Get ready for the best film you’ve never heard of. Released to DVD on Jan 2, The Way of the Gun is destined to become a cult object among action buffs. It’s an ultra-violent, foul-mouthed, stylish film soleil (or sunit noir) that few people saw and that critics hated, but which happens to be one […]
D.K. Holm
Posted inMovies & TV
Mercury Video Picks
Post-holiday stress syndrome
Admit it: You had a terrible Christmas and New Year. You didn’t get the presents you wanted. You fought with your mate, saw relatives you hate, and ate, and ate, and ATE. You are particularly bummed. Well, there’s only one cure for the post-holiday blues, and that’s wallowing in self-pity. And here are some recently […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Blue Night in the Heart of the West
Theater Review
Sowelu Theater Company Good actors can make a good show, but they can’t make the play. Sowelu Theater’s production of Blue Night in the Heart of the West is extremely well acted and directed, but the text itself is a problem. Written by James Stock, this is an absurdist black comedy concerning a Scottish lad, […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
The Imaginary Invalid
Theater Review
Imago Theater 17 SE 8th Ave, 231-9581 Through Dec. 9 One grows tired of praising Imago Theatre. This internationally renowned company consistently purveys fine productions imaginatively staged. It’s spacious digs in lower Southeast Portland provides a strong platform for experimental forays into whatever comes into its founders’ heads. Yet their skulls maintain their normal human […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Not About Heroes
Theater Review
Cygnet Productions Russell Street Theater 116 NE Russell 295-3555 OK, let’s be frank with each other. I rarely laugh in the theater. It’s not because plays aren’t funny; it’s because in Portland’s mostly miniature auditoriums, you are practically in the actors’ front pockets. It’s too fourth-wall, jarringly tense to keep your mind on the characters […]
Posted inArt
ARTS ‘n’ CRAFTS
David Boring Daniel Clowes (Pantheon) Today, from the sexual and political fantasies of R. Crumb to the opaque baroque stylings of Alan Moore, comics and graphic novels seem wholly independent from outside influence. That’s what marginalization does for you: fewer readers, but more freedom. David Boring is a good example of this contemporary liberation. Daniel […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
ON STAGE!
w/ Amy Brandenburg
What: An American girl; specifically, a 16-year-old Northwest Portland resident, a former Lincoln High School student (hated it there) currently going to PCC to get her GED and Associates degree. Born in SW Portland, father an Intel genius, mother an artist. So, what shows have you seen lately that you liked? “OK, now I know […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Variations on “Measure for Measure”
Theater Review
Tygres Heart Shakespeare Company 1111 SW Broadway, 288-8400 Through Nov 5 Way back in early September, the two most appealing productions were Chris Coleman’s Portland Center Stage debut with The Devils, and Charles Marowitz’s version of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure opening its 10th season at Tygres Heart. Well, last week we got The Devils, and […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Theater Review
The Devils Portland Center Stage, 274-6588 Through Oct 22 “I just can’t follow the story.” “Oh, I liked the part where he bit everyone.” Those were just two of comments overheard in the lobby during the first intermission for The Devils, the debut performance of Portland Center Stage’s new artistic director Chris Coleman, at the […]
Posted inBooks
Book Review
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay By Michael Chabon Powell’s Books on Hawthorne, 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd Thurs, Oct 12 “Cold air burned his cheeks.” This is the kind of description designed to create atmosphere but which ends up coming across like padding. Hundreds of thousands of conventional novels are filled with billions of […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
The Duck Variations
The Duck Variations Asylum Theatre Russel Street Theatre, 775-4324 Through Oct 14 Not since Arthur Miller has there been an American playwright as overrated as David Mamet. Little more than actors’ exercises, Mamet’s inert plays defy recognizable speech patterns and baffle those who might wish to sensibly block out their action on a stage. Mamet’s […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Popcorn
Theater Review
Popcorn Theatre Vertigo, 306-0870 Through Oct 15 What if Natural Born Killers director Oliver Stone returned from Oscar night to find his mansion under siege by the real Mickey and Mallory? What if Quentin Tarantino found himself trapped in a debate with an actual ear-slicing maniac? That’s the premise of Popcorn, the play by British […]