’ review: in love for the long haul, without many laughs

April 26, 2012 /

Jason Segel and Emily Blunt can't quite seal the deal...and neither can this dull, overlong rom-com.

The Five-Year Engagement.jpgJason Segel and Emily Blunt in "The Five-Year Engagement"
Comedy means different things to different people, but I’m pretty sure that most everyone agrees that it’s best when it’s quick and funny.  

“The Five-Year Engagement” is neither.  

Oh, there are some titters in the tale of the long-gestating romance of a San Francisco chef (Jason Segel) and his psychology student fiancée (Emily Blunt) who keep putting off their big day.  But they are fairly few and very far between in this lumpy, meandering, overlong and relentlessly phony film.  All the goodwill that the lead actors bring to the table can’t overcome the sheer ordeal of watching this wan story play itself out.

Nicholas Stoller directs his cowriter Segel, as he did on “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” (the pair also wrote “The Muppets”).  They aim for that Apatow-verse sweet spot of raunch and sentiment, but the vulgar bits are more naughty than shocking and the sentiment -- like virtually all of the acting and film craft -- reeks of artifice.  At two-plus hours, it makes for a dispiritingly long courtship for which no honeymoon can compensate.

(124 min., R, multiple theaters) Grade: C


Don Knotts, ‘Hedwig’, Zombies, and The Stones highlight this summer’s Top Down film series

April 26, 2012 /

The Northwest Film Center's annual movies-under-the-stars event runs Thursday nights starting July 26.

Knotts Ghost Poster.jpg
One of the unquestioned highlights of the movie year is the Northwest Film Center's Top Down: Rooftop Cinema film series, when the roof of the parking garage of the Hotel deLuxe turns into a theater-under-the-stars, with food and drinks and, always, movies that are nothing but fun.

We've got an early look at what's on tap this summer, and it's a hoot.  The series opens on July 26 with Preston Sturges' immortal screwball comedy "The Palm Beach Story," then continues on subsequent Thursdays with the following titles:

August 2: Don Knotts investigates a haunted house in "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken"

August 9: John Cameron Mitchell's hilarious rock opera "Hedwig and the Angry Inch"

August 16: Peter Jackson's deliriously bloody zombie film "Dead Alive"

August 23: Gus Van Sant's breakout film "Drugstore Cowboy" (you can probably see some of the spots where it was shot from that rooftop!)

August 30: The great 1964 concert film "The T. A. M. I. Show," featuring James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Ike and Tina Turner, and the very young Rolling Stones.

All shows start at sundown.  Full info will be available later in the year at the Northwest Film Center's web site.

This week’s last-chance movies: ‘The Raid: Redemption,’ ‘We Need to Talk About Kevin,’ and more

April 25, 2012 /

Catch 'em while you can!

The Raid redemption dreadlocks.jpg"The Raid: Redemption"
Two of the absolute must-see films of the year are in their final two days in Portland-area theaters, so consider yourselves warned.  "The Raid: Redemption" is a stunning, pedal-to-the-floor action film from Indonesia.  "We Need to Talk About Kevin" is a blistering and artful drama about a mother dealing with her son's horrible misdeeds.  Two other films -- the Navy SEAL shoot-em-up "Act of Valor" and the New Zealand coming-of-age story "Boy" -- are also leaving, but "Raid" and "Kevin" are BY FAR the priorities.  DO NOT MISS THEM.

Movies: the full ‘Marley,’ a ‘Lucky’ romance, a sweet ‘Salt’ and more

April 20, 2012 /

Reviews of this week's new releases from today's A&E.

Marley 2.jpgBob Marley from "Marley"
Light week at the movies.  We've got reviews of the epic-scale biographical documentary "Marley," the Zac Efron love story "The Lucky One," the Italian slice-of-romance comedy "The Salt of Life," and, off the wire, the nature documentary "Chimpanzee." And, as ever, no matter the weather, "Also Opening," "Indie/Arthouse" and "Levy's High Five."

