Day: February 8, 2018

Friday February 9 – Thursday February 15

~ Sean Gilman

Featured Film:

The Seattle Screen Valentine’s Scene

Nothing really stands out as the must-see Film to Feature this week, but there are a number of romantic options for your Valentine’s Week plans. In repertory: the Ark Lodge has a pair of criminal duos with Bonnie & Clyde and Thelma & Louise, while the Central Cinema has Moonstruck (RIP John Mahoney) and Before Sunrise, and the Grand plays Harold & Maude and Say Anything… (RIP John Mahoney). If you’re tastes are more. . . unconventional, there’s 9 1/2 Weeks at the Grand Illusion and, in wide release, The Shape of Water, Phantom Thread, and Fifty Shades Freed. And if you just want to see something great, there’s Edward Yang’s newly restored classic Taipei Story playing at the Pickford in Bellingham.

Playing This Week:

AMC Alderwood:

Padmaavat (Sanjay Leela Bhansali) Fri-Thurs
2018 Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts (Various) Fri-Thurs
2018 Oscar Nominated Live-Action Shorts (Various) Fri-Thurs

Ark Lodge Cinemas:

Bonnie & Clyde (Arthur Penn, 1967) Fri-Weds
Thelma & Louise (Ridley Scott, 1991) Fri-Weds

Central Cinema:

Moonstruck (Norman Jewison, 1987) Fri, Sat, Tues & Weds
Before Sunrise (Richard Linklater, 1995) Fri, Sat, Tues & Weds

SIFF Egyptian:

Depth Perception (Christopher Murphy & Justin Taylor Smith) Fri-Thurs

Century Federal Way:

Mazinger Z: INFINITY (Junji Shimizu) Sun & Mon Only

Grand Cinema:

Harold & Maude (Hal Ashby, 1971) Sat Only
2018 Oscar Nominated Live-Action Shorts (Various) Fri-Thurs
Say Anything… (Cameron Crowe, 1989) Weds Only
Siblings are Forever (Frode Fimland, 2013) Thurs Only

Grand Illusion Cinema:

The Insult (Ziad Doueiri) Fri-Thurs
Saturday Secret Matinee: Very Bad Deals Sat Only 16mm
Erased Etchings (Linda Fenstermaker) Tues Only 16mm & Digital
9 1/2 Weeks (Adrian Lyne, 1986) Weds Only

Cinemark Lincoln Square:

Chalo (Venky Kudumula) Fri-Thurs
Toliprema (Venky Atluri) Fri-Thurs
Padman (R. Balki) Fri-Thurs
Intelligent (V. V. Vinayak) Fri-Thurs
Gayatri (Madan) Fri-Thurs
Bhaagamathie (G. Ashok) Fri-Thurs
Padmaavat (Sanjay Leela Bhansali) Fri-Thurs
Mazinger Z: INFINITY (Junji Shimizu) Sun & Mon Only

Regal Meridian:

Padman (R. Balki) Fri-Thurs
Mary and the Witch’s Flower (Hiromasa Yonebayashi) Fri-Thurs Our Review
Padmaavat (Sanjay Leela Bhansali) Fri-Thurs

Northwest Film Forum:

The Cage Fighter (Jeff Unay) Fri-Thurs Director Q&A Fri & Sat
Infinity Baby (Bob Byington) Fri-Sun Editor Q&A Fri
Children’s Film Festival Seattle 2018 Sat Only
I Don’t Hate Las Vegas Anymore (Caveh Zahedi, 1994) Sat Only

Regal Parkway Plaza:

Padmaavat (Sanjay Leela Bhansali) Fri-Thurs
Ang Dalawang Mrs. Reyes (Jun Lana) Fri-Thurs
Bilal: A New Breed of Hero (Ayman Jamal & Khurram Alavi) Fri-Thurs

Pickford Film Center:

Taipei Story (Edward Yang, 1985) Tues Only
Nanook of the North with In the Land of the War Canoes (Robert Flaherty, 1922 and Edward Curtis, 1913) Sun Only

AMC Seattle:

2018 Oscar Nominated Documentary Shorts (Various) Fri-Thurs
2018 Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts (Various) Fri-Thurs
2018 Oscar Nominated Live-Action Shorts (Various) Fri-Thurs

Seattle Art Museum:

From The Alphabet to Eraserhead (David Lynch) Fri Only

SIFF Film Center:

Big Sonia (Leah Warshawski & Todd Soliday) Fri-Thurs Q&A Fri & Sat
Elvis, Evergreens, and Umbrellas: 50 Years of Seattle on the Big Screen Sun Only
Love Street (Patrice Leconte, 2002) Weds Only

AMC Southcenter:

La Boda de Valentina (Marco Polo Constandse) Fri-Thurs In Spanish with No Subtitles

SIFF Uptown:

2018 Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts (Various) Fri-Thurs
2018 Oscar Nominated Live-Action Shorts (Various) Fri-Thurs

Varsity Theatre:

Permission (Brian Crano) Fri-Thurs
Mazinger Z: INFINITY (Junji Shimizu) Sun & Mon Only

In Wide Release:

Fifty Shades Freed (James Foley) Our Review
Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson) Our Review
Hostiles (Scott Cooper) Our Review
The Commuter (Jaume Collet-Serra) Our Review
The Post (Steven Spielberg) Our Review
The Last Jedi (Rian Johnson) Our Review Our Podcast
The Shape of Water (Guillermo del Toro) Our Review
Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig) Our Review
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Martin McDonagh) Our Review

Fifty Shades Freed (James Foley, 2018)

~ Matt Lynch

4IXOP54CXVCGNFNXXVXLUW4WQU

Fifty Shades Freed, the latest and supposedly final entry in the continuing story of a young beautiful sub and her filthy rich dom, sees the happy couple finally married but finding the bonds of marriage significantly more uncomfortable than the handcuffs they use in their tepid sex. Ana’s mad that the architect designing their new home has the hots for Christian and struggles to fit in at a new job (that he gave her) which doesn’t seem to involve any actual work (except for the part where she tells someone to “increase the font size two points”). Christian doesn’t really want kids but he seems to do very little else but think about screwing his wife, which tends to have certain results. You can see where this is headed. They go on several vacations and eventually the creepy stalker boss from the last movie turns up and some kidnapping hijinks ensue. In very occasional spots, with Christian’s servants adjusting to their new mistress and the young bride adjusting to her secretive, paranoid husband, it almost resembles a wannabe poptimist Rebecca, only with a completely uninvestigated, bizarrely aspirational streak. As if we were expected to find it really romantic that the new Mrs. de Winter secretly hoped Maxim would eventually shoot her too.

As mainstream sexploitation goes this series is mostly inadequate, serving up more lifestyle porn than actual sex, let alone anything that any decent pervert would consider outré. It’s sadomasochism described by someone who wouldn’t even dream of being tied up in bed. One wonders if the alleged kink on display is meant to ground the wealth of these incredibly rich blanks in something supposedly relatable or if their wealth is meant to make the kink seem in some small way exotic. Either way, it’s kind of amazing that a woman who can’t even handle someone flirting with her husband and a man who suspects he’s being abandoned after a few missed phone calls could somehow manage the serious trust required for a sexual relationship in which someone asks you to hurt them while you fuck.