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David Cronenberg says he hasn’t necessarily abandoned horror or sci-fi

August 14, 2012 /

The director of "A History of Violence," "Eastern Promises" and the upcoming "Cosmopolis" says that he may still have some fantasy films in him.

DAvid Cronenberg -- semi profile.jpgDavid Cronenberg

For the first decade or so of his career, the Canadian writer-director David Cronenberg was a master of idiosyncratic horror and science-fiction films, whipping up the remarkable likes of "Scanners," "The Fly," "Videodrome" and "Naked Lunch."  But if you looked at his more recent output -- "A History of Violence," "Eastern Promises," "A Dangerous Method" and his new film, "Cosmopolis," which opens in Portland on August 24 -- you would think he had foresworn his genre root for other avenues.

Not so he told me in a recent telephone interview.  Asked outright if he considered that he had completely left behind fantastical filmmaking, Cronenberg replied:

I've never felt that I was only a director of sci-fi or horror. "Dead Ringers," which was 1988, was based on two real guys.  "M. Butterfly" was based on a real guy.  And "Spider" was not exactly fantastical. It was a sketch of schizophrenia as seen from the inside.  So I've done that.   And the flip side of that is that I have not turned my back on any genre filmmaking.  After all, "A History of Violence"and "Eastern Promises" are genre films. So I don't feel that I've ruled out anything.  If there was a great sci-fi concept, a great fantasy or horror film concept, that I felt was fresh and new and I could bring something to it, I wouldn't turn my back on it.

There was a lot more interesting stuff in our talk.  It will run in Sunday's Oregonian and appear online sometime Friday afternoon.

A very big little film festival rolls into Vancouver, USA

August 13, 2012 /

The Fifth Annual Columbia Gorge International Film Festival takes over downtown with hundreds of movies and associated events.

Shouting Secrets.jpgfrom "Shouting Secrets," the opening night film of the Fifth Columbia Gorge International Film Festival
A massive film festival will be held this week and weekend in Vancouver, WA, and it takes a bit of detective work to find it.  The Fifth Annual Columbia Gorge International Film Festival is an event featuring some 200+ films (at least 30 of which are feaure length) from something like 36 countries and 30 of these United States.  It features script review workshops, guest speakers, an animation showcase and informal parties to go along with the scores of screenings, and it occupies some eight venues in downtown Vancouver.  

It's about as big a movie event as you can imagine occurring in Vancouver, and it's a bit of a mystery.  Originally mounted as the Washougal International Film Festival, the CGIFF seems to be the brainchild of Washington filmmaker and actress Breven Angaelica Warren and her Angaelica arts foundation.  It's a massive undertaking, involving volunteers and, obviously, tons of prep work, but very little in the way of media outreach, which is why I keep speaking about it so obliquely.

The festival runs Wednesday, August 15 through Sunday, August 19, and I'm very eager to hear more about it from anyone who attends.  Drop a note here if you can remember to after seeing all those movies.

Big city movie woes don’t affect Portland’s indie film scene

August 11, 2012 /

In Portland, the cult of alternative moviegoing is thriving while it shrinks elsewhere in the country.

Oslo August 31.jpg"Oslo, August 31"
A recent blog post by my pal Boston Globe film critic Ty Burr should make you feel sad and a little smug.  In it, Burr notes that the distributors of the Norwegian film "Oslo, August 31," which has won accolades at festivals around the world (including Sundance), have declared that the film will not play in Boston, the 21st most populous city in the nation and home to thriving college communities and arts cultures.  

The problem, the distributors told Burr, is that there are very few art movie screens left in the city and the majority of them are controlled by Landmark Theaters, an arthouse chain based in Los Angeles.  Landmark claims that their Boston screens are being taken up by a couple of this summer's arthouse hits -- "Beasts of the Southern Wild" and "Moonrise Kingdom" -- and that they have too many films queued up to save a spot for "Oslo."

