Oh, Us Crazy Cat Dads
The documentary 'Cat Daddies' is playing now at Art House
Three things helped get me through the dark early days of the pandemic in the spring of 2020. The first was beer — more of … Continue reading
Film: Page 4
When Bad Gets Good
The worst movie in the world — The Room — to be screened, featuring in-person Q&A with leading actor at Corvallis’ Whiteside Theater
The first time I watched The Room, it was on the late-night network Adult Swim sometime in the late ’00s. As the credits rolled, my … 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
Witch’s Brooms, Kitchen Brooms, Oh My
How Thurman Scheumack got his brooms in Hocus Pocus 2 and more
The brooms at Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies? That’s a Scheumack broom. The walking sticks Gandalf uses in The Lord of the Rings movies? … 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
Don’t Sell These Short
EW’s movie critic looks at five short films nominated for the Oscars
Short films, like short stories, are an exercise in economy and punch. They are measured in minutes, not hours, stripping away all the excelsior and … Continue reading
Spent the Rent Money
Eugene filmmaker brings together drugs, beer and comedy in new movie
The recipe for comedy is to start with a true story, and for director Blake Laitner, 35, when he started working on the screenplay for … Continue reading