Back to the Future
Once upon the 1980s, a young Republican in a life-vest, with the help of his science friend, traveled back in time, where he had to prevent his motherโs sexual advances and instead steer her toward Crispin Gloverโs dick. (Fri July 5-Thurs July 11, Academy Theater) BOBBY ROBERTS
Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blachรฉ
Documentarian Pamela B. Green’s attempt to tell “the untold story of Alice Guy-Blachรฉ,” the world’s first woman filmmaker. Those looking for a history lesson will get one, along with an impassioned indoctrination about why this history is importantโto the point where Be Natural takes on the unfortunate rhythm of propaganda. (Fri July 12-Sun July 14, Northwest Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium) SUZETTE SMITH
Canopy Stories
A multi-night program showcasing 12 short documentaries about some of Portlandโs most notable trees. Created by filmmakers working with NW Documentary, and screened in conjunction with Oregon Film and the #OregonMade Creative Foundation. More at canopystoriesfilm.com. (Mon July 8, Hollywood Theatre; Tues July 9, Clinton Street Theater; Wed July 10, Cinema 21; Thurs July 11, Northwest Film Centerโs Whitsell Auditorium)
Crawl
What Alexandre Ajaโs new film dares to ask is, โWhat if a massive hurricane decimated a Florida town, and people didnโt evacuate… and then KILLER ALLIGATORS SWAM IN?โ Finally, a film that dares to examine the real threats of climate change. (Opens Thurs July 11, various theaters)
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The Dead Donโt Die
Jim Jarmusch has been on a streak lately. 2013โs Only Lovers Left Alive was one of the best films in the 66-year-old writer/directorโs astonishingly rich oeuvre, and now, his zombie comedy comes hard out of left field: Itโs goofy, gory, and great, and itโs exactly the kind of rambling, light-hearted movie that should never be discussed using obnoxious phrases like โastonishingly rich oeuvre.โย (Now playing, various theaters) ERIK HENRIKSEN
Demons
The Northwest Film Centerโs โHead Cleanerโย presents Lamberto Bava and Dario Argentoโs 1985 sleaze-wallow Demons, about a gaggle of Italian hardbodies trapped in a haunted theater with a cursed film, a possessed mask, and a demonic plague. And then a helicopter crashes through the roof! (Mon July 8, Northwest Film Centerโs Whitsell Auditorium) BOBBY ROBERTS
Gorillas in the Mist
The Portland EcoFilm Festival presents a screening of 1988โs Gorillas in the Mist, the film adaptation of Dian Fosseyโs autobiography. A post-film discussion on animal rights is led by NonHuman Rights Project President Steven Wise. (Thurs July 11, Hollywood Theatre)
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Inglorious Basterds
Quentin Tarantinoโs rambunctious take on World War IIโfeaturing Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Mรฉlanie Laurent, and Michael Fassbender, all of whom get everything stolen out from under them by Christoph Waltzโgets a 35mm screening in advance of the filmmakerโs upcoming Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Basterds isnโt Tarantinoโs best film, but it isnโt his worst, eitherโitโs kind of been forgotten, actually, in the wake of the bigger hit of Django Unchained and the more recent The Hateful Eight. More than anything, Basterds might be notable for being Tarantinoโs first go at radically revising real-world history in order to make something like WWII fit into the mold of a wacky, pulpy Tarantino movie; itโs something he did again in Django, and looks to be flirting with again in Hollywood. Which makes the question kind of impossible to ignore: Is Tarantinoโbrilliant director, phenomenal writer, patron saint of movie bros, and a filmmaker whoโs been justifiably criticized for his filmsโ gleeful and constant uses of racial slursโreally the right guy to be revising history? (Sun July 7, Hollywood Theatre) ERIK HENRIKSEN
Kiss Me Deadly
In 1955, the Kefauver Commission claimed Robert Aldrichโs adaptation of Mickey Spillaneโs Kiss Me Deadly was โdesigned to ruin young viewers,โย what with all its super-tame violence and chaste suggestions of people going to bed without pajamas on. Hey, itโs a pretty good film noir, kinda nasty for its time maybe, but kids were apparently pretty soft in the โ50s. (Mon July 15, Northwest Film Centerโs Whitsell Auditorium)
The Last Black Man in San Francisco
