This is a review of The Rise of Skywalker. If you don’t want to know anything about what happens in the movie, you shouldn’t read this.
Author: Sean Gilman
Friday December 13 – Thursday December 19
Featured Film:
Make Way for Tomorrow at the Beacon
The Awful Truth is one of the great screwballs of all time, the prototypical Comedy of Remarriage and among the finest work by stars Cary Grant and Irene Dunne. And it’s only the second-best movie Leo McCarey made in 1937. The best is Make Way for Tomorrow, a very sad comedy, or a very funny tragedy, about an elderly couple who’s children can’t afford to support them together, and so they’re split among their children’s homes. An avowed influence on Yasujiro Ozu, it’s one of the finest movies classical Hollywood ever made at it’s playing three days this week at the Beacon, just in time for holiday season familial guilt. The Beacon’s also got Mr. Arkadin, arguably Orson Welles’s weirdest movie, and Nagisa Oshima’s sublime Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, with David Bowie as a World War II prisoner of Ryuichi Sakamoto and Takashi Kitano.
Playing This Week:
Pati Patni Aur Woh (Mudassar Aziz) Fri-Thurs
Make Way for Tomorrow (Leo McCarey, 1937) Fri, Tues & Weds Only
The Worst Friday the 13th Movie(??? ?????, ????) Fri Only
Mr. Arkadin (Orson Welles, 1955) Sat & Sun Only
The White Reindeer (Erik Blomberg, 1952) Sat, Sun & Weds Only
American Matchmaker (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1940) Sat & Mon Only
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (Nagisa Oshima, 1983) Sat & Mon Only
Silent Night, Deadly Night (Charles E. Seiler Jr, 1984) Sat & Thurs Only
Horus, Prince of the Sun (Isao Takahata, 1968) Sun Only
Dial Code Santa Claus (René Manzor, 1989) Sun & Tues Only
Ringu (Hideo Nakata, 1998) Mon Only
A Smokey Mountain Christmas (Henry Winkler, 1986) Thurs Only
Elf (Jon Favreau, 2003) Fri-Weds
Love, Actually (Richard Curtis, 2003) Fri-Weds
Jingle All the Way (Brian Levant, 1996) Thurs Only Hecklevision
Holiday Film Series Sat-Tues
The Two Popes (Fernando Meirelles) Fri-Thurs
Marriage Story (Noah Baumbach) Fri-Thurs
Fantastic Fungi (Louie Schwartzberg) Fri-Thurs
The Two Popes (Fernando Meirelles) Fri-Thurs
Fantastic Fungi (Louie Schwartzberg) Fri-Thurs
Bad Santa (Terry Zwigoff, 2003) Sat Only
The Report (Scott Z. Burns) Tues Only
White Christmas (Michael Curtiz, 1954) Weds & Thurs Only
It’s a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946) Fri-Thurs 35mm
The Wicked/Outback Vampires Sat Only VHS
Venky Mama (K. S. Ravindra) Fri-Thurs
Pati Patni Aur Woh (Mudassar Aziz) Fri-Thurs
Panipat (Ashutosh Gowariker) Fri-Thurs
Mamangam (M. Padmakumar) Fri-Thurs
The Body (Jeethu Joseph) Fri-Thurs
Mardaani 2 (Gopi Puthran) Fri-Thurs
Babru (Sujay Ramaiah) Sat & Sun Only
Kettyyolanu Ente Malakha (Nissam Basheer) Sat & Sun Only
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (Isao Takahata, 2013) Mon & Weds Only Subtitled Weds
Frankie (Ira Sachs) Tues Only
Panipat (Ashutosh Gowariker) Fri-Thurs
The Polar Express (Robert Zemeckis, 2004) Sat Only
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (Isao Takahata, 2013) Mon & Weds Only Subtitled Weds
The Final Level: Escaping Rancala (Canyon Prince) Fri-Thurs
Celebration: Yves Saint Laurent (Olivier Meyrou) Sat-Next Sun
Everybody’s Everything (Ramez Silyan & Sebastian Jones) Sat Only
Mother (Bong Joonho, 2009) Sun & Weds Only
The Whistleblower (Xue Xiaolu) Fri-Thurs
Honey Boy (Alma Har’el) Fri-Thurs
The Whistleblower (Xue Xiaolu) Fri-Thurs
The Body (Jeethu Joseph) Fri-Thurs
Honey Boy (Alma Har’el) Fri-Thurs
Panipat (Ashutosh Gowariker) Fri-Thurs
Mystery Science Theater 3000: Santa Claus ( Jim Mallon, 1993) Fri-Sun
En Brazos De Un Asesino (Matías Moltrasio) Fri-Thurs
The Polar Express (Robert Zemeckis, 2004) Sat Only
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (Isao Takahata, 2013) Mon & Weds Only Subtitled Weds
Mob Town (Danny A. Abeckaser) Fri & Sat Only
Daniel Isn’t Real (Adam Egypt Mortimer) Fri-Thurs
The Death and Life of John F. Donovan (Xavier Dolan) Fri-Thurs
Line of Descent (Rohit Karn Batra) Fri-Thurs
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (Isao Takahata, 2013) Mon & Weds Only Subtitled Weds
In Wide Release:
Parasite (Bong Joonho) Our Review Our Podcast
Friday December 6 – Thursday December 12
Featured Film:
Paranoid Data at the Northwest Film Forum
Despite the fact that Christmas films have already been sneaking on to Seattle Screens for the last week, it is still too early for that kind of thing. Thankfully, the Northwest Film Forum is headed in a different direction this weekend, with a bunch of sci-fi films from the 80s and 90s under the heading “Paranoid Data: Pre-Millennium Tension in Film“. Where else in town can you watch a Harun Farocki doc back-to-back with a 35m print of Johnny Mnemonic? The series also includes a 35 print of Kathryn Bigelow’s 1995 stealth classic Strange Days, David Cronenberg’s Scanners, and a movie I’ve loved since I was seven years old, John Badham’s WarGames. The Beacon has the best movie in town this week, with Night of the Hunter, which just might be the greatest movie ever, and shout out to the Grand, where on Saturday you can watch Marriage Story, The Irishman, Parasite, and Eyes Wide Shut all in a row.
