REEL MUSIC

The 26th annual Reel Music series runs through February 1 at the Northwest Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium. Most films were not screened for critics. For more info, hit nwfilm.org.

BIG TIME

A "surreal musical cabaret/concert film" starring Tom Waits.

BLUE NOTE: A STORY OF MODERN JAZZ

A documentary about the legendary label that was home to Charlie Parker, Ornette Coleman, Thelonius Monk, Miles Davis, John Coltrane... do we have to keep going?

THE GITS

As a young woman living in Seattle in the late '90s, it was impossible not to know the name Mia Zapata. At age 27, while walking home from a bar one summer night in 1993, she was raped and strangled, her body dumped on a secluded street and found just an hour after her friend last saw her alive. But there was a lot more to Zapata. For starters, she fronted the punk-grunge band the Gits, who had just returned from a successful European tour. Her nickname was Chicken, thanks to a funny way she'd stand with her knees together. She wrote amazing lyrics. She had tons of friends. She was shy, until she got on stage. Like so many others in Seattle, it's clear that director Kerri O'Kane was taken with Zapata, the story of the Gits, and how the band's history intersected with Zapata's untimely death, and O'Kane's intimate, lovingly pieced together doc is a look at a slice of music history that, until now, has been hidden in Seattle. AMY J. RUIZ

JOHNNY CASH'S AMERICA

Can we all please get the fuck over Johnny Cash already? Sure, he made some brilliant music, but over his long, long career he made some absolute dogshit, too. Sony Music (the parent company of Columbia Records, the label that dropped Cash from its roster in the '80s) tries to wring every last penny out of its catalog with this dreary documentary, in which blowhards like John Mellencamp and Kris Kristofferson sternly lecture the camera on the importance and vitality of the Man in Black—who, sadly, has never seemed more dead, or more boring. NED LANNAMANN

THE NIGHT JAMES BROWN SAVED BOSTON

The evening after Martin Luther King, Jr. took a single bullet while standing on a Memphis hotel balcony, James Brown played the show of his life to a packed Boston Garden crowd. While the rest of America was burning, James (or "the Negro singer Jimmy Brown," as he was introduced) masterfully channeled the frustration of both the city of Boston, and an entire generation of African-Americans freshly reeling from the death of MLK. In the shadow of Obama's historic inauguration—an event that will sadly never be witnessed by either King or Brown—this documentary is mandatory viewing. EZRA ACE CARAEFF

ONE IRISH ROVER

Anthony Wall's BBC-produced look at Van Morrison.

THE PLANETS BY GUSTAV HOLST

Ken Russell's "cinematic portraits" of six planets in our solar system, with music by Gustav Holst. Screens with The Silence Before Bach.

THE UPSETTER: THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF LEE "SCRATCH" PERRY

A doc on dub pioneer Lee "Scratch" Perry.

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BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: THE FINAL EPISODES

See My, What a Busy Week! Bagdad Theater.

BEDTIME STORIES

Bedtime Stories is terrible. The promotional screening I attended was full of adults wearing footie pajamas; apparently, this was condoned and encouraged by the studio that made this movie. So I kind of hated it before it started, and then it started, and then I hated it more. LOGAN SACHON See Listings.

BRIDE WARS

Even after giving Bride Wars every benefit of the doubt, the nicest thing to say about it is that Kate Hudson's hair looks fantastic. The dueling-brides premise, of which you are aware if you've seen the trailer (which functions more as tidy synopsis than teaser, it turns out) is insultingly out of touch with any version of the modern woman I care to acknowledge, much less identify with. MARJORIE SKINNER See Listings.

CHANDNI CHOWK TO CHINA

The plot doesn't really matter: There's something about a bumbling cook from India who goes to China after discovering that he's the reincarnation of a Chinese warrior. The idea—combining a Bollywood musical with a kung fu epic—sounds wonderful. Fighting! Dancing! Kissing! Killing! Unfortunately, Chandni Chowk to China borrows not only the blood feuds and revenge fantasies of a kung fu epic, but the runtime as well: Two and a half hours is far too long for the sort of campy fun this film offers. ALISON HALLETT a href=http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/valley_theater/Location?oid=39975>Valley Theater.