Inspired by a true story, The Last Black Man in San Francisco is about the cityโs rapid gentrification and those crazy looks white folks give Black and brown people for daring to feel at home in their own neighborhoods. While there are lots of subtle clues about San Franciscoโs vile history of gentrification, Last Black Man still comes off as empathetic toward gentrifiers. โThese arenโt bad people,โ the movie seems to say. โTheyโre just complicit.โ (Now playing, various theaters)
Mary Janes: The Women of Weed
Windy Borman presents her documentary about the rapidly-expanding legal cannabis industry and the women “breaking the grass ceiling.” Screening preceded by a reception with the director and special guests Leah Maurer of Moms for YES, Sara Batterby of HiFi Farms, Madeline Martinez of Oregon NORML, and Trista Okel of BodyCare. (Wed July 17, Northwest Film Centerโs Whitsell Auditorium)
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Midsommar
See review. (Now playing, various theaters)
Mondo Trasho: Beavis and Butt-Head Do America
Before Idiocracy and Silicon Valley, Mike Judge blessed us with a different fable about our fine nation: Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, in which the titular (heh heh) duo embark upon a noble quest to find their stolen TV. This brilliant film features (1) Cornholio crashing a plane, (2) Butt-Head facing off against the ATF, and (3) Bill Clinton. Until the end of time, this motion picture shall be heralded as an undisputed classic. (Fri July 12, Hollywood Theatre) BOBBY ROBERTS
Murielโs Wedding
For those of you who only just recently became aware of Toni Collette through her blistering, gut-churning performance in 2018โs feel-bad-hit-of-the-summer, Hereditary, you are in for a goddamned treat if you travel way back in time to Toniโs breakout role in this painfully-awkward-yet-charming-as-fuck Australian comedy from 1994, about a woman who thinks the ticket out of her provincial small town is a large-scale glitzy ball of a storybook wedding, and is willing to do some pretty questionable shit to get it. (Wed July 10, Hollywood Theatre) BOBBY ROBERTS
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North by Northwest
A 35mm screening of what might be Hitchcockโs best movie? Itโs 100 percent for sure his most fun movie. Cary Grant and that airplane! Eva Marie Saint on Mount Rushmore! MICROFILM!!! (Fri July 12-Thurs July 18, Academy Theater) ERIK HENRIKSEN
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Once Upon a Time In the West
1968โs Once Upon a Time in the West isnโt Sergio Leoneโs most famous film, most likely โcause it doesnโt star Clint Eastwood, but itโs a hell of a picture, with all of the tough, melodramatic hallmarks of Leoneโs great spaghetti westerns. (Sat July 6, Hollywood Theatre) ERIK HENRIKSEN
Ophelia
See review. (Now available on demand)
Phantom of the Paradise
It seems weird to say that, aside from 1987โs The Untouchables, this is probably the most normal movie Brian DePalma ever directed. But it is. Thatโs not to say 1974โs Phantom of the Paradise isnโt a freaky, funky, ridiculicious hank of inch-thick camp cooked over the unique heat only โ70s-era Paul Williams could provide, because itโs definitely that. But underneath the glittery plasticene wonder pinballing all over the frame is a traditional, heartstring-pulling musical. DePalma never made anything like it ever again. (Sun July 14, Northwest Film Centerโs Whitsell Auditorium) BOBBY ROBERTS
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Princess Mononoke
The word โgeniusโ gets batted around with regard to filmmakers with a numbing, reductive frequency. But if Hayao Miyazaki doesnโt qualify for that title, who does? (Fri July 5-Thurs July 11, Academy Theater) ANDREW WRIGHT
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Snowfall
FXโs drama about the rise of crack cocaine launches its third season, the first since co-creator John Singletonโs untimely death in April. While Snowfall is generally left out of the prestige TV conversation, itโs a consistently thrilling show; like the best of David Simonโs TV work, it maintains a sociological overview of its themes while juggling plotlines and recreating the South Central of the mid-โ80s. Itโs a fittingly excellent legacy for Singletonโs pioneering career. (Season premieres Wed July 10, FX) NED LANNAMANN