Playing This Week:
The Whistleblower (Xue Xiaolu) Fri-Thurs
Pati Patni Aur Woh (Mudassar Aziz) Fri-Thurs
Marketa Lazarová (František Vláčil, 1967) Fri-Tues
Female Trouble (John Waters, 1974) Fri & Sat Only
The Snow Queen (Päivi Hartzell, 1986) Fri, Sun & Weds Only
Tevya (Maurice Schwartz, 1939) Sat & Mon Only
Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955) Sun & Tues Only
Comet in Moominland (Hiroshi Saitô, 1992) Sun Only
Kuroneko (Kaneto Shindô, 1968) Mon Only
Class of 1999 (Mark L. Lester, 1990) Weds Only
Children Must Laugh (Alexander Ford, 1938) Thurs Only
Last Action Hero (John McTiernan, 1993) Thurs Only
Die Hard (John McTiernan, 1988) Fri-Tues
Muppet Christmas Carol (Brian Henson, 1992) Fri-Weds
The Irishman (Martin Scorsese) Fri-Thurs
Marriage Story (Noah Baumbach) Fri-Thurs
Fantastic Fungi (Louie Schwartzberg) Fri-Thurs
Promare (Hiroyuki Imaishi) Sun & Tues Only Dubbed Tues
Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli, 1944) Sun & Weds Only Our Podcast
The Irishman (Martin Scorsese) Fri-Thurs
Marriage Story (Noah Baumbach) Fri-Thurs
Pain and Glory (Pedro Almodóvar) Fri-Thurs
Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999) Sat Only
Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins (Janice Engel) Tues Only
Light from Light (Paul Harrill) Fri-Thurs
Tammy & the T-Rex (Stewart Raffill, 1994) Fri, Tues & Next Fri Only
The Whistleblower (Xue Xiaolu) Fri-Thurs
Pati Patni Aur Woh (Mudassar Aziz) Fri-Thurs
Panipat (Ashutosh Gowariker) Fri-Thurs
Madhanam (Ajay Sai Manikandan) Fri-Sun Only
Helen (Mathukutty Xavier) Sat & Sun Only
Irandan Ulagaporin Kadaisi Gundu (Athiyan Athirai) Sat & Sun Only
Promare (Hiroyuki Imaishi) Sun & Tues Only Dubbed Tues
Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli, 1944) Sun & Weds Only Our Podcast
Gremlins (Joe Dante, 1984) Fri-Thurs
The Whistleblower (Xue Xiaolu) Fri-Thurs
Panipat (Ashutosh Gowariker) Fri-Thurs
Promare (Hiroyuki Imaishi) Sun, Tues & Weds Only Subtitled Sun
Unlikely (Adam Fenderson & Jaye Fenderson) Fri Only
And with Him Came the West (Mike Plante) Fri Only Director in Attendance
Everybody’s Everything (Ramez Silyan & Sebastian Jones) Sat Only
WarGames (John Badham, 1983) Sat Only
Videograms of a Revolution (Harun Farocki & Andrei Ujică, 1992) Sat Only
Johnny Mnemonic (Robert Longo, 1995) Sat Only 35mm
Scanners (David Cronenberg, 1981) Sun Only
Strange Days (Kathryn Bigelow, 1995) Sun Only
Force of Nature Natalia (Gerald Fox) Sun Only
Animation Next Weds & Thurs Only
The Masque of the Red Death (Roger Corman, 1964) Thurs Only
Honey Boy (Alma Har’el) Fri-Thurs
The Whistleblower (Xue Xiaolu) Fri-Thurs
Honey Boy (Alma Har’el) Fri-Thurs
Two Tigers (Fei Li) Fri-Thurs
The Whistleblower (Xue Xiaolu) Fri-Thurs
Pati Patni Aur Woh (Mudassar Aziz) Fri-Thurs
Panipat (Ashutosh Gowariker) Fri-Thurs
The Whistleblower (Xue Xiaolu) Fri-Thurs
The Princess Bride (Rob Reiner, 1987) Fri-Sun Quote-along
No Dominion: The Ian Horvath Story (Margaret Mullin, Nel Shelby) Tues Only
En Brazos De Un Asesino (Matías Moltrasio) Fri-Thurs
Gremlins (Joe Dante, 1984) Fri-Thurs
Promare (Hiroyuki Imaishi) Sun, Tues & Weds Only Subtitled Sun
Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli, 1944) Sun & Weds Only Our Podcast
Pain and Glory (Pedro Almodóvar) Fri-Thurs
Knives and Skin (Jennifer Reeder) Fri & Sat Only
The Aeronauts (Tom Harper) Fri-Thurs
A Million Little Pieces (Sam Taylor-Johnson) Fri-Thurs
I See You (Adam Randall) Fri-Thurs
The Mandela Effect (David Guy Levy) Fri-Thurs
A New Christmas (Daniel Tenenbaum) Fri-Thurs
In Wide Release:
The Lighthouse (Robert Eggers) Our Review
Parasite (Bong Joonho) Our Review Our Podcast
Friday November 29 – Thursday December 5
Featured Film:
Sátántangó at the Northwest Film Forum