Invasion of the ‘Trannysnatchers,’ the battles of the ‘Monday Knights,’ a clean ‘Getaway’ and more

April 20, 2012 /

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

The Monday Knights.jpg"The Monday Knights"
“The Banff Mountain Film Festival” Selected outdoor adventure films from the annual Canadian festival.  (Bagdad Theater, Tuesday through Thursday only)

“The Bus” Documentary about the history of the icon Volkswagen Bus.  (Hollywood Theatre, Wednesday only)  

“The Getaway” Sam Peckinpah’s 1972 adaptation of the Jim Thompson crime novel, with Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw.  (Laurelhurst)  

“The Greater Good” Documentary about the controversy and doubts surrounding childhood vaccines.  (Cinema 21, Saturday only)  

“Happy Together” Wong Kar-Wai’s intoxicating 1997 romance, with Leslie Cheung and Tony Leung.  (5th Avenue Cinema,  Friday through Sunday only)  

“King Kong vs. Godzilla” Whattayaneed, a road map? An ape and radioactive lizard go at it in a 1962 Japanese film.  (Hollywood Theatre, Tuesday only)  

“The Monday Knights” Made-in-Portland web series about a group of friends who are very into their role-playing fantasy game lives.  (Hollywood Theatre, Saturday only)  

“Rock ‘n’ Roll High School” The Ramones ‘star’ in the immortal 1979 B-movie, revived by Jackpot Records in celebration of Record Store Day.  (Bagdad, Friday and Saturday only)  

“To the Arctic” Documentary about the frozen north and the creatures who call it home (OMNIMAX at OMSI) 

“Trannysnatchers!” World premiere of a made-in-Portland horror comedy.  (Hollywood Theatre,  Friday only)  



Levy’s High Five, April 20 – 26

April 19, 2012 /

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

The Cabin in the Woods lab.jpg"The Cabin in the Woods"
1) “We Need to Talk About Kevin” Lionel Shriver’s novel about a mother dealing with the emotional repercussions of her son’s homicidal schoolhouse rampage becomes a devastating tour de force for director Lynne Ramsay (“Morven Callar,” “Ratcatcher”) and stars Tilda Swinton (as the mom), Ezra Miller and Jasper Newell (as the boy at different ages).  It’s colorful, musical, airtight, horrifying and staggeringly vivid.  You’re reminded of how humanity has made art of the most awful events -- from Greek tragedy through “Schindler’s List” -- and how a masterful filmmaker can mold a transforming experience out of utterly dire material. Deeply disturbing, deeply beautiful, deeply compelling. Fox Tower

2) “The Raid: Redemption” An ultra-violent, wildly kinetic martial arts film that virtually strips itself of the narrative conventions of plot, theme and characterization to create a white-knuckle thrill ride.  Writer-director Gareth Evans, a Welshman living in Indonesia, takes the simplest story -- a squad of cops attacks a Jakarta apartment house where a crime lord is ensconced -- and uses it to string together wild action sequences that leave the viewer as exhausted as if he or she had fought them.  His stars -- Iko Uwais as a baby-faced cop and Yayan Ruhian (who also choreographed) as a stringy-haired bad guy -- are dazzling.  The whole thing is pure cinema: the human body rendered as a machine capable of mayhem, daring, and, yes, grace. multiple locations

3) “Bully” An emotionally overwhelming documentaries about threads of violence in our social fabric.  Focusing on five or children who’ve been tormented and abused by schoolmates, two so relentlessly that they took their own lives, documentarian Lee Hirsch advocates without the use of any talking heads, statistics or editorial posturing.  Rather, his film actually depicts everyday acts of bullying and -- worse -- the ineffective and even hurtful responses of school authorities.  At times, the pity, outrage and empathy the evokes threaten to drown you.  But there’s a hint of light, too.  At moments you might feel slightly manipulated.  But when you look into the eyes of two fathers whose sons killed themselves rather than continue to be bullied, quibbles about journalist practice vanish from your mind. Fox Tower

