Earnestness is almost impossible in 2018. Any time a show tries genuine emotion like that, it’s very quickly undercut with either a winking moment of humor or a liberal dose of cynicism. Heart-on-the-sleeve gentleness doesn’t seem to work with modern audiences and can be misinterpreted as sugary cheese instead of kindhearted optimism. Mr. Rogers might […]
Film
Posted inCulture
The Strangest Brews
Hopheads and the movies that love them
Living in Beer Town, USA has its ups and downs. The culture of people who genuinely care about craft brew and the artisanal nature of beer is a fun and inclusive group, but the drunken shenanigans in downtown Bend on a Saturday night can be a little exhausting. I’ve hosed down enough vomit in Tin […]
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Bang Bang
Death Wish revels in its own toxic masculinity. Let this be the last time you think of this film
I would call “Death Wish” insensitive, but that would be an insult to people born without senses. Instead, “Death Wish” is more of a thoughtless fart in a car full of idiots; eyes twitching, nose burning, you taste something foul, but no one’s confessing to the stench. Now all you have is a directionless rage, […]
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Hail to the King
“Black Panther” throws up the fist
I can understand the argument that there are too many superhero movies. At around a dozen a year, comic book movies are as ubiquitous to modern cinema as westerns were to the 1940s. Some are garbage (“Batman v. Superman” and “Suicide Squad” come to mind), but every year we get at least one new classic such […]
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90th Academy Award Predictions
2017 was an incredible year in film
I‘m not a betting man, but if I were, the Oscars are the only thing I’d feel comfortable making predictions about. There are always the things that should win because they’re heads and shoulders above the rest of the nominees, but they’re usually defeated by the things that will win either because of popularity or […]
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Free to Wait til DVD
The Latest in the Fifty Shades franchise: Still don’t watch it with your family
I planned to see “Fifty Shades Freed,” the new “Fifty Shades” movie, with my ex-girlfriend, because I apparently thrive on uncomfortable situations. This close to Valentine’s Day though, the idea seemed a little too masochistic, even for me. Christian Grey might have relished the idea, but he’s way better at compartmentalizing than I am. Instead of […]
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Different Strokes
Celebrate Valentine’s Day your way
Over the years, I’ve worked at several different video stores and movie theaters. I’ve seen couples deeply in love before a movie have a possibly relationship-ending argument by the time it was over. That’s why when you plan what movie to watch with your s/o (especially on Valentine’s Day), it’s always smart to choose a […]
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String Theory
Searching for the “Phantom Thread”
Pardon me a very obvious analogy: There’s a lot going on in “Phantom Thread.” So much, that if you pull one delicately frayed string, it unravels 30 more passageways, showing how deftly woven the entire underlying structure is. And just like the secret messages its main character sews into the lining of his garments, there […]
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Returning to the River
The Upper Columbia United Tribes are once again united by water
“The Grand Coulee Dam murdered my tribe’s history. Murdered the history of all the Upper Columbia and Spokane tribes. Murdered my tribe’s relationship with its deity and murdered our relationship with our futures. For us, the Grand Coulee Dam is an epic gravestone and we Salish people have been mourning the death of our wild […]
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Hated in the Nation
The many sides of Tonya Harding
In the United States. we love our heroes almost as much as we love to watch them fall from grace. As a country, we exist in this feedback loop—a perpetual state of “What have you done for me lately,” expecting our celebrities to entertain us while also giving us plenty of fuel with which to […]
