Now Playing
Pick of the Week:
Dragon Inn (1967). Directed by King Hu. Starring Lingfeng Shangguan, Chun Shih, Ying Bai.
Opening for a run at the Academy this week. This is the classic martial arts film that’s been remade at least three times and is usually in the running for “best film from Taiwan.” It’s great and very influential. It’s a Wuxia film, which is a sort of historical fantasy genre in China. This movie is great, famous, and you don’t see it play around here that much. Go see it!
Also Playing:
The Ghost Cat and the Mysterious Shamisen (1938). Directed by Kiyohiko Ushihara. Starring Tokusaburô Arashi, Shinpachirô Asaka, Yaeko Asano.
Playing at the Clinton on Nov. 6th from Church of Film. It’s a rare Japanese horror film about a ghost cat! Sumiko Suzuki was famous for starring in a bunch of films that involved ghost cats. It’s got great special effects from the 30s and looks creepy and fun as hell.
This Week:
Double Indemnity opens for a run at the Academy, see. It’s the classic noir, see, about insurance fraud and murder, see? There’s a dame out to kill, see? It doesn’t play that often in theaters here so it’s worth checking out! I bet most of us have only seen it on TV, see?
At 5th Avenue Cinema: White Riot plays this weekend is a documentary about a music subculture fighting back against Nazis in the 70s, something that is always relevant. There’s a focus on The Clash.
At the Academy this week:
Being John Malkovich opens for a run. It’s Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze’s surreal late 90s comedy about finding a door that goes into a man’s head. For my generation, The Silent Generation, this was important because it taught us that working was always going to be stupid and absurd. See you on the 13 1/2 floor!
At Cinema 21 this week:
The Fall continues by popular demand, again! Look, Lee Pace is handsome! We get it. You want to see handsome people in movies. I don’t have anymore jokes about this movie.
The Third Man plays on Nov. 2nd. Joseph Cotton! Orson Welles! A conspiracy of murder! A noir classic! An early afternoon movie? Sign me up.
At Cinemagic Godzilla Minus One stomps back into theaters in color and black and white with bonus content about how Godzilla uses method acting to find the space to act like such a monster.
At the Clinton:
That version of Nosferatu with Radiohead music plays on Nov. 2nd and I am all out of jokes about it. Nov. 2nd is my mother’s birthday so maybe you can call her to wish her a happy birthday? Her dirtbag kid is probably not calling.
Champs-Élysées Film Festival: Habibi, Chanson pour mes Ami.e.s plays on Nov. 3rd. This is a documentary that follows drag artists as they preform in La Flèche d’Or. It’s a special presentation from the Champs-Élysées Film Festival and the French department at PSU so PSU students get in for free. Zut alors!
Pack is Here plays on Nov. 7th. It’s a documentary about“five transgender roller derby players hip-check prejudice against trans athletes and show the world that they are right where they belong.”
At the Hollywood this week:
The Big Heat plays on Nov. 3rd. It’s the noir classic about crooked cops directed by Fritz Lang. Lee Marvin is in it—he’s got the kind of face they don’t make anymore.
Joe plays on Nov. 4th. It’s a rare print alert as Joe tries to help a businessman kill a bunch of hippies. Yeesh. It sounds Deathwish adjacent.
The Muleteer from the Portland Latin American Film Festival plays on Nov. 6th. “In 1930s Jalisco, Emilia, a daring teenage girl, ventures from the ranch where she grew up to find her biological father. Riding her horse through the mountains, where she pretends to be a young muleteer, she discovers a different world that leads her to find her destiny.” The director will be in attendance!
There’s a screening of work from Outside the Frame program participants on Nov. 7th. “About Outside the Frame:Outside the Frame trains homeless and marginalized youth to be directors of their own films and lives, providing a creative outlet, job skills, and a sense of dignity and possibility through filmmaking. Because if homeless youth can make films, they can do anything! You can find out more at outsidetheframe.org.”
At OMSI their Animation Film Festival runs through mid-November! You should pick something that looks neat and go see it!
Here’s what’s spitting out of the Tomorrow Theater algorithm this week:
Fire plays on Nov. 2nd where you can take some, uh, dance lessons in a movie theater. The perfect place to do so. The film sounds neat. It’s a mid-90s Bollywood drama that was one of the first Bollywood films to feature a lesbian relationship and caused a big uproar. Maybe it would be good to get into some of that and why this film is important?
Coco is playing on Nov. 3rd. This is the Pixar movie that people liked about a kid in the land of the dead. At least the activities fit the movie for this one?
We Are Fugazi From Washington,DC plays on Nov. 3rd. It’s about Fugazi! The band! From Washington DC. The band footage was all shot by fans so that’s neat. Tickets should only be like $5 bucks though.
And finally, at the Echo Theater on Nov. 9th the Rocky Horror Lavender Show presents Shock Treatment, the little screened sequel to the Rocky Horror Picture Show with a shadow cast performance, if you want to see the further adventures of Janet and Brad.
Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003). Directed by Tsai Ming-liang. Starring Lee Kang-sheng, Chen Shiang-chyi, Kiyonobu Mitamura.
This is about a movie theater that’s closing and they’re playing Dragon Inn at their final screening. A.O. Scott wrote “Goodbye, Dragon Inn has a quiet, cumulative magic, whose source is hard to identify. Its simple, meticulously composed frames are full of mystery and feeling; it's an action movie that stands perfectly still.”
It’s a moody and quiet film that involves ghosts, a woman sweeping up the theater, and a man trying to make a sexual encounter happen. There’s mystery and melancholy in every frame. I saw the restoration at the Hollywood a few years ago and loved it. It’s about longing! It’s about not getting what you want! It’s about ghosts watching movies they were in! Queer themes! Shots of dilapidated movie buildings! It’s very much a dream on film. Streaming and rentable in the usual places.
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