Get Your Reps In: Fire Walk With Sheryl Lee at Clinton Street Theater

What to see at Portland’s repertory theaters.

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992) (IMDB)
By Chance Solem-Pfeifer

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)

Though the critics of 1992 had little patience for Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, the detractors still mostly agreed—give it up for Sheryl Lee.

Thirty-two years and a full-scale reclamation later—David Lynch fans do not rest—the film’s star (Lee) remains the best thing about the movie, and the iconic Washingtonian takes a victory lap across three nights at Clinton Street Theater. Fire Walk With Me screens Dec. 14–16 with Lee in attendance for post-screening Q&As.

Narratively speaking, Fire Walk With Me poses the closed-loop question: What happened to Laura Palmer (Lee) in the week before her murder that launched the Twin Peaks series?

But in that blind alley, Lee experiences total freedom. She plays the doomed Palmer as a carousel of haunted archetypes. Laura is the jaded homecoming queen so knowing of her town she can alter her boyfriend’s mood with an expression change. In the presence of best friend Donna (Moira Kelly), she’s a morally awakened force. Confronted with her possessed father (Ray Wise), she’s a silent scream. By the end, she’s a near oracle. Proximity to death will do that.

And all around Laura, the dread is so thick, it can be cut only by tears. Clinton, Dec. 14–16.


ALSO PLAYING:

Academy: Tokyo Godfathers (2003), Dec. 13–19. Gremlins (1984), Dec. 13–19. Misery (1990), Dec. 13–19. Cinemagic: Gremlins (1984), Dec. 11. Home Alone (1990), Dec. 11. Tokyo Godfathers (2003), Dec. 12. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989), Dec. 12. Clinton: The Cat’s Mill (1993), Dec. 11. Project A-Ko (1986) with live score, Dec. 12. Female Trouble (1974), Dec. 13. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), Dec. 14. Raising Arizona (1987), Dec. 17. Hollywood: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989), Dec. 12. Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979), Dec. 13. Home Alone (1990), Dec. 14. Nosferatu (1922), Dec. 14. RRR (2022), Dec. 15. Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Dec. 15. The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), Dec. 16. Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984), Dec. 17. Tomorrow: Die Hard (1988), Dec. 13. Carol (2015), Dec. 14. Elf (2003), Dec. 14.

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