Summer movie season is officially here! The movies are back, they say. What terrible summer movie do you all want me to go see and write about?
And if you want to buy me a popcorn to support this work and my extravagant lifestyle please do! My dog will only eat Iberico ham.
Pick of the Week:
Warm Blood (2022) Directed by Rick Charnoski. Starring Haley Isaacson, Ryan Toothman, John Veit.
Playing at the Clinton on June 29th. This is a moody, scuzzy looking indie film about a teen runway searching for her drug-addled father. Plus it’s got a Kelly Reichardt connection so I’m there.
Also Playing:
Scarecrow in a Garden of Cucumbers (1972). Directed by Robert J. Kaplan. Starring Holly Woodlawn, Tally Brown, Suzanne Skillen.
From Church of Film and playing at the Clinton on July 3rd. From the Academy Museum’s website: “Directed by Robert J. Kaplan and starring Andy Warhol Factory superstar and Lou Reed muse Holly Woodlawn, this musical satire about a small-town girl (Woodlawn) trying to make it in the Big Apple was nearly a lost film.” It’s one of the first films centered on a transgender actor and promises raunch and Bette Midler. What else do you need?!
This Week:
The Birdcage is playing on June 30th at 3PM and 7PM at the Clinton. Not only is this movie delightful, but Mike Nichols brought Elaine May on to write the adaptation, which gave her career a jump start after Ishtar sank it. Elaine May made three perfect movies and one mediocre one and got put into movie jail. Also, I guess I’m just simping for the Clinton this week.
Queer 16 plays at the Clinton on July 2nd as the Nyback collection opens for a bunch of queer oddities on 16mm. These are always weird, fun, and unique so you should go see this. They promise: “vintage vignette of a trans woman, totally bonkers antique porn, and so much more!”
Celebrate July 4th at the Clinton with Bad Faith, a documentary about how Christian Nationalists are destroying our country.
Knife + Heart plays at the Clinton on June 28th. A gay porn producer tries to win her lover back with her most ambitious film to date, only to have her life turned upside down when an actor is murdered. With an M83 score? Why, this sounds like a WatchThisPDX classic.
Three rep films at the Academy:
Sleepaway Camp: a horror film with a complicated legacy grappling with queerness, violence, and some dubious filmmaking. Of course, it inspired four sequels and a lot of people like this one. I’m not a horror guy though!
Paper Moon: about depression era hustlers.
National Lampoon’s Vacation: about the terror of family vacations.
Cinemagic is playing four by David Fincher multiple times this week:
Fight Club: I can’t tell you what this one is about.*
Zodiac: about Ted Cruz’s father the Zodiac Killer.
The Killer: about a traveling hitman.
The Game: about a secret game for rich creeps.
Fincher is fine though, hardly “the most transgressive director of pop cinema.”
The 90s The Mummy plays at OMSI on June 28th with the sweetest phrase known to man: “No trailers will be shown prior to the film, movies will start promptly at the listed time.”
The Hub for Cultural Snackers is playing Swing Kids on June 29th with dance lessons beforehand and School of Rock on June 29th with a School of Rock performance beforehand. If those things sound like fun to you you should go! What’s next? Gummo and pasta making? Learning the legal ins and outs of how to purchase your own zoo and then watch We Bought a Zoo? A sensory deprivation tank experience before watching Altered States?
The Portland Film Festivals Indie Film series returns to the Kennedy School on July 2 with “two films centering on the voices of those with disabilities: Faye: An Interlude and feature film Sign the Show: Deaf Culture, Access & Entertainment”
Charlie’s Angels 2 plays at the Hollywood tonight. Everything about this movie screams 2003 so if you want to relive what it was like back then, mission accomplished!
The Portland EcoFilm festival returns to the Hollywoods on June 29th with Food Foray which “explores different cultures through the eyes of immigrant foodies.”
Creepy kids movie Return to Oz plays at Rooster Rock State Park from The Hollywood on June 29th. Look, the movie is fine but watching a movie outdoors is none of my business.
Gundam heads, Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt: December Sky + Bandit Flower plays on June 30th at the Hollywood.
It came from Japan plays on July 1st at the Hollywood. “It Came From Japan! Several episodes of Takusatsu madness from The 47th Cinema Archive, all on glorious 16mm film (roughly 90 minute running time).”
Zombie movie Return of the Living Dead plays at the Hollywood on July 3rd with a performance from The Turkey Necks, the Pacific Northwests premier Cramps tribute band. Just how many Cramps tribute bands are there here?
Last of the Mohicans plays at Cinema 21 on June 29th. Daniel Day-Lewis famously refused to use indoor plumbing during the shoot for this movie, or so I’ve heard. Also, any time James Fenimore Cooper comes up I think of famous hater Mark Twain, who hated him.
Je Tu Il Elle (1974). Directed by Chantal Akerman. Starring Chantal Akerman, Niels Arestrup, Claire Wauthion.
I You He She opens with a woman in a bare apartment, shuffling around, moving furniture, and eating a bag of sugar. She’s just broken up with her girlfriend and is falling apart. The movie really taps into something that’s hard to show—the general deterioration of the order of your life when you break up with someone. Of course she ends up going to see her former partner and ends up right back to where she started.
This past year there was a ton of online discourse over Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles as it’s regularly discussed as one of the best films ever made. This was her first feature and so weird and bold. It’s a disjointed odyssey into someone trying to hold onto something in her life and is perfect. Streaming on Criterion and rentable in the usual places.
Burlesque (2010). Directed by Steven Antin. Starring Cher, Christina Aguilera, Stanley Tucci.
If you have watched Showgirls one too many times and want a similar vibe this is for you. It’s a little too self-aware and ironic to get to the camp level of Showgirls but it’s fun! Cher and Stanley Tucci are always delightful and Christina is… from Iowa and moves to LA to live out her dream of becoming a burlesque dancer. Look, it’s stupid but a stupid good time! Streaming in the usual places.
If a couple of people tip I’ll share photos of my dog eating the ham that I buy. She’s a corgi mix and is glaring at me right now. Honestly, I’m worried she might… I have to go! The dog food tip jar is open.
*Sorry.