4) “Jiro Dreams of Sushi”  Jiro Ono is the owner of a Tokyo sushi bar with 10 seats and 3 Michelin stars, and David Gelb’s gorgeous and intimate documentary about the man and his obsession gives you an idea of how that can not only be so but be fitting.  Jiro and his two sons (bound to the chef’s apron strings, almost literally) devote untold hours of work and thought to the perfection of sushi-making, turning a sometimes makework form of cookery into indisputably high art.  At 85, the old master still works virtually every day, and the fruit of his focus is in servings of raw fish and warm rice photographed so lusciously that you can almost taste them.  A mouthwatering film:  literally.  Hollywood Theatre, Living Room Theaters

5) "The Cabin in the Woods" A slasher movie inside a horror movie of another sort inside yet another narrative, one which looks out and the audience and asks why they (that is, we) keep lining up to watch other people get slaughtered.  A group of college students head to the titular location for a weekend’s bacchanal, only to be preyed upon and killed in grisly fashion, as per the familiar genre rules.  At the same time, a group of bureaucrats/scientists in a control room manipulate the victims and their killers in the service of...something.  Director Drew Goddard and his co-writer Joss Whedon have fun in the vein of “Scream” and in the vein of “The Truman Show” -- and they come up with an intriguing theory to explain the allure of horror films as well as a (literal) hell of a climax. Bloody, funny, clever. multiple locations



‘Marley’ review: a full-bodied bio of an artist taken too soon

April 19, 2012 /

The reggae superstar is the subject of an epic documentary.

Marley.jpgBob Marley
It’s more than 30 years since Bob Marley died of cancer at the horribly young age of 36, and he has become more famous and influential in the decades since his passing than he ever was in his lifetime.

This point is made quite subtly and hearteningly at the very end of the documentary “Marley,” by Kevin Macdonald (who also directed “Touching the Void” and “One Day in September” and the dramatic feature “The Last King of Scotland”). After copiously detailing the life and times of his subject, Macdonald takes us on a journey to every continent of the planet to watch as a pied array of singers, professional and not, perform Marley’s “Get Up, Stand Up” and “One Love.”

Those two songs indicate nicely the range of Marley’s work and spirit:  He was at once a revolutionary outsider preaching fiery justice and a holy fool imploring humanity to embrace its best angels -- and always with great hooks and an infectiously tight band.  It’s no wonder that Marley’s image has taken on the same sort of universal currency as those of such diverse icons as Elvis Presley and Che Guevara:  he is both a musical lodestar and a symbol of political aspiration.  And his influence transcends borders, cultures and even generations in a way that very few artists have ever imagined.

The coda aside, “Marley” doesn’t track the impact of Marley as carefully as it does the days and deeds of the man.  The film is built around interviews with a stunning array of sources.  Marley’s mother, wife, children, lovers, bandmates, teachers, business associates, half-blood relations and so on all appear: a complete who’s-who of his life.  

There are chats with Marley himself, piles of photos and film clips (including cellphone-quality images of Marley and Stevie Wonder performing in 1975), tawdry and frightening headlines (an affair with Miss World, an assassination attempt), music biz intrigues, political tussles, family complications, and Kremlin-like maneuvers within his bands.  You learn about the rise of ska and reggae music, the roots and meanings of Rastafarianism, the political and cultural climate and history of Jamaica.  It’s a thoroughly satisfying, full-bodied portrait.

Marley’s life has been the subject of perhaps a half-dozen aborted feature film projects over the years, and this film gives us an idea of why:  there are almost too many irresistible tangents, compelling songs, and colorful characters.  “Marley” runs nearly two-and-a-half hours without having to establish dramatic characters or expand small incidents into structured scenes.  It may, finally, be the best and last word on the man, his music and his myth that we ever get on film -- an estimable achievement in itself.
    