This is actually a common condition in many cities even bigger than Boston.  The independent theaters where art and revival movies thrived in an earlier era have vanished, or been gobbled up by corporate chains based elsewhere, and the variety of films available on a given night is considerably less than it might be.  There are, arguably, more movies in theatrical distribution today then ever, but in most cities there are fewer places than ever where that multitude of films can be seen.

Not so in Portland, where the urban core -- a circle with a radius stretching from, say, City Hall to (pointedly) the intersection of 43rd and NE Sandy -- is home to more screens dedicated to art, indie, alternative, foreign, and experimental film than to Hollywood blockbusters.  In that area, you find the independently owned/operated Northwest Film Center, Cinema 21,  Living Room Theaters, 5th Avenue Cinema, Mission Theater, Clinton Street Theater, Bagdad Theater,  Cinemagic Laurelhurst and, at the outer limits, the Hollywood Theatre, plus the Regal Fox Tower, the main corporate home of alternative movies in Portland.  All of those theaters almost always -- or at least regularly -- show stuff that's not in the multiplexes.  For that sort of fare in the same area, there are but three choices:  Regal's Pioneer Place multiplex and the two Regal multiplexes at the Lloyd Center.  I count 29 primarily indie screens and 24 mainstream screens.  I don't think there's another major American city where the downtown movie scene has a similar aspect.

That surplus of indie theaters in Portland has several implications.  For one, there are more screens to debut more films than most cities -- and that includes cities much bigger than Portland or Boston.  In any  week, the NFC, Cinema 21, Living Room, Clinton Street and Hollywood account for as many as a dozen premieres, some for a single night, most for a full week minimally.  As a result, and throwing in the annual film festivals that most often play at those theaters, Portland sees nearly 1000 new titles annually.  

Secondly, if an indie film does find an audience in Portland but has to move out of the theater where it debuted to make way for a new film, it has other screens to appear on, meaning it can stay in town for months.  Just last year, such films as "Cave of Forgotten Dreams," "Pina," "Drive," "The Guard" and "The Tree of Life" played in Portland for far longer than in other cities of any size simply because they were able to draw enough of an audience after months to make it worthwhile for the owners of various indie theaters in town to keep showing them.

The shame at the heart of Burr's story is that Boston once had the definitive alternative cinema scene in the country, with the famed Brattle, Coolidge Corner and Orson Welles theaters practically inventing the idea of the calendar movie house that mixed classic titles, new foreign releases and American indies on their schedules.  Now, sadly, that day seems to have passed the city by.  And, indeed, most other American cities as well.

It turns out that in movies, as in so many other things, tiny Portland has an embarrassment of riches to enjoy.

‘Bourne’ reborn, a scorched-earth ‘Campaign,’ a slow ‘Hara-Kiri’ and more

August 10, 2012 /

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

The Bourne Legacy 3.jpgJeremy Renner in "The Bourne Legacy"
A nicely varied selection for this getting-near-the-end-of-summer-movie-season weekend.  We've got reviews of Jeremy Renner as a spy in "The Bourne Legacy," Zach Galifianakis and Will Ferrell as political enemies in "The Campaign," Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones as long-marrieds in "Hope Springs," and the French World War II drama "La Rafle."  And you know we've got "Also Opening," "Indie/Arthouse," "Levy's High Five" and "Retro-a-Gogo."  Enjoy!

Levy’s High Five, August 10 – 16

August 9, 2012 /

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

Beasts of the Southern Wild"Beasts of the Southern Wild"

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

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

3) "The Bourne Legacy" A dense, slick and thrilling spy movie that's got as much brain power as brawn. Writer-director Tony Gilroy ("Michael Clayton") turns the trilogy of films about Jason Bourne into the story of Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner), another souped-up intelligence operative on the run from the secretive organizations which built him. The film cleverly integrates the story of the previous three, but stands alone as a gripping story about a man trying to extend the only life that he has come to know and depending on a geneticist (Rachel Weisz) and his own abilities to stay alive. From the complex narrative to the thrilling final half-hour, it's top shelf stuff. multiple locations

