Recent Stories with tag movie

Regina Spektor's Live in London concert movie gets screened in just 15 U.S. cities this weekend, and the Northwest Film Forum is the Seattle venue, with just one showing on Sunday at 8 p.m. It's just $5, so if you missed her Paramount show--All night, between songs, it had been "Regina, I love you!", "Regina, I love you more than that first girl!", and a baritone howl of "Regina, I want to have your babies!" Spektor, in contrast, traveled imperturbably from song to song, though the "babies" brought her up short. "All tour," she said, "it's been babies. I guess...thanks?"--you can make up for lost time. The live album hits on November 22. Consequence of Sound has the track lists.

Who remembers 1983 anymore? Sandwiched uncomfortably between 1982 and 1984, it never really got the respect it deserved, even at the time. But if anything can sum up that year, I think it has to be Styx's concept album Kilroy Was Here. This is where that "domo arigato, Mr. Roboto" thing came from. And if you've ever thought to yourself, "Don't let it end," then the album has a track just for you.

Tonight at 8 p.m.--ah, one brief night only!--Northwest Film Forum is screening the concert documentary Kilroy Was Here, along with the short video the band created to get you up to speed on this futuristic war against rock, and the poofy-haired rebels who will give The Majority For Musical Morality the fight of their censorious lives.

Sadly, that was not the case for the actual band--one fan says the album "put the final nails in the coffin of Styx." From today's vantage point, we are in a rare position to appreciate the artistry of the work, which is why the Western Bridge Gallery's Eric Fredericksen will introduce the movie. Then--and only then--Styx will rock the night once more.

The Festival of New Spanish Cinema has returned to SIFF Cinema with a new catalog of eight films, showing from September 23 to 26. So you have to act quickly if you want to see them all; a full series pass is $40, which looks like a very good deal.

Actress Patricia Campo is to attend tonight's kickoff--there's a party afterward at Belltown’s Taberna del Alabardero, which I recommend if you like mingling with people who look like the hot extras from a Pedro Almodóvar film while stuffing yourself with paella and red wine. The Opening Night Fiesta ticket, $25 ($20 for SIFF members), includes the film The Island Inside and the after-party.

Dunia Ayaso and Félix Sabroso bring you the story of three siblings thrust into confronting life by the death of their father. Variety says this adds a new "emotional complexity" to the filmmakers' gift for comedy, which in turn means more Almodóvar comparisons.

Bill White gives you thumbnail reviews of the rest of the fest--quite a few of which zipped past earlier during SIFF. There's Garbo the Spy, about the true story of a double agent during World War II that Audrey says is "downright fun," and Stigmata, a morose fable about a man who wakes up with bleeding palms--it's a mood-altering, black-and-white pilgrimage for the viewer, too.

Making its Seattle debut is Me Too, which despite having Tambien in the title is not about two Mexican boys coming of age. Instead, it's about a man with Down Syndrome falling in love as an adult, and the difficulty society has taking him seriously as a sexual person. Pablo Pineda stars.

In December 2009, UW honor student Amanda Knox was convicted of murder and sexual assault in Perugia, Italy. The case has been at the center of a media circus since it took place, back in 2007, because it is simply too juicy to resist. Both Knox and the victim, British student Meredith Kercher, were young and attractive; rumors of sex and drugs abounded; and the Italian judicial system leaks like a chicken-wire canoe. Who could resist?

Certainly not Seattle-based writer Candace Dempsey, or any of the other half-dozen writers to publish books on the case. The UK's Channel 4, CBS's "48 Hours," and "Dateline NBC" have aired documentaries.  Magazines ranging from Newsweek to Vanity Fair have profiled the young woman dubbed "Angel Face," "Foxy Knoxy," and "Luciferina." And yet, there is no general consensus on whether or not she dunnit. Not even close.