A CHRISTMAS TALE

It's fitting that France, the country that gave the world existentialism and Gauloises, should turn out a holiday family drama almost completely bereft of good cheer. Set in the days immediately preceding Christmas, A Christmas Tale takes a close look at a family that isn't so much dysfunctional, as it functions by a set of rules entirely its own. The film can be confusing, and few of its various plotlines resolve in any traditional sense, but as a clear-eyed picture of a contemporary family, it's an engaging, surprisingly funny success. ALISON HALLETT Living Room Theaters.

CIAO

When Jeff's best friend, Mark, dies unexpectedly in a car crash, Jeff looks through his friend's email—and comes across Mark's correspondence with Andrea, a hunky Italian who had planned to come out to Dallas for a visit. Jeff asks Andrea to come anyway. Ciao's budget is obviously small, but director Yen Tan makes the best of it. Unfortunately, the acting is stilted (think of the dialogue parts of soft-core pornos), and the writing comes off as unnecessarily awkward. SAHAR BAHARLOO Living Room Theaters.

CRY BABY

John Waters' 1990 film with Johnny Depp. Sat screening preceded by "one hour of music videos, rare jazz and rock concert footage, and cartoons." Bagdad Theater.

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON

David Fincher movies are worth getting excited about. Sure, he's had his misfires—Panic Room, that Alien 3 business—but c'mon: Seven. Zodiac. Fight Club. Scrupulous, poised, and with a masterful control of tone, you'd think he'd be the perfect director for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, in which the titular character ages in reverse, starting life as a blind, deaf troll and gradually growing into the charming, handsome Brad Pitt. It's equal parts fantasy and drama, and at points, you can see Fincher's hand with moments that are surreal, strange, and heart-stoppingly sad. But the rest of the film... well, the rest of the film feels a lot like Forrest Gump, complete with goofy plot devices and banal cliches. ERIK HENRIKSEN See Listings.

DEFIANCE

See review. See Listings.

DOUBT

Doubt is not subtle. Despite the fact the film—which features a Catholic priest (Philip Seymour Hoffman) who (surprise!) may or may not have a boner for altar boys—is about deeds that go unsaid and beliefs that go unproven, it insists on holding your hand, guiding your eye, and, occasionally, smacking you over the head. This is strange, because playwright John Patrick Shanley's play, on which the film is based, favors the opposite tactic: Unsettling and ominous, Shanley's script leaves plenty of room for uncomfortable interpretation. But the film—which Shanley directs with all the nuance of a vaudeville act—seems built mostly for the purpose of begging for Oscars. It also earnestly attempts to reintroduce the oft-parodied gimmick—last seen in the Hammer horror films of the '50s and '60s—of thunder dramatically crashing whenever there's a Very Important Line of Dialogue. ERIK HENRIKSEN See Listings.

FROST/NIXON

As with many dramatizations of events whose outcome is known, Frost/Nixon's version of the 1977 televised interviews between Richard Nixon (Frank Langella) and David Frost (Michael Sheen) is interesting more for its window on a bygone era than for any inherent dramatic conflict. The film's most successful in its humanization of Nixon, fleshing out the "I am not a crook" caricature that, for many of us, is our only understanding of our 37th president. It's important, though, not to mistake fiction for fact: Playwright Morgan has stated that he took liberties with the historical record in order to create a compelling narrative. As a historical fiction, then, Frost/Nixon contributes much to an empathetic understanding of history, if not to a factual one. ALISON HALLETT Fox Tower 10.

GRAN TORINO

Clint Eastwood plays Walt Kowalski, a wildly grumpy and racist widower who stubbornly clings to values picked up serving in the Korean War. His Detroit neighborhood, once the picture of Americana, is now a racial melting pot, and he spends his days drinking beer on the porch and muttering an endless stream of slurs at his Hmong neighbors. The neighbors' son Thao (Bee Vang) is coerced by the local Asian gang into stealing Walt's prized 1972 Gran Torino; when Walt catches him, Thao works off his debt, and the two disparate cultures begin to achieve an uneasy understanding. Unfortunately, the Asian gang members aren't as keen to journey down the road of enlightenment, and after a disturbing act of violence, Walt is forced to go all Dirty Har... rather, Dirty Grampy on their ass.It's one thing to ignore the racist ramblings of your grandfather—he's family. But paying good money to see what amounts to a geriatric Dirty Harry fighting racism with even more racism is just a bit too much for me to wrap my head around. WM.™ STEVEN HUMPHREY See Listings.