What better way to spend Thanksgiving weekend than with a six+ hour Hungarian slow cinema epic about the decay of society in the wake of the collapse of the Iron Curtain? I saw Sátántangó at the Film Forum 15 years ago or so, and it remains one of my favorite movie-going days. It’s a singular experience, and one that doesn’t come around often. Elsewhere around town, the Beacon has Umbrellas of Cherbourg (another of my favorite theatrical experiences), SAM wraps their noir series with David Lynch’s Mulholland Dr., and the Crest has two Netflix movies that are two of the best American movies of 2019, with Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman and Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story.
Playing This Week:
Dark Waters (Todd Haynes) Fri-Thurs
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964) Fri, Sat, Tues & Weds
Gremlins (Joe Dante, 1984) Fri-Sun, Weds
Die Hard (John McTiernan, 1988) Fri-Tues, Thurs
Blast of Silence (Allen Baron, 1961) Sat & Sun Only
Overture to Glory (Max Nosseck, 1940) Sat Only
Sailor Moon S: Hearts in Ice (Hiroki Shibata, 1994) Sun Only
Black Sunday (Mario Bava, 1960) Mon Only
Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942) Fri-Weds Our Review
Christmas Vacation (Jeremiah S. Chechik, 1989) Fri-Tues
The Irishman (Martin Scorsese) Fri-Thurs
Marriage Story (Noah Baumbach) Fri-Thurs
Waves (Trey Edward Shults) Fri-Thurs
When Harry Met Sally… (Rob Reiner, 1989) Sun Only
Pain and Glory (Pedro Almodóvar) Fri-Thurs
Dolemite (D’Urville Martin, 1975) Sat Only
Scandalous (Mark Landsman) Tues Only
The Kingmaker (Lauren Greenfield) Fri-Thurs
Wallflower (Jagger Gravning) Sat-Tues
Dark Waters (Todd Haynes) Fri-Thurs
Waves (Trey Edward Shults) Fri-Thurs
Honey Boy (Alma Har’el) Fri-Thurs
Bala (Amar Kaushik) Fri-Thurs
Arjun Suravaram (T. N. Santhosh) Fri-Thurs
Commando 3 (Aditya Datt) Fri-Thurs
Enai Noki Paayum Thota (Gautham Menon) Fri-Thurs
Raja Varu Rani Garu (Ravi Kiran Kola) Fri-Thurs
When Harry Met Sally… (Rob Reiner, 1989) Sun & Tues Only
Dark Waters (Todd Haynes) Fri-Thurs
Elf (Jon Favreau, 2003) Sat Only
Sátántangó (Béla Tarr, 1994) Fri-Sun
In My Room (Ulrich Köhler) Fri-Sun
Everybody’s Everything (Ramez Silyan & Sebastian Jones) Weds Only
Unlikely (Adam Fenderson & Jaye Fenderson) Weds-Next Fri
Honey Boy (Alma Har’el) Fri-Thurs
Two Tigers (Fei Li) Fri-Thurs
Pagalpanti (Anees Bazmee) Fri-Thurs
Unforgettable (Jun Lana & Percival Intalan) Fri-Thurs
Honey Boy (Alma Har’el) Fri-Thurs
Mulholland Dr (David Lynch, 2001) Thurs Only
The Muppet Movie (James Frawley, 1979) Fri-Sun Sing-along
The Muppet Christmas Carol (Brian Henson, 1992) Weds Only
Dark Waters (Todd Haynes) Fri-Thurs
Elf (Jon Favreau, 2003) Sat Only
When Harry Met Sally… (Rob Reiner, 1989) Sun & Tues Only
Pain and Glory (Pedro Almodóvar) Fri-Thurs
Moomins on the Riviera\(Xavier Picard, 2014) Sat Only
American Dharma (Errol Morris) Fri-Thurs
In Wide Release:
The Lighthouse (Robert Eggers) Our Review
Parasite (Bong Joonho) Our Review Our Podcast
Little Women (Greta Gerwig, 2019)
There was absolutely no need for another movie version of Little Women. Gillian Armstrong’s 1994 version (with Winona Ryder, Claire Danes, Trini Alvarado, Kirsten Dunst and Samantha Mathis) was already pretty much perfect, and George Cukor’s 1933 version (with Katharine Hepburn, Joan Bennett, Francis Dee and Jean Parker) was pretty good too. I haven’t seen the 1949 Mervyn LeRoy version, but its cast (Elizabeth Taylor, Janet Leigh June Allyson and Margaret O’Brien) sounds amazing. Greta Gerwig assembled an equally great cast for her adaptation (Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Eliza Scanlen), but rather than simply play the familiar story straight, she’s jumbled up the narrative and shifted emphasis away from its family melodrama elements to something more in line with her interests as evidenced by her previous work, both as a director (Lady Bird) and in her collaborations with Noah Baumbach (Frances Ha and Mistress America)–that is, the story of how a young woman becomes an artist. It’s now a story as much about its own creation (both the film and Louisa May Alcott’s novel) as it is about the emotional highs and lows of its ostensible subjects. As such, it bears as much relation to Whisper of the Heart or Paterson as it does to previous Alcott adaptations.