Enter geekalicious pin-up Hayden Panettiere, a former soap-opera child actress whose wholesome blonde goodness on the TV show Heroes has lured a portion the science fiction fandom contingent away from reigning queen Summer Glau. Panettiere seems an odd choice for the role of Amanda Knox. Or, rather, the role seems an odd choice for Panettiere, whose star has only been rising over the past four years. Lifetime original movies are not exactly known for their power to vault actors to the pinnacles of celebrity, so why sign?... (more)

Phil Campbell

Filming around Seattle just now is the indie film Grassroots, described by its makers thusly: "A short-tempered, unemployed music critic who likes to dress as a polar bear thinks he can harness the power of the people to ride the monorail to political victory in Seattle."

Grassroots is based on a book called Zioncheck for President, by erstwhile alt-weekly reporter Phil Campbell. It's a hilarious, scarring, gadfly of a book built on the premise that all politics is local loco. Or maybe it's just that the people who decide to go into politics are "tetched" in some way to begin with.

Campbell contrasts his management of Grant Cogswell's ill-fated City Council campaign with the rise and all-too-literal fall of U.S. Rep. Marion Zioncheck, a Depression-era Washington state firebrand. Nothing is airbrushed out.

Campbell was at work at his day job in late 2006 when he got an email from his editor at Nation Books, saying that Stephen Gyllenhaal had read Zioncheck and was interested in making a movie from the book. After meeting up with Gyllenhaal at a hotel bar, Campbell signed away all the rights--"He can make the movie he wants. I didn't want to impose any restrictions on how so-and-so had to be portrayed, me or anyone else."

The movie's cast now includes Jason Biggs (American Pies), Lauren Ambrose (Six Feet Under), Cobie Smulders (How I Met Your Mother), Cedric the Entertainer (as Richard McIver), and Tom Arnold (as the bartender). Presumably Capitol Hill's cafes and bars--in which much campaign strategizing takes place--will play themselves.

Campbell himself is visiting town this week--he lives now in Brooklyn, and works in Manhattan--for an appearance at the Sorrento's Night School series with The Stranger's philosophical eminence Charles Mudede. It'll be a "discussion about capturing the spirit of time and place in both words and film," and Campbell will also read from his new satirical novel set in Memphis in the age of global warming. It's this Thursday, July 8, and doors open at 6:30 p.m. Admission is free, but you must RSVP to kerri.benecke@hotelsorrento.com.

Tell me a little about your new book....

• Hubble 3D plays at the Pacific Science Center's Boeing IMAX Theater through at least June 11.

How good could Hubble 3D be, I asked myself? I don't think I could have imagined it, beforehand. I just had a niggling interest in seeing those cool galactic photos on a big, big screen. But just think how good a film called something really sexy like Hubble has to be to win a weekend-average against the cineplex offerings. Which it did last weekend, says the Baltimore Sun:

...the best news may be that the highest per-screen average for last weekend ($9,146 per theater) belongs to Hubble 3D, Toni Myers’ eye-popping, mind-enlarging IMAX 3-D documentary about the final servicing mission to the Hubble orbiting space telescope.

That is the 43-minute story: After a brief introduction to telescopes (Hey, it's for the kids!), the film traces the life of the Hubble, from its initial launch into space, to the discovery of its blurred vision, and subsequent repair attempts...and more repair attempts. The "present day" takes up with NASA's final attempt to upgrade Hubble in 2009--and a 3D IMAX camera comes along for the ride.

You visit with astronauts prepping for the task in a 6-million gallon pool (that simulates weightlessness) containing a replica of a shuttle payload bay and the Hubble. It's like an outtake from The Abyss, but with better lighting. You're up on the gantry when the visibly worn Atlantis shuttle takes off. You watch from a camera outside the shuttle as the rocket boosters disengage and fall away. You suddenly develop vertigo during a 3D spacewalk; helmet cams show their tussle with a stuck bolt. Inside, it's like how many astronauts can you fit in a phone booth. Trips to the bathroom, an astronaut says, waggling a vacuum hose, rely on the power of suction.... (more)

"An hour-long parade of topless women," is the grabber DVD Verdict uses to get you into the review of LeGong: Dance of the Virgins, but it also says the 1935 film is "like a National Geographic photo spread come to life, replete with the gaudy temples, weather-worn faces, and vaguely erotic naked torsos. From historical, sociological, and ethnographic standpoints, the footage in this film is fascinating."