HAPPY-GO-LUCKY

Poppy is the kind of irrepressibly chipper person who attempts to start conversations with random strangers; when they act standoffish, she says things like, "I won't bite!" When her bicycle is stolen, she merely laments she didn't have a chance to say good-bye to it. In short, she's the kind of person who is so goddamn cheerful you'd like to smack her in the face. But something happens over the course of Happy-Go-Lucky: Poppy wins you over. Poppy's happiness is something of a mystery; both her sisters are miserable, and her flatmate is snide and sarcastic. But Sally Hawkins' remarkable performance doesn't hit one false note. British director Mike Leigh improvises extensively with his actors before writing a script, and the film, as with all his work, feels spontaneous and true. NED LANNAMANN See Listings.

HOTEL FOR DOGS

It's a movie about a hotel. For dogs. See listings.

I'VE LOVED YOU SO LONG

Kristin Scott Thomas gives the performance of the year as a woman just released from prison after serving a 15-year sentence for killing her own son. Upon her release, the watchful, withdrawn (and murderous?) Juliette moves in with her sister, a virtual stranger, and the two develop a tentative friendship. The ending is a letdown, but that's a small complaint in an otherwise sensitive and moving film. ALISON HALLETT Hollywood Theatre.

JCVD

JCVD is as wildly entertaining and daring as cinema comes, and that's something you don't necessarily associate with the train-wrecked career of the weathered action star. The premise: Jean-Claude Van Damme (played, appropriately enough, by Jean-Claude Van Damme) stumbles into a robbery and accidentally becomes the most famous hostage ever, kicking off a surreal journey into the wounded psyche of its namesake. JCVD joyfully dissects the global celebrity obsession and the awkward downfall of Van Damme's career (a running plot point involves him losing acting roles to Steven Seagal—who is now, apparently, willing to cut off his ponytail in order to steal his rival's parts), all the while flipping the tired genre of action films on its ear. EZRA ACE CARAEFF Laurelhurst Theater, Living Room Theaters.

THE L WORD PREMIERE

See My, What a Busy Week!. Bagdad Theater.

LAST CHANCE HARVEY

See review. See Listings.

LET THE RIGHT ONE IN

This much-ballyhooed Scandinavian film is neither scary, teen angsty, nor spooky enough—but it is lovely, filled with austere, blue-hued snow and groves of haunting birch trees in the midst of Stockholm. And while Let the Right One In is by no means a poor entry in the vampire genre, it left me nearly as cold as the frozen landscapes, meting out little satisfaction on either a horror level or a character level. To be fair, the film doesn't pretend to scare you—it truly wants to succeed in an elegant, understated way, though it doesn't completely reach its goal. COURTNEY FERGUSON Living Room Theaters.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY

The Kennedy School's annual celebration of J.R.R. Tolkien's birthday returns, featuring all three theatrical versions of Peter Jackson's films (you can get in for free if you bring two cans of food for the Oregon Food Bank). Also, "hobbit-inspired food specials," "performances by Willamette Radio Workshop," live music, a costume contest, and, for some incredibly nerdy reason, juggling. Check out the full schedule at mcmenamins.com, and if you go, don't let that smelly dude in the Thorin Oakenshield costume start talking to you about the mighty treasure buried deep in the caverns of Erebor. Trust me. That dude is a fucking freak. ERIK HENRIKSEN Kennedy School.

MARLEY & ME

Yes, the dog dies. MARJORIE SKINNER See Listings, Wilsonville Town Center 9.

MILK

For a generation of gay and straight people who equate pride parades with binge drinking, whose gay heroes include Ellen DeGeneres and Anderson Cooper (he's gay, right?), and whose gay rights movement has just started, Gus Van Sant's fleshing out the story of gay politician and activist Harvey Milk (Sean Penn) in such a moving and humane way is as invaluable as the words Milk would bark through bullhorns. Sure, Van Sant can't resist putting in some treacly, melodramatic scenes that unfortunately stick out, but for the most part, Milk's story is simply real, which makes it that much more powerful and relevant. AMY J. RUIZ See Listings

MY BLOODY VALENTINE

Wha? A crappy-looking horror flick that wasn't screened for critics? Why, I never.... See Listings.

NOTORIOUS

See review. See Listings.

PAUL BLART: MALL COP

See review. See Listings.

PDX FILMMAKERS SHOWCASE

A collection of shorts from local filmmakers. Kelly's Olympian.

PIERROT LE FOU

A new 35mm print of Jean-Luc Godard's 1965 classic. Clinton Street Theater.

