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Posted inMovies & TV

Remembering Film Archivist and Former Clinton Street Theater Owner Dennis Nyback

The Mercury once described Nyback as “the P.T. Barnum of Cinema.”
Avatar photo Robert Ham

Last week, the curtain closed on the life of Dennis Nyback, the former owner of the Clinton Street Theater and one of the most fervent advocates of preserving and elevating the history of global cinema—in all its high and low glories. He quietly succumbed to cancer in his home near Mount Tabor on October 2. […]

Posted inNews

YOUR SUNDAY READING LIST: Election Office Upholds Gonzalez’ Historic Fine, a New Comics Museum, and Is It Time to Ban Autumn?

Avatar photo Wm. Steven Humphrey

GOOD MORNING, SUNDAY! It’s the perfect time to catch up on some of the great reporting and stories the Mercury churned out this week! (PRO TIP: If you despise being “the last to know,” then be one of the first to know by signing up for Mercury newsletters! All the latest stories shipped directly to […]

Posted inMovies & TV

Film Review: Riotsville, U.S.A. Is a Surreal History Lesson on the Militarization of the US Police

Archival footage shows racism was at the core of how law enforcement responds to riots today.
Avatar photo Jas Keimig

Sierra Pettengill’s Riotsville, U.S.A. is a surreal examination of the militarization of the United States police force as a response to the class and social consciousness gained by Black and other marginalized communities in the late 1960s.  The documentary situates itself in a fake town called Riotsville, which was constructed by the federal government on US […]

Posted inSports

Review: A New Documentary Shines Light on Abuse Within the Portland Thorns and Women’s Soccer

Truth Be Told–The Fight For Women’s Professional Soccer focuses on former Thorns coach Paul Riley and other scandals that rocked the league.
Avatar photo Abe Asher

A moment that fans of women’s soccer have been waiting months for is fast approaching: the release of ESPN’s Truth Be Told – The Fight For Women’s Professional Soccer.  It’s been an unexpectedly long wait to see the documentary, which offers a comprehensive look at the scandals that rocked the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) […]

Posted inMovies & TV

Film Review: Vesper Is Superb Science Fiction

The makers of Vanishing Waves return with another beautifully bleak masterpiece.
Avatar photo Charles Mudede

Vesper is a superb post-apocalyptic film set in a world that is still technologically advanced but has reverted to a society and economy that resembles Europe’s Dark Ages. Its story is centered on a girl, Vesper (Raffiella Chapman), whose father, Darius (Richard Brake), is dying, and whose uncle, Jonas (Eddie Marsan), is just evil. One […]

Posted inMovies & TV

Earth II Is Four Decades of Disaster Movies Recut Into Climate Change Reality

“Time and time again, climate change is reduced to just a tsunami or just a twister or whatever.”
Avatar photo Chase Hutchinson

The Anti-Banality Union (ABU) has been making films for more than a decade, but they’ve never picked up a camera. Instead their work is reminiscent of the Moscow Film School—the world’s first film school, where a shortage of film stock meant students repeatedly edited existing works, leading to the montage as we know it. This […]

Posted inMovies & TV

Queen Latifah’s End of the Road Is a Horror Movie about MAGA Country

Don’t be fooled by the Netflix misclassification—this is a zombie movie about Trumpers.
Avatar photo Charles Mudede

End of the Road, starring Queen Latifah (Brenda) and Ludacris (Chris), has received a lot of bad reviews. But we can place most of the blame for this negative response not on the movie itself, but on Netflix’s misclassification of it. End of the Road is not a thriller but a horror film. If this […]

Posted inFall Arts 2022

A Decade of the Portland Film Festival

Milestones be damned, PFF wants its own movie theater.
Avatar photo Chase Hutchinson

It was nearly a decade ago that Paste called the Portland Film Festival (PFF) a “rising star” that “reflects the beautiful, crazy, eclectic, nutty city it lives in.” Now, going into their tenth year, the festival is looking to make the most of 2022, with additional films and more opportunities for audiences to connect. Clocking […]

Posted inMovies & TV

Portland Playhouse Returns to the Short, Local Films of Wonderland

Short films are where the filmmakers of tomorrow are being born.
Avatar photo Chase Hutchinson

“Yes, we do plays, but we wondered, how else could we… respond to issues happening in our communities?”

Despite being a theater, Portland Playhouse also elevates local film. In 2020, they held a virtual film festival called Wonderland that showcased four local shorts from different artists. Now, t
They’re following up a successful virtual screening of local short film with a new installment, Return to Wonderland, which will screen a collection of shorts from four new filmmakers.

Posted inMovies & TV

Film Review: Regina Hall Is Divine in Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.

She’s a genius.
Avatar photo Jas Keimig

This review originally ran as part of our sister paper The Stranger‘s 2022 Sundance Film Festival coverage.  Adamma and Adanne Ebo’s Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. is a riotous skewering of Southern megachurch culture in all its excesses, exploitations, and contradictions. Shot in a Guestian mockumentary style, the film switches between hilarious vignettes and high-emotion […]

Posted inMovies & TV

For National Cinema Day SOME Portland Movie Theaters Will Offer $3 Admission

Are movie theaters that you like participating in this new, national tradition?
Avatar photo Suzette Smith

National Cinema Day is sort of like Record Store Day for movie theaters—it aims to entice audiences back into movie houses with one day of $3 tickets, hoping they’ll make a habit of it. This good news is it’s not just chains. But are YOUR FAVORITE movie spots participating? WE CHECKED.

Posted inMovies & TV

Sam Now Documents a Stunning Family Mystery

Half-Brothers Spend Decades Trailing a Mother’s Unexpected Departure
Avatar photo Chase Hutchinson

The experience of watching Sam Now, a 2022 documentary from a Portland director with roots in Seattle, is as painful as it is poetic. Making use of old home movies, short Super 8 films, and crisp HD videos, Sam Now spans decades of life in the troubled Harkness family and a mother’s departure from it.

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