Author: Nick Buono

Ten Canoes, a filmed re-telling of an Australian Aboriginal folktale, takes a novel approach to exposing Westerners to the indigenous inhabitants of Australia.

Watch out for so-called “re-packagings” and “special editions.” They usually end up being a scam, with some last-minute crap thrown onto an extra disc to justify jacking up the price by 15 bucks.

Any mafia movie worth its salt has to have its share of bloodbaths and labyrinthine plotlines, right?

This Friday marks the beginning of a run of films by Japanese director Kenji Mizoguchi at the Northwest Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium. Mizoguchi, while perhaps less well known than a director such as Akira Kurosawa, has been widely hailed as one of Japan’s greatest directors.

Hard-working places like the Northwest Film Center supply film festivals almost to excess. As such, it’s easy for good stuff to get lost in the morass of lefty docu-dramas or overly arty art movies.

David Arquette’s new horror film, The Tripper, opened last Friday at the Clinton Street Theater. Wait! Before you throw the paper down in disgust, open yourself up to the possibility that the B-minus actor might just have pulled off his directorial debut with more success and style than one would expect.

The Jackpot Film Festival, a weeklong cornucopia of music-related offerings put on by Jackpot Records, takes over the Hollywood Theater this week.

Just how much useless crap can someone have? How much of one’s life can be dedicated to acquiring said crap? These questions and more are answered in The Treasures of Long Gone John.

If you plan on seeing Eloquent Nude, the story of Modernist photographer Edward Weston and his greatest muse and collaborator, Charis Wilson, make sure to get to Cinema 21 early.

There’s certainly no shortage of places to see movies in Portland. Anything from the biggest-name blockbuster to the most obscure independent release is available to anyone willing to look. So, one might ask, what could possibly be missing? Until I attended Living Room Theater this week, I would have answered that question with “nothing.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Akira Kurosawa’s 1957 epic, Throne of Blood, and to celebrate, the Clinton Street Theater is showing the freshly restored 35mm print through this week. The film centers on samurai lord Washizu, and his twisted rise to dominance over Spider’s Web Castle.