I know this is going to sound simplistic and lazy, but there’s really no better way to say it: All the King’s Men is a horrible film. That statement is wholly accurate, fairly descriptive, and damn near irrefutable. In fact, that point is so incontrovertible that I can’t picture anyone arguing it—even Sean Penn, and […]
Erik Henriksen
With honor and distinction, Erik Henriksen served as the executive editor of the Portland Mercury from 2004 to 2020. He can now be found at henriksenactual.com.
Posted inMovies & TV
R for Ridiculous
Film Ratings: More Interesting than You’d Think!
There’s only one way to ensure a movie will bomb. (Well, okay, two ways, but only Hitler—no, wait, an evil alien Hitler—would be malevolent enough to call Carrot Top and propose Chairman of the Board 2.) Once a film gets rated NC-17, the thing’s pretty much DOA: Most theaters won’t show it, most video stores […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Geek Out
Star Wars—Again.
Here’s something I’m not sure how I feel about: I’m 26, and some of my favorite movies today were also my favorite movies when I was in kindergarten. Well, sort of: Star Wars—and its prequels, spin-offs, and cash-ins—has changed a lot since the original hit in 1977. Jar Jar Binks aside, the most egregious thing […]
Posted inBooks
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
One more nice thing about short stories is that you can create a story out of the smallest details—an idea that springs up in your mind, a word, an image, whatever,” writes Haruki Murakami in the introduction to his latest short story collection, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman. “In most cases it’s like jazz improvisation, with […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Innocence and Experience
Drugs, Sex, and Kids—Half Nelson
Charming and clever, Dan Dunne (Ryan Gosling) is a great teacher. Lecturing about history in an inner-city junior high school, Dunne connects with his disadvantaged students, teaching the kids about how opposing forces shape current and past events—and when he’s not teaching, he’s coaching the school’s girls’ basketball team. And all this makes it pretty […]
Posted inMovies & TV
A Boy and His Elephant
The Protector: A Touching Story of Asskicking
“You killed my father,” Tony Jaa shouts at the evil villainess of The Protector. He then pauses for dramatic measure, because here comes the really important part: “And you stole my elephant!” Damn straight, Tony! That bitch did steal your elephant, and her henchmen killed your dad! Kick her ass! It’s an all too common […]
Posted inMovies & TV
I’m Going Out
Turning Japanese
The “They Came from Japan” film series—”a celebration of modern Japanese cinema”—is still going strong at the Hollywood Theatre. While two films screened last week—the horror film Neighbor No. 13 and Takashi Miike’s kiddie flick The Great Yokai War—the really interesting stuff kicks in this weekend. Originally scheduled for Friday–but now delayed to a vague […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Welcome to Portland
Old Joy: A Great Local Film? Yes! Seriously!
Perhaps the most striking thing about Old Joy is how it feels like Portland. No, it doesn’t just look like it—though there are the dark skies, the washed-out gray light, that cool haze that subdues the vibrancy of Northwest forests and can humanize something as artificial as the St. Johns Bridge. Old Joy‘s opening moments […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Cheap Trick
The Unconvincing Illusionist
There are a lot of theatrics and melodrama in The Illusionist, a period mystery focusing on a morose magician, Eisenheim (Edward Norton), and the dutiful police chief assigned with breaking him down, Chief Inspector Uhl (Paul Giamatti). Those theatrics are fitting, it seems—in a movie about the fantastic, some level of overblown fuss is required, […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Snakes, Tits, and Terrorists
Sssspeaking with Snakes on a Plane‘s Nathan Phillips
This is not a review of Snakes on a Plane, the pulpy Samuel L. Jackson flick that’s already built up an insane amount of internet buzz—most of it thanks to the film’s ludicrous conceit and the promise of Jackson shouting something about wanting some motherfucking snakes off a goddamn plane. But while New Line Cinema […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Sex in the City
A Beautiful, Hot, and Empty Lower City
Goddamn, Lower City is gorgeous. Shot in the Brazilian city of Salvador Bahia, director Sérgio Machado and cinematographer Toca Seabra have created a film that’s full of nearly tangible, sweltering tropical heat and rundown, artfully aged modernity. Simultaneously stylized and utterly believable, Lower City is eye candy of the most addictive and cavity-inducing sort. Past […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Geek Out
Zombietopia
“This game was not developed, approved, or licensed by the owners or creators of George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead,” reads the cover for Capcom’s Dead Rising, a game that then proceeds to shamelessly rip off every aspect of George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead. Just as his ’78 horror classic followed a […]