Remember the Festivus episode of Seinfeld? With Frank Costanza (Jerry Stiller) insisting
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
Harry Potter and the Okay Movie
If Only There Was a Magic Spell for Making a Good Script…
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire—the fourth entry in J.K. Rowling’s ludicrously popular (and ludicrously good) Potter literary saga—is 734 pages long. They’re a busy 734 pages, too—when the young wizard returns to Hogwarts, he must fight his arch-nemesis, Voldemort, compete in a wizarding tournament, and deal with an ever-burgeoning supply of hormones. You’d […]
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Wasted Sympathy
More Revenge from the Director of Oldboy
Is it fair to judge an artist’s work in relation to their other work? Okay, more specifically: Should an earlier film by Chan-Wook Park, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, be examined as individual work, or in relation to Park’s more recent film, Oldboy? I’m going to guess that no, it’s not fair—but since when is life […]
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Samurais and Whores
Succinct Reviews for the Discerning Cinephile
Wal-Mart does such a good job of shooting themselves in the foot that siccing Robert Greenwald—the director of previous
Posted inMovies & TV
I’m Staying Home
WHO “OTTER” DIRECT POTTER
In what might be the dorkiest I’m Staying Home ever, let’s nerdily hypothesize about unmade Harry Potter movies! Sure, unknown British TV director David Yates has already signed up for 2007’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, but nobody’s on tap for the seventh film. Check out the works of these directors who […]
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Fun with Divorce
The Pain and Beauty of The Squid and the Whale
If there’s one thing I’ve been able to use as an excuse for nearly every one of my personal failings, it’s my parents’ divorce. Why am I so cripplingly self-conscious? Why, divorce! Why am I paranoid that those I’m closest to are scheming behind my back? Yep—divorce. The reason for my emotional cowardice and my […]
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Owing it to Yourself
NW Film & Video Fest Strikes Again
“If you don’t take the effort to look beyond the multiplex, it is increasingly rare to find new ideas,” the Northwest Film Center’s Andrew Blubaugh and Bill Foster write in their welcoming notes for the 32nd Northwest Film & Video Festival. “Original thought isn’t gone forever, but when it makes a brief appearance, you owe […]
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I’m Staying Home
Wes Anderson… Criterionized!
If I could avoid the social stigma that would result from such an action, I’d marry the Criterion Collection—DVDs that boast gorgeous film transfers, perfect audio mixes, and creator-oriented commentaries and special features that’ll make any cinephile cream their jeans. And if the most unfortunate occasion occurred—in which I’d be sentenced to live a lonely […]
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Five-Day Forecast
If Trends Continue, Your Life Will Suck
Joel Schumacher’s one good film is 1993’s dark, witty Falling Down, which chronicles a day in the life of an ordinary man (Michael Douglas) who goes crazy when he realizes that everything is bullshit. It’s too bad that Schumacher followed it up with adaptations of John Grisham novels and Batman & Robin. Gore Verbinski, the […]
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Sex, Blood, and… Uh, Emotions?
Succinct Reviews for the Discerning Cinephile
Where the Truth Lies dir. Egoyan Opens Fri Oct 28 Fox Tower Where the Truth Lies is a whodunit centered around a fictional ’50s comedy duo; an oddly cast (but surprisingly sufficient) Kevin Bacon is paired with Colin Firth, who plays the straight man to Bacon’s jerkier, dirtier half. The mystery: A young woman’s found […]
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I’m Staying Home
Creepy Cronenberg
With his introspective drama A History of Violence currently in theaters—not to mention Halloween quickly approaching—it’s as good of a time as any to brush up on the disconcerting, smart, and hit-and-miss films of David Cronenberg. It’s nearly impossible to like all of Cronenberg’s stuff—but it’s a hell of a thing when even the guy’s […]
