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The Only Good Email.
Pick of the Week:
Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003). Directed by Tsai Ming-liang. Starring Lee Kang-sheng. Chen Shiang-chyi, Kiyonobu Mitamura.
Playing at Cinemagic on Nov. 20th: the beautiful ode to changing cities, cinema, and inept cruising. The film is wonderful, contemplative, and quiet to the point of being a religious experience. It’s about the last night of a dumpy movie theater.
Also Playing:
The Hollywood has been rolling out the John Woo restorations. If you have never seen any of these Hard Boiled and The Killer are great entry points into some of the most over-the-top action movies you’ll never see. So much late 90s/early 2000s Hollywood action movies are just doing watered down versions of these. This week we have:
The Killer plays this weekend. It’s about a hitman going on one last job, something I can relate to.
Hard Boiled also plays this weekend. Tony Leung and Chow Yun-fat take down some smugglers, just like the Hardy Boys.
A Better Tomorrow 2 plays on Nov. 16th. The sequel to one of Chow Yun-fat’s breakout roles. His character died in the first one so he played that character’s twin brother. This one is about bullets being forced into people.
This Week:
The Feather Fairy plays at the Clinton on Nov. 19th from Church of Film. An oddball adaptation of Mother Hulda from Juraj Jakubisko about Mother Winter rescuing an immortal boy from Death who, in turn, wants to become a mortal.
At the Fifth Ave: The Double Life of Véronique plays this weekend. It’s a Kieślowski so of course it’s wonderful. Our pal Ebert said, “The movie has a hypnotic effect. We are drawn into the character, not kept at arm’s length with a plot.” and “This is one of the most beautiful films I’ve seen.” It’s about two people who are connected.
At the 99W Drive In: the er, ah, Twilight movies play this weekend. Two of them. I would rather hammer nails into my eyes but these movies sure do play a lot.
At the Academy:
The Shawshank Redemption plays this week. The ideal way to watch this is hungover on a couch on a Sunday afternoon with hours worth of commercials so that the movie is the whole day long. It’s a restorative process.
Kiss Me Deadly plays this week which is a noir that was a huge influence on the French New Wave and is about a complex web of lies and a dame with gams from here to over there.
The prequel to Wicked Part Two plays this week. This is, of course, The Wizard of Oz.
At Cinema 21:
Boogie Nights plays this weekend. This is a good movie but you can tell it was directed by a young white boy who loved cocaine a little too much.
The Clock plays on Nov. 15th. It’s a romantic comedy about meeting someone in Penn Station, which did not look like a run-down porn theater but instead had enough glitz and glamour for Judy.
At Cinemagic:
It’s not a tumah it’s a run of True Lies this week. This was one of the last great action movies from Arnold. I can’t say I’ve ever felt compelled to revisit though. The dumber the premise the more Cameron makes it work.
Revolting space creature E.T. disgraces our screens again this week.
Curse of Frankenstein and Horror of Dracula play on Nov. 14th for an excellent Hammer films double feature.
At the Clinton:
The Dude Bro Party Massacre plays on Nov. 14th. “In the wake of two back-to-back mass murders on Chico’s frat row, loner Brent Chirino must infiltrate the ranks of a popular fraternity to investigate his twin brother’s murder at the hands of the serial killer known as “Motherface.”
Hiding Henry plays on Nov. 15th. “Hiding Henry was the very best at hide and go seek. Then, one day in the 1990s, he disappeared. Thirty years later, Sarah takes on a house-sitting gig in Henry’s legendary childhood home and can’t help but seem to feel someone is watching her…”
Fly Fusion’s Trout Tour plays on Nov. 16th. “Fly Fusion’s Trout Tour is back for its second epic season. This year, the tour highlights Fly Fishing Collaborative (FFC) and their flagship initiative building sustainable aquaponic farms — systems that combine fish farming (aquaculture) with vegetable cultivation (hydroponics).”
Gaza: Journalists Under Fire plays on Nov. 17th. “Free screening hosted by the National Lawyer’s Guild. In the last two years, over two hundred journalists have been killed in Gaza according to the CPJ. In this poignant new documentary, Robert Greenwald follows the lives and deaths of Palestinian journalists Belal Jadallah, Heba Al-Abadla, and Ismail al-Ghoul, who have all been killed by Israeli airstrikes.”
Nov. 18th—another fundraising screening for the Snowday’s Foundation.
Popcorn plays on Nov. 20th. “When a group of film students devise a gimmick-filled horror movie marathon at an abandoned cinema, they unwittingly wander into the sights of a murderous psychopath who’s all too happy to use their props and tricks to his own deadly ends. Includes drag performances by Thee Countess Sinophelia, one-half NelSon, Romie Romak and XO Skeleton before the movie.”
Revolutions Per Movie and Kevin McDonald are still coming on Dec. 12th! Get your tickets before I buy all of them and try to resell them outside the theater.
At the Hollywood:
A League of Their Own plays on Nov. 15th as a benefit for Active Children Portland.
Jeffrey plays on Nov. 17th from their Thank God It’s Queer series. Steven Weber stars (I will likely never be able to write that again) as a man who swears off sex during the peak of the AIDs crisis only to meet his dream man. Get ready for all your 90s stars: Michael T. Weiss, Sigourney Weaver, Nathan Lane, Christine Baranski, Kathy Najimy, Bryan Batt, and Patrick Stewart.
Sun Ra: Do the Impossible plays on Nov. 18th from Sonic Cinema. “A kaleidoscopic portrait of the visionary jazz musician, composer, and poet known as Sun Ra and the musical, historical, and philosophical currents that shaped him.”
Basic Training from Repressed Cinema plays on Nov. 18th—a sex comedy from the 80s about sexism in the workplace that was called terrible!
Ms. 45 plays on Nov. 19th from a new series called Can You Blame her. This is Abel Ferrara’s rape revenge movie which I’ve seen once and have no need to watch ever again.
Black Dynamite plays on Nov. 20th—a 2009 Blaxploitation comedy from Comedy 101.
Train Dreams opens for a run. I have no idea if this is good but it’s based off of Denis Johnson’s novella of the same name which you should all read. If the movie is half as good as the book you will have a very good movie.
At the Kiggins:
Admittedly, this is not a movie but I think this is a funny event to have so I’m including it: D.B. Cooper Con is this weekend for all your D.B. Cooper needs.
Go West plays on Nov. 20th with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. It’s a Buster Keaton untalkie, which is what I call silent films.
At Omsi:
No Country for Old Men plays this week, friendo.
The Big Lebowski plays this week and I really wish there was a funny line from that movie I could quote or reference. I really do.
Get Out plays plays this week as part of their dinner and a movie package with food inspired from the film. Have they seen Get Out? Like, this is an odd movie to do this with?
At the Tomorrow Theater (the Hub for Cultural Snackers):
Mubi, who has recently come under fire for taking Sequoia Capital investment money, has been partnering with the Tomorrow Theater and they are doing another screening in October. Sequoia has ties to the Israeli army. Mubi has released a bunch of mealy mouthed statements. Filmmakers are urging Mubi to cut ties. If the Los Angeles Festival of Movies can cut ties with Mubi so can PAM. You can contact the Tomorrow Theater here through this link and let them know that they should’t partner with organizations like this.
I did. I’ll let you know if they write back. It’s been three weeks and I don’t expect them to. Thank you to anyone who has emailed them. I ask that you keep doing it.
I still haven’t heard from them so please keep emailing. We’ve got to demand better.
Woke scold WatchThisPDX strikes again! Please keep emailing them.
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