"Actually filmed in Bali," the movie poster assures you, by Marquis Henry de la Falaise. It was shot in two-color Technicolor. You wish the Paramount would have rounded up a gamelan orchestra, but it looks like the Paramount's Mighty Wurlitzer will be pressed into action, with Jim Riggs at the keyboard.

Trader Joe's Silent Movie Mondays begin at 7 p.m. (tickets are $12 adults/$9 students & seniors). After LeGong, the Silents of the South Seas brings Sadie Thompson and F. W. Murnau's Tabu, before closing up on March 29 with a collection of three Charlie Chaplin shorts.

Breaking Upwards Movie Trailer from Breaking Upwards on Vimeo.

Not since the Stanford Experiment has someone come up with such a jarring hypothetical "Now let's see what happens" scenario. In Breaking Upwards, director/actor Daryl Wein and actress Zoe Lister-Jones film their own break-up by degrees. Instead of quitting each other cold turkey, they take days "off" from their relationship. The results, not wholly unexpectedly, don't go according to plan. Film School Rejects gives the film, on the other hand, an A. High Times says it kicks the shit out of Garden State.

Tonight at 7 p.m., Breaking Upwards plays at Central Cinema, as part of STIFF Night for February. Pizza, beer, and a break-up movie: we've got your perfect Thursday night right here.

"Their Love Was a Flame That Destroyed!" was a tagline for The Postman Always Rings Twice. Remade  in '81 with Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange, it was the 1946 original with Lana Turner and John Garfield that set the standard for erotic thrillers to come.

The YouTube trailer, above (compare with the original trailer), updates the opening credits so you aren't fooled into thinking all classic black-and-white films feature wholesome glimpses of sleepy small towns. Some are about plotting to kill your husband.

Tomorrow, Sunday, February 21, SIFF presents Postman (1:30 p.m., 6 p.m.) in a double feature with John Garfield's last film, 1951's He Ran All the Way  (4 p.m., 8:30 p.m.). There's a small-time hood, a cop shooting, a manhunt, and Shelley Winters. The Guardian says, "It's a doom-laden movie, wonderfully lit by cinematographer James Wong Howe." Here's a clip.

Tonight only, at 8 p.m. at the Northwest Film Forum, For the Love of Movies is screening, with the director in attendance. If you can pry yourself away from the Olympics for 81 minutes, it sounds like a wonderful evening. Or so SFGate tells me.

Critic Gerald Peary has documented the history of film criticism in America as it heads--like just about every other field of criticism--into an online form whose future is still obscure. The film includes commentary from reviews such as Roger Ebert, Kenneth Turan, Lisa Schwarzbaum, and A.O. Scott, along with some "young, articulate, internet voices." 

On the history front, the high moments are likely to do with 1960s and '70s--that high-water mark of American cinema was accompanied by critics (Pauline Kael, Andrew Sarris) whose work is still read for its own literary merits.

Film editor Thelma Schoonmaker is at the Seattle Art Museum presenting I Know Where I'm Going! (tonight) and The Red Shoes (tomorrow) both by her late husband Michael Powell. Tickets are $10 general admission, $7 for SAM members. Showtime is 7:30 p.m. both evenings.

I Know Where I'm Going! follows a young British woman with a regimented lifeplan that gets derailed after her visit to a small Scottish town, while The Red Shoes is known for having turned a generation of little girls into pretend ballerinas. Of the two, I'd go to the first, but you've only got about two hours, so step on it.

For a more intimate meet-up with Schoonmaker, stop in at Scarecrow Video at 2 p.m. tomorrow. It's your chance to ask the three-time-Oscar winner if Marty will read your script (she's edited a whole shelf of Martin Scorsese films, including Raging Bull, The Aviator, The Departed and the upcoming Shutter Island).

