Mondovino dir. Nossiter Opens Fri May 13 Cinema 21 Mondovino is a documentary about wine. And it’s over two hours long. Now, here’s why you should go see it: Filmmaker Jonathan Nossiter is either a genius or an extremely lucky drunk, but either way, his documentary about wine somehow gets to the heart of globalization […]
Alison Hallett
Alison Hallett served nobly as the Mercury's arts editor from 2008-2014. Her proud legacy lives on.
Posted inBooks
How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets
How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets by Garth Stein, reading at Annie Bloom’s, 7834 SW Capitol Hwy, Thurs May 12 Evan is the ultimate hipster anti-hero: an emotionally retarded, self-obsessed, aloof slacker who just happens to be a virtuoso on the guitar and incredibly attractive to boot. In a nutshell, Evan is the […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Fuente Ovejuna, Miracle Theatre
Fuente OvejunaMiracle Theatre 525 SE Stark, 236-7253, Fri-Sat 8 pm, Sun 2 pm, through May 14, $14-17 While watching Fuente Ovejuna, Miracle Theatre’s current production, I couldn’t help but notice that my date and I were the youngest people in the audience by a good 10 years. And that, my friends, is a damn shame. […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Blue/Orange
Blue/Orange Artists Repertory Theatre, 5340 N Interstate, 241-1278, Tues-Sat 8 pm, Sun 2 & 7 pm, through May 29, $15-35 The entirety of Blue/Orange, Artists Repertory Theatre’s current Second Stage production, takes place in one room of a mental institution, where two doctors debate whether a patient is sane enough to be released. Christopher, the […]
Posted inBooks
The Language of Baklava
The Language of Baklava by Diana Abu-Jaber, appearing at Wordstock, Borders Stage at the Oregon Convention Center, Saturday April 23, 11 AM Memoirs are by definition self-indulgent. Someone is so fascinated by their own personal history, so convinced that their childhood was more interesting than my childhood, that they insist on publishing a book about […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Humble Boy
Humble Boy Artists Repertory Theatre, 1516 SW Alder, 241-1278, Sun 2 pm & 7 pm, Tues-Thurs 7 pm, Fri-Sat 8 pm, through May 1, $15-35 Theater is such an exciting medium because each performance is different, and brilliance and disaster are equally possible on any given night. The elusive chemistry that characterizes a good show […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Mommie Queerest
Mommie Queerest Theater! Theatre!, 3430 SE Belmont, 224-TIXX, Sunday March 27 only, 3 pm, $20 Joan Crawford occupies a bizarre cultural role, simultaneously idolized as a film legend and fetishized as a campy cult icon–and often by the same people. This duality comes both from her occasionally illustrious acting career, which includes performances in such […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Race Relations
Guess What? Guess Who Sucks
Guess Who dir. Sullivan Opens Fri March 25 Various Theaters In one of Guess Who‘s most glaringly offensive moments–and those moments are legion–Bernie Mac makes a crack about the “metrosexual” party planner who’s helping to plan his vow renewal ceremony. The stupidity of the term aside, what sort of filmmakers include cheap gay jokes in […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Toy Soldiers
The Insight and Challenge of Gunner Palace
Gunner Palace dir. Epperlein, Tucker Opens Fri Mar 18 Cinema 21 Documentary filmmaker Michael Tucker spent 10 months living in Iraq, embedded with 400 soldiers stationed at a bombed-out palace in Baghdad. His resultant film, Gunner Palace, is challenging, funny, and poignant–and one of the best documentaries to come out of the war in Iraq. […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
A Devil Inside
A Devil Inside Theater! Theatre! 3430 SE Belmont, 306-0870, Thurs-Sat 8 pm, Sun 7 pm, through April 2, $13-15 Theatre Vertigo’s production of David Lindsay-Abaire’s A Devil Inside opens innocuously enough: Gene Slater is an average college student, living at home, being kind of a dick to his mom. On the morning of his 21st […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Austen Goes Bollywood
Bride & Prejudice: Disney for Grownups
Bride & Prejudicedir. Chadha Opens Fri Feb 25 Fox Tower Gurinder Chadha, the director of Bend It Like Beckham, has revamped Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice with a Bollywood aesthetic. Consider that Bollywood films are characterized by over the top musical numbers, factor in that Jane Austen was the 19th Century equivalent of Jacqueline Susann, […]
Posted inBooks
The Earth Moved
The Earth Moved by Amy Stewart, appearing at the Portland Home & Garden Show, Expo Center, 2060 N. Marine Drive, Friday Feb. 25, 3 pm, $10 gen. admission When I was nine years old, Nicky Leonard told me she’d give me a dollar if I ate a worm. I agreed immediately, but as tough as […]