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Just because movie fans spend most of the time sitting on our asses doesn't mean we can't be proactive. Portland's film scene is one of the nation's best and most social, with everything from prestige screenings to festivals to burlesque accompaniment at films. 'Tis the season for resolutions, and you could do a helluva lot worse than resolving to go to more movies.
Catch a film in 70 mm glory.
Last March, the Hollywood Theatre cemented its place as the best theater in Oregon with the revival of 70 mm projection, the crispest and most glorious of all film presentations. Talking about the beauty of its 70 mm screenings of 2001: A Space Odyssey or The Hateful Eight does them no justice. If you love movies, you owe it to yourself to see 70 mm in action.
Experience Rocky Horror in person.
If you haven't caught the nation's longest-running Rocky Horror Picture Show cabaret extravaganza at the Clinton Street Theater, you're not really a Portlander. If you have, isn't it time you devirginized somebody? What else are you gonna do at midnight on a Saturday?
Hit every single independent theater.
Arthouse flicks at Cinema 21. Blockbusters at CineMagic. Second-run at Laurelhurst. Some weird shit at the Clinton. Throw in the McMenamempire. Just…go.
Toss spoons at The Room.
Portland's other favorite midnight movie—Tommy Wiseau's dumbfoundingly bad The Room—has become a monthly tradition at Cinema 21, where folks gather to bask in the glow of the mundane trashterpiece, sometimes spot the Cro-Magnon visage of Wiseau in person and throw spoons. Lots of spoons.
Attend a small festival.
The Portland International Film Festival is great and all (except when it's not), but it's not the only show in town. There's the gothic chills of the H.P. Lovecraft Film Fest, the splatter of the new PDXtreme Fest, the activism of the Eco Film Fest and good old porn at Hump!
Volunteer.
A soup kitchen or children's hospital or a soup hospital is fulfilling and all. But when was the last time they gave you free popcorn or let you watch a movie? Point is, you should volunteer at the soup hospital, but also at the Hollywood. Or at a festival. Because Portland, unlike many cities, has a film scene that's a community.
See a locally made movie.
Everybody gets conned into watching their neighbor's shitty documentary—mainly because everybody in Portland has a guilt-tripping neighbor who makes shitty documentaries. That doesn't count. Go see a movie by a local filmmaker because you actually want to.
Get post-movie happy hour at Blackwell's.
Want to get surreal? Go to Hollywood's diviest dive after the Hollywood's Kung Fu Theater and get happy-hour prices by showing your ticket stub. Then listen to all the adrenalized kung fu fans increasingly slur the names of Wu-Tang members.
Break a cellphone.
I'm not actively recommending that you snatch the cellphone of an asshole who can't keep it in his pocket for the duration of a movie. I'm just saying that it would be satisfying to every moviegoer who's sick of being blinded in a theater by what's essentially a flashlight. Theoretically.
Catch a flick at the Oregon Theater.
Wait. No. Don't go in there.
also showing:
Before he was an isolated recluse standing on top of a pile of embarrassing misfires, Eddie Murphy was the greatest comedian in the world, and anyone doubting that need just revisit 1984's Beverly Hills Cop Laurelhurst Theater. Friday-Thursday, Jan. 1-7.
The new year kicks off with the first of probably 400 runs of 2001: A Space Odyssey, this time on 35mm. Academy Theater. Friday-Thursday, Jan. 1-7.
Shadow of a Doubt is a Hitchcock film so enduringly great—full of charm, gallows humor and genuine dread as a young girl unearths the sinister side of her charismatic uncle—that even the director himself declared it his favorite film. Kiggins Theater. Opens Friday, Jan. 1.
One of the better post-Star Wars space sagas, 1984's The Last Starfighter, gets a re-release in all its pre-Jar Jar glory. Kiggins Theater. Opens Friday, Jan. 1.
The Orson Welles at 100 retrospective keeps diving deeper, and this week includes the Franz Kafka adaptation The Trial (Fri-Sat), Shakespeare's Chimes at Midnight (Sat), a documentary about the director, and still no sign of The Muppet Movie, dammit! See NWFilm.org for full listings.
Willamette Week