We're in the Christmas homestretch, with New Year's on the way, which means that there's extra time to watch movies, either in the warm/suffocating bosom of your family or as far as possible in the opposite direction.

Luckily Hollywood, like a deranged mother, has given us everything we could possible want in a holiday theme, whether it's impossibly heart-warming or wonderfully black-hearted. Here are our top picks. If we've missed yours, please let us know in the comments. And keep in mind that our sponsor Scarecrow Video would be a great place to get any of the following:

Seth: The Apartment: They just don't make movies like this anymore. Billy Wilder's masterpiece about a schlubby office worker (Jack Lemmon) who meets the girl of his dreams (Shirley MacLaine) defies categorization. Where does Blockbuster put a comedy that contains a suicide attempt? Set during Christmas--if not exactly a "Christmas movie"--this is one of the best things you'll ever see, film-wise.

Tony: Gotta throw in the Strangeoid Quotient and give my nod(s) to Black Christmas, a sly and creepy 1974 chiller in which a shadowy killer picks off a group of sorority girls in their creepy old house: Margot Kidder makes a great nasty Queen Bitch Kitty, its ending twist predates the slasher spate of the late '70s/early '80s, and it's directed by (Six Degrees alert!) Bob Clark, director of A Christmas Story. Of course my all-time favorite is Santa Claus, a 1959 Mexican flick in which Santa operates from a City in the Clouds, scores wacky dust from Merlin the Magician, and runs afoul of Satan. It's a kid's movie!

Jeremy: It's cliche, but A Christmas Story. Come on! [SPOILER!] He actually shoots his eye out!

Josh: Arnaud Desplechin's Un conte de Noël is probably not the first DVD to grab for heartwarming times around the family DVD player, but it's depiction of a sprawling dysfunctional French family might just make your own relatives seem reassuringly quaint in comparison. Catherine Deneuve is the caustic matriarch with a recent cancer diagnosis, Mathieu Amalric is son who was only conceived to save a dying brother, Anne Consigny is the eldest sister who banished her brother in a questionable family business-saving legal maneuver. The film would be worthwhile for the guardedly tender insults that comprise almost all of Deneuve's conversations with Amalric, but there's also another brother, a friendly neighbor, plenty of long-suppressed romantic intrigue, a teen who hallucinates wolves, and adorable kids who put on an incomprehensible play. After spending five cinematic days with this bunch, you'll feel like a part of their extended clan. Whether you want to return to them or stay at the vacation house for the rest of the holiday may vary.

Don: Die Hard. Nothing brings home the concept of holidays being about family like defending them from terrorists using your wits and a clever, profane catch phrase. Also: things blow up and America wins.

Jack: Elf. [Which not coincidentally is playing right now at Central Cinema, through December 23!] No one could have played that role like Will Ferrell. Also, Zooey Deschanel is my girlfriend. My favorite scene is the one where Miles Finch (Peter Dinklage) attacks Buddy for calling him an elf over and over again: "He's an angry elf!"

Donte: Love Actually. Hugh Grant at his stammeringly charming best, surrounded by an ensemble cast (Bill Nighy, Liam Neeson, Emma Thompson, Colin Firth) portraying the many facets of love in holiday season London. "Chick flick" or no, this movie can calm anyone's inner Scrooge--the attractive cast doesn't hurt either. (Josh: For the record, there are those whose inner Scrooges are inflamed by Love Actually. Clint: Donte's right: Love Actually is wonderful.)

