Cookers dir. MIntz Opens Fri Jan 31 Clinton Street Theater Before the opening credits of Cookers finish, you’ll have a sense of whether or not you’ll enjoy it. Unlike many cinematic explorations of drug addiction, Cookers doesn’t follow the usual format, wherein good people are seduced into drug-fueled decay. The principle characters, Hector and Dorena, […]
Marjorie Skinner
Marjorie Skinner is the Portland Mercury's Managing Editor, author of the weekly Sold Out column chronicling the area's independent fashion and retail industry, and a frequent contributor to the film and other arts and feature sections of the paper. She has been writing about Portland life and culture for the Mercury since 2001, produces one of Portland's largest annual spring fashion shows, and occasionally answers emails.
Posted inMovies & TV
A Good Wallow
The Sweet Pain of the Melancholic Bourgeoisie
The Hours dir. Daldry Opens Fri Jan 17 Various Theaters The Hours is a nice package of arts and literature: a film based on a book that’s based on a book. Michael Cunningham wrote The Hours, offering various reinterpretations of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, one of which features Woolf as she’s writing the book and […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Tell It Like It Is
But Spice It Up A Teeny Bit
Rabbit-Proof Fence dir. Noyce Opens Wed Dec 25 Cinema 21 The most striking aspect of Rabbit-Proof Fence is its simplicity; its bald setting in Western Australia’s bush, its story, and its characters. It relates the true tale of Molly, a 14-year-old Aborigine, her sister, and their cousin. Part of the Stolen Generation, they were forcibly […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Envy, Secrets, and Murder
Oh My! We Just Can’t Tie It Together
The Weight of Water dir. Bigelow Opens Fri Dec 6 Various Theaters The Weight Of Water is a two-in-one cinematic experience. Half of the film takes place in the present day, and the other is a creative reenactment of a 19th century true-crime mystery. The two stories are spliced together in an attempt to draw […]
Posted inMovies & TV
It’s a Hard, Hard Drive
The Pot-Bellied, Bloodless, Dry-Eyed Revolution
Revolution OS dir. Moore Opens Fri Dec 6 Clinton Street Revolution OS is the documented story of the battle between the proprietary, capitalist giant of software, Microsoft, and the creators of Linux and the Open Source movement. Oh, by the way, “OS” stands for “operating system.” What’s that? Well, it is the underlying system on […]
Posted inMovies & TV
I’m Not Okay, You’re Not Okay
Let’s Hang Out! It’ll Be A Bummer!
The Isle dir. Kim Ki-Duk Opens Fri Nov 15 Clinton Street Theater Kim Ki-Duk, who directed The Isle, has a reputation for offending women, often infuriating feminist critics. Despite this notoriety, The Isle‘s violence, whether in victimization or self-destruction, seems equally distributed among the sexes. The setting is a lonely fishing village of tiny houses […]
Posted inMusic
Say Something French!
Pop Duo Gets International, Postmodern
Stereo Total Blackbird Mon Nov 18 Sixties rock, ’50s rockabilly, ’70s disco, early ’80s new wave, and Miami booty music are all influences embedded in Stereo Total’s upbeat, found-sound pop explosion. Known for covers of everyone from Edith Piaf and Brigitte Bardot to Lou Reed, the Berlin-based band (comprised of François Cactus and Brezel Göring) […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Hey, I Just Dusted That!
Look Out for the Incestuous Lesbian Murder Maids
Murderous Maids dir. Denis Opens Nov 1 Clinton St. Theater Murderous Maids is one of several dramatizations of one of the most famous murders in the history of France. In the 1930s, sisters Léa and Christine Papin were both working as live-in chambermaids. After a hard life as orphans and degraded servants, often separated for […]
Posted inNews
Fight the Power
Musician Works To Change Hiphop’s Reputation
The weekly “Luv Jonz” at the Ohm was one of the last places you would expect a fight to break out. Featuring freestyling romantics backed by the smooth Reparations, it was a way more mellow lounge sound than angry rap. But a fight did break out several weeks ago and, in its wake, the Ohm […]
Posted inMovies & TV
End Days Are Upon Us
Ravers and Sluts Watch Out
Hell House dir. Ratliff Opens Fri Oct 25 Clinton Street Theater Every year around Halloween, churches across the nation put on haunted houses that are intended to put the fear of god into their guests. Rather than employing the usual scare tactics–such as zombies, and spiders–they depict sin and its consequences (death, immediately followed by […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Blood Flow
Don’t Mess With Yakuza! Hai!
Fudoh is about the Yakuza criminal elite. Specifically, Fudoh is the son of a powerful crime lord who once killed his own son (Fudoh’s older brother). Having witnessed the slaying, Fudoh spends the remainder of his upbringing cultivating vengeance. He and his high school friends campaign to assassinate the “old blood” honchos and take over. […]