film
The Darjeeling Limited
With all due respect to the disarming whimsy of
The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic with
Steve Zissou, this railroad romp is Wes Anderson’s
most rewarding and heartfelt effort since Rushmore.
The pacing is pokey at times, and some of the
eccentricity feels forced. But Adrien Brody, Owen
Wilson and Jason Schwartzman have terrific chem
istry as a bedraggled trio of brothers who rehash
their dysfunctional family history while traveling
across India by train. The set designs are charming,
and Anderson veterans Bill Murray and Anjelica
Huston have amusing cameos. Opens Oct. 12. B +
—Stephen Blair
Dedication
Henry Roth (Billy Crudup) is a children’s book
author whose best-selling character, Marty the
Beaver, was inspired by a visit to a porno theater.
He’s a chronically single, OCD mess of a manchild
who spends his free time watching Japanese
monster movies and pushing away anyone who gets
too close to him. But when his best friend and
surrogate father figure (Tom Wilkinson) dies of
a brain tumor, Roth is forced to overcome his social
phobias to join forces (and, ultimately, torsos) with
a beautiful and empathic young illustrator (played
with surprising appeal by Mandy Moore). Poor
puffy-faced Dianne Wiest fares worse as Moore’s
hysterical mother. B-
—Tony Le Tigre
Eastern Promises
Two years after their triumphant collaboration
on A History of Violence, maverick director David
Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen have teamed up
to concoct one of the most accomplished and bru
tal mob movies in recent memory. The entire cast
is impeccable, with Naomi Watts as a Lindon mid
wife who unwittingly entangles herself in a Russian
crime syndicate. Mortensen hits a career high as
the menacing yet sympathetic Nikolai, showing
jaw-dropping dedication to his craft by extinguish
ing cigarettes on his tongue and fighting a bloody
brawl in the buff. Steven Knight, an Oscar nomi
nee for Dirty Pretty Things, wrote the intricate
screenplay. A
—SB
The Game Plan
Andy Fickman (She’s the Man) directs charming
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as NFL quarterhack
Joe Kingman, who has the perfect game plan to win
the championship till he runs into a little problem:
his 7-year-old daughter from a previous relation
ship (wonderfully played by Madison Pettis). His
perfect bachelor life will now undergo a lot of
changes. This funny and witty Disney film offers
classic, clean-cut family entertainment. B +
—Yvonne P. Behrens
H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival
Chances are you are familiar with H.P.
Lovecraft’s works, a combination of fantasy,
horror and science fiction from the early
1900s. Writing in a time of immense scientif
ic discoveries, Lovecraft spun tales of cosmic
horrors, tentacled uncaring gods, aggressive
alien forms and species from under the sea.
The H.P. Lovecraft Festival, now in its 12th
year, showcases the far-reaching influence of
his writing through cinematic interpretations
and scholarly contemplation. After watching
Sean Penn directs Emile Hirsch in Into the Wild, an
films such as John Carpenter’s classic The
Thing to the recent Cthulhu (a gay spin on
that touches on culture clashes, forensic revela
Lovecraft’s short story “The Shadow Over Inns-
tions, kidnapping, religious doctrine and the self
mouth”), you’ll be one step closer to understand perpetuation of hate. FBI Special Agent Ronald
ing all the talk of Outer versus Elder gods, the
Fleury (Jamie Foxx) quickly assembles art elite
Great Old Ones and colors from outer space.
team (Chris Cooper, Jennifer Garner and Jason
There’s even a Mall of Cthulhu where you can
Bateman) to fly to the Middle East and find who
purchase your very own cuddly Azathoth. Once
was behind that attack. A well-executed action
you’re ready to join the cult, be sure you’re able to
film with a political twist. B
chant Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl
—YPB
fhtagn— just don’t drink the green Kool-Aid.
The H.P. Lovecraft Festival runs through
Safe
Oct. 7 at Hollywood Theatre. For more informa
It might seem paradoxical that the finest film
tion visit www.hplfilmfestival.com.
in queer cinema-maestro Todd Haynes’ impressive
—Anahel Ramirez
oeuvre is one that scarcely mentions queers at all.
But it is difficult to imagine Safe coming from the
Into the Wild
imagination of anyone who had not had Haynes’
• Sean Penn finally hits his stride as a director with
experiences as a queer activist during some fairly
this thoroughly engrossing biopic about a recent col dark times for the cause. (Before moving to
lege graduate (Emile Hirsch, delivering a remarkable
Portland, he was involved in ACT UP at the
performance reminiscent of River Phoenix) who
height of the oppressive Reagan years, the time
sells all of his possessions and drops out of society to during which Safe is set.)
roam across the continent, meeting a string of rich
The film recounts the mysterious misfortune of
ly drawn characters along the way. On the surface it
Carol White (frequent Haynes collaborator
would seem that the outspoken liberal filmmaker has Julianne Mtxtre, in her first leading role), an upper
steered clear of politics here, but in reality his
middle-class housewife living in a vast McMansion
protagonist’s inner/outer journey makes a radically
outside Los Angeles. Carol unquestioningly, even
anti-American statement: Put simply, the best things
numbly, adheres to a typical routine for one of her
in life are not things. A +
role and class—picking up dry cleaning, serving
—Jim Radosta
dinner to her ad-exec husband and stepchild, going
to aerobics class, obsessing over interior decoration,
The Kingdom
etc., all of which we see in remarkably restrained,
Inspired by a 2003 compound bombing in
beautifully composed, almost real-time sequences
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, director Peter Berg (Friday
at the film’s beginning—until she gradually but
Night Lights) transforms that incident into a story
inexorably begins to fall ill.
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excellent adventure partially filmed in Oregon.
As her apparently undiagnosable malady
worsens, and the best health care that her plenti
ful resources can afford fail to assist her, she comes
across a flier for a New-Agey rural retreat for the
“environmentally ill." An impending state of
irresoluble crisis in her health compels her to set
off for an indefinite stay at this retreat, where the
residents are subtly coaxed into a kind of magical
thinking that makes them culpable in their
illnesses.
Haynes’ brilliant concept is matched by his
clearly preternatural understanding of the medium.
Every visual and aural aspect of the film, along
with Moore’s superlatively intelligent perform
ance, perfectly evokes for the viewer the blank
serenity of Carol White’s life: This is a woman
with only the most tenuous, vague sense of who
she is. Her illness is never explained, because it is
not really the film’s point; rather, Safe is about the
problem of identity (a recurring theme in Haynes’
work) and the ways in which something physiolog
ical like an illness might come to be understood
and incorporated as part of one’s identity, and even
be made to seem like a moral issue. Safe movingly
revivifies the meaning of the activist slogan
“silence=death” (which could be simply but
correctly stated as the film’s thesis) by illustrating
it in a most unlikely yet powerful way—a way that,
subversively, implicates the most apparently
immune, “normal” part of society.
Screens 7 p.m. Oct. 6 as part of the Northwest
Film Center’s Eco-Sicko series. Schedule permitting,
Haynes will introduce the film. A +
—Christopher McQuam ©
Artists Auditions II
Finalists
Christian Rex van Minnen, CO
October 2 31, 2007
OperiiiMi !(.'<• I ot.'vur
Paradise Video
Friday, October 5th, 4 p m
Upscale Adult Video Store
503.255.9414
““ BRIAN MARKI FINE ART 8 FRAMING
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