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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (July 1, 2005)
41 REVIEWS George A. Romero’s Land off the Dead Zombies are the hot monster in Hollywood right now, feeding into our fears of death and loss of individualism. George Romero is credit ed for making zombie movies great, and this time out he has a budget and a political agen da. But although it has gcxxl sets, strong pho tography and a few real actors, Land of the Dead is slow-going and dull, with only Dennis Hop per’s antics to liven it up. You may feel your brain has been eaten after seeing it. C- —Andy Mangels Tracy Faraca Pedro Dorsey artist (July), who pays her rent by transporting senior citizens in an “Elder Cab.” Meanwhile, the salesman’s children and their friends explore life’s byways and bound aries in that sweetly curious, recklessly un inhibited way that only children can. July’s fearless, expert handling of the children—espe cially their irrepressible, nonchalantly shocking perceptions of “serious” grown-up matters like romance and sex—compensates for the film’s sometimes compelling, sometimes cutesy actual grown-up romance. It’s sometimes too apparent that the story lines were probably conceived separately and Man with the Screaming Brain I wanted so badly to like this film. Bruce Campbell is an Oregonian, a charmingly funny actor/writer and a gcxxl-kxtking daddy-type. So to see him write, direct and star in a film in which he plays a businessman who has a Rus sian taxi driver’s brain half-implanted into him should have been a joy. Unfortunately, what could have been a sprightly segment of some Twilight Zone-ish anthology is instead drug out to an absurd length. Where are the movie mocking Mystery Science Theater 3000 robots when we need them? And can someone please feed blight-on-acting ’fed Raimi to some zom bies? Opens July 8 at Hollywood Theatre. D —AM Me and You and Everyone We Know Former Portland-based video/performance artist (now Los Angeles-based indie filmmaker) Miranda July’s debut feature—which she wrote, directed and stars in—is a bit of a mixed bag, but when it works, it offers a unique take on the fear and beauty underlying even the most mun dane modem lives. A just-separated department store shoe salesman (John Hawkes) is romanti cally pursued by a struggling video/performance 1829 NE Alberta Suite 1 1 Portland Oregon 9721 1 503-287 0339 A Night of Outrageous Comedy Heights This ensem ble drama fol lows several characters through one tumultuous day in New York City. A bitter stage legend (Glenn Close) flirts with a young actor (Jesse Bradford) to numb the pain of her open marriage. Her photographer daughter (Eliza James Marsden and Elizabeth beth Banks) is having second thoughts about her upcoming marriage to a sexually conflicted lawyer (James Marsden) who’s being pursued by a journalist (John Light) inquiring about a famous artist from their past. An unexpected twist ties these . overlapping stories together in an emotional climax. B+ —Jim Radostan 12 8 everyday walkins and appointments available An Event You Won't Want to Miss!!! - F I JUL Picture the love child of Bette Midler, Lily Tomlin, and Koren Carpenter...ond you've got Lisa Koch. Lisa is the irreverent Seattle singer, songwriter, comedian and Britney Spears body-double who will be performing a comedy benefit at: Tickets on sole now at In Other Worth & It's My Pleasure, $20 (pre-sole) 7:30pm, July 16th, Metropolitan Community Church 2400 NE Broadway, Portland OR or $25 of the door ~ One Night Only /V Proceeds to Benefit the Hambleton Project! The Hambleton Project provides support for lesbians with tancer and other life threatening conditions Banks take a bumpy ride to the altar in Heights. then (not always seamlessly) conjoined, but the sum of its parts is far greater than the whole. Opens July 1 at Cinema 21. B+ —Christopher McQuain THE PERFECT OUTING Mysterious Skin Writer/director Gregg Araki finally comes into his own as a major film artist in this small town story of two troubled 18-year-old boys (Brady Corbet and Joseph Gordon-Levitt) on a search for their missing childhcxxJ. Now play ing at HollywcxxJ Theatre, Mysterious Skin does the unimaginable in cautiously visualizing the quiet nightmare of molestation. More a series of striking vignettes than a straight narrative, the film expertly weaves in and out of past and present and through these boys’ attempts to come to grips with something beyond their control. A —Gary Morris War off the Worlds Spectacular visual effects meet a spectacu larly bad script in this update of H.G. Wells’ 1898 sci-fi classic. In his biggest misfire since The Lost World: Jurassic Park, director Steven Spielberg fulfills half of his job requirements by serving up breathtaking images of merciless lightning storms and sky-high tripods that instantly zap earthlings to death. But all the bells and whistles in the galaxy can’t redeem the brain-dead story of an average Joe (Tom Cruise) who’ll do anything to keep his kids from getting anally probed. You can’t help but wonder what made Spielberg—the guy who put a smiley face on human-alien relations in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Close Encounters of the Third Kind —close his heart to creatures from other worlds. C —Stephen Biair JF1 Satisfy your need for speed and your sense of adventure with an Outrageous jet boat cruise. 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