Arcade Fire: The Reflektor Tapes
So far, Arcade Fire are arguably the most "important" semi-mainstream rock band of the 21st century. Not unlike Radiohead, some of that import is self-ascribed; reduced to their personalities, the group are pretentious and humorless. In The Reflektor Tapes, a collaboration between the band and renowned music video director Kahlil Joseph, this leads to some amusing rockumentary fodder for those impervious to faux-profound, pop-musicological bloviating ("I think new hybrids keep the vast ocean of musical waves going back and forth," muses creative architect Win Butler less than five minutes into the damn thing). Reflektor Tapes soars when nobody's speaking: Drawing from a menagerie of sources that range from grainy, voyeuristic footage of the band writing and recording their fourth album Reflektor in San Antonio, Jamaica, to footage of the ensuing tour, it's a film that makes the process of being in a massive rock band seem at once totally alien and eminently relatable. MORGAN TROPER Cinema 21.

The Birth of Betty Boop
A screening of 16mm Betty Boop shorts from the private collection of archivist Dennis Nyback, charting the evolution of the character from dog to woman. Hollywood Theatre.

Black Mass
See review this issue. Various Theaters.

Captive
A not-screened-for-critics thriller starring Kate Mara and David Oyelowo. Various Theaters.

Church of Film
The screening series presents Carnival of Sinners, a 1940s French noir. Clinton Street Theater.

Cooties
A horror-comedy about a zombie-like outbreak at an elementary school, leaving faculty member (and The Faculty star) Elijah Wood to fight off ravenous (literal) ankle-biters alongside Rainn Wilson and Alison Pill. Cinema 21, On Demand.

Don't Be Afraid to Pogo
A documentary about 1970s East L.A. punk pioneers the Gears. Cinema 21.

Everest
See review this issue. IMAX and 3D Theaters.

recommended Grandma
See review this issue. Various Theaters.

recommended Grindhouse Film Festival
A rare 35mm print of the bonafide horror classic The Hills Have Eyes, in tribute to its late, great director, Wes Craven. Hollywood Theatre.

Home From Home
Edgar Reitz's 231-minute film, set in the fictional community of Schabbach and winner of a slew of German film awards. Germans have strong bladders! NW Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium.

The Lives of Hamilton Fish
Director Rachel Mason's independent rock opera, based on the true story of a newspaper editor who became obsessed with the deaths of two men named Hamilton Fish. Mason in attendance, performing live with Seattle band Night Cadet. NW Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium.

The Man Who Saved the World
The story of Stanislav Petrov, and how he managed to avert full-scale nuclear war, and how it's hard to just have a simple, normal life afterwards. Narrated by Kevin Costner, who also saved the world... the Waterworld. Clinton Street Theater.

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials
See review this issue. Various Theaters.

recommended Noir City
The third annual weekend-long noir series at the Hollywood, featuring new 35mm restorations of 1950's Woman on the Run and 1947's The Guilty, along with Fly-by-Night (1942), Nightmare Alley (1947), and Gun Crazy (1950), with screenings hosted by 'the "Czar of Noir" Eddie Muller. More at hollywoodtheatre.org. Hollywood Theatre.

On Art and Artists
The NW Film Center's series of movies about... well, art and artists. This week's offerings: Breathing Earth, Station to Station, and Sol LeWitt. A staple of art history classes everywhere, LeWitt's gigantic, room-filling geometric works are influential, but don't translate well to print—they're not images so much as entire environments made out of lines on gallery walls. In Chris Teerink's documentary, film proves a better medium, with footage of LeWitt's work as it's meant to be seen: The scale of one drawing is clarified by a dark-suited figure walking past; an onslaught of color foregrounds an otherwise gray subway stop. If you've spent any time with LeWitt's work, it comes alive in these contexts, and if you haven't, this is a user-friendly place to start. MEGAN BURBANK NW Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium.

Pawn Sacrifice
See review this issue. Various Theaters.

Portland Latin American Film Festival
Monthly screenings from the Portland Latin American Film Festival. This month: The Perfect Dictatorship, a satire about a Mexican broadcast company installing a president through their "investigative journalism"—and the actual journalists who have to decide whether or not to expose them. More at pdxlaff.org. Hollywood Theatre.

The Prophet
See this film in the unlikely event that you're with your woo-woo friends and have some edibles on hand. Otherwise don't. SUZETTE SMITH Various Theaters.

Racing Extinction
The filmmakers behind The Cove return with a documentary looking at the sixth major extinction event in Earth's history—the one we're living through right now. So that should be fun. Living Room Theaters.

Red Without Blue
A 2007 documentary about a pair of identical twins, one of whom decides to transition from male to female. Screens as part of the Human Rights Campaign Equality Film Series. Clinton Street Theater.

recommended Sleeping With Other People
See review this issue. Fox Tower 10.

Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine
By the time Steve Jobs ends, with director Alex Gibney murmuring some goofy philosophy over an image of a powered-down iPhone, one has long since realized these two hours could've been better spent rereading Walter Isaacson's biography. ERIK HENRIKSEN Living Room Theaters, On Demand.

Sunrise
F.W. Murnau's 1928 silent film, screening on 35mm. Hollywood Theatre.

recommended MEANS WE RECOMMEND IT. Theater locations are accurate Friday, September 18-Thursday, September 24, unless otherwise noted. Movie times are updated daily and are available here.