Although Warren Miller films are best known for their big and bold images, unbelievable jumps, tumbling wipeouts and swooping snowcapped vistas, it is actually the subtle touches that make these films enduring and captivating—the lowkey elegance that pay homage to ski towns around the world and fawning adulation of personalities and, more specifically, in the […]
Film
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Horror Films 101
A breakdown of the horror genre from an expert
October is a time for spice lattés, pumpkin carving and being scared shitless by some of the most terrifying films of the last few decades. Professor of Film at Portland State University Drew Beard fell in love with film after a trip to Universal Studios backlot as a child. At the same time he discovered […]
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Puppy Love
John Wick: A Man. A Myth. A Hero. by Erik Henriksen
Like the best Keanu Reeves characters, John Wick is a man of few words. He lets his actions speak for themselves. Given that John Wick is an action movie, he ends up saying quite a bit; given that John Wick is a really flipping good action movie, what he says is great. Here’s John Wick‘s […]
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To Binge, or Not to Binge
That’s not a question
Binge watching Netflix is an art. An art that I have mastered. Sprawled out on my couch in my house-onesie, my phone in arm’s reach for randomly refreshing Twitter and the ability to order pizza without leaving my seat, I have only one goal in mind: watch every episode of whatever show I’ve randomly decided […]
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Too Good For Its Own Good
The Congress blurs between real and virtual
Ari Folman’s Waltz With Bashir (2008) was an underrated film, using animation to document both the physical and emotional battles from a massacre of 3000 Palestinian refugees in 1982. Although smart and beautiful, it was not a particularly easy film to watch. And, in spite of the high-powered stars (Robin Wright and Harvey Keitel), it […]
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The Little Animation Company That Could
Boxtrolls is the third scary kid film from Portland-based Laika
Amid a sea of films aimed for the kiddie market, Laika has been able to distinguish itself not only by its mastery of the visually thrilling and time consuming process of stop-motion animation, but also through an embrace of a dark side. Like some of Disney’s earliest features or the anime genius of Studio Ghibli, […]
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Encounters at the End of the World
Director Aaron Katz on Iceland, weirdness, and Land Ho!
Colin (Paul Eenhoorn) doesn’t really have a say in the matter. When he arrives at the Kentucky home of Mitch (Earl Lynn Nelson), his former brother-in-law and a recently retired doctor, the reserved Colin expects to have dinner, catch up, and maybe talk about how he’s doing after the death of his wife, or how […]
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Hooray for Rocco!
The Drop features a puppy named Rocco! He’s great!
What’s better than dogs? Nothing! Dogs are the greatest creatures that have ever or will exist on this planet. All movies should feature dogs—or, barring multiple dogs, at least one dog. Good news! In The Drop, there’s a dog named Rocco! He’s a puppy pit bull, and, he’s great! Sure, there’s other stuff that’s great […]
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If Bourne Had Balls But No Brain
The November Man:Your source for great eyebrows
With The November Man, you quickly get the sense that you’re watching an uncredited Bourne sequel, with a few important improvements: An R rating, no shaky cam, and very few government functionaries spouting geopolitical buzzwords in front of monitors. Those are good improvements! It stars Pierce Brosnan doing sex stuff and spy stuff (an espionage […]
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Another Dimension
The One I Love gives away too much—and too little
In 2012, Mark Duplass and Aubrey Plaza starred in Safety Not Guaranteed, a charmingly lo-fi genre-buster that, to great effect, merged time travel with a quirky rom-com. Duplass treads similar territory in The One I Love, another hipster-Twilight Zone offering about attractive white folk confronting circumstances entirely beyond their understanding. Duplass plays Ethan, a husband […]
