Even those few American souls who’ve never seen an episode of either Survivor and managed not to give in to Temptation Island are certainly aware of the phenomenon of Reality TV. Roundly criticized for being exploitative, crass, and cruel to animals, these programs devoted to putting allegedly normal people into extraordinary situations and watching them […]
Marc Mohan
Posted inMovies & TV
Fukasaku Me? Fukasaku You!
Film Center Kicks Ass with Far East Flicks
The Northwest Film Center has a pair of cinema series on tap over the next few weeks that couldn’t be more unlike one another. The Eric Rohmer retrospective, which began last weekend, offers a plethora of sophisticated, conversational, intellectual films. Wonderful stuff, but it’s also the same sort of pre-canonized, aesthetically safe material that gets […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Da Casa Del Hardee-Har-Har
The House of Mirth: A Font of Hilarity?
The House of Mirth is certainly that–a rock-solid edifice of laughs built upon the foundations that make all great comedy. Painful physical humor, insults like “nut head” and “rat brain,” even a scene of mistaken gender identity–this one’s got it all. If you value humor, drop this paper now and run, don’t walk, to the […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Crouching Ladies, Kicking Tail
The Latest in Girl Power from the Far East
IN THE LAST couple years, one entertainment concept has managed to draw viewers to the small screen, the arthouse theaters, and the multiplexes. A trend to follow for the new millennium, it could be exploitative or empowering, and usually a little of both. That’s right–I’m talking about Girls Kicking Ass. It all started a decade […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Prose Sports
Dribbling and Scribbling Mix in Finding Forrester
THE SCREENING OF “Finding Forrester” I attended was introduced by a “personality” (as I believe they’re known) from the popular Portland-area morning television show “AM Northwest”. The woman charged with this unfortunate duty (usually the purview of annoying radio DJs) related that she used to work at KINK FM 102 alongside Mike Rich while he […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Holy Heroin!
Requiem for a Dream Tackles the Needle, the Damage Done, and More
It’s been reported that Darren Aronofsky, the director of “Pi” and now, Requiem for a Dream, has been tagged to direct the next, inevitable installment in the Batman franchise. After seeing his latest work, the response to that news can only be “Really?” A more unlikely choice would be hard to conceive, outside of maybe […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Bedraggled
Leave Well Enough Alone
THINGS COULDN’T GET much worse for Dudley Moore. His career has been ruined and his health imperiled by the degenerative brain disorder progressive supranuclear palsy, and his time may indeed be running short. To add insult to this injury, the film containing his best performance (and best-known, outside of Arthur) has been remade in slapdash […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Troma-tized
A Chat with Troma’s Lloyd Kaufman
TROMA FILMS–for those whose cultural knowledge stops at the borders of, well, culture–makes gory, sophomoric, and generally tasteless entertainments like The Toxic Avenger and A Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell. And they do it on the cheap. In this age of so-called “independents” that are actually the red-headed stepchildren of corporate content-providing juggernauts, Troma is […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Pills and Needles, Needles and Pills
Potent, Yet Not Addictive
UPON FIRST GLANCE at the synopsis of Jesus’ Son, one might wonder, “Do we really need another tale of hopped-up hijinks set amidst the unwashed yet funky classes in a bygone pre-Reagan era, featuring a cast of indie film all-stars, a series of darkly funny misadventures, and a deftly chosen soundtrack of the period?” Then […]