Pick of the Week:
Lamps of the Underworld: Armenian Animation by Robert Sahakyants.
On April 24th, Church of Film is putting on a collection of Robert Sahakyants’s work. From Church of Film:“Included will be some of his animation masterpieces that had the animation world spellbound, and his cynical, surreal, and darkly hilarious tales such as Lessons, The Button, and Wind.” I’m not familiar with Sahakyants but it looks really cool and I’ll be there. There’s not a lot of space for animation like this in town!
Also Playing:
The Apartment (1960). Directed by Billy Wilder. Starring Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray.
Opening at the Academy this week, this plays in theaters a lot but it’s always worth seeing! It’s weird to talk about something as “the best” but something has got to be number one, right? This may be the best romantic comedy and is one of the very best Hollywood films ever made. Go see it if it’s been a minute!
This Week:
Best in Show opens at the Academy. I think a lot of Christopher Guest movies are a snooze, but I can always watch this. This is what I would call a warm bath movie because it’s like being in a warm bath. Plus, if you have a dog like I do you are likely some level of lunatic like these characters. Now if you’ll excuse me, I lost my dog’s toy and she’s pooping in my shoes out of anxiety.
Ryuichi Sakamoto - Opus and Indigo Girls: It’s Only Life After All both continue at Cinema 21 with a couple of screenings each, along with an excellent looking documentary about Judee Sill, The Lost Angel: The Genius of Judee Sill.
Something Wild plays at Cinema 21 on April 20th—a silly and great Jonthan Demme movie where Ray Liotta menaces Jeff Daniels.
Vigilante plays at the Hollywood on April 23rd. This is a grindhouse movie starring Robert Forster who starts a vigilante group (full of blue collar workers from New Jersey) who plan to take back the streets. Feeding into 80s crime fears, I’m sure nothing in this movie is weirdly racially coded.
The People’s Joker opens at the Hollywood! Vera Drew deconstructs super hero movies while telling a transgender coming of age story, and has a bunch of alt-comedy luminaries in it. Warner Bros. tried to sue this movie into nonexistence, but the good guys won. This looks fun!
My Best Friend’s Wedding plays on April 22nd at the Hollywood. Julia Roberts totally could have played the Joker with that smile.
The Portland EcoFilm festival continues at the Hollywood with A Crack in the Mountain on April 19th and New Salmon Movies on April 21st. A Crack in the Mountain is cool looking nature doc about the largest cave passage in the world, and New Salmon Movies is a night of two shorts about “salmon and their connection to Indigenous and First Nations people of the Pacific Northwest.”
Portland animator Dan Ackerman is playing a bunch of films from the Nyback collection on April 20th at the Hollywood. Dennis Nyback owned the Clinton for years and collected 16mm films so this is going to be a weird treat and a totally unique experience.
The Big Lebowski plays on April 20th at the Hollywood. Be forewarned, there will be some music beforehand. Or maybe you like music! I don’t.
The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog plays at the Hollywood on April 20th. An early Hitchcock silent film with pipe organ accompaniment! It’s about a Jack the Ripper type killer in London. Doesn’t it feel like every other British movie is about Jack the Ripper?
A Goofy Movie plays at the Clinton on April 23rd. There was a renaissance of Disney TV animation in the 90s, but they didn’t make a ton of movies. What they did make is very charming! Plus with a 78 minute running time it was a great way for your dad to spend time with you without having to spend a lot of time with you, or talk to you. Thanks dad!
Son of the White Mare plays at the Clinton on April 25th. Portland visual artist Eatcho will be curating a live score to this Hungarian classic! The animation is awesome, watch the trailer.
Clifford (1994). Directed by Paul Flaherty. Starring Martin Short, Charles Grodin, Mary Steenburgen.
Now here’s the classic stoner comedy that someone should be playing this week. Clifford stars Martin Short as a demonic 10 year old who will do anything to get in his way. His childless uncle, played by Charles Grodin, needs him to win over Mary Steenburgen. Clifford needs him to take him to the Dinosaur Word theme park. It does not go well.
This is one of the funniest movies of the 90s and you should watch it this weekend. The movie is built on two incredible performances from Grodin and Short and a huge part of 90s absurdist comedy.
Audiences were so put off by it that it bombed when it was released, but it wasn’t far off from what The Adventures of Pete & Pete and other surreal kids shows and sitcoms like Get a Life were doing at the time. Roger Ebert said, “The movie is so odd, it's almost worth seeing just because we'll never see anything like it again. I hope.”
Of course, it became a cult classic as soon as it went to video. This is the movie I put on whenever I’m feeling depressed and I’ve watched it five times this week. You can watch it with future staff pick Freddy Got Fingered for an…experience. Streaming in the usual places.
The tip jar is open if you feel so inclined/want to support this thing! Tip in honor of the 420 copy I had to sift through this week. Yeesh.
Clifford is the fucking best, It makes me laugh more than any other movie. Love you MS