It’s hard to watch someone gamble until they bottom out, so I was relieved, in After the Storm, to find that the scenes of failed novelist Ryôta (Hiroshi Abe) borrowing and losing money were frustrating but brief. Divorced, working as a private investigator, and estranged from most of his family thanks to his parasitic money […]
Suzette Smith
Suzette Smith is the arts & culture editor of the Portland Mercury. Go ahead and tell her about all your food, art, and culture gripes: suzette@portlandmercury.com. Follow her on Twitter, Bluesky, and Letterboxd.
Posted inMovies & TV
This Is All You Should Read Before You Go See Your Name
The highest-grossing anime in box-office history, Your Name has many hailing the film’s director, Makoto Shinkai, as the new Hayao Miyazaki. Shinkai has been working towards this for a while, and boasts a nice assortment of creative sci-fi dramas on his resume, all with emo band titles like The Place Promised in Our Early Days […]
Posted inArts
Slow Your Roll, Iron Fist—We’re Talking Esoteric Comics With Ron Regé Jr.
Also Discussed: Wonder Woman’s Goddess Origins and the Holy Grail
Also discussed: Wonder Woman’s goddess origins and the Holy Grail.
Posted inMovies & TV
Oh My God! What a Stupid, Beautiful Movie
I was having a rotten day before I watched CHIPS, but its explosion-heavy, progressive-bro comedy motored my frown upside down. That’s a dumb thing to say, but this is a dumb movie.
Posted inMovies & TV
Welcome to CHIPS World
Population: Dax Shepard, Michael Peña, and You
Oh my god! What a stupid, beautiful movie.
Posted inComedy
The McElroy Boys Are Coming to Town
“I think that the usage of the word “boy” has increased roughly 300 percent,” Griffin says. Maximumfun.org “We always underestimate it,” Justin McElroy says of his upcoming Portland show—a live recording of the popular advice podcast he performs with his brothers, Griffin and Travis, called My Brother, My Brother and Me. They’re all a little […]
Posted inComedy
My Brother, My Brother and Me IRL
The McElroy Brothers Take on Television and Portland
The McElroy Brothers Take on Television and Portland
Posted inMovies & TV
Beauty and Terror: Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts on Monsters, Vietnam, and Kong: Skull Island
Interview and Comic by Suzette Smith
Interview and comic by Suzette Smith.
Posted inMovies & TV
A Look at 2017’s Inspiring POW Fest: “Feminism and Intersectionality Are Like a Moving Target Right Now”
Womanhood isn’t a niche voice—or at least it shouldn’t be—because women are half the people that are. But portrayals of women in mainstream film are largely framed from a male perspective, and only seven percent of directors out there are women. The world is less interesting for Hollywood’s singular gaze, and audiences miss out on […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Breaking the Niche
POW Fest 2017: More Inclusive, More Interesting
POW Fest 2017: More inclusive, more interesting.