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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
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