James: One of the funniest screwball comedies ever made ends with a Christmas miracle, which makes it as much a Christmas movie as its contemporary (and reigning Christmas movie king) It's a Wonderful Life (showing at the Grand Illusion through December 31st). What's the Miracle of Morgan's Creek? That would be telling, but small-town girl Trudy Kockenlocker needs one. Trudy winds up married to and pregnant by a soldier--possibly named "Ratzkiwatzki"--who ships out before she sobers up. Norval Jones, who's been infatuated with her for years, sacrifices every last shred of dignity to help her out, but the two of them end up buried under a madcap mudslide of bad decisions. Preston Sturges is a master of slapstick satire, and in Miracle he's working at top form (almost--The Lady Eve ain't a Christmas flick, but it's equally unmissable). George Bailey makes you weepy; the Kockenlockers clan make you weep with laughter.

Clint: Planes, Trains and Automobiles. (Thanksgiving counts, right?) Steve Martin + John Candy + R rating = Unforgettably awesome. The mismatched, accidentally-aligned duo attempts to get home for Thanksgiving and, yes, hilarity ensues. A great (refreshingly non-teen angst) movie to remember Candy ("I like me. My wife likes me.") and Hughes by. And there's Martin dropping 18 F-bombs in less than a minute. "I want a fucking car. Right. Fucking. Now." They don't make mature/silly comedies like this anymore.

RvO: The Ref is a bitter, caustic, profane and frequently hilarious holiday treat. Denis Leary is a thief on the run who kidnaps the hyper-bickering Kevin Spacey and Judy Davis and hides out in their lush suburban home on Christmas Eve. If you thought your family gatherings were dysfunctional, think again. Leary, who punches out Santa at one point, has never been better and Spacey is brilliant in a similar, but much better, role than his Oscar-winning turn in American Beauty. Or turn back the clock for Stalag 17, set in German POW camp during WWII. On Christmas Eve, officers in one of the barracks find out that they have a Nazi spy among their ranks who is tipping the guards to escape attempts. William Holden gives a brilliant performance as the cynical, hard-bitten Sgt. Sefton who is accused of being the spy. Magnificently directed by Billy Wilder, this tense, thrilling and award-winning film about deliverance at Christmas is a stunning tour-de-force.

MvB: Double feature! Scrooged with Holiday Inn. Bill Murray is an updated Scrooge, a gloriously cynical TV exec, and is joined by an outstanding cast including Bobcat Goldthwait, Carol Kane, Robert Mitchum, and Jamie Farr. He's so bitterly funny, you're sad to see Murray cheer up near the end. Holiday Inn is the ur-Christmas movie, starring Bing "White Christmas" Crosby and Fred Astaire. You should probably be wearing a sweater, vest, or sweater vest, and be sipping egg nog or a butterscotch schnapps/hot chocolate combo.... (more)

For one day only, the HDFest is in town at The SunBreak sponsor Central Cinema. (Round of applause!) Screenings will run all day tomorrow, December 6, from 1:30 to 10:30 p.m.

Tickets are just $10, but if you're among the first ten people to tell the box office, "The SunBreak sent me!" you get in free. How wonderful is that. That way you can spend that $10 you saved on pizza and beer, which will be delivered right to your table.

At the festival you'll see a variety of shorts and features shot in--wait for it--the high definition format all the kids are talking about. I am told the program includes the documentary film Down Days (shot in Haines, Alaska, it takes you inside the life of the big mountain extreme skier) and the U.S. premiere of the Scottish eco-thriller Dark Nature, along with animated shorts and music videos.

In theory there is more information at the HDFest website, but it's down as of my typing this. it's up again. Animated shorts come first (1:30-2:30), then music videos (2:45-4:15), then short films (4:30-6:00). Each of these showcases is $10, I think. At 6:15, it's a documentary on how to colonize the stars, and Down Days screens, followed by Dark Nature.

• HDFest runs Sunday, December 6, at Central Cinema, from 1:30 to 10:30 p.m. The first ten people to tell the box office, "The SunBreak sent me!" get in free. Otherwise, it's just $10.

Jenny Schwartz's "God's Ear," Washington Ensemble Theatre, 2008

This is the second in a three-part series on the design work of Etta Lilienthal; for Part One, follow this link, or for a gallery of her select work, click here.

