23RD ANNUAL REEL MUSIC FEST

The Northwest Film Center’s Reel Music Fest continues this week, with various music-related films at the Guild and Whitsell Auditorium. For more info, hit www.nwfilm.org.

DERAILROADED

A documentary about cultish outsider musician Larry “Wild Man” Fischer, Derailroaded walks a precarious line between fascinating portrait and exploitation. (Zac Pennington)

HOMEMADE HILLBILLY JAM

Director Rick Minnich’s tribute to the dying music of Ozark hillbillies is nothing but respectful, and thus largely uninteresting. If you like the music, you’ll probably love the film. But if you’re looking for anything deeper than the expected message of “Boo hoo, look at this dying art form,” you’ll most likely be disappointed. And bored. (Wm. Steven Humphrey)

HIGH AND DRY

This documentary on the past two decades’ worth of music in Tucson (with a focus on the town’s small but vibrant punk/new wave scene in the late ’70s/early ’80s) is pretty much as bland as it sounds. Okay, fine, I can’t speak for the whole film—the screening copy I had crapped out after 45 minutes. But I can tell you this: I was not upset when it did. (Erik Henriksen)

PUNK: ATTITUDE

Anyone with any sense or experience with tidy documentaries trying to encapsulate an era has got to be leery of a cornball title like Punk: Attitude. However, this rock doc, while maintaining the usual imperfections of its genre, is interesting enough. Directed by Don Letts, it enlists a respectable corral of icons to give nostalgic, self-gratifying, but for the most part, articulate accounts of punk’s development. But it also completely falls on its face with everything post-’70s, fluffs over the seedier aspects of punk history, and is totally un-punk and has no attitude. But what the hell. (Marjorie Skinner )

SPIDER JOHN KOERNER

Director Don McGlynn’s documentary about Minneapolis-based Spider John Koerner.

14TH ANNUAL PORTLAND JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL

Not content with one film festival, the Northwest Film Center’s also presenting their annual Jewish Film Festival. (Unlike the Reel Music Fest, most of these films weren’t screened for your loyal Mercury critics.) Again, the films screen at the Guild and Whitsell; and again, check www.nwfilm.org for more info.

LIVE AND BECOME

A non-Jewish Ethiopian kid pretends to be an Ethiopian Jew in order to escape a (big surprise) famine; as he ages, the boy must deal with his conflicted history.

LITTLE JERUSALEM

Director Karin Albou’s look at a Parisian “working class Tunisian-Jewish family.”

THE THREE RABBIS

An OPB-produced documentary about—yep, you guessed it—three Portland rabbis, tackling issues both traditional and modern.

USHPIZIN

Though Ushpizin concerns Orthodox Jews in modern Jerusalem celebrating the holy festival of Sukkot (which is nothing like Christmas), it’s surprising that the film wasn’t trotted out here before the new year—because Ushpizin is just the sort of uninteresting, easy, heartwarming, trust-in-God parable that mainstream Americans would love to wash down with their eggnog. (Will Gardner)

ODESSA… ODESSA!

A look at the Odessan Jewish community, from New York to Jerusalem’s Little Odessa to the Ukraine.

Aristide and the Endless Revolution
An investigative documentary about the removal of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the democratically elected president of Haiti. Not screened for critics.

Brick by Brick, Side by Side
A documentary about American volunteers helping a Nicaraguan community get clean water.

Casanova
Lasse Hallström (Chocolat, The Cider House Rules) has topped his career crapfest with Casanova, a film so directionless and uncompelling that it made me wish the theater would just play “The 2wenty” for the entire 108 minutes. (Chas Bowie)

Certifiably Yours
The Northwest Film Center screens work from three of its students—Charlotte Lettis Richardson, Melissa Tvetan, and Justin Ward.

Film Geek
See review this issue.

Gay Sex in the ’70s
Interspersing photos, porn clips, and grainy archival footage with interviews from a few men lucky enough to live through the AIDS aftermath, this film still left me wanting a bit more substance. Maybe what’s missing are the stories of those who weren’t lucky enough to survive. (Brad Buckner)

Glory Road
See review this issue.

Grandma’s Boy
Bong. Pot. Fart. If any of the preceding words made you laugh, get to the theater immediately. The latest from Adam Sandler’s production company is dumb at best and just goddamned stupid the rest of the time, but there’s something to be said for a comedy that’s willing to go for the gross-out, particularly these days. And then there’s Linda Cardellini, as a videogame tester, who not only wears business suits and glasses but also likes to drink heavily and kick ass at Xbox. Move over, Lara Croft—you’ve been dethroned from the geek altar. (Andrew Wright)

Hoodwinked
See review this issue.

Hostel
Hostel‘s original plot is could’ve been seriously compelling: Two annoying pussy hounds (Derek Richardson and Jay Hernandez) are lured to a Slovakian hostel by boner tales of rampant horny girls—which does lead to some gratuitous booby shots. Only problem is, the hostel is really a herding station for young meat to be kidnapped and sent for slaughter. Although some of writer/director Eli Roth’s gore scenes are darkly creative, his characters’ inane stupidity kiboshes any care for their escape—and thus any interest in the film. (Jenna Roadman)

Last Holiday
See review this issue.

Lights, Camera, Allies in Action!
100+ local girls show off their media work projects—everything from film to print to radio. For more info, hit www.girlsincnworegon.org.

Loggerheads
Based on a true story, Loggerheads weaves tales of homosexuality, AIDS, and Christianity in various small towns around North Carolina. Extremely low-key, Loggerheads feels like a TV movie of the week—but eventually tells a moving story, despite all its sappy contrivances. (Mike Filtz)

The Matador
Man, Pierce Brosnan is so old and weathered. Don’t believe me? Check him out as The Matador‘s crude hitman Julian Noble, who, at a hotel bar in Mexico City, teams up with annoying forty-something Danny Wright (Greg Kinnear). A semi-successful story about a crazy asshole and a corporate pussy, The Matador is sometimes a blast—but also has a tendency to veer into forced, heart-tugging sappiness. Then again, you can’t really have too many complaints about any film that contains the line, “I look like a Bangkok hooker on a Sunday morning after the navy’s left town.” (Christine S. Blystone)

The Real Dirt on Farmer John
See review this issue.

Three Films About Martin Luther King, Jr.
Pretty much exactly what it sounds like: Three short films screened to celebrate/appreciate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Tristan & Isolde
See review this issue.