Month: February 2017

Friday February 3 – Thursday February 9

~ Sean Gilman

Featured Film:

Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back at the Pacific Place

The sequel to Stephen Chow’s adaptation of the classic Chinese novel about a Buddhist monk who travels all the way to India to retrieve sacred scriptures, and is defended along the way by super-powered ex-demons, including the legendary Monkey King. The first part, Conquering the Demons, played here in 2014, exclusively at the Grand Illusion. Nowadays, the multiplexes have a lock on Chinese (and Korean, and Indian) imports, and the new film will be playing only at the Pacific Place. That is, unless it follows Chow’s The Mermaid, from last year, and proves enough of a hit to make its way onto more screens. Chow wrote and produced The Demons Strike Back, but Tsui Hark directed. I’ll have a review of the new movie once I get a chance to see it, in the meantime I wrote a survey of Tsui’s career to date for Movie Mezzanine and I have a index of everything I’ve written about Tsui at The End of Cinema.

Playing This Week:

AMC Alderwood:

Wheeler (Ryan Ross) Fri-Thurs
Raees (Rahul Dholakia) Fri-Thurs
Un Padre No Tan Padre (Raúl Martínez) Fri-Thurs

Ark Lodge Cinemas:

Jackie (Pablo Larraín) Fri-Thurs

Central Cinema:

The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson, 2001) Fri-Tues
The Jerk (Carl Reiner, 1979) Fri-Tues

SIFF Egyptian:

I Am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck) Fri-Thurs Our Review

Century Federal Way:

The King (Han Jae-Rim) Fri-Thurs
Sabrina (Billy Wilder, 1954) Sun & Weds Only

Grand Cinema:

Elle (Paul Verhoeven) Fri-Thurs Our Review
20th Century Women (Mike Mills) Fri-Thurs
Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg, 1981) Mon Only with Science Discussion
Haida Gwaii: On the Edge of the World (Charles Wilkinson) Tues Only
Love & Solidarity (Michael Honey & Errol Webber) Tues Only

Grand Illusion Cinema:

Elle (Paul Verhoeven) Sun, Mon, Weds & Thurs Only Our Review
Emily (Ryan Graves) Fri-Thurs Filmmakers in Attendance Fri & Sat
Saturday Secret Matinees: Presented by the Sprocket Society (Various directors & years) Sat Only 16mm
54th Ann Arbor Film Fest Tour: Digital Program Tues Only

Landmark Guild 45th:

Julieta (Pedro Almodóvar) Fri-Thurs
20th Century Women (Mike Mills) Fri-Thurs
Ghost in the Shell (Mamoru Oshii) Tues & Weds Only Subtitled Tues, Dubbed in English Weds

Cinemark Lincoln Square:

I Am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck) Fri-Thurs Our Review
Bogan (Lakshman) Fri-Thurs
Kirik Party (Rishab Shetty) Fri-Thurs
Nenu Local (Trinadha Rao Nakkina) Fri-Thurs
20th Century Women (Mike Mills) Fri-Thurs
Raees (Rahul Dholakia) Fri-Thurs
Kaabil (Sanjay Gupta) Fri-Thurs
Ti Sadhya Kay Karte (Satish Rajwade) Sun Only In Marathi, No Subtitles
Sabrina (Billy Wilder, 1954) Sun & Weds Only
Ghost in the Shell (Mamoru Oshii) Tues & Weds Only Subtitled Tues, Dubbed in English Weds

Regal Meridian:

Silence (Martin Scorsese) Fri-Thurs Our Review

Northwest Film Forum:

Children’s Film Festival Seattle Fri-Thurs Full Program 
The Prison in 12 Landscapes (Brett Story) Fri Only
Quinceañera (Richard Glitzer & Wash Westmoreland) Weds Only Free Event
I Think You Are Totally Wrong: A Quarrel (James Franco) Starts Weds
This Is the Way I Like It 2 (Ignacio Agüero) Thurs-Sat
Daughters of the Dust (Julie Dash, 1991) Starts Thurs Our Review

AMC Oak Tree:

War on Everyone (John Michael McDonagh) Fri-Thurs
Jackie (Pablo Larraín) Fri-Thurs

AMC Pacific Place:

Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back (Tsui Hark) Fri-Thurs
Kung Fu Yoga (Stanley Tong) Fri-Thurs

Regal Parkway Plaza:

Elle (Paul Verhoeven) Fri-Thurs Our Review 
Raees (Rahul Dholakia) Fri-Thurs
Kaabil (Sanjay Gupta) Fri-Thurs
Dangal (Nitesh Tiwari) Fri-Thurs
Sailor Moon R: The Movie (Kunihiko Ikuhara, 1993) Fri & Sat Only Re-edited in English

Seattle Art Museum:

The Passionate Thief (Mario Monicelli, 1960) Thurs Only

SIFF Film Center:

Ocean Waves (Tomomi Mochizuki) Fri-Sun
Beach Club (Leo Galen Rauf) Fri & Thurs Only

AMC Southcenter:

Youth in Oregon (Joel David Moore) Fri-Thurs
Un Padre No Tan Padre (Raúl Martínez) Fri-Thurs

Sundance Cinemas:

Jackie (Pablo Larraín) Fri-Thurs
Midsummer in Newtown (Lloyd Kramer) Fri-Thurs

Regal Thornton Place:

Silence (Martin Scorsese) Fri-Thurs Our Review

SIFF Uptown:

20th Century Women (Mike Mills) Fri-Thurs

In Wide Release:

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (Paul WS Anderson) Our Review
Split (M. Night Shyamalan) Our Review
Hidden Figures (Theodore Melfi) Our Review
Fences (Denzel Washington) Our Review
La La Land (Damien Chazelle) Our Review
Moonlight (Barry Jenkins)  Our Review
Arrival (Denis Villeneuve) Our Review

I Am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck, 2016)

~ Sean Gilman ~ 1 Comment

manpals

Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck’s documentary about the great American author and essayist James Baldwin is neither a biographical film nor a typical talking head documentary, with various experts and narrators explaining to us, the regular people, the importance of the people and events depicted on screen. It’s an essay film, built around notes Baldwin compiled for a project he ultimately abandoned, a personal history of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr, African-American activists who were murdered in the few years between 1963 and 1968. Samuel L. Jackson, in a hushed, yet determined voice, narrates Baldwin’s notes, and Peck freely cuts between them, recited over archival footage both past and present, and images of Baldwin himself lecturing, participating in panel discussions, chatting with Dick Cavett and generally just being himself (the fear in his eyes as he drives around Mississippi street with Evers is palpable, as is his anger at being condescended to by an aged white professor on Cavett’s show). The result is a rambling, discursive film that captures the essential genius of Baldwin’s work, the uniqueness of his mind and the eloquence and power of its expression.

Continue reading “I Am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck, 2016)” →