Skip to main content
The house lights return, and conversation ignites.
Like any intermission, this one’s for bathroom breaks, Coke refills, and leg stretches. But the Hollywood Theatre audience on Dec. 6 is also gleefully processing what it’s just witnessed: a snarling leopard flung like a discus at a British imperial guard, a lone police officer out-brawling throngs of angry men, two best friends dancing so hard they create a miniature dust storm.
And that’s only the first half of RRR.
This international film sensation—the title is an acronym for Rise, Roar, Revolt in English—follows Raju (Ram Charan) and Bheem (N.T. Rama Rao Jr.), fictionalized versions of two revolutionaries, and their quest to liberate 1920s India from British rule. The three-hour epic of friendship and war is an escalation of brash, creative set pieces with enough noble bloodshed to make John Wick jealous and John Woo salute.
“Don’t watch TV, just watch this!” exclaims a middle-aged man to his seatmates as he ducks out for an intermission cigarette.
On this night, Portland’s newest cinematic tradition has drawn a crowd of around 350. Granted, the Hollywood’s monthly RRR screenings have years to go before touching the likes of Clinton Street Theater’s Rocky Horror Picture Show run or Cinema 21′s The Room streak. But notably, RRR is heading into its 14th consecutive month and third calendar year at the Hollywood with no signs of slowing (the next screening is Jan. 20 at 2 pm).
“I want this to be a monthly thing forever,” says the Hollywood’s head programmer, Dan Halsted. “It’s a movie that completely tears the roof off.”
For followers of international cinema, the groundswell of enthusiasm for RRR was unmissable during the movie’s 2022 release. Director S.S. Rajamouli, already an accomplished blockbuster maestro in India (and of Telugu cinema in particular), was hailed on the world stage. RRR smashed box office records, and its furious dance number, “Naatu Naatu,” won the Oscar for Best Original Song.
As 2022 turned to 2023 and the press cycles faded, the Hollywood just kept playing the movie. Halsted says the monthly screenings in the main theater reliably draw 300 to 400 viewers. On Dec. 6, about 40% of the crowd had seen it before, according to a show of hands. Halsted himself can attest to RRR’s compulsive rewatch value.
“Every time I leave [the house] to introduce the movie, my wife is always like, ‘You’re gonna stay and watch it!’” Halsted said on the morning of the December screening. (That night, he did indeed stay for all three hours.)
That same evening, Mykle Curton was seeing RRR for the third time at the Hollywood and his 10th time total. For Curton, a local cinephile with a film history degree from Portland State, RRR has been a gateway to contemporary Indian cinema. He went from being a novice to twice monthly seeking out new Indian releases playing in and around Portland, like the Shah Rukh Khan-starring Dunki and the interconnected YRF Spy Universe.
“It’s kinda like going to a pro wrestling show for the first time,” Curton says of a fresh audience watching RRR. “As they’re introduced to the characters, they get more and more infatuated with everything and built into the hype. You just get so wrapped up in the drama that you can’t help but stand up and cheer and boo and become part of the performance.”
Halsted says he’s only seen the kind of organic crowd reactions inspired by RRR during the Hollywood’s Kung Fu Theater series. It’s not about yelling at the screen (“fuck that,” says the veteran film programmer); it’s about people getting whisked away in involuntary enjoyment.
While RRR’s first half is more likely to inspire spontaneous dancing or cheering, Halsted and Curton both stand up for the film’s more dire second act, which emphasizes Bheem and Raju’s personal sacrifices and the legacy of colonial violence.
“That’s where it really gets interesting because then the audience really gets involved in the story,” Halsted says. “It becomes a much more serious movie.”
Curton wants to see the Hollywood program more new Indian films. In Halsted’s experience, film-rights issues have historically stymied those bookings, but he’d love to see that change.
Meanwhile, Variance Films holds the U.S. distribution rights to RRR for five years and couldn’t be more psyched about the theater’s plan to show it indefinitely, Halsted says: “They always email me and spell ‘Hollywood Theatre’ with three R’s.”
SEE IT: RRR, not rated, plays at the Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy Blvd., 503- 493-1128, hollywoodtheatre.org. 2 pm Saturday, Jan. 20. $10-$12.