Category: Site Index

Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959) Fri-Sun
Saturday Night Fever (John Badham, 1977) Fri-Sun
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004) Tues Only Brain Doctors in Attendance

Century Federal Way:

Nannaku Prematho (Sukumar) Fri & Sat
The Tiger (Park Hoonjung) Fri-Thurs
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (George Roy Hill, 1969) Sun & Weds Only

Taxi (Jafar Panahi) Fri-Thurs
Labyrinth (Jim Henson, 1986) Fri, Sun, Mon & Weds Only
Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution (Stanley Nelson) Tues Only
Breakfast at Tiffany’s (Blake Edwards, 1961) Weds Only

Heart of a Dog (Laurie Anderson) Sun-Weds
The Man Who Saved the World (Turkish Star Wars) (Çetin İnanç, 1982) Thurs Only Our Review
The Sprocket Society presents Saturday Secret Matinees Sat Only
VHS Über Alles presents Ninja: Silent Assassin (Godfrey Ho, 1987) Sat Only VHS
Home of the Brave (Laurie Anderson, 1986) Fri Only 35mm
Dreams Rewired (Manu Luksch, Martin Reinhart & Thomas Tode) Fri-Thurs Our Review

Anomalisa (Charlie Kaufman & Duke Johnson) Fri-Thurs Our Review

Wazir (Bejoy Nambiar) Fri-Thurs
Nannaku Prematho (Sukumar) Fri-Thurs
Express Raja (Merlapaka Gandhi) Fri-Thurs
Soggade Chinni Nayana (Kalyan Krishna) Fri-Thurs
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (George Roy Hill, 1969) Sun & Weds Only

Northwest Film Forum:

Theeb (Jani Abu Nowar) Fri-Tues
Sundance Native Lab Shorts Fri Only
Children of the Civil Rights (Julia Clifford) Sat Only Q & A After
Sex & Broadcasting Sun Only

Detective Chinatown (Chen Sicheng) Fri-Thurs
Mr. Six (Guan Hu) Fri-Thurs Our Review

All You Need Is Pag-Ibig (Antoinette Jadaone) Fri-Thurs
Dictator (Sriwass) Fri-Thurs

Continue reading “Anomalisa (Charlie Kaufman & Duke Johnson, 2015)” →

Shampoo (Hal Ashby, 1975) Fri Only
Yeti: The Giant of the 20th Century (Gianfranco Parolini, 1977) Sat Only
Anything Goes (Lewis Milestone, 1936) Sun Only
Selma (Ava DuVernay, 2014) Mon Only
Death By Design (Peter Friedman & Jean-Francois Brunet, 1995) Tues Only
Shoot the Piano Player (François Truffaut, 1960) Weds Only

Seattle Art Museum:

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (George Roy Hill, 1969) Weds Only
Band of Robbers (Adam & Aaron Nee) Fri-Thurs

In Wide Release:

13 Hours (Michael Bay) Our Review
The Revenant (Alejandro González Iñárritu) Our Review
The Hateful 8 (Quentin Tarantino) Our Review
The Force Awakens (JJ Abrams) Our Podcast
Concussion (Peter Landesman) Our Review
Sisters (Jason Moore) Our Review
Brooklyn (John Crowley) Our Review
Spotlight (Tom McCarthy) Our Review
Creed (Ryan Coogler) Our Review
Bridge of Spies (Steven Spielberg) Our Review
The Martian (Ridley Scott) Our Review
Sicario (Denis Villeneuve) Our Review

Anomalisa (Charlie Kaufman & Duke Johnson, 2015)

January 14, 2016 ~ Sean Gilman ~ 1 Comment

anomalisa

One of the last major 2015 releases to find its way to Seattle Screens opens this week at the Guild 45th (we still have 45 Years, Arabian Nights, In the Shadow of Women and Knight of Cups to come over the next several weeks), with the release of the latest film from Hollywood’s favorite self-loathing narrative-tangler, Charlie Kaufman. Teamed with co-director Duke Johnson and producers Dino Stamatopolous and Dan Harmon (among others), Kaufman has adapted his own play into a stop-motion animated film about a man (voiced by David Thewlis) who travels to Cincinnati for a conference. Lonely and depressive, he first tries to reconnect with an old flame, then finds himself attracted to a woman in the hotel. She catches his ear (and eye, eventually) because, unlike everyone else (besides him) in his world, she doesn’t look like Michael Ian Black and she doesn’t talk like Tom Noonan: she’s the voice of Jennifer Jason Leigh. A touching night of human (well, puppet) connection is followed by some explicit puppet sex, followed by a nightmare and then a nightmarish world. Like all of Kaufman’s films (both as a director and a screenwriter) it’s an uneasy mix of weird humor and sadness, and like all of them Kaufman refuses to give us the happy ending.