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Spider-Man: Far from Home
See review. (Now playing, various theaters)
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Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Nicholas Meyerโs earnest, exciting film from 1982 essentially defined Star Trek for the next four decades, ditching the boring pseudo-smarts of Star Trek: The Motion Picture and classing up the lo-fi aesthetic of the original TV series. Now itโs screening outdoors, for free, at L.L. Stub Stewart State Park, which means when the entire audience bellows along with ShatnerโโKHAAAAANNNN!โโall of Oregon will rumble with Kirkโs rage and sorrow. (Sat July 13, L.L. Stub Stewart State Park) ERIK HENRIKSEN
Stranger Things 3
See review, sort of. (Streams Thurs July 4, Netflix)
Stuber
I didnโt expect much from Stuber, but it did make me laugh. By that measure, the new Kumail Nanjiani/Dave Bautista buddy comedy is a success, even if by all other measures itโs ugly, sloppy, and dumb. (Opens Thurs July 11, various theaters) NED LANNAMANN
The Terminator
At some point, The Terminator stopped being known as โJames Cameronโs grimy horror sci-fi flick from 1984โ and started being known as โthat old movie that started this bizarre cycle where, every few years, one studio or another attempts to jump-start a new Terminator series, and it never, ever works.โ Behold: The imminently forgettable Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines in 2003, McGโs Terminator Salvation in 2009, the underrated but short-lived TV show Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles in 2008 (starring Cersei Lannister as Sarah Connor!), and the legitimately unwatchable Terminator Genisys in 2015 (starring Daenerys Targaryen as Sarah Connor!). The cycle begins anew later this year, with Terminator: Dark Fate (starring Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor!), which supposedly ignores everything after Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Or maybe even the people making it donโt remember anything after Terminator 2? Anyway, Hollywood wonโt let the poor old T-800 die already, which is too bad, because that first Terminator? That old one? Itโs great. (Fri July 12-Thurs July 18, Academy Theater) ERIK HENRIKSEN
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Terrence Malickโs First Films
Even hardcore Terrence Malick fans (โTerry-headsโย) have to admit that lately, the singular auteur has wandered just a little off-target. (โI GOT SOME URANIUM!โย Val Kilmer shouted in 2017โs unseen Song to Song. โI BOUGHT IT OFF MY MOM!โย) But the Northwest Film Center is happy to provide a refresher on why the reclusive weirdo remains so vitally important to cinema, even as he bumbles around doing… whatever he wants to, I guess? Thanks to the Film Center, Badlands (1973), Days of Heaven (1979), and The Thin Red Line (1998) are all getting the big-screen treatment (well, the Whitsell Auditoriumโs medium-screen treatment), and youโll be hard-pressed to find anything betterโanything more heartfelt, more strange, more melancholy, more ambitious, more jaw-droppingly, eye-poppingly beautifulโshowing anywhere else in town. (Fri July 5-Sun July 7, Northwest Film Centerโs Whitsell Auditorium) ERIK HENRIKSEN
Toni Morrison: The Pieces Iโm In
Timothy Greenfield-Sandersโ documentary about the beloved writer. (See what we did there? Ha!) (Opens Fri July 12, Living Room Theaters)
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Wild Rose
Rose-Lynn (Jessie Buckley) is an aspiring, gifted country singer, but sheโs stuck in hard-knuckle Glasgowโhalf a world away from Nashville. She has other problems, too: Sheโs just finished a year in prison and is tied down by two kids sheโs not particularly equipped to raise. With terrific performances by Julie Walters as Rose-Lynnโs long-suffering mother and Sophie Okonedo as an affluent woman who wants to back the singerโs rise to stardom, Wild Rose is nonetheless a showcase for the talents of Buckley, who singes holes into the screen. (Opens Fri July 5, Living Room Theaters) NED LANNAMANN
Yesterday
Imagine thereโs no Beatles. Thatโs it. Thatโs the concept behind Yesterday, an intermittently charming fable thatโs part musical and part Twilight Zone-type morality tale, but is mostly just a romantic comedyโand a pretty limp one at that. (Now playing, various theaters) NED LANNAMANN
