Pick of the Week:
Nightmarewave: A Collection of Yugoslavian Animation.
Playing at the Clinton on April 23rd. “Sharply cynical, erotic, and focussing on themes of alienation and violence, animators employed a wide array of styles, often abstract and derived from modernist painting.” Sounds like date night to me!
Also Playing:
Miller’s Crossing (1990). Directed by Joel Coen. Starring Gabriel Byrne, Marcia Gay Harden, John Turturro.
Playing at Cinema 21 on April 19th. One of the Coen’s best films! It’s a contemplative crime drama about a floating hat.
This Week:
The Long Goodbye opens for a run at the Academy. It’s about a mumble-mouthed weirdo/man out of time trying to feed his cat and solve a mystery. What’s not to like?
At 5th Avenue Theater this weekend: Atonement plays this weekend. What is it, Joe Wright month in Portland?
At the Academy:
Pride and Prejudice (2005 version) opens for a run. Joe Wright strikes again!
The Big Sleep opens for a run. Bogart! Bacall! The classic film noir that Faulkner had a hand in adapting. It’s great, go see it.
Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure plays this week. A bodacious 90 minutes at the theater.
At Cinema 21:
The Fly plays on April 18th. “Cronenberg's most romantic and disgusting film!” It’s wonderful.
At Cinemagic:
Redline, Weathering with You, and Ghost in the Shell are all playing as part of an anime series. I mean, it would be nice if there was some connection between these movies other than being anime. It’s like if I had a series of live action films and picked three out of a hat (Clue, Behind the Green Door, The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station—is this why I’m not a film programmer?).
The Miami Connection plays on the 18th and 21st which seems to be about ninjas who play rock music and/or rock musicians who are ninjas. I am betting that cocaine is involved as well.
As Tears go By plays on the 23rd, which is friend of the newsletter Wong Kar-wai’s first film and a neat crime thriller that was inspired by Mean Streets and has Maggie Cheung in it!
At the Clinton:
Purple Rain plays on April 18th. “Pre-show Prince video show curated by Cult Sensation. All proceeds from this screening go to benefit local film programmer/drag star Violet Hex and will help her pay off recent unexpected medical debt.” It’s fun! Go see this!
Robin Hood, the sexy fox version, finally plays on April 19th.
Phantom of the Opera plays on April 20th with The Invincible Czars performing! I hope we can see them as they play! (sorry).
The Tune plays on April 22nd. Hey, this is a rare screening of Bill Plympton’s film, if you are into that sort of thing.
Do you have 4th of July plans? WELL YOU DO NOW! Revolutions Per Movie is back at the Clinton with Julie Klausner on July 5th. They will be screening Raquel Welch’s special which promises to be an erotic journey. I GOT MY TICKET, GET YOURS.
At the Echo Theater:
Our pals at the Rocky Horror Lavender show are doing a shadowcast of Reefer Madness (the musical) on April 19th. WHY THAT’S TOMORROW! GET YOURSELF A TICKET NOW.
At the Hollywood this week:
The Circus (the Charlie Chaplin film and not about the clowns in the government!) plays on April 19th. There will be pipe organ accompaniment.
The great Steve Martin movie L.A. Story plays on April 21st. A basic cable classic.
In Heaven, a David Lynch retrospective starts. A lot of these films are sold out but they’re all good. Elephant Man and The Straight Story don’t screen often so for sure go see those.
Check the Joy Cinema’s website! Who knows what wacky films they’ll play next.
At the Kiggins:
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari plays on April 23rd. The silent film that launched a million Tim Burtons.
The Portland Panorama Film Festival continues. Go see something that sounds neat! Support independent film.
At Omsi:
It’s the annual sci-fi festival!
This week: The Fifth Element, Ready Player One, Super 8, Midnight Special, Terminator 1, 2, The Iron Giant, A Scanner Darkly, Gattaca, Mad Max: Fury Road. Phew. Some good ones in there. I can’t remember if Midnight Special was any good but these movies are all decent. I mean, except for Ready Player One.
At the Tomorrow Theater:
On April 20th Dazed and Confused plays on…4/20… and it’s a crafternoon? The movie is great but watching it on an airplane would be more pleasant.
Human Highway (1982). Directed by Bernard Shakey and Dean Stockwell. Starring Russell Tamblyn, Dean Stockwell, Devo.
I want to be perfectly clear here: Human Highway is not a good movie and I am not suggesting that you watch it. I have had a 20 year, or so, obsession with it. I recently purchased (yes, Neil Young will just SELL this to you!) the director’s cut which is 80 minutes long, shorter than the previously released versions of the movie. If they cut another 80 minutes out the film will be perfect!
This is a Neil Young vanity project where he spent 2 - 3 million of his own dollars, brought Devo to Hollywood, and filmed a movie about a nuclear holocaust that takes place at a gas station (with a 20 minute dream sequence where Neil’s character becomes a famous musician who makes music by clanging wrenches). Dennis Hopper was so zooted out of his mind that he severed one of Sally Kirkland’s tendons. As someone who has severed a tendon this is not fun.
Nobody fails in a more interesting way than Neil Young, like I listen to his electric car album regularly. Granted, there is something wrong with me but it keeps me out of trouble. This movie has some secret successes. It brought Devo to Hollywood, and it sort of created the Pee-wee’s Playhouse aesthetic. There’s a really good version of “My My Hey Hey” here that Booji boy sings. Neil also plays someone I would describe as Urkel-like. Does that count as a success? Uh…
I’m going to stop now because if I don’t I never will. I don’t think you can watch this movie anywhere, it seems to have been scrubbed from streaming services, but Movie Madness should have a copy. You can watch the trailer here. For a long time the only way I had to watch it was a pirated version of the laserdisc. I now own it on VHS and Bluray. Anyway, if you want to come over and watch it all you have to do is ask!
The tip jar is open. Please. I clearly need a more expensive therapist.