(144 min., PG-13, Hollywood Theatre, Living Room Theaters) Grade: B-plus


Famed documentarian Barbara Kopple brings her latest film to town

April 19, 2012 /

The two-time Oscar-winner will present "A Force of Nature" in a benefit for POWFest

Barbara Kopple.jpgBarbara Kopple
As it has done in the past, POW Fest, the annual local event which punches well above its weight, is bringing a noted director to town to present a new work.  The festival, which is dedicated to films directed by women, will be presenting two-time Oscar-winning documentarian Barbara Kopple and her latest film, "A Force of Nature," a portrait of Ellen Ratner, the journalist, talk show figure and philanthropist.  The film will be presented on Friday, May 4 at the Hollywood Theatre, along with a chat with Kopple and Ratner and a screening of "Harlan County, USA," Kopple's unforgettable Academy Award-winning 1976 documentary about labor strife in a coal mining community in Kentucky.  The entire evening is a benefit for POW Fest, which is held annually in March.  Full information on how to see the film and attend a reception with the filmmakers can be found at the POW Fest web site.

This week’s last-chance movies: ‘Unfeated,’ ‘We Bought a Zoo,’ ‘Comic-con’ and more

April 18, 2012 /

Catch 'em while you can!

Undefeated.jpg"Undefeated"
Another Wednesday, another batch of worthwhile films packing their bags to leave town.  Today and tomorrow mark your final chances to see the following films on the big screen in Portland-area theaters:  "Undefeated," the superb Oscar-winning documentary about a Memphis, Tennesse, high school football team; "Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope," Morgan Spurlock's charming look at the annual assembly of freaks and geeks in San Diego; "Once Upon a Time in Anatolia," a haunting police drama from Turkey; and "We Bought a Zoo," Cameron Crowe's sweet and sentimental story of a family living through tragedy in unique fashion.  

Movies: a clever ‘Cabin,’ a heart-rending ‘Bully,’ fests of Jewish films and cycling movies, and more

April 13, 2012 /

Reviews of this week's new releases from today's A&E.

The Cabin in the Woods.jpg"The Cabin in the Woods"
Among the movie highlights this week are two signature annual events celebrating milestone anniversaries:  the Portland Jewish Film Festival, now in its 20th year, and Filmed by Bike, now in its 10th.  We've also got reviews of the sharp and surprise-filled horror movie "The Cabin in the Woods," the deeply moving documentary "Bully" and "Blue Like Jazz," a film about education and spirituality shot in Portland.  And, yes, the evergreens:  "Also Opening," "Indie/Arthouse" and "Levy's High Five."

Guy Pearce in space, Buster Keaton as ‘Sherlock,’ the return of ‘The Interrupters’ and more

April 13, 2012 /

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

Sherlock Jr.jpgBuster Keaton in "Sherlock Jr." (1924)
“Best of the Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival” In case you missed it last fall, here’s the pick of the crop from the region’s longest-running homegrown film fest.  (Northwest Film Center, Friday and Saturday only)

“Dreadnaught” Classic 1981 martial arts drama.  (Hollywood Theatre, Tuesday only)  

“Four Lovers” French romance about the ups and downs of two star-crossed couples.   (Living Room Theaters)  

“The Interrupters” Titanically good 2011 documentary about a group of former Chicago gang-bangers dedicated to eradicating the cancer of violence.  A must-see.   (Northwest Film Center, Wednesday only) 

"The Lady" Tedious account of the work and marriage of Nobel Prize winning Burmese democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi (Michelle Yeoh). (Fox Tower)

“Lockout” Sci-fi drama about Guy Pearce trying to rescue a kidnapped girl from a prison that orbits the Earth.  (multiple locations)  

“North by Northwest” Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 thriller is considered by some to be his most enduring work.  (5th Avenue Cinema,  Friday through Sunday only)  

“Political Science Theater 3000” An evening of current events and comedy, with political advertisements and other filmed object parsed by a panel of wiseacres. Sponsored by The Bus Project.  (Hollywood Theatre, Monday only)  