"In film, it's actually that the whole world is your canvas," Etta Lilienthal told me as Victrola's timers beeped in the background and a bustling crowd swarmed around the espresso bar. "And sometimes when you're filming on location, you're dealing with houses and the sky and trees and grass, and it's very huge. And you can also get very, very detailed, more than you can get in theatre, ever."

Over the past few years, Lilienthal has done more and more film work. Her most notable work includes production design work on a pair of dramatically different movies: the Charles Mudede-penned Police Beat (2005) and Cthulhu, Grant Cogswell's 2007 adaptation, directed by Dan Gildark, of H.P. Lovecraft's 1931 novella The Shadow Over Innsmouth.

This isn't the place to recount the rather tragic tale of hubris and hopes crushed that was Cthulhu (Cogswell has already done that, for those interested), but for those who have seen the film, it is notable for the complexity and challenges presented by Lovecraft's surreal philosophical horror novel, and Lilienthal and I spent most of our time discussing it.

"When you do film, you sort of attack the locations and the built sets separately. Either you're on location at a space that you're dressing the set for, or you are building sets on a stage," she patiently explained. "And we actually had a space and we actually built several sets, so I was also dealing with carpenters and painters to get these what wound up being really amazing sets, but which took a very long time to do, and it was very sort of haphazard."... (more)

In the U.S., your chances of being struck by lightning are 1 in 280,000. The odds of winning the Washington Lotto are 1 in 6,991,908. So you're 25 times more likely to regret going out in that thunderstorm.

Opening October 30 at SIFF Cinema at McCaw Hall, the lightning-strike documentary Act of God (through November 5, tickets: $10) is directed Jennifer Baichwal, who earlier gave us Manufactured Landscapes. That may be enough to get plenty of you into the theater, but the movie's combination of sheer visual spectacle, heartbreak, and existential questioning makes it unique.

I'm not saying you can't miss it, but if you go, I think there's a good chance you'll be surprised at the intensity of your response. You leave the theater feeling a bit singed and hallucinating the smell of freshly formed ozone.

There's no narrator as such--Baichwal moves from interview to interview, with astonishing visuals of lightning strikes intercut with the series of "talking heads." Some have won this lottery-... (more)

Up until a few years ago, the zombie movie was looked down upon by the masses as Horror Cinema's thick-witted, bloody-jowled stepchild.

But no more. The sub-genre's now a beloved fixture of modern pop culture. Between George Romero's pioneering efforts on its behalf, and modern contributions like Shaun of the Dead and the turbocharged sorta-undead epic 28 Days Later, the zombie film has definitely shown legs. Not all of them have been ripped from bodies, either.

Hordes of the living dead (OK, enthusiastic horror nerds) converged on the Museum of History and Industry Saturday night for the 2009 Revenant Film Festival, a celebration of zombie cinema put on by the new plasma-pumping periodical on the block, Revenant magazine. And happily, those fans were greeted with independently-made features and shorts that provided plenty of gut-munching bang for the buck.

The most pleasant surprise of the night? The remarkably high quality of all of the film submissions.... (more)

A still from "Confessions of a Ex-Doofus-Itchyfooted Mutha"

Melvin Van Peebles makes movies his own damned way, thanks. So it’s no surprise that in his latest directorial effort, Confessions of a Ex-Doofus-Itchy-Footed Mutha (now that's a title), he wears his heart on his ragged sleeve. That distinctive passion and drive make Van Peebles’ new movie well worth checking out. (It screens at the Northwest Film Forum September 8 through the 14th.)

Confessions serves as sort of a kinder, gentler companion piece to his breakthrough guerilla mission statement, 1971’s Sweet Sweetback’s Badasssss Song. As in Sweetback, Van Peebles plays a character on a journey of flight and self-discovery.  This time, however, his protagonist finds escape from neighborhood bullies in the pages of travel books and gives in to a wanderlust that takes him through childhood in Chicago, young manhood in New York, drama on the high seas as a merchant marine, and danger at the epicenter of a militant... (more)