Bend it Like Beckham
Not exactly a masterpiece, this film is a lighthearted, cute escapism best suited for parents and teens. An adolescent, soccer-playing daughter struggles against her Hindu parents, who would rather gear her interests towards cooking, and otherwise preparing herself to be a proper Indian bride. (Marjorie Skinner)

Berlusconi's Mousetrap
Footage of the protests of the G8 summit in Genoa in 2001 and shocking conspiracy theories regarding the backlash against activists

The core

See review this issue.

Daughter from DaNang
After the Vietnam War, thousands of Vietnamese and Amer-asian children were taken back to the states. This documentary focuses on seven-year-old Mai Thi Hiep, who is adopted and Americanized into Heidi Bub. She is reunited with her birth mother 22 years later, but their divide could not be wider.

Down and Out with the Dolls
A hokey, yet entertaining film about a band called the Paper Dolls that live in a house called the Dollhouse and blow everyone away with their 1991 rock. Filmed in Portland.

Dreamcatcher
Cigar-shaped star critters wage a slimy back-door assault against the human race. Somewhere, Freud is moaning. Stephen King fans are a forgiving bunch by necessity when it comes to cinematic adaptations, but it's hard to imagine anyone cottoning to director/co-writer Lawrence Kasdan's grievous mishandling of what amounts to a compilation of the author's greatest hits (childhood friends reunited against evil, kids with freaky powers, military gone amuck, snow). One tremendously squirmy set-piece aside, Kasdan coughs up a black hole of ineptness that not even old hands like Morgan Freeman and Tom Sizemore can negate. (Andrew Wright)

Even Cowgirls Get The Blues
In Tom Robbins' lyrical novel, I imagined that Sissy had thumbs as plump as eggplants. Unfortunately, in the film version, her thumbs (worn by stringbean Uma Thurman) are disturbingly phallic. I understand that some people enjoyed the movie, but I suspect that most of them were pubescent teenagers at the time and that none of them actually read the book.

Face
Masako's life is fucked up and her happiness is a slippery commodity. Her past encounters with men have been defined by rape, humiliation, and extortion. When her emotional dam finally breaks, in a fit of rage, she murders her sister and flees to a tiny town. Sound like a tired old Biblical storyline of guilt and redemption? Actually, with patient storytelling and surprising turns, this new Japanese film manages to breathe fresh air into an old plot. Winner of the Japanese Academy Award for Best Director.

God Is Great, I'm Not
The unstoppably pixie-ish Audrey Tautou plays a model who naturally feels the need to explore her spiritual side. In an attempt to justify her existence, she explores every religion from East to West until she finally realizes that God is incapable of recognizing anything so absurdly human as blasphemy. A seemingly "deep" subject explored in an extremely shallow manner.

The Happiness of the Katakuris
With spoofs on The Sound of Music and tons of naked sumo wrestlers, director Takashi Miike establishes himself as the John Waters of Japan. A story about an odd family that opens a B&B, only to have bad luck befall their guests. But, the story is beside the point. The tastelessness is the centerpiece.

He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not
How hysterical that as conservatives in this country denounce the French over Iraq (Freedom Fries anyone?), the French cinema machine releases a film starring Amelie's Audrey Tautou--probably the most beloved French export to come along since the first Gulf War--in a fairly nasty role as a rather cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs young Parisian woman in love with a doctor (Samuel Le Bihan). Politics (and possible bad timing) aside, however, is He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not any good? Oui, though it's not quite as entertaining (nor as nefarious) as the continual rantings of insipid war hawks. (Bradley Steinbacher)

Head of State
Chris Rock stars in a film about a Washington D.C. city councilman who yells a lot, turned unexpected presidential hopeful--who yells a lot. Scripted in part by Rock, the film is assured some semblance of humor, in spite of its preview's hint at some rather unfortunate rappin' Granny potential.

Horns or Halos
A self-described "punk of publishing," Sander Hicks founded the tiny publishing company Soft Skull Press, which at the time this film was made, was being run out of the basement of some apartment building in New York City. In 1999, Soft Skull decided to reprint the book Fortunate Son, a biography on George W. Bush that was banned from bookstores, supposedly due to distrust of its author, J.H. Hatfield, a convicted felon. Hatfield's tale is interesting, but this film works best when it focuses on Hicks, and the mysterious forces that convened to allow a greasy, scrawny 29-year-old to publish 40,000 copies of a banned book and wind up appearing on 60 Minutes as a result. (Justin Sanders)

Irreversible

See review this issue.

it (independent thursdays)
The very cool Nocturnal continues to bat a thousand with this monthly event at which budding filmmakers can show off their wares. This month's theme is Slasher/Horror. All are welcome to show films; just call 239-5900 or email jef@nocturnalpdx.com

Love Liza

See review this issue.

Open Hearts
A handsome young couple get engaged. The next day the boy is hit by a car and paralyzed, and the girl ends up having an affair with one of his doctors--a doctor whose wife happened to be driving the car that hit the boy. It sounds like a trite, melodramatic story, but filmmaker Susanne Bier uses Dogme 95 to her advantage by making every last character pitiful and charming at the same time--like real folks who've gotten caught up in bizarre circumstances. (Amy Jennings )

Private Eyes: Local Documentary
A collection of locally produced nonfiction, providing glimpses into Portland life--and life in general--as opposed to giving Michael Moore-style social commentary. The Importance of Search Engines profiles the process of "blogging"--keeping an online diary for all to see--while Blot Out The Sun has employees and customers from Jay's Garage in Southeast read James Joyce's novel out loud.

Video Slam Party
Like to make videos? Head to Orlo's video slam theme-release party where they'll tell you what to make your video about and how to get it included in their Slam series... where you can win CASH! Check www.orlo.org for more info.

Videos from the Resistance
Sure, the scenes from Channel 12's news chopper are dizzying and awe-inspiring. But these videos are from the trenches, where the emotions of the protesters are raw and the pepper-spray stings. Three different demonstrations are profiled tonight--the August 22nd protest against President Bush's fund-raiser for Sen. Smith, where police pepper-sprayed babies; the massive 35,000-person pro-peace march on March 15; and a compilation of seven videotapers' footage from last week's sit-ins and bridge closures. Come watch history so fresh that it is still bleeding.

A View from the Top
Playing out like a saccharine, low-rent version of Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, A View From the Top is pure, ocular Wonderbread--featureless, familiar, and entirely inoffensive. Characters appear and disappear without relevance or explanation, the plot plods along with heart warming comic relief, and the whole slapdash mess ends almost painlessly. Almost. (Zac Pennington)

Willard
Willard's life stinks. He lives in an old, dusty house with his decrepit mother, who's little more than a hideous flap of skin. Obsessed with the relics left by his father, Willard shuffles to work every day in pappy's old clothes, pushing pencils at the company started by daddy-o. The formulaic premise of Willard is so obvious that it's funny, which sets the tone for the rest of the story. Whatever marbles Willard still has at the beginning of the film are long gone when he decides that a white rat rescued from his vermin-infested basement is "the best friend he ever had." Absurdly, Willard begins training all of the rats in his basement to be a sort of army. (Marjorie Skinner)