“Sherlock Jr.” Buster Keaton’s immortal 1924 film about a daydreaming film projectionist, presented with live musical accompaniment.   (Hollywood Theatre, Thursday only)  



Levy’s High Five, April 13 – 20

April 12, 2012 /

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

Interrupters -- ameena.jpg"The Interrupters"
1) “We Need to Talk About Kevin” Lionel Shriver’s novel about a mother dealing with the emotional repercussions of her son’s homicidal schoolhouse rampage becomes a devastating tour de force for director Lynne Ramsay (“Morven Callar,” “Ratcatcher”) and stars Tilda Swinton (as the mom), Ezra Miller and Jasper Newell (as the boy at different ages).  It’s colorful, musical, airtight, horrifying and staggeringly vivid.  You’re reminded of how humanity has made art of the most awful events -- from Greek tragedy through “Schindler’s List” -- and how a masterful filmmaker can mold a transforming experience out of utterly dire material. Deeply disturbing, deeply beautiful, deeply compelling. Fox Tower

2) “The Raid: Redemption” An ultra-violent, wildly kinetic martial arts film that virtually strips itself of the narrative conventions of plot, theme and characterization to create a white-knuckle thrill ride.  Writer-director Gareth Evans, a Welshman living in Indonesia, takes the simplest story -- a squad of cops attacks a Jakarta apartment house where a crime lord is ensconced -- and uses it to string together wild action sequences that leave the viewer as exhausted as if he or she had fought them.  His stars -- Iko Uwais as a baby-faced cop and Yayan Ruhian (who also choreographed) as a stringy-haired bad guy -- are dazzling.  The whole thing is pure cinema: the human body rendered as a machine capable of mayhem, daring, and, yes, grace. multiple locations

3) “Undefeated” In February, this film came out of nowhere, seemingly, to win the Oscar for best documentary feature, and that’s just about right for a movie about an impoverished Memphis high school football program willed into quality by the heart and will of a volunteer coach and his raggedy squad.  Bill Courtney, a white man who has succeeded in business sufficiently to dedicate himself to his passion, has given himself to the boys of Manassas High School for about six years, and he’s finally turned the perennial doormat team into genuine contenders.  With a college-bound superstar, an academic achiever who suffers a career-threatening injury, and a gifted hothead among the players, directors Daniel Lindsay and T. J. Martin have the stuff of gold on their hands, and they mine it tastefully, gracefully and movingly. Fox Tower

4) “Bully” and “The Interrupters” A pair of emotionally overwhelming documentaries about threads of violence in our social fabric.  “Bully” focuses on five or children who’ve been tormented and abused by schoolmates, two so relentlessly that they took their own lives.  It actually depicts the bullying and -- worse -- the ineffective response of school authorities.  At times, the pity, outrage and empathy it evokes threaten to drown you.  But there’s a hint of light, too.  “The Interrupters” is, incredibly, even more powerful.  It spends a year alongside a handful of former Chicago gang-bangers dedicated to quelling potentially violent incidents in their communities.  Intimate, terrifying, and real, it deflates you and gives you hope in turns.  “The Interrupters” plays Wednesday only at the Northwest Film Center. “Bully” plays a regular run at the Fox Tower.

5) “Jiro Dreams of Sushi”  Jiro Ono is the owner of a Tokyo sushi bar with 10 seats and 3 Michelin stars, and David Gelb’s gorgeous and intimate documentary about the man and his obsession gives you an idea of how that can not only be so but be fitting.  Jiro and his two sons (bound to the chef’s apron strings, almost literally) devote untold hours of work and thought to the perfection of sushi-making, turning a sometimes makework form of cookery into indisputably high art.  At 85, the old master still works virtually every day, and the fruit of his focus is in servings of raw fish and warm rice photographed so lusciously that you can almost taste them.  A mouthwatering film:  literally.  Hollywood Theatre, Living Room Theaters




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