13 Hours (Michael Bay, 2016)

January 14, 2016June 4, 2016 ~ Sean Gilman ~ 1 Comment

13hours8-1200x500
The prospect of a Michael Bay movie about Benghazi is contemporary American absurdity at its finest. The maker of hugely successful disasters, overblown, crude, racist, misogynistic, incomprehensible, telling the story of one of the most ridiculous issues of our time, a tragedy crudely trumped up into an inane scandal by the basest elements of our political culture. After the jingoistic marketing around Clint Eastwood’s hit American Sniper a year ago (which I believe completely misrepresented that film), how could 13 Hours, in the hands of a far less sophisticated and nuanced filmmaker, hope to be anything but a wildly offensive distortion of history at best, and a piece of vile propaganda at worst? Well, I’m somewhat happy to say that 13 Hours is not nearly as racist as you’d expect it to be. It is crude, it is overblown, it does completely lack subtlety, but Bay, true to his only real belief as a filmmaker (that his movies should amass a fortune), has attempted to make a film that will appeal to all audiences, it sidesteps the kind of cartoonish racism one would expect in a war film set in North Africa and instead appeals to much deeper, much broader base instincts in the American audience: our love of firepower, our distrust of government, our isolationism.

Continue reading “13 Hours (Michael Bay, 2016)” →

Friday January 8 – Thursday January 14

January 8, 2016January 15, 2016 ~ Sean Gilman

Featured Film:

Out 1 at the SIFF Film Center

Long a holy grail for cinephiles around the globe, Jaques Rivette’s 13 hour film serial from 1971 premieres in a new restoration at SIFF. A Balzacian tale of theatrical rehearsals and conspiracy theories, the film stars French New Wave icon Jean-Pierre Léaud, Michael Lonsdale and Rivette regulars Juliet Berto and Bulle Ogier. SIFF is presenting Out 1 in four parts, consisting of two episodes each. Part 1 & 2 play Friday night, 3 & 4 and 5 & 6 play Saturday, and 7 & 8 on Sunday, with the program starting over again Sunday night and continuing with two parts per night through Wednesday. There’ll be a marathon of the whole serial on Sunday, January 24th. So, if you’re able to spend three or four consecutive days at the Seattle Center, or can physically endure 13 hours in the Film Center, this is the program for you.

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Playing This Week:

Labyrinth (Terry Jones, 1986) Fri-Tues
Aliens (James Cameron, 1986) Fri-Tues

Century Federal Way:

The Himalayas (Lee Seokhoon) Fri-Thurs
The Tiger (Park Hoonjung) Fri-Thurs
Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982) Sun & Weds Only

Youth (Paolo Sorrentino) Fri-Thurs
Barista (Rock Baijnauth) Tues Only

Heart of a Dog (Laurie Anderson) Fri-Thurs
The Man Who Saved the World (Turkish Star Wars) (Çetin İnanç, 1982) Fri & Sat Only Our Review
The Sprocket Society presents Saturday Secret Matinees Sat Only
Abstractions: The Films of Jon Behrens (Jon Behrens) Tues Only

Trumbo (Jay Roach) Fri-Thurs
Youth (Paolo Sorrentino) Fri-Weds

Wazir (Bejoy Nambiar) Fri-Thurs
Bajirao Mastani (Sanjay Leela Bhansali) Fri-Thurs
Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982) Sun & Weds Only

Regal Meridian:

Devil and Angel (Yu Baimei & Deng Chao) Fri-Thurs

Northwest Film Forum:

Troublemakers: The Story of Land Art (James Crump) Fri-Thurs
Noma: My Perfect Storm (Pierre Deschamps) Fri-Thurs
Kevin T. Allen presents Ear as Other Sat Only
Beach Town (Erik Hammen) Sun Only
Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock) Weds Only 35mm

Mojin: The Lost Legend (Wu Ershan) Fri-Thurs Our Review
Mr. Six (Guan Hu) Fri-Thurs Our Review

Kirkland Parkplace Cinema:

The Last Picture Show (Peter Bogdanovich, 1971) Mon Only

Bajirao Mastani (Sanjay Leela Bhansali) Fri-Thurs
Diwale (Rohit Shetty) Fri-Thurs

Continue reading “Mr. Six (Guan Hu, 2015)” →

Framing Pictures: A Floating Conversation about Film Led by Veteran Critics Fri Only
Blood Feast (Herschell Gordon Lewis, 1963) Sat Only
The Harder They Fall (Mark Robson, 1956) Sun Only
Taxi 3 (Gérard Krawczyk, 2003) Mon Only
Ghost Fever (Lee Madden, 1987) Tues Only
The White Bus (Lindsay Anderson, 1967) Weds Only
Family Plot (Alfred Hitchcock, 1976) Thurs Only

Seattle Art Museum:

L’Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960) Thurs Only 35mm

Landmark Seven Gables:

Mustang (Deniz Gamze Ergüven) Fri-Thurs Our Review

SIFF Film Center:

Out 1: Noli me tangere (Jacques Rivette, 1971) Fri-Weds
The Fencer (Klaus Härö) Thurs Only

In Wide Release:

The Revenant (Alejandro González Iñárritu) Our Review
The Hateful 8 (Quentin Tarantino) Our Review
The Force Awakens (JJ Abrams) Our Podcast
Concussion (Peter Landesman) Our Review
Sisters (Jason Moore) Our Review
Brooklyn (John Crowley) Our Review
Spotlight (Tom McCarthy) Our Review
Creed (Ryan Coogler) Our Review
Bridge of Spies (Steven Spielberg) Our Review
The Martian (Ridley Scott) Our Review
Sicario (Denis Villeneuve) Our Review

The Revenant (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2015)

January 7, 2016March 17, 2016 ~ Michael Strenski

angry dicaprio.png

There is a moment in Terrence Malick’s To the Wonder where Rachel McAdams and Ben Affleck are inexplicably surrounded by a herd of bison. The pair stand at their car and are awed by the majesty of the moment. And so are we, the audience. In Alejandro González Iñárritu’s new film The Revenant there is also a scene featuring a character stumbling upon some bison. The moment strives for a similar feeling of, well, wonder, but fails to deliver. It’s the approaches of these two filmmakers that spells all the difference. In Malick’s world an experience like that feels like luck, a chance encounter with real, live animals. And it’s also fleeting, a moment in a waterfall of moments that burns in your brain because it feels so fragile. In The Revenant everything is so rigorously composed, from the camerawork (filmed by longtime Malick associate Emmanuel Lubezki) to the herd itself, a computer-generated stampede heading to the end of the frame before disappearing, literally, forever.

It’s these moments in The Revenant that manage to shoot an otherwise pretty decent survivalist Western in the foot. When González Iñárritu is committed to the straightforward nature of his simple story, which is about a trapping scout who has to brave the elements to save his life and avenge a loved one, the film works well. There is a great sense of atmosphere and the occasional thrill. But whenever he grasps at poetry or pulls out a flashy camera trick–both of which happen often–the film flounders.

The film opens with a raid on a poacher’s encampment in which González Iñárritu throws the camera right in the middle of the action with sweeping, unbroken takes. While the technique is intended to feel visceral and immediate, it comes off like playing a video game. A similar problem crops up when steam or blood appears on the camera lens. Attempting to provide a thrilling verisimilitude, these elements just remind the viewer that there is a camera there, a move more distancing than inviting.

revenant mountain

González Iñárritu is a competent director but he’s a far too confident one for his capabilities. His misplaced desire to make this film more important than it is sabotages its better qualities. The same could be said for star Leonardo DiCaprio who grimaces, grunts, and groans his way through increasingly desperate–and subsequently sillier–circumstances. DiCaprio plays the story so straight that it teeters on the brink of collapse. Early on he fights a bear and it is terrifying. Two hours later, after being chased, shot at, abandoned, and nearly frozen, he falls off a cliff with his horse. By this point it has gone from harrowing to hilarious.

