American Promise
A documentary about black middle class life. Directors in attendance for a post-screening discussion. Hollywood Theatre.

recommended Best of the Northwest Filmmakers' Festival
"Award winners, audience and critical favorites" from the NW Film Center's 40th Northwest Filmmakers' Festival. Whitsell Auditorium.

recommended Captain America: The Winter Soldier
The first Captain America movie strived to feel retro with a simplistic, deliberately hammy tone, but Winter Soldier feels old in a darker, smarter way: It owes so much to the great paranoid thrillers of the 1970s that the presence of Robert Redford, as Cap's new boss, points a neon arrow at the film's hopes of being a super-powered riff on Three Days of the Condor. ERIK HENRIKSEN Various Theaters.

recommended Casablanca
"Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown." Hollywood Theatre.

Cheap Thrills
Cheap Thrills is a commentary on the American socio-economic condition, sure. But more importantly, it's a testosterone- and drug-fueled dark comedy about rich people's prank monkeys. At a dive bar one night, a flashy douche (David Koechner) and his sex-kitten wife (Sara Paxton) offer two sad sacks (Pat Healy and Ethan Embry) cash to perform various dares for their amusement. The stunts escalate—they're all some combination of hilarious, felonious, painful, and disgusting—and we laugh and gasp at the lengths men will go to when money and pride are at stake. Destined to become a midnight classic, the film is a blast to watch, especially with a crowd. ERIC D. SNIDERHollywood Theatre.

recommended Dead Alive
"They're not dead exactly, they're just... sort of rotting." Hollywood Theatre.

Draft Day
See review this issue. Various Theaters.

The Face of Love
"A widow falls for a guy who bears a striking resemblance to her late husband." Starring Robin Williams, Annette Benning, and Ed Harris, and not screened for critics. Living Room Theaters.

Faust
Aleksandr Sokurov's 2011 follow-up to Moloch, Taurus, and The Sun, and the final film in his "tetralogy on the corrupting effects of power." Whitsell Auditorium.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off
MovieBoozer.com presents John Hughes' blithely beloved bildungsroman, preceded by stand-up comedy from Amy Miller. Mission Theater.

The H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival
Portland's annual celebration of all things slimy and betentacled. More at hplfilmfestival.com. Hollywood Theatre.

IFC Midnight
"Horror, suspense, and cult favorites," accompanied by live music and other performances. This week's film: Almost Human. Clinton Street Theater.

recommended Jason and the Argonauts
Ugh. There's that Jason guy, trying to make fleece cool again. Laurelhurst Theater.

recommended Jodorowsky's Dune
See review this issue. Fox Tower 10.

Joe
See review this issue. Living Room Theaters.

Live and Let Live
Food Fight presents a film about why you should be vegan. Weird. Clinton Street Theater.

Lost Oregon
Film archivist Dennis Nyback presents "a screening of rare ephemeral films showing Portland and Oregon's past." More at hollywoodtheatre.org. Hollywood Theatre.

The New Rijksmuseum
Two hundred and forty minutes of film about the renovation of Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum. ("Rijksmuseum" is Amsterdamish for either "museum" or "seriously, 240 minutes?") Whitsell Auditorium.

Nymphomaniac, Volume 1
A fucking marathon. Released theatrically in two volumes (with a couple weeks' recovery time in between, what with all the chafing), Lars von Trier's four-hour-long meditation on fucking, fly fishing, and the futility of love takes a kind of smug satisfaction in the severity of its indulgences—it revels in explicitness, violence, and anguish to an even greater degree than the director's already thoroughly misanthropic previous works. ZAC PENNINGTON Hollywood Theatre.

Oculus
See review this issue. Various Theaters.

recommended Odds and Ends
Videos and shorts curated by Portland filmmaker Karl Lind. Clinton Street Theater.

Our Vinyl Weighs a Ton
While this documentary about Stones Throw isn't much more than a calling card for the well-regarded record label, it's a very good one. We get the backstory of the label's honcho, Peanut Butter Wolf, and an overview of Stones Throw's significant achievements, including revolutionary releases from Madlib and J Dilla. After J Dilla's death in 2006, the bottom fell out—not just for Stones Throw, but all of hiphop, and the label suffered from Wolf's affinity for really awful performance art. With newer artists like Dam-Funk and the Stepkids, though, Stones Throw has pinpointed the future of psychedelic soul while assuring its hiphop legacy. NED LANNAMANN Hollywood Theatre.

Perfect Sisters
A film about two teenagers who murder their mom! Abigail Breslin's career is going great. Clinton Street Theater.

Pig Death Machine
How much do you like the early work of John Waters? Just a smidge or head-over-cha-cha-heels? Depending on your answer, you might enjoy the low-budget Pig Death Machine, starring the delightful Amy Davis. It's got all the grit and queasiness of the Prince of Puke's juvenilia—but unfortunately, not much of the humor or trashy fun. COURTNEY FERGUSON Clinton Street Theater.

Portland EcoFilm Festival
A monthly series of "films covering topics of nature conservation, environmental activism, agriculture and community wellness." This month: DamNation, with directors in attendance. Hollywood Theatre.

The Raid 2
See review this issue. Cinema 21.

Rio 2
Hey, this should shut your kids up for a few minutes. Various Theaters.

Selected 3
Film and video from the artists shortlisted for the Jarman Award, "recognizing and rewarding the exceptional creativity of today's British artist-filmmakers." Whitsell Auditorium.

Something Wicked
Brittany Murphy's final film, a shot-in-Oregon psychological thriller. Not screened for critics. Various Theaters.

recommended Under the Skin
See review this issue.

recommended The Unknown Known
See review this issue. Living Room Theaters.