Playing this weekend at 5th Avenue Cinema, writer, director Todd Solondz’s 1995 cult classic Welcome to the Dollhouse throws young Dawn Wieners (Heather Matarazzo) into that old familiar void we’ve…
“Encounters at the End of the World” comes to 5th Avenue Cinema
A few years ago I became infatuated with the idea of going to Antarctica. It has everything I could ever dream of: cold weather, isolation, the perfect excuse to wear…
The Capitol Strikes Back
Plenty of people expected Francis Lawrence’s Catching Fire, the sequel to last year’s The Hunger Games, to make a lot of money. And it did. The film made over $160…
Japanese Currents
Film buffs take notice! A comprehensive selection of critically acclaimed Japanese films will make their Portland debut in the upcoming Japanese Currents screening, courtesy of the Northwest Film Center. “Japanese…
I Need to Return Some Videotapes
Coke, elegance and slaughter are just the beginning of this psychological horror black comedy. Originally written by Bret Easton Ellis in 1991, the heinous and mesmerizing novel was transformed into…
Are you a dreamer?
“Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides, from the novel by Jeffrey Eugenides, has a strange and slightly unwholesome intensity…” quoted Peter Bradshaw from The Guardian. The Virgin Suicides is an American…
Make Yourself a Strong Drink
“…This becomes one of the most scathingly honest American films ever made,” roared Stanley Kauffmann of The New York Times. Originally a play written by Edward Albee in 1962, Who’s Afraid…
Embrace Sex and Lust
“Beneath the urgency of all the older characters—both men, both women…—is the realization that life is short, that time is running out, that life sells you a romantic illusion and…
The Art of Cruelty
If you have yet to see Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave, it might be easy to be put off by the hyperbole surrounding the film. Since it premiered at…
Shut up and show me how to feel
The Northwest Filmmaker’s Festival, which turns 40 this year, has been providing a forum and sanctuary for regional filmmakers for decades. Whether a rookie starting out or a veteran experimenting…
Where Are You Goin’?
Grief, sarcasm and sympathy make up the incredibly tragic and hilarious New Wave film Five Easy Pieces. No happy ending is found here; this is a pure and pragmatic tale,…