FILM SHORTS
“I LOVE THIS FILM!
It is a story that will steal your heart.” – Cindy Meehl, Director of BUCK
“FASCINATING.” – NEW YORK MAGAZINE
“WONDERFUL.” – NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
BACHELORETTE ARBITRAGE See review this issue. Various Theaters.
BACHELORETTE Plus-size Becky (Rebel Wilson), who suffered the unfortunate high school nickname of “Pig Face,” has grown up and met the handsome man she’s now planning to marry. To fill out her bridal party, she calls up her oldest and most terrible girlfriends, the “B Faces,” as they, too, were collectively known in school. Regan (Kirsten Dunst) is the tight-lipped overachiever, Katie (Isla Fisher) is the bubbly airhead, and Gena (Lizzy Caplan) is the self-hating stoner. The one thing they have in common is they are all terrible, terrible friends to Becky (reminder: They called her Pig Face), yet somehow they’re all hell-bent on pretending otherwise. It’s hard to resist seeing how raunchy Bachelorette is willing go: As unlikable as its characters are, the plot is rarely uneventful, even if the entire film probably significantly sets back the welfare of womanhood. Comparisons to Bridesmaids are inevitable, but the salient difference between them is that Bridesmaids had heart and believability in its relationships, while nobody would ever actually want to be friends with anyone in Bachelorette—to the vast relief of brides everywhere. MARJORIE SKINNER Hollywood Theatre.
★ BRANDED TO KILL 1967’s yakuza flick, screening in conjunction with Floating World Comics’ yakuza-inspired art show, “Battles without Honor or Humanity.” More info: floatingworldcomics.com. Hollywood Theatre.
THE CAMINO DOCUMENTARY A work-in-progress screening of a locally produced film about those hiking Spain’s “ancient pilgrim path,” the Camino de Santiago. Director in attendance. Northwest Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium.
CLUE Fun Fact™! Among Mormon high school drama kids in Salt Lake City, Utah, this film is a huge hit! HOLDING HANDS WITH ANYONE OF THE OPPOSITE OR SAME GENDER DURING SUCH SCREENINGS IS FORBIDDEN. Laurelhurst Theater.
THE COLD LIGHT OF DAY A Bruce Willis action flick that wasn’t screened for critics. Hell, they didn’t even tell critics it existed. So yeah. Maybe skip this one. Various Theaters.
★ DANGEROUS DESIRES:
FILM NOIR CLASSICS
See Film, this issue. Northwest Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium.
DREAMS OF A LIFE A drama-documentary inspired by the life and death of Joyce Carol Vincent—a Londoner who died in her flat in 2003, but whose body wasn’t discovered for three years. Clinton Street Theater.
AN EVENING WITH MAUREEN SELWOOD Animator Maureen Selwood, the judge for this fall’s Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival, presents some of her work. Director in attendance. Northwest Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium.
FILMUSIK
1928’s West of Zanzibar, starring Lon Chaney, with a live soundtrack and voiceover. Hollywood Theatre.
FINDING NEMO 3D
Hey, it’s Finding Nemo! Except now it costs more! Various Theaters.
100 DAYS. 100 PEOPLE. 100 MUSTANGS.
★ KUNG FU THEATER Old-school kung fu on 35 mm! Up this week: The Crippled Avengers, which is not really anything at all like The Avengers. Hollywood Theatre.
STARTS FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14
POTTY TALK A 25-minute-long screening of the web series, followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers. More info: pottytalkpdx. com. Clinton Street Theater.
Portland’s Historic non-Profit tHeatre
QUEEN: LIVE IN BUDAPEST ’86
Queen. Live in Budapest. In 1986... the same year Highlander came out. “Here we are, born to be kings/ We’re the princes of the universe...!” Living Room Theaters.
★ THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES Documentarian Lauren Greenfield got career-definingly lucky with The Queen of Versailles. When she began making a movie about the construction of the largest house in America—a 90,000-square-foot monstrosity designed by time-share mogul David Siegel and his wife Jackie—Greenfield inadvertently secured herself a frontrow seat to the Siegels’ plunge from mindless excess to fiscal uncertainty when the financial crisis wiped out most of David’s assets. As head of the world’s most successful time-share operation, David made his fortune selling poor people the illusion of wealth, two weeks a year at a time. As his son puts it, “Everyone wants to be rich. If they can’t be rich, the next best thing is to feel rich.” And the third best thing is to watch tacky rich people lose all their money and have to put their kids in public school. ALISON HALLETT Laurelhurst Theater.
LIVING ROOM® THEATERS 341 SW Tenth Avenue Portland (971) 222-2010
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AE: (circle one:) Artist: (circle one:) Angela Maria Josh Aurelio Heather Staci Freelance 2EVENT HOTLINE: 4122 NE SaNdy BoulEvard (503) 493-1128 Tim McCool Emmett Jay Steve Philip
ThE hollyWood ThEaTrE NoW SErvES BEEr & WiNE. all agES STill adMiTTEd!
Deadline:
Confirmation #:
A 35 mm pRiNT oF AKiRA KURosAwA’s
This is the fifth Resident Evil film; for the fifth time, Milla Jovovich is gonna fuck up some zombies. It did not screen for critics. Weird. Various Theaters.
SEVEN SAMURAI
★ ROBOT AND FRANK Grumpy ex-con Frank (Frank Langella) is old, tired, and starting to lose his memory. So his son buys him a robotic “health care aide” who’s programmed to monitor and improve Frank’s physical and mental health. The robot takes out the trash, goes grocery shopping, and keeps Frank company. Frank hates the robot... until, thinking back on his days as a cat burglar, he realizes he might be able to trick the robot into helping him pull off a heist. A goofy plot twist or two aside, Robot and Frank is phenomenal—funny and sad and kind and weird and insightful. It’s one of my favorite movies I’ve seen in a long time. ERIK HENRIKSEN Fox Tower 10.
KUNG FU THEATER PrESENTS ThE oNly KNoWN 35mm PriNT oF
RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION
★ SLEEPWALK WITH ME Turn on NPR and you’ll hear an example: “Real people” telling “true stories” are everywhere these days. Stand-up comedian Mike Birbiglia is a real person who has a true story about his career in comedy, ending a relationship, and a sleep disorder, and he’s gotten pretty good at telling it: First in a one-man show, then a book, and now the gently endearing film Sleepwalk with Me, co-written with storytelling high priest Ira Glass. Describing a story as “true” suggests there’s only one way to tell it, but if this mild little comedy has a moral, it’s this: Even a true story is changed in the telling. The best we can do is to tell our stories honestly and well. ALISON HALLETT Cinema 21, Kiggins Theatre.
sATURDAY sEpTEmbER 15 – moNDAY sEpTEmbER 17
CriPPlEd avENgErS TUEsDAY sEpTEmbER 18 · 7:30 pm
See the Mercury movie section for showtimes, and visit our NEW website
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News. MP3s. sNark.
SPORTS, LEISURE, AND VIDEOTAPE
See My, What a Busy Week!, pg. 24. Hollywood Theatre.
WILD HORSE, WILD RIDE A not-screened-for-critics doc about the Extreme Mustang Makeover Challenge and people who really, really like horses. Living Room Theaters.
★ MEANS WE RECOMMEND IT. THEATER LOCATIONS ARE ACCURATE FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 14-THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 20, UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED. FILM TIMES AND SHORTS ARE ALSO AVAILABLE AT PORTLANDMERCURY.COM.
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Now Playing at endhits.portlandmercury.com
September 13, 2012 Portland Mercury 51
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