NOTE: Many theaters are changing admission policies or canceling programming due due to coronavirus concerns. Learn more here. As you’re considering going out in Portland, remember to always wash your hands and stay home if you’re sick. Double-check event websites directly for cancelations or postponements before leaving the house.
Bloodshot
Vin Diesel plays some sort of weird superhero from a ’90s comic nobody ever read that’s kind of like Spawn, which a lot of people have read… and regretted. (Opens Thurs March 12, various theaters)
A Brighter Summer Day
Edward Yang’s acclaimed 1991 coming-of-age film… which is four hours long. (Fri March 13-Sun March 15, Fifth Avenue Cinema)
Burden
A museum that celebrates the KKK opens in a small Southern town. What could go wrong? (Opens Fri March 13, Regal Fox Tower 10)
★ Emma
From the moment Mr. Woodhouse (Bill Nighy) bounded down the steps of his staircase in full scowl, I wanted to see Emma again. While Emma (Anya Taylor-Joy) plays a little closer to the book’s character, with Taylor-Joy making full use of her penetrating stare, little did I expect she would be matched frown-for-frown by Nighy. (Now playing, various theaters) SUZETTE SMITH
★ Extra Ordinary
A new and eminently worthy entry into the annals of Fantastic Supernatural Comedies, Extra Ordinary follows Rose (Maeve Higgins), a sweet, awkward driving instructor in rural Ireland with a not-so-secret talent (the ability to exorcise ghosts from the everyday objects—and animals—they inhabit). Of course, the townsfolk are always bugging her about their nuisance hauntings, even though she quit the biz for good many years ago after accidentally getting her dad killed mid-exorcism. Everything about this movie is subtly right: the vague retro atmosphere, the quasi-horror soundtrack, the unexpected plot, the hilariously gross comedy, and, most importantly, the excellent casting, which includes a perfect Will Forte as creepy, washed-up one-hit wonder Christian Winter. (Opens Fri March 13, Cinema 21) LEILANI POLK
Family Pictures: A Little Princess
It’s always worthwhile to look at where the greats started to get a fuller sense of how they became the artists they are now. The Coen brothers and Blood Simple, Spielberg’s TV movies, David Fincher’s music videos, and… Alfonso Cuarón’s A Little Princess, a barely remembered 1995 remake of a barely remembered 1939 World War I family drama? But then you watch it, and… yeah. Yeah, this is most definitely the same dude who went on to make Children of Men or Y Tu Mamá También. Screens in 35mm. (Sat March 14-Sun March 15, Hollywood Theatre) BOBBY ROBERTS
★ Feminist March
This year, the Hollywood Theatre’s annual lineup of films “celebrating the women who have shaped the film industry, both in front of and behind the camera” is excellent, thanks in part to presenting partners Books with Pictures, the Cascade Festival of African Films, the Harriet Tubman Center for Expanded Curatorial Practice, and Rock ’n’ Roll Camp for Girls. There are some can’t-miss screenings: Mad Max: Fury Road (Mon March 16), Election (Sat March 14), Grey Gardens (Fri March 27), and The Lure (Fri March 20), alongside some other solid choices like Freeway (Fri March 27), Matilda (Sun March 29), Girlfight (Mon March 30), Atomic Blonde (Sat March 21), and a two-part episode of Wonder Woman (Wed March 25), “The Feminine Mystique,” which sees Nazis invading Paradise Island. There’s your March sorted, then. (Through Mon March 30, Hollywood Theatre, Movie Madness Miniplex) ERIK HENRIKSEN
★ First Cow
See review this issue. (Screens at the Portland International Film Festival on Fri March 13 at Cinema 21, opens Fri March 20 at Cinema 21)
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The Future Is Now: Film Noir Hybrids for the Nervous Generation
A series of noir/sci-fi mashups, including Five (Sun March 15, 35mm), the Invasion of the Body Snatchers without Jeff Goldblum (Sun March 22, 35mm), and Seconds (Sun March 29). (Through Sun March 29, Hollywood Theatre)
Hollywood Babylon: Duck Soup
DID YOU KNOW: Groucho’s mustache isn’t really a mustache? It’s just paint on his upper lip. Same with his eyebrows. Dude loved smearing paint on his head and rattling off priceless one-liners at 3,000 miles per hour. The Marx Brothers were fucking bizarre, man. Screens on 35mm. (Thurs March 19, Hollywood Theatre)
The Hunt
See review. (Opens Thurs March 12, various theaters)
I Need You Dead!
A locally produced horror feature from director Rocko Zevenbergen and the Bad Taste Video Team, I Need You Dead! follows Schmucksville, USA punk Dood (Estevan Muñoz) and the evil, “strange fleshy creature” he births in a swell of teen angst. (Fri March 13, Hollywood Theatre)
★ The Invisible Man
Low-budget, high-concept writer/director Leigh Whannell has another hit on his hands with The Invisible Man, starring an excellent Elisabeth Moss. This riff on H.G. Wells’ sci-fi classic is a slow, steady squeeze from a vise that doesn’t release its grip until its final shot. (Now playing, various theaters) ROBERT HAM
Miss Fisher & the Crypt of Tears
Based on the books by Kerry Greenwood, Miss Fisher & the Crypt of Tears picks up where the Australian TV show Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries left off, with lots of roaring ’20s glamor and Phryne Fisher (Essie Davis) riding atop speeding trains, wielding a golden pistol, stripping undercover, and declaring injustice against women, much to the dismay of her artless bourgeoisie counterparts. This time, Phryne follows clues to Jerusalem, where ancient curses and missing gems capture her attention. (Screens Tues March 17, Hollywood Theatre, streams Mon March 23 on Acorn TV) KATHLEEN MARIE
★ Onward
Funny and original, Pixar’s latest digs into something nearly all of us know but rarely talk about: how the memory of an absent family member can hang over the lives of the living. (Now playing, various theaters) ERIK HENRIKSEN
Oregon Documentary Film Festival
The annual celebration of up-and-coming independent filmmakers features over 35 short documentaries. (Sun March 15, Fifth Avenue Cinema)
Portland International Film Festival
A revamped PIFF is part of the Northwest Film Center’s “Cinema Unbound” rebranding. “What ‘Unbound’ means to me is that cinema can take many forms,” says Amy Dotson, director of the Northwest Film Center. “We’ll have a number of events that play outside the boundary of film. It’s something that’s still cinematic in nature, but it might be audio, it might be projection-based, or it might be something that blurs the line between what we thought cinema was and what it can be.” (Through Sun March 15, various locations)
The Way Back
Ben Affleck’s back, baby! And he’s supposed to be very good in The Way Back as an alcoholic basketball coach. Like Hoosiers, but with Batman! (Now playing, various theaters)
Wendy
The latest from Beasts of the Southern Wild director Benh Zeitlin. Review forthcoming at portlandmercury.com/film. (Opens Fri March 13, various theaters)
The Whistlers
A Romanian heist-comedy written and directed by Corneliu Porumboiu. (Opens Fri March 20, Living Room Theaters)