It begins with Jo March, aspiring writer, living in New York and selling short genre fiction pieces for quick cash. A handsome critic tells her she’s wasting her time writing trash, which annoys her and not just because it’s true. But she gets a message from home: her youngest sister Beth is sick, possibly dying, and so she returns to Concord, Massachusetts. Flashbacks fill in the episodes that come first in the book and previous movies: a Christmas visit to poor neighbors, Jo and her older sister Meg’s trip to a dance, third sister Amy falling in ice, Jo and the girls’ friendship with neighbor boy Laurie (Timothée Chalamet), etc. These are interspersed with present day events: Amy in Europe with her aunt and Laurie (after Jo has rejected his marriage proposal), Meg and her husband barely eking out a living, Jo depressed about her work. The back and forth between past and present builds a seductive rhythm, as events mirror and comment on each other with ever greater frequency, culminating in Beth’s two serious illnesses, which Gerwig freely cuts between, doubling the usual melodramatic effect.
The film reaches its height though not with death, or with love and marriage, but with work, as Jo finally realizes what she should write about and Gerwig shows the process in detail: spreading papers on the floor to organize ideas, switching from one hand to another as the apparently ambidextrous author cannot stop to rest her cramping, ink-stained fingers, finally the physical process of printing and binding the book itself. There’s even a neat meta-fictional twist as Jo and her editor debate the Jo character’s ending, opening up the possibility that all the flashbacks we’ve seen are scenes from the book Jo is writing, that the real Jo and her family are not exactly the same as the Marches we’ve always known. Just as, of course, the Marches are not the Alcotts, and Lady Bird and Frances are not Greta. Tracey Fishko turned her friends and family into literature in Mistress America, and they all hated her for it. Jo’s story ends much more happily. At least, that’s the way she wrote it.
Friday November 22 – Thursday November 28
Featured Film:
Bound at the Beacon
The Wachowskis’ debut feature, wherein Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly scheme to steal a bunch of Joe Pantoliano’s money, immediately marked them as filmmakers to watch in coming years, and the Beacon is bringing it back this weekend as part of their on-going Sex Work is Work series, which this week also includes one of Max Ophuls’s masterpieces, his final film, Lola Montès, about the notorious woman whose romances covered a large swath of mid-19th century European history. The Beacon’s also got The Last Waltz this week, which is just about as perfect a Thanksgiving film as you’re likely to find.