4) "The Story of Film: An Odyssey" Irish filmmaker Mark Cousins has gumption, all right. He has crafted a 15-hour tour through the century-plus of cinema, all over the world, filled with cranky opinions, beguiling finds, glimpses of forgotten history and interviews with accomplished masters. Starting with Edison and the Lumière brothers and ranging to the modern day, touching on all continents, this is an informative, enlightening and remarkably entertaining history, in the vein of Martin Scorsese's "A Personal Journey Through American Film." Cousin's epic screens throughout August in five three-hour chunks, starting this weekend. This week's bit deals with the rise of the Hollywood studio in the 1930s and the international explosion of vital cinema after World War II. Visit the Northwest Film Center, which is presenting, for full details.

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

‘The Bourne Legacy’ review: a spy — and a movie franchise — finds thrilling new life

August 9, 2012 /

A new star and a new plot line are grafted onto the hit film series, and the result is exhilarating.

The Bourne Legacy 2.jpgRachel Weisz and Jeremy Renner in "The Bourne Legacy"
“The Bourne Legacy” is an absolute crackerjack entertainment: smart, taut, sleek, tense and unrelenting -- an ideal action movie and a truly exemplary sequel.

Tony Gilroy, who wrote the first three “Bourne” films, co-writes here (with his brother, Dan) and directs, as he did on the superb “Michael Clayton” and the underrated “Duplicity.” And he pulls off several impressive feats.

For one, he manages to move the “Bourne” series away from its initial star, Matt Damon, to a new protagonist, Aaron Cross  (played by Jeremy Renner), in one of the most audacious and clever strategies I’ve ever seen.  A fair bit of “Legacy” actually overlaps with 2007’s “The Bourne Ultimatum” -- characters, plot lines, actual scenes -- so that, in effect, the new film dovetails into the old, creating a vivid sense of continuity.

Gilroy also expands his palate as director impressively, following Doug Liman, who launched the series, and Paul Greengrass, who made the energetic second and third entries, in mounting explosive and gripping action sequences. Lots of films ratchet up into non-stop kinetics in their final acts and lose coherence, both as storytelling and as cinema. “Legacy” maintains a very high level of craft and accomplishment in both, and Gilroy proves himself more capable of choreographing massive action sequences than a lot of folks who make them for a living.

Chiefly, though, “Legacy” places the “Bourne” movies on a par with the James Bond films as a franchise big and sturdy enough to absorb a change of protagonist without losing punch or momentum. The “Bourne”-iverse is more political, more human-scale, more vulnerable, and more paranoid than the world of Bond. But the films themselves are every bit as juicy and intense.

“Legacy” starts with two plot threads: Cross is out in the wilds of Alaska on a survival-course test that turns into something more than that while bureaucrats in Washington and New York confront the potential scandal that will hit them if Jason Bourne and his story become known.  

A decision is made to wipe out all of the operatives who, like Bourne and Cross, have been genetically altered into super-human agents. Cross survives and then, fearing that the physical and mental enhancements that turned him from a wounded simpleton to an ubermensch are temporary, makes his way to Maryland to track down the scientist (Rachel Weisz) who helped transform him.  All the while, cold-blooded governmental operators (led by Edward Norton and Stacy Keach), are trying to eradicate him and all evidence of the program in which he participated.

The script makes absolutely no concessions to explanation, prologue or backstory. If you don’t know exactly what’s going on at the start, you might never find out.  But that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it.  Just bear in mind that many, many bad guys -- some of them in elective office -- are out to kill off the one good guy, and you’ve got your bearings.  And after that, hold on for a heck of a ride.  The action sequences in Alaska, in a large house in Maryland, and in the streets and alleys of Manila are tremendous white-knuckle thrill rides.

