TOM TYKWER’S Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, based on the German novel by Patrick Süskind, introduces the movie-going public to one of the strangest antiheroes of all time: Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Ben Whishaw), an 18th-century Parisian with a preternaturally developed sense of smell. Born in a fishmonger’s stall and raised in an orphanage, the unlikeable, […]
Alison Hallett
Alison Hallett served nobly as the Mercury's arts editor from 2008-2014. Her proud legacy lives on.
Posted inBooks
Adam Haberberg
by Yasmina Reza
The French playwright, screenwriter, and novelist Yasmina Reza is best known for Art, her 1994 play in which three characters argue over the artistic validity of a painting that is essentially a white canvas. Art is full of snappy exchanges regarding the meaning of art, and these exchanges shed light on the play’s real subject […]
Posted inNews
19 Things Not Invited Back to 2007!
Tired of all the annoying annoyances you had to put up with in 2006? Well, instead of crying about it, we’ve come up with a simple solution: “HEY, TOP 19 ANNOYING THINGS OF 2006! YOU’RE NOT INVITED BACK!“ Non–Sexy Emails from Former Police Chief Derrick Foxworth Yeah, yeah. WE KNOW. It’s supposedly “morally repugnant” to […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
And Then There Were None
The Northwest Classical Theatre Company (NWCTC) specializes in chestnuts, in “classic works by great authors,” produced “with an emphasis on the authors’ own writing and not the directors’ concept,” according to their website. In the case of NWCTC’s current staging of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, this means that the tidy little melodrama […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Mars on Life: The Holiday Edition
This review should probably come with a disclaimer: Unlike many of you, I don’t hate the holidays. Religion be damned, but food, presents, and celebrations are OK in my book. So it is not with an entirely hardened heart that I approached Susannah Mars’ Mars on Life: The Holiday Edition, a holiday cabaret show in […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Dead British Society
Prep-School Pederasty in The History Boys
Don’t worry: The History Boys is not another in the seemingly endless succession of Inspirational Movies About the British. It’s true that the boys in the cast are pretty damn cute—which can be, uh, uplifting—but the film is too smart to be mistaken for inspirational. The History Boys follows eight teenagers who are studying to […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Who Smells Bacon?
Charlotte’s Web Will Make You Hungry
Maybe you loved E.B. White’s classic children’s novel, Charlotte’s Web, as a kid. Maybe the book made you cry, and the movie played a key role in your decision to go vegan. Maybe for these reasons and more, you’re excited about Nickelodeon’s new live-action version of the story, complete with CG talking farm animals and […]
Posted inUncategorized
Keep it on the Hush
Hush Hush Café: Too Good to Share?
I don’t want to write this review of the Hush Hush Café. I know it’s my “job,” and my deadline is looming, but I’d really rather keep this one to myself. The tiny café is tucked into the corner of SW 4th and Washington, and it’s easy to imagine hundreds of people walking past each […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Pageant
Triangle Productions’ Pageant delivers everything you could want out of a drag-ified spoof of a beauty contest (assuming you’re inclined to want something like that). From the dapper, smooth-taking emcee to the stubbly armpits of the contestants to the opening number, “We Are Natural-Born Females,” the show brims with charm and good-natured camp. The premise […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Hot Buttered Butt
Local sketch comedy legends the 3rd Floor are clearly amped to be playing a new show in Portland, and judging by the number of people lined up in the freezing cold trying to get into last Saturday’s sold-out show, Portland is happy to have them back. Their “holiday” show (which promises to contain only two […]
Posted inUncategorized
Tea Time
Drinking Medicinally at the Camellia Lounge
I love hot toddies. They’re delicious, and thanks to their occasional use as a remedy for the common cold, I believe they’re also good for me. There’s only so much you can do with the classic toddy, though: Aside from adjusting honey/water/lemon ratios, or tossing in the odd clove or cinnamon stick, a hot toddy […]
Posted inUncategorized
What’s in a Name?
Hits and Misses at Life of Riley
It’s an awkward name, “Life of Riley.” It’s too long, and requires too much explanation. So you don’t have to ask, here’s what the menu has to say: “Life of Riley: the good life; a comfortable existence.” The menu goes on to explain something about how “Riley” was probably an Irish character in a 19th […]