QUANTUM OF SOLACE

The latest James Bond film makes about as much sense as its baffling title, but even as plotlines unravel and stack up like corpses, the movie is entirely awesome. Better than Casino Royale? Well, no. Quantum's story is incredibly confusing, the action scenes are shot so close that it's difficult to tell what's happening, and the beady-eyed supervillain (Mathieu Amalric) looks like a shorter Roman Polanski and is about as intimidating as a gerbil. Still, the level of sheer spectacle is tremendous. NED LANNAMANN See Listings.

RACHEL GETTING MARRIED

Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt) is indeed getting married, but it's her sister, Kym (Anne Hathaway)—an ex-model, lifelong drug addict, and alcoholic who's been in and out of institutions since causing a family tragedy as a young teenager—who demands to be the center of attention. Jonathan Demme's latest is a difficult, sometimes tiresome film, but it's also emotionally ambitious, and it offers a modern portrait of family life that depends very little on convention. MARJORIE SKINNER Hollywood Theatre.

THE READER

Kate Winslet is so dead set on winning an Oscar this year that she stacked the odds in her favor by virtue of sheer quantity. If the soon-to-hit-Portland Revolutionary Road doesn't do the trick, The Reader acts as a kind of B-string backup during this season of Extremely Weighty Filmmaking. But for all of its signifiers of substance (Hello again, Holocaust!), arty credibility (What up, Ralph Fiennes?), and Winslet's renunciation of Hollywood glamour in allowing herself to appear old and ugly, The Reader is at an odd, distant remove from its audience—failing to spark the emotional investment necessary to succeed. MARJORIE SKINNER See Listings.

RELIGULOUS

For atheists accustomed to the one-way street of religious acceptance (on which I will respect your right to believe what you want to believe, and you will attempt to limit my access to birth control), there is something refreshing about Bill Maher's Religulous, in which the unflappably egomaniacal Maher travels the country interviewing people about their faith, in order to: (A) point out the errors of logic, fact, and history inherent to their worldview, and (B) make fun of them. Alas, the film suffers from two things: a lack of focus, and an abundance of Maher. ALISON HALLETT Laurelhurst Theater.

REVOLUTIONARY ROAD

Based on Richard Yates' 1961 novel, Revolutionary Road is a cautionary tale against getting stuck in the suburbs with only vague dreams to buoy you up. It's depressing, and I imagine that if you are actually stuck in the suburbs with only vague dreams to buoy you up, it might be the kind of movie that would make you go home and kill yourself. But for those of us that are lucky enough to have our whole lives ahead of us with no child or mortgage to hold us back, the film's darkness can more or less be shed like be an old coat. LOGAN SACHON Fox Tower 10.

A SECRET

In a season overstuffed with Holocaust films, A Secret distinguishes itself by focusing on a French Jewish family who escaped the Nazis, and not in a particularly dangerous or dramatic fashion. A Secret, starring French homme du jour Mathieu Amalric, is more concerned with the living than the dead, and in particular the ways that secrecy and deception—required of Jews who would survive the Nazi occupation—affected relationships and families. The story, framed through a 15-year-old learning of his parents' experiences during World War II, is engagingly told as though a reverse flashback, with the past in vivid color and the present in dreary blacks and grays. ALISON HALLETT Living Room Theaters.

SKY SETTLES EVERYTHING: THE WAYNE JAMES STORY

A doc about 73-year-old cowboy James and his poet sister, Verlena Orr.

a href=http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/northwest_film_center_s_whitsell_auditorium/Location?oid=39950> Nothwest Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

A frantic, decade-spanning melodrama/romance/comedy, the latest from director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, Sunshine) is nothing if not overwhelming. Sometimes Slumdog Millionaire feels crassly exploitative—like a guilt-inducing parade of everything terrible that impoverished children in peril have to endure—but often it's nothing short of fucking exhilarating, a pounding, pulsing, urgent rush that jumpstarts endorphins and adrenalin. There are scenes of torture and abuse and murder alongside giddy triumphs of comedy and heart (not to mention a Bollywood-inspired dance number), and as Slumdog careens along as both a harsh drama and a hammy crowd-pleaser, it's tempting to write it off as a bit of not-particularly-subtle manipulation. But ultimately, one realizes that Boyle deeply cares about these characters—and that sympathetic core is the reason why the film is consistently, utterly, beautifully gripping. ERIK HENRIKSEN See Listings.

SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO

Cartoony, funny, badass, and entirely inscrutable, Japanese director Takashi Miike's latest is all sorts of fantastic. A Japanese spaghetti western, Sukiyaki Western Django can probably best be described as Miike channeling Sergio Leone and throwing some Chuck Jones and Quentin Tarantino into the mix—and literally with the Tarantino part, since Miike's pal Quentin gleefully hams it up as a sukiyaki-eating gunfighter. ERIK HENRIKSEN Clinton Street Theater.

TELL NO ONE

Eight years after losing his wife in the woods to a mysterious serial killer (no, not Jason Vorhees), a still-grieving pediatrician begins to receive emails hinting that the tragedy might not be as random as originally thought. Adapting a novel by US airport bookstore staple Harlen Coben, writer/director Guillaume Canet's confident, almost irritatingly taut thriller wastes no time in cranking the paranoia up to 11. The sheer amount of red herrings can be difficult to wade through at times, but Canet's sense of style makes even the more head-scratching moments enjoyable. A gratifyingly nasty whodunit with a healthy sense of its own absurdities. ANDREW WRIGHT See Listings.

TWILIGHT

Twilight introduces the floridly named high schooler Bella Swann (Kristen Stewart), who has just moved to a small town in Washington. The local boys are all over this hottie newcomer, but Bella finds herself drawn to the mysterious Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson, he of the Heathcliff glower and untamed eyebrows). At first Bella thinks Edward hates her, but it turns out he's only feigning indifference because he's a vampire, and wants to drink her. Edward is so drawn to the smell of Bella's blood that he can hardly control himself, but he also loooves her, so he knows he should keep his distance. Throw in some evil vampires who want to kill Bella, and it's all very romantic and tragic. (Alternately, it's an insidious parable about the dangers of premarital sex—but that's only my, er, humorless feminist interpretation.) For all the silliness of the storyline, Twilight makes a far better movie than book: Largely freed from author Stephenie Meyer's ponderous prose, the movie is surprisingly campy and fun, with a cheerful sense of humor about its own ridiculousness. ALISON HALLETT See Listings.

THE UNBORN

Wha? A crappy looking horror flick that wasn't screened for critics? Why, I never.... See Listings.

VALKYRIE

You know, for all his flaws—that "celebrity spokesperson for a cult" thing, his creepy marriage to Katie Holmes, that weird, arrogant-but-eager-to-please look he always has during interviews—I still kinda like Tom Cruise. As a person, the dude's 50 different types of insane, but as movie stars go? He's not half bad. Likewise, I can't say I'm a huge fan of Claus von Stauffenberg, the Nazi colonel Cruise plays in the based-on-a-true-story Valkyrie. I mean, von Stauffenberg was a Nazi, for chrissakes! But as Nazis go? Not half bad! I mean, he totally tried to kill Hitler! And he had a sweet eyepatch! ERIK HENRIKSEN See listings.

WENDY AND LUCY

Wendy and Lucy is not easy to watch. The follow-up to director Kelly Reichardt's critically adored Old Joy, it also takes the Pacific Northwest as its setting—this time a dingy, unnamed Oregon town where protagonist Wendy (Michelle Williams) is waylaid on her journey from Indiana to Alaska. Supremely under-funded, all Wendy has is a crappy Honda Accord, a small pile of quickly dwindling dollar bills, and her dog, Lucy. Reichardt's film could almost be called unkind as it slowly drags the viewer through the tedious realism of Wendy's worsening situation: her car breaks down, she gets busted shoplifting, and most anxiety-producing of all, Lucy goes missing. So we shift uncomfortably in our seats as we're made privy to the harsh lights of gas station bathrooms where Wendy gives herself bum-baths, long, cold, merciless shots of lost and orphaned dogs at the pound, and the furrow of Wendy's brow as she balances pragmatism and panic in the face of mounting car expenses. MARJORIE SKINNER See listings.

THE WRESTLER

See review . Cinema 21.

YES MAN

Yes Man isn't good, per se, but it's also not nearly as terrible as you'd think. It also offers a couple of interesting questions for discussion: When, exactly, did Jim Carrey get that weird, haunted look about him—the one that's both vaguely desperate and smarmy? Is this movie promoting some sort of cult? And why does Zooey Deschanel have such a terrible agent? Oh, and another one: Remember that episode of Seinfeld where George does the exact opposite of what his instincts tell him? Good, because that's Yes Man's plot, but with Jim Carrey playing George. ERIK HENRIKSEN See Listings.