Renner conveys human pathos beneath the potentially robotic veneer of the enhanced Cross, much as Damon infused Bourne with confusion and fear.  Especially compelling is a sequence in which, before his treatment, he’s a maimed dope agreeing to dangerous experimental treatment.  Weisz and Norton are sharp-minded and steely-willed on different sides of the chase, and there are appearances by a number of performers (including “Bourne” veterans Joan Allen, David Strathairn, Scott Glenn, and Albert Finney) who enrich the milieu and give weight to even the smallest moments.

There’s real fire in “Legacy,” but there’s human frailty and desperation, too, which is something that the Bond films have never had.  It doesn’t exactly offer lightness, and it can be exhausting to keep up with.  But there is no doubt that the “Bourne” series is in good hands or that the handoff from Jason Bourne to Aaron Cross has been successfully achieved.  The result is a newly revived spy movie franchise -- and the best big-budget action film of the summer.

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

‘The Campaign’ review: political animal planet

August 9, 2012 /

A crude comedy takes aim at the fallen state of American politics with scattershot results.

The Campaign.jpgZach Galifianakis and Will Ferrell in "The Campaign"
A fitfully funny mishmash of political satire and bawdy humor, “The Campaign” is an assault on the contemporary plagues of crooked electoral financing, issue-free political debate and credulous, sensationalist media.  Alas, it mixes its most damning barbs willy-nilly with frathouse humor and softens the whole thing with saccharine Hollywood storytelling.  The result is that some surprisingly biting commentary is lost amid predictable piffle.

Will Ferrell stars as Cam Brady, a smarmy Republican congressman whose professed values contrast starkly with his actual professional and personal lives. He’s running unopposed for a fifth term, but when a sex scandal hits, his financial backers, the billionaire Motch brothers (Dan Aykroyd and John Lithgow), decide to stake a darkhorse candidate against him.  They recruit Marty Huggins (Zach Galifianakis), a well-meaning weirdo who sees the campaign as a chance to do good for his hometown. Little does he know, though, that the Motch brothers have darker plans.

The Motches, of course, are meant to be the Koch brothers, who have financially backed the Tea Party and a variety of super PACs.  But this film barely lays a finger on them; Aykroyd and Lithgow are cardboard villains with less life in them than, oh, Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy in “Trading Places” (in which Aykroyd played, more or less, the Cam Brady character).

Similarly, the various attack ads and faux pas that the two candidates engage are occasionally hilarious (Ferrell and Galifianakis haven’t so resembled actual living humans in a screen comedy in years, which helps).  But wrapping the whole thing in a sentimental ending turns it into a fraud.  “The Campaign” might have been truly -- and appropriately -- scabrous in other hands; those of the “South Park” guys or Mike Judge, say.  But director Jay Roach and writers Shawn Harwell and Chris Henchy play it safe and down the middle.  No actual political contributors or candidates need fear harm.

(A final sidenote:  a truly despicable thing occurs throughout the film, namely the repeated use of CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer appearing as himself and reporting on the events of the script as if they were real.  He’s joined by others -- Chris Matthews and the “Morning Joe” gang from MSNBC, most often.  But Blitzer is supposed to be a serious journalist, not an opinion-monger.  He has no place in something like this -- or, more to the point, on the air afterwards as a trustworthy disseminator of facts.)
    
(90 min., R, multiple locations) Grade: B-minus


’48 Hour’ movies, a ‘Homegrown’ docs fest, a comic ‘Finger’ and more

August 9, 2012 /

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

FAt Bald Short Man.pngView full sizefrom "Fat, Bald, Short Man"
“Dead Alive” Peter Jackson’s hilariously bloody 1992 zombie movie, screening outdoors under the stars.  (Northwest Film Center, Thursday only)  

“An Evening with Leif Peterson” The Portland experimental filmmaker shares two new works which restage Bible stories in varied historical settings.  (Northwest Film Center, Sunday only)  

“Excalibur” John Boorman’s terrific Arthurian adventure film, with, among others, Nicol Williamson, Helen Mirren and Liam Neeson.  (Laurelhurst Theater)   

“Fat, Bald, Short Man” Feature-length animated film from Columbia about the life and times of a beleaguered office worker.  (Northwest Film Center, Wednesday only)