Playing This Week:
Pagalpanti (Anees Bazmee) Fri-Tues
Bound (Lilly and Lana Wachowski, 1996) Fri & Sat Only
Kinetta (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2005) Fri-Sun
Uptight (Jules Dassin, 1968) Sat & Mon Only
Lola Montès (Max Ophuls, 1955) Sat, Sun & Tues
Patlabor: the Movie (Mamoru Oshii, 1989) Sun Only
Burn! (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1969) Sun & Weds Only
Opera (Dario Argento, 1987) Mon Only
The Last Waltz (Martin Scorsese, 1978) Tues & Weds Only
Planes Trains and Automobiles (John Hughes, 1987) Fri-Weds
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (Justin Lin, 2006) Fri-Tues
The Irishman (Martin Scorsese) Fri-Thurs
Pain and Glory (Pedro Almodóvar) Fri-Sun, Tues
Girl on the Third Floor (Travis Stevens) Sat Only
Weed the People (Abby Epstein) Mon Only
Chained for Life (Aaron Schimberg) Tues Only
Another Day of Life (Raúl De La Fuente & Damian Nenow) Fri-Weds
Lost Angelas (William Wayne) Fri-Weds Director in Attendance Fri & Sat
The Age of Insects (Eric Marciano, 1990) Sat Only VHS
Blood Rage (John Grissmer, 1987) Thurs Only
Honey Boy (Alma Har’el) Fri-Thurs
Pagalpanti (Anees Bazmee) Fri-Tues
Adithya Varma (Gireesaaya) Fri-Tues
George Reddy (B. Jeevan Reddy) Fri-Tues
Everybody’s Everything (Ramez Silyan & Sebastian Jones) Fri-Tues
Unlikely (Adam Fenderson & Jaye Fenderson) Fri & Sat
Sundance Indigenous Shorts Sun-Weds
Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice (Rob Epstein & Jeffrey Friedman) Sun & Weds Only
The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers & Kathleen Hepburn) Weds Only
Honey Boy (Alma Har’el) Fri-Thurs
The Divine Move 2: The Wrathful (Khan Lee) Fri-Tues
Better Days (Derek Tsang) Fri-Tues Our Review
Pagalpanti (Anees Bazmee) Fri-Tues
Bala (Amar Kaushik) Fri-Tues
Unforgettable (Jun Lana & Percival Intalan) Fri-Tues
End of the Century (Lucio Castro) Fri-Sun
Fantastic Fungi (Louie Schwartzberg) Mon-Weds
Seattle Turkish Film Festival Fri-Sun Full Program
Mr. Toilet: The World’s #2 Man\(Lily Zepeda) Tues Only
Pain and Glory (Pedro Almodóvar) Weds-Thurs
The Report (Scott Z. Burns) Fri-Thurs
Return of the Fly (Edward Bernds, 1959) Sat Only
In Wide Release:
The Lighthouse (Robert Eggers) Our Review
Parasite (Bong Joonho) Our Review Our Podcast
Friday November 15 – Thursday November 21
Featured Film:
The Irishman at the Cinerama and the Crest
Martin Scorsese’s new superhero movie about an Irish guy who fights crime opens this week at the Cinerama and the Crest (and also a theatre in Redmond). At least, I assume that’s what the movie is about, I haven’t been able to see it yet and I haven’t really been following the news. Elsewhere around town the Beacon has a killer line-up of The Secret of NIMH, Angel’s Egg and Klute, while the Grand brings back my favorite movie of the year so far, Takashi Miike’s First Love, SAM has the Lee Marvin classic Point Blank, the Uptown has a Romanian Film Festival, which includes The Whistlers, a movie we discuss and recommend on our VIFF podcast, and the Egyptian has a live accompaniment to Yasujiro Ozu’s Dragnet Girl.
Playing This Week:
The Warrior Queen of Jhansi (Swati Bhise) Fri-Thurs
Better Days (Derek Tsang) Fri-Thurs Our Review
Rififi (Jules Dassin, 1955) Fri, Sat, Tues & Thurs
Santa Sangre (Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1989) Fri-Mon, Thurs
The Secret of NIMH (Don Bluth, 1982) Sat & Weds Only
Klute (Alan J. Pakula, 1971) Sat Only
Angel’s Egg (Mamoru Oshii, 1985) Sun Only
A Bullet for the General (Damiano Damiani, 1967) Sun & Weds Only
Ask Any Buddy (Evan Purchell) Sun Only
Tenebre (Dario Argento, 1982) Mon Only
Where in the Hell is the Lavender House? (David Hall) Tues Only
Castle in the Sky (Hayao Miyazaki, 1986) Fri-Weds Dubbed or Subtitled, Check Listings
The Raid: Redemption (Gareth Evans, 2011) Fri-Mon, Weds
The Irishman (Martin Scorsese) Fri-Weds
The Irishman (Martin Scorsese) Fri-Thurs
Pain and Glory (Pedro Almodóvar) Fri-Thurs
Dragnet Girl (Yasujiro Ozu, 1933) Thurs Only Live Score Our Podcast
Princess Mononoke (Hayao Miyazaki, 1997) Sun & Mon Only Subtitled Mon
The Dark Crystal (Jim Henson & Frank Oz, 1982) Sat Only Free Screening
First Love (Takashi Miike) Sat Only Our Review
Aga (Milko Lazarov) Tues Only
Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1950) Weds Only
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (Marielle Heller) Thurs Only
Scandalous (Mark Landsman) Fri-Thurs
Paprika (Satoshi Kon, 2004) Fri-Sun, Tues & Thurs 35mm
Satoshi Kon Rarities Sat Only GI & NWFF Members Only
Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers Mon Only Gi & Scarecrow Members Only
Better Days (Derek Tsang) Fri-Thurs Our Review
Bala (Amar Kaushik) Fri-Thurs
The Warrior Queen of Jhansi (Swati Bhise) Fri-Thurs
Sanga Thamizhan (Vijayachander) Fri-Thurs
Marjaavaan (Milap Zaveri) Fri-Thurs
Action (Sundar C.) Fri-Thurs
Princess Mononoke (Hayao Miyazaki, 1997) Sun, Mon & Weds Only Subtitled Mon
Frankie (Ira Sachs) Fri-Thurs
The Warrior Queen of Jhansi (Swati Bhise) Fri-Thurs
Princess Mononoke (Hayao Miyazaki, 1997) Sun, Mon & Weds Only Subtitled Mon
Strange Negotiations (Brandon Vedder) Fri-Weds Director & Subject in Attendance for Some Shows
Millennium Actress (Satoshi Kon, 2001) Sun & Weds Only
Everybody’s Everything (Ramez Silyan & Sebastian Jones) Sun & Thurs-Next Tues
Fast Color (Julia Hart) Sun Only
Unlikely (Adam Fenderson & Jaye Fenderson) Thurs-Next Sat
Better Days (Derek Tsang) Fri-Thurs Our Review
Somewhere Winter (Wang Weiming) Fri-Thurs
The Warrior Queen of Jhansi (Swati Bhise) Fri-Thurs
Bala (Amar Kaushik) Fri-Thurs
Unforgettable (Jun Lana & Percival Intalan) Fri-Thurs
Housefull 4 (Farhad Samji) Fri-Thurs
Point Blank (John Boorman, 1967) Thurs Only
The Woman Who Loves Giraffes (Alison Reid) Fri-Sun
Better Days (Derek Tsang) Fri-Thurs Our Review
Princess Mononoke (Hayao Miyazaki, 1997) Sun, Mon & Weds Only Subtitled Mon
Romanian Film Festival Fri-Sun Full Program
Fantastic Fungi (Louie Schwartzberg) Fri-Thurs
Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Movements (Irene Taylor Brodsky) Mon Only
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (Marielle Heller) Thurs Only
Depeche Mode: SPIRITS in the Forest (Anton Corbijn) Thurs Only
The Report (Scott Z. Burns) Fri-Thurs
Radioflash (Ben McPherson) Fri-Thurs
Princess Mononoke (Hayao Miyazaki, 1997) Sun & Mon Only Subtitled Mon
In Wide Release:
The Lighthouse (Robert Eggers) Our Review
Parasite (Bong Joonho) Our Review Our Podcast
Friday November 8 – Thursday November 14
Featured Film:
Perfect Blue at the Northwest Film Forum
It seems there’s a Miyazaki movie playing every other week here in Seattle (there are two next week: Castle in the Sky and Princess Mononoke), and it’s been the case for going on 20 years now that he and, to a lesser extent, the other Studio Ghibli filmmakers are about all we regularly get from Japanese animated film in regular theatrical release. That’s starting to change though, with great releases like Naoko Yamada’s Liz and the Blue Bird, Makoto Shinkai’s Your Name., and Mamoru Hosada’s Wolf Children in recent years. But in the late 90s and into the 2000s, the one director who could break Miyazaki’s stranglehold on the American market was Satoshi Kon. This week the Northwest Film Forum and the Grand Illusion begin a retrospective of his work with his 1997 Hitchcockian classic Perfect Blue. Next week, they’ll be playing Millennium Actress, and the Grand Illusion will have Paprika (on 35mm!). Elsewhere around town, SAM has one of Samuel Fuller’s greatest films, the nasty noir The Naked Kiss, while the Beacon has Joe vs. the Volcano, another one of those movies (like Ishtar) that for years I was convinced that only people in my immediate family loved, but it turns out that there are much more of us out there and the number is (happily) growing all the time. Oh and the Cinerama has a whole bunch of war movies for Veteran’s Day.
Playing This Week:
Pain and Glory (Pedro Almodóvar) Fri-Thurs
Downtown 81 (Edo Bertoglio, 1981) Fri-Thurs
The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966) Fri, Sun, Mon & Weds
Kamikaze Hearts + The Prostitutes of Lyons Speak (Juliet Bashore, 1986/Carole Roussopoulos, 1975) Fri Only
Night and the City (Jules Dassin, 1950) Sat & Thurs Only
Street Fight Radio Presents Undercover Business Tyrants Sat Only
Urusei Yatsura 2 – Beautiful Dreamer (Mamoru Oshii, 1984) Sun Only
Joe vs. the Volcano (John Patrick Shanley, 1990) Sun-Tues Only
Deep Red (Dario Argento, 1975) Mon Only
10 Things I Hate About You (Gil Junger, 1999) Fri-Weds
Escape from New York (John Carpenter, 1981) Fri-Weds
Military Film Series Fri-Mon Full Program
Pain and Glory (Pedro Almodóvar) Fri-Thurs
The Godfather Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974) Sun & Weds Only
Clerks (Kevin Smith, 1994) Sat Only
Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins (Janice Engel) Tues Only
Midnight Traveler (Hassan Fazili) Fri-Thurs
Making Waves: the Art of Cinematic Sounds (Midge Costin) Fri-Thurs
Better Days (Derek Tsang) Fri-Thurs Our Review
Bala (Amar Kaushik) Fri-Thurs
My Dear Liar (Ao Shen) Fri-Thurs
