Reeling in the Years
The former Bijou cinemas reinvents itself as the Art House
In many ways, a building is the lead character in this story. The building in question is no mere building, of course, but more an … Continue reading
Rick Levin
Staff writer for Eugene Weekly, Rick Levin been airing his grievances in newspapers for the better part of two decades.
Author: Rick Levin
This Is Not My Beautiful Wife
A body swap leads to love’s reckoning in VLT’s Prelude to a Kiss
I believe it was the great Irish playwright and staunch socialist George Bernard Shaw who, late in the game and long in the tooth, suggested that … Continue reading
This Ain’t No Picnic
A big stash of gack leads to bloody mayhem in Cocaine Bear
What makes a movie a cult movie? Certainly, the modern tendency to hail a film’s “cult” status immediately upon release belies one of the essential … Continue reading
We Love Short Shorts
Taking a look at this year’s Oscar-nominated short films
Let us now praise the short attention span — and, more specifically, those movies that not only cater to but celebrate our desire for a … Continue reading
When Worse Comes to Worst
Two friends fall out in Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin
It was Hegel who famously quipped that all we really learn from history is that people learn nothing from history. Yowza, right? And so here … Continue reading
The Trouble with Alek
Oregon congressional candidate presents the smiling face of Republican fascism
The coming midterm elections are trending toward a nightmare that could take many of us by surprise. Nationally, a slew of candidates energized and emboldened … Continue reading
The Tragedy of Ustad
An alleged man-eater becomes a national controversy in director Warren Pereira’s Tiger 24
Before I talk about director Warren Pereira’s superbly crafted and deeply moving documentary Tiger 24 — which tells the tragic true-life story of a protected … Continue reading
Don’t Look Up
Outer space is a real issue in Jordan Peele’s sci-fi thriller Nope
Among the many qualities I might attribute to writer/director/producer Jordan Peele — expert auteur, biting satirist, modern horror maven — the only one that really … Continue reading
Along Came a Spider
Director Chloe Okumo subverts the voyeur thriller in Watcher
Director Chloe Okuno’s debut film, Watcher, is not an overtly feminist take on the voyeur/stalker sub-category of the thriller genre. Working with a screenplay by … Continue reading
Down and Out
A young homeless couple in Eugene and Springfield is portrayed with grace and honesty in local director Jarrett Bryant’s new movie Maxie
One of my favorite films of this past year was Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza, an endearing vision of young, star-crossed love that is so … Continue reading