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New Movies:
A Man Called Ove
Hannes Holm adapts Fredrik Backman's best selling novel of the same name, in which a shitty old Swedish guy befriends a young family who moves in next door. Zany life lessons are learned all around. Not screened for critics. PG-13. Cinema 21.
The Accountant
In this new action-thriller. Ben Affleck plays an accountant, but not in the lame "paperwork" way. In the cool "blowing guys' brains out" way. Perennial bad guy character actor J.K. Simmons co-stars. Not screened for critics. R.
SEE IT: Bagdad, Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Living Room Theaters, St. Johns 1 & 2, Vancouver
Do Not Resist
B Ominous tones accompany images of armored vehicles driving through suburbs. SWAT teams burst into private residences with an Orwellian sense of authoritarianism. In this timely documentary, director Craig Atkinson addresses the impacts and consequences of the militarization of law enforcement in the United States. This film takes a decidedly negative stance on police militarization and lays it on thick, juxtaposing clips of laughing law enforcement officers with footage of fearful protesters in Ferguson, MO fleeing from teargas. These menacing scenes are used to captivate viewers before launching into subdued segments featuring formal seminars and senate meetings as the film attacks its opponents with both emotional appeals and factual evidence. Do Not Resist is a quick watch; but it becomes repetitive as it Atkinson hammers home the same point: Police militarization is expensive and flawed. The film provides an adequate defence for its arguments, but leaves many elements of this complicated subject unexplored. Nonetheless, Do Not Resist is sure to affirm those who already agree with the documentary's ideology, convert a few wavering civilians, and shame anyone out there who legitimately believes that Concord, New Hampshire is in dire need of an armored personnel carrier. NR. CURTIS COOK.
SEE IT: NW Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium, Oct. 18 – Oct. 21.
Under the Sun
B+ After years of negotiation, North Korean officials finally let Russian filmmaker Vitaly Mansky produce a completely reliable, totally unscripted, 100 percent believable account of everyday life in the DPRK. Psych! As we jaded, Vice documentary-watching, neo-liberal kulaks know full well, there's nothing Westerners find more creepy than hundreds of small children behaving themselves and dancing and singing in unison. Especially if it's to honor the birthday of Beloved Father and Sun of the Communist Future Kim Jong-Il. In fact, the absurdity of what the Communist state expects to pass as convincing propaganda has its own brand of zany comedy—until Mansky zooms in on the eyes of a sobbing preteen as her dance instructor berates her with a chorus of "Do you understand, Comrade?" When Mansky's camera floats over the crowd, the audience is complicit in, even amused by, the antics of the bizarre North Korean state. But when he finds a target—that one face that can't quite hold the smile, that one school-aged girl who can't keep her eyes open out of boredom or fatigue or both—you suddenly don't feel like laughing anymore. NR. GRACE CULHANE.
SEE IT: NW Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium. 7 pm Wednesday, Oct. 12.
White Girl
B The Panic in Needle Park. Kids. Requiem for a Dream. Every generation needs its "white people gone wild in NYC" story, and Elizabeth Wood's directorial debut is a strong addition to the canon. Leah (Morgan Saylor) quickly finds herself over her head after a move to a Hispanic neighborhood, juggling an internship at a Vice-like magazine, her dreamy suitor Blue (Brian "Sene" Marc) and a brick of cocaine, left behind after Blue is snapped for a minor drug offense. In some respects, Wood weaves the sexual, social and professional concerns of the internship generation into White Girl, contrasting Leah's penchant for getting other people into trouble with Blue's penchant for getting swallowed by a racist justice system. In others, Wood relies too hard on this subgenre's penchant for "edginess," crudely relying on sexual violence to punish Leah for her misbehavior. When White Girl isn't dressing up as a morality play, it sharply confronts the social and political anxieties of the most idealistic generation in generations. When it does, it's a sex-and-drugs shockfest that isn't as shocking as it would've been 20 years ago. R. WALKER MACMURDO. Hollywood Theatre.
Wizard Mode
This documentary follows Robert Emilio Gagno, an autistic pinball prodigy, on a quest to become a world champion pinball player at Pinburgh, the biggest pinball tournament in the world, in Pittsburgh. Gagno and his family will attend this screening, whose proceeds go to benefit Portland's Pinball Outreach Project. A pinball tournament follows at 4 pm. NR. Quarterworld. 1 pm Saturday, Oct. 15.
Old Movies:
The Dark Crystal (1982)
This installment in OMSI's Reel Science series is a 2-for-1 deal, featuring a showing of the Jim Henson-Frank Oz creature feature and a presentation by Laika Animation puppeteer Toby Froud. Empirical Theater at OMSI. 7 pm Wednesday, Oct. 12 (presentation at 6:30 pm).
J'ai Faim, J'ai Froid (1984) and Portrait de Une Jeune Fille de la Fin des Années 60 à Bruxelles (1993)
Two shorts from feminist experimental filmmaker Chantal Akerman, who died last year. J'ai Faim is a dreamy odyssey about two Belgian women seeking cigarettes and food in Paris; Portrait is a romance featuring a joyously emotional dance number. NW Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium.
7 pm Monday, Oct. 17.
My Own Private Idaho (1991)After going on the My Own Private Idaho walking tour of Portland, you can immerse yourself in Gus Van Sant's loose adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry IV at the Whitsell. Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix star as hustlers on a road trip that takes them from Portland to Italy, journeying toward a mysterious ending. NW Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium. 7 pm Saturday, Oct. 15.
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)
If you're sick of waiting for David Lynch's revival of Twin Peaks, check out this feature-length version, which involves a murder investigation in Oregon. The eclectic cast includes Kiefer Sutherland, Kyle MacLachlan, David Bowie and Lynch himself. Hollywood Theatre. 7:30 pm Thursday, Oct. 13.
Creature From the Black Lagoon in 3-D (1954)
The lurching, slimy critter known as Gill-Man returns from the deep to menace Hollywood Theatre. What the movie's creature effects lack in finesse, they make up for in wacky charm—there's something endearing about a black-and-white horror film in which the monster looks like a kid wearing a homemade rubber mask. Hollywood Theatre. 7:30 pm Friday, Oct. 14.
ALSO PLAYING:
5th Avenue Cinema: Naked Lunch (1991), 6:30 and 9:30 pm Friday-Saturday, 7 pm Sunday, Oct. 14-16; Rabbit's Moon (1950) in 16 mm, 9 pm Friday-Saturday, 9:15 pm Sunday, Oct. 14-16. Academy Theater: Child's Play (1988), Oct. 14-20. Laurelhurst Theater: Carnival of Souls (1962), Oct. 14-20. NW Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium: Andy Warhol: Part II (2006), 1 pm Saturday, 2 pm Sunday, Oct. 15-16; Omkara (2006), 3:30 pm Saturday, Oct. 15; Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), 4:30 pm Sunday, Oct. 16.
Willamette Week