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If you’re a little wary of Lars von Trier — never sure whether you’re going to take him seriously and get laughed at, or laugh at him and find you should’ve taken him seriously — you are hardly alone. His last film, Melancholia, was surprising for not offending or pushing buttons; instead, it left me crushed and dazed. Continue reading
Whenever Hollywood, in its infinite predictability, deigns to treat the subject of advanced middle-age, it does so in such broad terms as to skirt impropriety, if not outright offense. Basically, old people in mainstream movies are played either for comic yuks, as infantilized, sexed-up geriatric assholes, or as infantilized, de-sexualized pill-popping matrons who serve as mere placeholders in some grander drama. In neither instance is age depicted as a specific human condition of adulthood, a moment in life’s journey. Continue reading
For her full-length directorial debut, 34-year-old Jenée LaMarque has made a coming-of-age film that is emotionally vulnerable, philosophically queasy, artistically imperfect and, in its own odd way, uncomfortably beautiful. It would be easy to pick on The Pretty One, the story of Laurel (Zoe Kazan), a twin who, after a car accident, assumes her dead sister’s identity: The movie is, by turns, obvious and obtuse, silly and sincere, shocking and sappy. Continue reading
Dallas Buyers Club Dallas Buyers Club focuses on Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey), a homophobic leer of a man who, in 1985, was diagnosed with AIDS. McConaughey throws himself into this role of bigot-turned-crusader with gusto and skill, but it is Jared Leto, as Woodroof’s transgender partner, who walks away with the heart of the film. — Molly Templeton Continue reading
As a nod to our age of narcissism, EW is celebrating this year’s Oscars by seeing what they have to do with us. In true Hollywood fashion, we used the most fitting methodology — Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, ahem, Separation (although you will find Kevin Bacon in the chart) — to trace each Best Picture nominee back to Oregon. We left Portland and Portlanders out of the mix because that would be, well, too easy. Continue reading
Bold = who we think will win * = who we think should win Best Film * American Hustle Captain Phillips Dallas Buyers Club Gravity Her Nebraska Philomena 12 Years a Slave The Wolf of Wall Street Best Actor Christian Bale Bruce Dern * Leonardo DiCaprio Chiwetel Ejiofor Matthew McConaughey Continue reading
Director James Ivory (Howards End, The Remains of the Day) grew up in Klamath Falls and graduated from the UO. Ivory is half of film company Merchant Ivory Productions, whose movies have received six Oscars. Director and screenplay writer Brad Bird, who graduated from Corvallis High School, nabbed Best Animated Feature Academy Awards for his films The Incredibles and Ratatouille. Continue reading
Bijou Art Cinemas 1. Philomena 2. Blue Jasmine 3. Nebraska 4. Enough Said 5. Chasing Ice 6. Inside Llewyn Davis 7. 20 Feet From Stardom 8. Quartet 9. Much Ado About Nothing 10. Amour Continue reading
Happy families are all alike, but every fucked-up family is fucked-up in its own way. Continue reading
Though only three of them are actually dark, this year’s crop of Oscar-nominated live-action shorts (now playing at Bijou Metro feels disproportionately heavy. There’s one bit of likable fluff (the Finnish “Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?”) involving a flustered family in a morning rush; there’s also a bit of humor in Mark Gill’s “The Voorman Problem,” which stars Martin Freeman as a doctor asked to examine a prisoner who claims he’s a god. Continue reading