Thipparaa Meesam (Krishna Vijay) Fri-Thurs
Kaithi (Lokesh Kanagaraj) Fri-Thurs
Gantumoote (Roopa Rao) Sun Only
The Godfather Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974) Sun & Weds Only
Rabid (David Cronenberg, 1977) Fri-Sun
For Sama (Waad Al-Khateab & Edward Watts) Sat & Sun
Sundance Indigenous Shorts Sat & Sun
Words from a Bear (Jeffrey Palmer) Sat Only
Nailed It (Adele Pham) Sat Only
Perfect Blue (Satoshi Kon, 1997) Sun & Weds Only
Everybody’s Everything (Ramez Silyan & Sebastian Jones) Tues Only
Fast Color (Julia Hart) Weds, Thurs & Next Sun Only
Attack the Block (Joe Cornish, 2011) Thurs Only
Better Days (Derek Tsang) Fri-Thurs Our Review
Bala (Amar Kaushik) Fri-Thurs
Unforgettable (Jun Lana & Percival Intalan) Fri-Thurs
Pain and Glory (Pedro Almodóvar) Fri-Thurs
Housefull 4 (Farhad Samji) Fri-Thurs
The Naked Kiss (Samuel Fuller, 1964) Thurs Only
Greener Grass (Jocelyn DeBoer & Dawn Luebbe) Fri-Sun
The Godfather Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974) Sun, Tues & Weds Only
Cinema Italian Style Fri-Thurs Full Program
Adopt a Highway (Logan Marshall-Green) Fri-Thurs
In Wide Release:
The Lighthouse (Robert Eggers) Our Review
Parasite (Bong Joonho) Our Review Our Podcast
Friday November 1 – Thursday November 7
Featured Film:
Thieves’ Highway at the Beacon
Fall festival movies are creeping onto Seattle Screens this week, with Parasite joining The Lighthouse in wide release, plus limited runs of Synonyms (which is very good) and Jojo Rabbit (which I haven’t seen). And there’s yet another 70mm film series at the Cinerama (you can see Vertigo or Lawrence of Arabia again, or a couple of Christopher Nolan movies!). But the Beacon is kicking off a miniseries of films by director Jules Dassin with Thieves’ Highway, one of the great underseen films noirs and arguably the best movie ever made about driving a truck. A film so good, Mike included it on his Top 100 films of all-time entry last year.
Playing This Week:
Mr. Klein (Joseph Losey, 1976) Fri-Thurs
Thieves’ Highway (Jules Dassin, 1949) Sat & Thurs Only
My Own Private Idaho (Gus Van Sant, 1991) Sat Only
Dallos (Mamoru Oshii, 1983) Sun Only
Salvatore Giuliano (Francesco Rosi, 1962) Sun & Weds Only
Four Flies on Grey Velvet (Dario Argento, 1971) Mon Only
Blade Runner: The Final Cut (Ridley Scott, 1982) Sat-Weds
70mm Film Series Part II Fri-Thurs Full Program
Housefull 4 (Farhad Samji) Fri-Thurs
Daaka (Baljit Singh Deo) Fri-Thurs
Fantastic Fungi (Louie Schwartzberg) Fri-Thurs
One Cut of the Dead (Shinichiro Ueda) Sat Only
Burning Cane (Phillip Youmans) Tues Only
Samurai in the Oregon Sky (Ilana Sol) Thurs Only Director Q&A
Holiday Hell (Jeff Ferrell, Jeremy Berg, Jeff Vigil, David Burns) Fri-Thurs
Going Attractions: The Definitive Story of the Movie Palace (April Wright) Fri-Thurs
Jojo Rabbit (Taika Waititi) Fri-Thurs
Housefull 4 (Farhad Samji) Fri-Thurs
Bigil (Atlee Kumar) Fri-Thurs
Kaithi (Lokesh Kanagaraj) Fri-Thurs
Meeku Maathrame Cheptha (Shammeer Sultan) Fri-Thurs
Shapludu (Golam Sohrab Dodul) Sun Only
Cyrano My Love (Alexis Michalik) Fri-Thurs
Housefull 4 (Farhad Samji) Fri-Thurs
Guy Maddin’s Seances Fri-Sun
For Sama (Waad Al-Khateab & Edward Watts) Weds & Thurs and Next Sat & Sun
Jojo Rabbit (Taika Waititi) Fri-Thurs
Inside Game (Randall Batinkoff) Fri-Thurs
Jowable (Darryl Yap) Fri-Thurs
Housefull 4 (Farhad Samji) Fri-Thurs
War (Siddharth Anand) Fri-Thurs
Inside Game (Randall Batinkoff) Fri-Thurs
Lolita (Stanley Kubrick, 1962) Thurs Only
Los reyes (Bettina Perut & Iván Osnovikoff) Fri-Thurs
Planes, Trains & Automobiles (John Hughes, 1987) Weds Only
Jojo Rabbit (Taika Waititi) Fri-Thurs
Synonyms (Nadav Lapid) Fri-Thurs
Parents in Progress (Laura Chiossone) Thurs Only
Adopt a Highway (Logan Marshall-Green) Fri-Thurs
In Wide Release:
The Lighthouse (Robert Eggers) Our Review
Parasite (Bong Joonho) Our Review Our Podcast
Friday October 25 – Thursday October 31
Featured Film:
Guy Maddin at the Northwest Film Forum
The year’s buzziest art house movie opens this week at the Egyptian and the Lincoln Square, but we saw Bong Joonho’s Parasite a few weeks ago at VIFF and have already covered it in detail in both audio and written forms. Instead, let’s highlight the Northwest Film Forum’s presentation of Canadian weirdo Guy Maddin’s art installation Seances, which sounds pretty cool, alongside a mini-retrospective of his work, including his acclaimed documentary My Winnipeg and my personal favorite of his films, 1990’s Archangel. But also, don’t miss Godzilla at the Grand Illusion and Hong Kong Horror classic The Boxer’s Omen at the Beacon.