All of the issues with The Revenant are best summed up by its final moments. As the film comes to its entirely expected conclusion, Lubezki’s camera lingers on a shot of a snowy bank and an icy river. There is nobody in the frame, just the frigid water and a pool of blood. It’s a perfect shot to end a movie about the harsh worlds of nature and man. Instead González Iñárritu tacks on two more shots, closing with the worst decision in the entire film. In an effort to make something serious and smart, González Iñárritu ended up with something dopier than dumb and fun.

Mr. Six (Guan Hu, 2015)

January 4, 2016 ~ Sean Gilman ~ 2 Comments

mr-6

Playing this week at the Pacific Place is Mr. Six, a gangster drama which earned star Feng Xiaogang the Best Actor award at this past Golden Horse Awards (which are held annually in Taiwan and honor Chinese-langauge film). Feng plays Mr. Six, an aging Beijing street tough, now in his late 50s, who gets caught in a rivalry with a much younger gang. With the deliberate pace of Sixth Generation realism, director Guan Hu deemphasizes the more lurid elements of the Chinese gangster film, focusing instead on Mr. Six’s character and the ways in which he interacts with a Beijing vastly different than the one he dominated in the 1980s. As such, the film provides a wonderful showcase for Feng, a director of popular comedies and occasional actor, whose best known work in the US is probably his dark and very serious 2006 Hamlet variation The Banquet, which starred Zhang Ziyi, one of the overblown period films that followed the success of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero early in this century. His Mr. Six is amiable and steely, a quiet authority barely concealing depths of anger and disappointment.

Friday January 1 – Thursday January 7

January 1, 2016January 8, 2016 ~ Sean Gilman

Featured Film:

Carol at the Uptown, Lincoln Square, Meridian and Guild 45th.

The greatest Carol on Seattle Screens this Christmas is Cate Blanchett in Todd Haynes’s adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Price of Salt. Blanchett plays an older woman who romances a young shopgirl, played by Rooney Mara, in 1950s New York (and beyond, during one gloriously melancholic road trip West). One of the best reviewed films of the year (it placed fourth in our our survey), Haynes excels in the smallest moments, the tactile particulars of period wardrobe, the longing in a look, the flashes of light across a window, charged details that accumulate an emotional power that pushes the film far beyond its sketchy social problem film plot toward a devastatingly romantic transcendence.

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Playing This Week:

Clue (Jonathan Lynn, 1985) Sat-Tues
Clueless (Amy Heckerling, 1995) Sat-Tues

Century Federal Way:

The Himalayas (Lee Seokhoon) Fri-Thurs

Youth (Paolo Sorrentino) Fri-Thurs
The Messenger (Su Rynard) Tues Only
Killing Them Safely (Nick Berardini) Tues Only

Heart of a Dog (Laurie Anderson) Fri-Thurs
Flowers (Jon Garaño and Jose Mari Goenaga) Fri-Thurs

Carol (Todd Haynes) Fri-Thurs
Youth (Paolo Sorrentino) Fri-Thurs

Carol (Todd Haynes) Fri-Thurs
Bajirao Mastani (Sanjay Leela Bhansali) Fri-Thurs

Regal Meridian:

Youth (Paolo Sorrentino) Fri-Thurs

Mojin: The Lost Legend (Wu Ershan) Fri-Thurs Our Review
Mr. Six (Guan Hu) Fri-Thurs

Carol (Todd Haynes) Fri-Thurs
Bajirao Mastani (Sanjay Leela Bhansali) Fri-Thurs
Diwale (Rohit Shetty) Fri-Thurs
Beauty and the Bestie (Wenn V. Deramas) Fri-Thurs

Continue reading “The Hateful Eight (Quentin Tarantino, 2015)” →

Irony of Fate (Eldar Ryazanov, 1975) Fri Only
New Year’s Evil (Emmett Alston, 1980) Sat Only
The Hobbit (Rankin-Bass, 1977) Sun Only
Cold Water (Olivier Assayas, 1994) Sun Only
Cría Cuervos (Carlos Saura, 1977) Mon Only
Hellraiser II: Hellbound (Tony Randel, 1988) Tues Only
Outcast of the Islands (Carol Reed, 1952) Weds Only
The Wicker Man (Neil LaBute, 2006) Tues Only