“The Finger” Black comedy about the coming of democratic reform to provincial Argentina.  (Northwest Film Center, Tuesday only)

“48 Hour Film Project” Two nights of screenings featuring films made during the annual hurry-up-and-shoot filmmaking contest.  (Hollywood Theatre, Wednesday and Thursday only)  

“Homegrown DocFest” A night of locally made nonfiction films sponsored by the folks at NW Documentary.  (Mission Theater, Friday only)  

“Strange Days” Kathryn Bigelow’s creepy depiction of the perils of interconnectivity still resonates long after Y2K has passed.  (5th Avenue Cinema, Friday through Sunday only)  


‘Hara-Kiri’ review: tale of samurai honor played as a slow burn

August 8, 2012 /

Takashi Miike's 3-D samurai movie is darker and slower than you might hope.

Hara Kiri.jpgEbizo Ichikawa in "Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai"
Peacetime in feudal Japan means little work for samurai, and various ronin -- samurai without masters -- have begun to show up at great houses to request honorable places to commit suicide.  

Many of these desperate fellows are dead serious. Others, though, hope to be offered jobs, or just a meal and some pocket money.  These ‘suicide-bluffs’ have become a scourge, and when a bedraggled samurai shows up at the house of Lord Ii to request the honor of killing himself there, he is warned away by the story of the fate imposed on another man who made the same request in bad faith.  And he, in turn, has a story to tell.

This is the plot of Takashi Miike’s “Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai,” based on a 1962 movie, “Harakiri,” which was, in turn, based on a novel by Yasuhiko Takiguchi. Unlike previous Miike films, such as “Audition” and, especially, “13 Assassins,” “Hara-Kiri” is low on blood and shock, emphasizing performance and atmosphere.

That can be a positive, in that Ebizo Ichikawa brings a rich sense of dignity, pain and quiet fury to his role as the desperate samurai.  But much of the power the dark, looming, poignant air of the film is lost in the 3-D in which Miike shoots it and the dark glasses the technology requires.  That, combined with the deliberately slow pace, make the somber “Hara-Kiri” drag when it really ought to kick.
    
(125 min., unrated, probably PG-13, Living Room Theaters) Grade: B-minus


This week’s last-chance movies: ‘A Cat in Paris,’ ‘Klown,’ ‘Extraterrestrial’ and more

August 8, 2012 /

Catch 'em while you can.

A Cat in Paris "A Cat in Paris"
Three international films worth catching are on their way out of town come late Thursday night:  the Oscar-nominated animated feature "A Cat in Paris"; the Danish rude boy comedy "Klown"; and the Spanish alien invasion comedy "Extraterrestrial."  Also departing is the quite awful "Red Lights," which was made in Spain and stars Robert De Niro and Sigourney Weaver.  So if you can only see three of these, well....

Retro-a-gogo: classic films on Portland screens, August 10 – 16

August 8, 2012 /

Everything old is new again.

Dead Alive poster.jpgView full size
"An American Werewolf in London" The classic 1981 backpacker-turns-lycanthrope movie.  (Joy Cinema, Friday through Sunday only)

"Dead Alive" Peter Jackson's jaw- (and guts-) dropping 1992 zombie movie outdoors under the stars. (Northwest Film Center, Thursday August 16 only)

"Excalibur" Also from 1981, John Boorman's epic tale of King Arthur, Sir Lancelot, et al, with, among others, Nicol Williamson, Liam Neeson and Helen Mirren. (Laurelhurst)

"Strange Days" Katheryn Bigelow's 1995 dystopian vision of a world beset with invasive technology, starring Ralph Fiennes and Angela Bassett. (5th Avenue Cinema, Friday through Sunday only)

"The Sun Legend of the End of the Tokugawa Era" A celebration of the centennial of Japan's Nikkatsu studio begins with this 1957 comedy about a man who has to pay off a debt by working in a brothel. (Northwest Film Center, Saturday only)
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