Hotseat: Penelope Spheeris

The filmmaker talks about punk rock and losing her temper.

Movie Reviews & Stories Teenage angst has paid off well for Penelope Spheeris. Her breakout film, the remarkable   More

 

Wednesday, March 6, 2013 REBECCA JACOBSON

…And Justice For None

Peter Jackson leaves Middle Earth to investigate a wrongful conviction.

Movie Reviews & Stories West of Memphis is a compelling documentary—surprisingly so at a butt-numbing 147 minutes—that unwittingly provokes serious ethical questions.
   More

 

Wednesday, March 6, 2013 RUTH BROWN

Top Five Films To See At POW Fest

Movie Reviews & Stories Beat Down A runaway teen squeezes into scintillating pink spandex as she follows her wrestling dream. Deanne Foley’s film congenially captures showy wrestling, pubescent awkwardness and familia   More

 

Wednesday, March 6, 2013 ENID SPITZ

Oz the Great and Powerful

Hello, yellow brick road.

Movie Reviews & Stories Watching the glorious spectacle that is James Franco feels like watching a great con man. Here’s a proven movie star who made an art film re-enacting the Al Pacino leather-daddy sex thriller Cru   More

 

Wednesday, March 6, 2013 AP KRYZA

Lies My Multiplex Told Me

The Last Exorcism Part II and Hollywood’s appetite for deception.

Movie Reviews & Stories Apparently, one last go-around isn’t enough. At least that’s what this weekend’s debut of The Last Exorcism Part II: The Exorcisming seems to imply (it wasn’t screened for critics, or actual   More

 

Wednesday, February 27, 2013 AP KRYZA

Jack the Giant Slayer

An English folktale, with extra potty humor.

Movie Reviews & Stories Jack and the Beanstalk is one of the few English folktales Americans know by heart. A peasant boy sells his abusive guardian’s livestock for some beans, the beans get wet, a beanstalk grows, a   More

 

Wednesday, February 27, 2013 JOHN LOCANTHI

Last Whiff of PIFF

Saying goodbye to murderous tourists and horny priests.

Movie Reviews & Stories The Portland International Film Festival has aged quickly. Two short weeks ago, desperate young people fought for their identity. Last week, PIFF endured the slow burn of middle age. What greets u   More

 

Wednesday, February 20, 2013 WW Staff

A PIFF Ahead

Already mourning the end of the Portland International Film Festival? Whet your appetite with early entries for PIFF 2014.

Movie Reviews & Stories PIFF is an intense but fleeting thing.  It enters our lives for a few   More

 

Wednesday, February 20, 2013 WW Staff

PIFFing the Night Away

PIFF knocks you down. But you get up again.

Movie Reviews & Stories If the Portland International Film Festival is a night out drinking, it’s time to rally. Though PIFF’s second week includes some real drags, keep the tab open: You’ll also find a few excepti   More

 

Wednesday, February 13, 2013 WW Staff

Alien Boy: The Life and Death of James Chasse

The human soul behind the monster’s mask.

Movie Reviews & Stories Infuriating, tragic, heartbreaking and incendiary in equal measures, Portland filmmaker Brian Lindstrom’s Alien Boy: The Life and Death of James Chasse is a documentary that plays out like a horro   More

 

Wednesday, February 13, 2013 AP KRYZA