Seattle Art Museum:

Il Grido (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1957) Thurs Only 35mm

Landmark Seven Gables:

Mustang (Deniz Gamze Ergüven) Fri-Thurs Our Review

SIFF Film Center:

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (Mel Stuart, 1971) Fri-Sun Smell-o-Vision
The Princess Bride (Rob Reiner, 1987) Fri-Sun Quote-Along

SIFF Cinema Uptown:

Carol (Todd Haynes) Fri-Thurs

In Wide Release:

The Hateful 8 (Quentin Tarantino) Our Review
The Force Awakens (JJ Abrams) Our Podcast
Concussion (Peter Landesman) Our Review
Sisters (Jason Moore) Our Review
Brooklyn (John Crowley) Our Review
Spotlight (Tom McCarthy) Our Review
Creed (Ryan Coogler) Our Review
Bridge of Spies (Steven Spielberg) Our Review
The Martian (Ridley Scott) Our Review
Sicario (Denis Villeneuve) Our Review

The Hateful Eight (Quentin Tarantino, 2015)

December 26, 2015December 26, 2015 ~ Michael Strenski

hateful jackson

Quentin Tarantino returns to screens this winter with the ultra-violent Western, The Hateful Eight. The story brings together a despicable coterie of villains and pits them against one another in a remote snowed-in outpost. As with every Tarantino film, The Hateful Eight is violent, verbose, and visually sumptuous. This one is also a movie of reflection, a conscious callback to the single setting bravura of the filmmaker’s debut, Reservoir Dogs. The film reunites the director with Dogs co-stars Michael Madsen and Tim Roth, as well as a who’s-who of other acolytes including Kurt Russell, Zoe Bell, and the ubiquitous Samuel L. Jackson.

The film is reportedly also about Tarantino working through his feelings about John Carpenter’s horror film, The Thing, released in 1982. The Hateful Eight contains many conscious nods to the previous film, including its frigid setting, the casting of Carpenter favorite Kurt Russell, gruesome imagery, and best of all, the return of cinema’s greatest composer, Ennio Morricone, who in addition to creating new music for the film, incorporated unused elements from his Thing score. The current three-hour roadshow version begins with a traditional overture, with Morricone’s haunting melodies playing out uninterrupted as the theatre lights dim. This is one of life’s greatest pleasures.

Friday December 25 – Thursday December 31

December 25, 2015January 1, 2016 ~ Sean Gilman

Featured Film:

Carol at the Uptown, Lincoln Square and Guild 45th.

Sign up for our newsletter and get the best of Seattle arthouse and repertory programming in your Inbox every Friday morning.

Playing This Week:

Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg, 1981) Fri-Weds
Blade Runner – The Final Cut (Ridley Scott, 1982) Fri-Tues

Youth (Paolo Sorrentino) Fri-Thurs
Life of Brian (Terry Jones, 1979) Fri & Sat Only
Killing Them Safely (Nick Berardini) Tues Only

It’s a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946) Fri-Thurs 35mm

Carol (Todd Haynes) Fri-Thurs
Youth (Paolo Sorrentino) Fri-Thurs

Carol (Todd Haynes) Fri-Thurs
Diwale (Rohit Shetty) Fri-Tues
Bajirao Mastani (Sanjay Leela Bhansali) Fri-Tues

Regal Meridian:

Youth (Paolo Sorrentino) Fri-Thurs

AMC Loews Oak Tree:

Bajirao Mastani (Sanjay Leela Bhansali) Fri-Thurs

Mojin: The Lost Legend (Wu Ershan) Fri-Thurs Our Review
Surprise (Show Joy) Fri-Thurs
Mr. Six (Guan Hu) Fri-Thurs

Bajirao Mastani (Sanjay Leela Bhansali) Fri-Thurs
Diwale (Rohit Shetty) Fri-Thurs
Beauty and the Bestie (Wenn V. Deramas) Fri-Thurs