recommended 12 Monkeys
See My, What a Busy Week! Academy Theater.

The 33
See review this issue. Various Theaters

recommended The Animation Show of Shows
The 17th annual Animation Show of Shows isn't a film festival. It's a selection of international shorts curated by Acme Filmworks, Inc. executive Ron Diamond. Diamond and Acme primarily function as matchmakers between animators, companies, and ad agencies, so this collection feels like all the best ponies brought out to prance. These are not students experimenting. These motherfuckers get paid. French short Tant de ForĂŞts stands out for its mesmerizing and colorful rehash of depressing environmental concerns. Don Hertzfeldt's World of Tomorrow plays last as the longest short and the obvious crown jewel. Cool shit. SUZETTE SMITH Cinema 21.

The Breathaking Animation of Ladislas Starevich
A program from film archivist Dennis Nyback, featuring a series of 16mm stop-motion works from the Russian animator. Hollywood Theatre.

recommended A Brilliant Young Mind
See review this issue. Living Room Theaters.

Church of Film
The screening series presents Hard to Be a God, a late '80s sci-fi adventure from Peter Fleischmann, with a cameo from Werner Herzog. Clinton Street Theater.

Dangerous Men
See review this issue. Hollywood Theatre.

recommended Goodfellas
"We ran everything. We paid off cops. We paid off lawyers. We paid off judges. Everybody had their hands out. Everything was for the taking. And now it's all over." Laurelhurst Theater.

Heist
"How come I never heard of this movie with Robert De Niro and the WWE's Batista? Man, that's a couple of real heavy-hitters! Wait, it's got UFC superstar Gina Carano in it too? How is an all-star cast like this, in a thrilling adventure about bank robbers on a bus, flying so far under the radar? You'd think it was enjoying a super-brief theatrical release as part of some sort of contractual obligation before it rots to death in a Redbox next week or something. Can't be that though. Naaaaaah." Also starring Morris Chestnut! Living Room Theaters.

Hot Sugar's Cold World
Danny McBride, Jody Hill, and David Gordon Green present a documentary examining the life and process of experimental musician Nick Koenig. Hollywood Theatre.

Love the Coopers
See review this issue. Various Theaters

Mavis!
Jessica Edwards' biography of the soul icon, featuring archival footage, live performances, and interviews with Bob Dylan, Prince, Levon Helm, and more. Screens as part of the Hollywood's Sonic Cinema series. Hollywood Theatre.

My All American
A football drama starring Aaron Eckhart and something called a Finn Wittrock. Various Theaters

recommended The Northwest Filmmakers' Festival
See Film, this issue. NW Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium.

Portland Latin American Film Festival
Monthly screenings from the Portland Latin American Film Festival. This month: El Ojbeto Antes Llamado Disco, a concert documentary following the Mexican band Café Tacvba on their 2014 tour. Hollywood Theatre.

Repressed Cinema
A monthly series "showing vintage and contemporary films that are obscure, neglected, and from the fringe." This month: a rare 35mm print of Andy Milligan's Girls of 42nd Street, with Milligan biographer Jimmy McDonough in attendance. Hollywood Theatre.

Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance
You thought a single film was multitudinous enough to contain the glorious bounty that is the forever flowing majesty of Samurai Cop? You fool. Even if it took 25 years and a Kickstarter campaign to realize the inevitable, the inevitable is here in all its flowing, swordswinging, law-enforcing glory. Filmmakers in attendance. Hollywood Theatre.

recommended Spectre
I was a little anxious about seeing the new James Bond movie: The reviews have been significantly more mixed than they were for 2012's Skyfall, and once that godawful Sam Smith song hit the internet, I lost a big chunk of hope. I shouldn't have worried. For a Bond enthusiast, Spectre is a feast. Overstuffed by half an hour and packed wall-to-wall with juicy action sequences, it's exactly the sort of over-the-top, ludicrous spectacle that seasoned 007 fans have come to cherish. I can understand why it's not getting the buzz that Skyfall did—to be honest, the movie's a bit of a mess. But it's also a supervillain's-lair-tucked-away-in-a-volcano-crater's worth of fun. Ignore the reviews, Bond lovers: You'll enjoy the new one just fine. NED LANNAMANN Various Theaters

recommended Spotlight
See review this issue. Fox Tower 10.

recommended Taxi
See review this issue. Cinema 21.

recommended The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Tobe Hooper's 1974 horror flick, with cast members Ed Neal, Teri McMinn, and John Dugan in attendance. Hollywood Theatre.

recommended What Our Fathers Did: A Nazi Legacy
Activist and journalist Philippe Sands instigates a series of conversations with two sons of high-ranking Nazis. One father was tried and executed at Nuremberg; the other died in hiding before he could be tried. Now in their 70s, the son of the former, Niklas Frank, wholly condemns his father—while the son of the latter, Horst von Wachter, refuses to accept his father wasn't, at heart, a good man. Director David Evans' film is of the same ilk as The Act of Killing, though Sands continually steers the film into a project to change Wachter's mind rather than simply observe and record his flawed but immovable perspective—despite his own observation of how rare it is to meet someone who was ever in the same room as Hitler. The end result is a fascinating, if unvarnished and frustrating, study in psychology and history. MARJORIE SKINNER Living Room Theaters.


recommended MEANS WE RECOMMEND IT. Theater locations are accurate Friday, November 13-Thursday, November 19, unless otherwise noted. Movie times are updated daily and are available here.