Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
See review this issue. Various Theaters.
An American Werewolf in London
John Landis' 1981 flick An American Werewolf in London, 32 years down the road, still boasts the greatest, goriest, and most horrifying man-wolf transformation ever. H. PERRY HORTON Academy Theater, Hollywood Theatre.
Automata
See review this issue. VOD.
Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead
It's not always easy to keep a zombie down. Nazi zombies especially. Weirdly, this film was not screened for critics. Hollywood Theatre, VOD.
Dracula Untold
You've done a lot of stupid shit to my baby over the years. Where the fuck do you Hollywood assholes get off. THE DISPLEASED GHOST OF BRAM STOKER Various Theaters.
Drugstore Cowboy
"There's nothing more life-affirming than getting the shit kicked outta ya." Clinton Street Theater.
Farang
A documentary about Pok Pok's Andy Ricker. Screens as a benefit for the upcoming doc America's First Foodie: The Incredible Life of James Beard. Hollywood Theatre.
Gone Girl
Not every movie that features this much blood and this many missing wives is this funny, but the dark, cold humor in Gone Girl nicely complements Gillian Flynn's pulpy plot. The film doubles back on itself, again and again—and as it does, Flynn and director David Fincher wink and poke at the characters and the audience. There's a venomous edge to this story, but the people telling it are hardly reliable narrators. ERIK HENRIKSEN Various Theaters.
The Guest
From whatever psychosexual hole the thrillers of the '80s and '90s crawled into emerges the great The Guest. It starts when an ex-soldier named David (Downton Abbey's Dan Stevens) appears on the Peterson family's doorstep, claiming he's a friend of their son who died in action. And if this perfect and handsome houseguest is a little too good to be true, well... yeah. David's a raging military-grade psychopath who solves the family's interpersonal conflicts... with MURDER. This well-wound throwback is from director Adam Wingard, who previously tickled horror fans with 2013's You're Next; it's got a fantastic, synthy soundtrack, stylish cinematography, and blasts of shoot-'em-up bombast edged with crawling dread. COURTNEY FERGUSON Various Theaters.
Indiana Jones and the
Temple of Doom
"No time for love, Dr. Jones!" Laurelhurst Theater.
The Judge
See review this issue. Various Theaters.
Kill the Messenger
See review this issue. Various Theaters.
Kung Fu Theater
The Hollywood's Kung Fu Theater series presents a rare, 35mm screening of 1977's The Hot, the Cool, and the Vicious, featuring albino assassins and secret ninjas! Extra bonus: The print is on loan from the personal collection of some martial arts fanatic named Quentin Tarantino. ERIK HENRIKSEN Hollywood Theatre.
Last Days in Vietnam
Last Days in Vietnam takes a detailed, strictly narrative, look at the frantic 1975 evacuation of thousands of Vietnamese from the American Embassy in Saigon. Most impressive is the scope of the archival footage (including film, audio, and photographs, some of which have never been seen before), which is edited with firsthand accounts from both US military veterans and South Vietnamese veterans. For the 6:45 pm screening on Sat Oct 11, Portlander Dr. Mina Nguyen will be in attendance for a Q&A about her incredible escape from Vietnam, which is chronicled in the film: as a child, she was dropped from a helicopter, about 18 feet, into the arms of an American serviceman on a naval ship. JENNA LECHNER Cinema 21.
Left Behind
The Mercury doesn't send me to a movie if they think it's going to be great. But still, I had high hopes about this one. I thought the immovable object that is the Left Behind Christian franchise would get run the fuck over by the unstoppable force that is Nicolas Cage. Turns out, Nic Cage is a very stoppable force. ALEX FALCONE Various Theaters.
Maurice
A screening of James Ivory's film about young men pushing against the boundaries of Edwardian society, with Ivory in attendance. Hollywood Theatre.
No No: A Dockumentary
No No: A Dockumentary examines the wild life of Dock Ellis, a hard-throwing hurler for the Pittsburgh Pirates who, later in life, claimed to have never taken the mound without being high. Never more concerned with getting blotter hits than batters getting hits, Ellis was an All-Star and World Series champion—a feat overlooked when, on one afternoon in 1970, he etched his name in the baseball record books by tossing a no-hitter against the San Diego Padres... while high on LSD. Even if No No isn't able to unearth any newfound footage from this preposterous moment in sports history (not all games were televised back then), it nimbly dissects Ellis' life—a journey that took him from precocious rookie, to a militant black man unafraid to get suspended for wearing hair curlers on the field, to a savvy veteran who tossed illegal spitballs using the runoff from his Jheri curl. EZRA ACE CARAEFF Hollywood Theatre.
Pride
See review this issue. Cinema 21.
Reel Music
See Film, this issue. NW Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium.
Repo Man
A screening of Repo Man to mark the Clinton Street Theater's 100th anniversary, also featuring "slideshows, crazy anecdotal stories with former staff members, and discussion of CST film programming history from the first decade of the new millennium," when the theater was owned and operated by Seth Sonstein. Clinton Street Theater.
Space Noise: The Return of
Makino Takashi
Makino Takashi visits Portland for a two-night overview of his latest work, an immersive, experiential media experience utilizing all the film and video techniques at his disposal. More at cinemaproject.org. S1 Gallery.
Zombie
Probably the only film in existence in which a zombie fights a shark. Fifth Avenue Cinema.
Zompire: The Undead Film Festival
The annual festival "dedicated to all things undead" features shorts, features, and filmmaker Q&As. More at zompire.com. Clinton Street Theater.
MEANS WE RECOMMEND IT. Theater locations are accurate Friday, October 10-Thursday, October 16, unless otherwise noted. Movie times are updated daily and are available here.
