Paramount Pictures Ang Lee’s Gemini Man isn’t a bad movie so much as it’s a missed opportunity. Considering the talent assembled in front and behind the camera and the 20 years (that’s right, 20 years) of development time, you’d expect either a powerhouse of artsy action cinema or at least a trainwreck for the ages. […]
Ben Coleman
Hello! I am a freelancer for the paper. I cover movies mostly, but sometimes video games, comic books, and whatever else comes up.
Posted inTheater & Performance
Lake House Hamlet Review: Shakespeare in a Secret Location Still Lands Strongly on the Shoulders of Capable Actors
Left to right: Claudius (John Aney), Hamlet (Isabella Buckner), and Gertrude (Tamara Sorelli) Myrrh Larsen Lake House Hamlet owes a fair bit of conceptual debt to New York’s infamous Sleep No More: an open-ended adaptation of Macbeth where audience-members wander through the rooms of a speakeasy warehouse, encountering intertwining aspects of the bard’s Scottish Play. […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Fin de Cinema Is a Late Night TBA Classic and Their Approach to Black Orpheus Was Perfect
Simone Fischer An ongoing concert series at Holocene for ten (10!) years, Fin de Cinema pairs snooty film nerd deep cuts (and I say that with affection) with live scores from local musicians. The end result is part silent film / part concert / part feature-length video installation. Suffice to say, it’s awesome and the […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Dystopian Cyberpunk Interpretive Dance With Notes of Blade Runner: Ligia Lewis’ Water Will (in Melody) at TBA 2019
Ben Coleman There’s a scene in the 1982 film Blade Runner where futuristic bounty hunter / cop-with-a-cool-jacket Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) shoots Pris (Daryl Hannah), a renegade “basic pleasure model” android with a penchant for violent gymnastics. In life, Pris is animated, sensual, and dangerous. But in the moment of her death she is reduced […]
Posted inMovies & TV
AAAAHHHHH! WATCH OUT!! IT’S GODZILLATHON!
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla Toho Studios We’re all familiar, I suspect, with Godzilla as a concept, but how many installments of the legendary kaiju franchise have you actually seen? Thankfully, the Hollywood Theatre’s weekend-long GODZILLATHON! represents a great opportunity to stomp-stomp-stomp through Godzilla’s swinging ’70s oeuvre. The four movies on offer—produced by Japanese production company Toho […]
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The Most Surprising Thing About Angel Has Fallen Is That Angel Has Fallen Is Actually Pretty Good
Simon Varsano Olympus Has Fallen was a forgettable Gerard Butler action movie vehicle best known for being the worse of two “Die Hard in a White House” movies released in 2013. (Here at the Mercury, at least, we haven’t forgotten you, White House Down.) London Has Fallen was perfunctory “War on Terror” throwback schlock rife […]
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Good Boys Review: A Film About 12-Year-Old Boys Saying “Fuck” a Lot
Ed Araquel / Universal Pictures If you think a 12-year-old saying “fuck” is kinda funny—and for the record, I’m not judging you—then you’ll probably have fun with Good Boys. There are a bunch of 12-year-olds in it, and they all say “fuck” a lot, which also doubles as the film’s plot synopsis. If you don’t […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Remembering Trek in the Park Actress and Dartgun & the Vignettes Singer Dana Thompson
Photo by Al Rosko Singer, actor, and my friend Dana Thompson died last week, the result of a sudden and unexpected medical issue. Many will remember her as Lt. Uhura from Trek in the Park, a part she played for five consecutive summers to audiences numbering in the thousands. Thompson was also a singer in […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Missing Link Review: Gorgeous Visuals, Lousy Script
LAIKA STUDIOS / ANNAPURNA PICTURES Let’s get this out of the way: Missing Link, the latest from Hillsboro-based stop-motion studio Laika, is astonishingly beautiful. From the secluded, cerulean glens of Pacific Northwest timberland to the jaunty, slate-topped roofs of Victorian London, every scene represents artwork on the highest level from an army of masters in […]
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The Kid Who Would Be King Review: Excalibur, Skeleton Knights, and a Valuable Lesson™
THE KID WHO WOULD BE KING I don’t care if you found Excalibur, STOP PLAYING IN THE GODDAMN STREET The Kid Who Would Be King reminds me of the kids movies I watched as a kid, where an actual child comes into possession of something they shouldn’t, like a spaceship, or a professional baseball team, […]
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I Found the Best—or Maybe Just the Weirdest—Videos at Movie Madness
Movie Madness’ rarities offer a very… special glimpse into film history.