The Steven Seagal Issue!
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
X-Men in Excess
The Sound and Fury of X-Men: The Last Stand
Wolverine has three blades coming out each of his hands, he’s really fast, and he’s practically indestructible—skeleton full of metal, super-fast healing time—plus he likes to smoke cigars and tear shit up. Logic dictates that if you’ve got him in a movie, you really can’t do too much wrong. X-Men: The Last Stand—the third in […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Short and Semi-Sweet
Taking Your Chances with the Forest Film Fest
Clinton St. TheaterThe Third Annual Forest Film Fest (FFF) hits again this year, renting out the Clinton St. Theater to show a ton of short films. In addition to their nebulous declaration that the FFF is “Supporting Filmmakers!,” the FFF’s other tagline is “56 Short Films that Had to be Made.” While a statement as […]
Posted inMovies & TV
I’m Going Out
Bow BeforeThe Da Vinci Code!
God, if I only want one thing in life, it’s to come up with an idea like The Da Vinci Code. It’s not the plot—sure, Dan Brown’s pulp novel about a Mona Lisa-centric mystery and a secret about Christianity must have something, but I’m sure I could come up with something just as good. Like… […]
Posted inMusic
New Shit, Different Day
Lyrics Born Paralyzes Your Cerebellum
LYRICS BORN STARTS “Pack Up” (off 2003’s Later that Day…) with stunning energy: “You can’t even hold the microphone without it feedbackin’/since the days you speed-rappin’ I’ve been snappin’ cats’ spinal bones/embarrass ’em in front of women, take their little titles home/bear in mind I come from an era in time/when you actually had to […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Indiana Jones for Nerds
How About We Don’t Solve The Da Vinci Code?
This is it? Seriously? This is what everybody’s been carrying around and reading late into the night and talking about all the time? This is the thing that’s made me feel like a social leper for the past three years because I was like the only person on the goddamn planet who didn’t know what […]
Posted inMovies & TV
I’m Staying Home
Kurt Russell is Radical 101
I have a friend who refuses to admit that Kurt Russell is radical. My friend is wrong. Dead wrong. Need proof? Go see Poseidon this weekend—or, if Netflixin’ is more your style, kick back with this selection of Russell’s acclaimed canon. • Escape from New York (1981)—As criminal Snake Plissken, it’s up to Kurt Russell […]
Posted inMovies & TV
M:I x III = Awesome + Infinity
The Equation of a Perfect Summer Blockbuster
Okay, so this is what a summer blockbuster is supposed to be like. Loud and big and fun and cool, its mega-budget straining to contain its action, its effects, its stars, all of which are there for a singular purpose: to entertain. This is what summertime movies should be: made up of this speaker-straining, eye-widening, […]
Posted inBooks
Jonathan Safran Foer
Extremely Long and Incredibly Detailed
Here it is: The full Q&A of the Mercury‘s interview with Jonathan Safran Foer. (The shorter version is here.) It’s long. And we’re not very good at asking concise questions. But it’s still interesting. (We hope so, anyway.) MERCURY: You’re doing all this publicity. Are you sick of hearing any specific questions? JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER: […]
Posted inBooks
A.M. Homes and Jonathan Safran Foer
Two Amazing Authors Are Coming to Town; We’ve Got Interviews with Both of Them
A.M. HOMES by Chas Bowie A.M. HOMES has been igniting and inciting the literary world since 1989, when her debut novel, Jack, appeared. In her ensuing novels and short story collections, she’s brought a dark humor and disturbing realism to the lives of arsonists, crack smokers, child molesters, and other wayward humans. Her new novel, […]
Posted inMovies & TV
I’m Staying Home
Movies on a Plane
Sure, okay, every once in a while, some terrorists get onto a plane and manage to crash it into a building or a field or whatever. But United 93 aside, usually great, super-fun stuff happens on planes! • Airplane! (1980)—A kajillion TV showings have pretty much run this absurdist comedy into the ground. (Get it? […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Squirm Cinema
Hard Candy: A Pedophilic Psycho Thriller!
Psychological thrillers should creep your shit out. They should be more intense than you’d like. They should be cleverer than you are. And they should go places you’d prefer they wouldn’t. Like horror films, the best psychological thrillers function as morality tales, and like the best dramas, they work best when the setup is both […]