Playing This Week:
The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939) Fri-Thurs
Dolemite is My Name (Craig Brewer) Fri-Thurs
House on Haunted Hill (William Castle, 1959) Fri-Thurs
Possession (Andrzej Żuławski, 1981) Fri-Weds
The Lost Boys (Joel Schumacher, 1987) Fri & Sat Only
The Boxer’s Omen (Kuei Chih-hung, 1983) Sat, Tues & Weds Only Our Review
Old School Halloween (Various) Sun Only
Halloween II (Rob Zombie, 2009) Mon Only
The Beacon Halloween Special Thurs Only
Hocus Pocus (Kenny Ortega, 1993) Fri-Weds
A Nightmare on Elm Street (Wes Craven, 1984) Fri-Weds
Horrorama! Film Series Fri-Thurs Full Program
Parasite (Bong Joonho) Fri-Thurs Our Review Our Podcast
Collide-O-Scope Halloween 2019 Thurs Only
Housefull 4 (Farhad Samji) Fri-Thurs
Ardab Mutiyaran (Manav Shah) Fri-Thurs
Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, 2001) Sun Only Dubbed
Where’s My Roy Cohn? (Matt Tyrnauer) Fri-Thurs
Fantastic Fungi (Louie Schwartzberg) Fri-Thurs
Evil Dead II (Sam Raimi, 1987) Sat Only
David Crosby: Remember My Name (A.J. Eaton) Tues Only
Godzilla (Ishiro Honda, 1954) Fri-Mon, Thurs
Threads (Mick Jackson, 1984) Fri, Sat & Mon Only
Fatal Exposure (Alan Metzger, 1991) Fri Only VHS
The Wicker Man: The Final Cut (Robin Hardy, 1973) Sat Only
The Long Weekend (Colin Eggleston, 1979) Sat & Weds Only
Godzilla vs. Hedorah (Yoshimitsu Banno, 1971) Sun, Weds & Thurs Only
A Bucket of Blood + Little Shops of Horrors (Roger Corman, 1959/60) Tues Only 16mm
Parasite (Bong Joonho) Fri-Thurs Our Review Our Podcast
Housefull 4 (Farhad Samji) Fri-Thurs
Bigil (Atlee Kumar) Fri-Thurs
Kaithi (Lokesh Kanagaraj) Fri-Thurs In Tamil or Telugu, Check Listings
Made in China (Mikhil Musale) Fri-Thurs
Saand Ki Aankh (Tushar Hiranandani) Fri-Thurs
The Captain (Andrew Lau) Fri-Thurs Our Review
War (Siddharth Anand) Fri-Thurs
Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, 2001) Sun, Mon & Weds Only Subtitled Mon
Housefull 4 (Farhad Samji) Fri-Thurs
Saand Ki Aankh (Tushar Hiranandani) Fri-Thurs
Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, 2001) Sun, Mon & Weds Only Subtitled Mon
Guy Maddin’s Seances Fri-Next Sun
Becoming Nobody (Jamie Catto) Fri Only
Archangel (Guy Maddin, 1990) Sat Only
Careful (Guy Maddin, 1992) Sat Only
My Winnipeg (Guy Maddin, 2007) Sun Only
The 3rd Nightmare Emporium Horror Film Anthology Mon-Weds
Chez Jolie Coiffure (Rosine Mbakam) Weds Only
The Two Faces of a Bamileke Woman (Rosine Mbakam) Weds Only
The Captain (Andrew Lau) Fri-Thurs Our Review
Beetlejuice (Tim Burton, 1988) Fri-Thurs
The Blair Witch Project (Eduardo Sánchez & Daniel Myrick, 1999) Fri-Thurs
Housefull 4 (Farhad Samji) Fri-Thurs
Made in China (Mikhil Musale) Fri-Thurs
Saand Ki Aankh (Tushar Hiranandani) Fri-Thurs
War (Siddharth Anand) Fri-Thurs
The Wrong Man (Alfred Hitchcock, 1956) Thurs Only
NFFTY Film Festival Fri-Sun Only Full Program
The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939) Fri-Thurs
Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, 2001) Sun, Mon & Weds Only Subtitled Mon
Dolemite is My Name (Craig Brewer) Fri-Thurs
Where’s My Roy Cohn? (Matt Tyrnauer) Fri-Thurs
NFFTY Film Festival Fri-Sun Only Full Program
April and the Extraordinary World (Christian Desmares & Franck Ekinci, 2015) Sat Only
Paradise Hills (Alice Waddington) Fri-Thurs
The Great Alaskan Race (Brian Presley) Fri-Thurs
Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, 2001) Sun & Mon Only Subtitled Mon
In Wide Release:
