During the Vietnam war, Laos became the most bombed country in history. Two million tons of bombs were dropped between 1964 and 1973, including 260 million cluster munitions. An estimated 30 percent of that ordinance never detonated, and to this day Laotians are still maimed and killed by the bombs every year. Director Kim Mordaunt […]
Film
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Righteously Insane
Darren Aronofsky’s Noah is a big, beautiful manic episode
Noah isn’t for everyone, but it’s a perfect movie for those of us who believe obsession is a certain kind of genius. Darren Aronofsky’s obsession? His impossible task? Making sense of the Bible. Noah’s story is simple enough, if you leave out the details, which I imagine many true believers would suggest that you do. […]
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Film Events 4/3-4/10
“The Metropolitan Opera: La Boheme,” A rabbi, a priest and a duck walk into a bar…
While there are no car chases and seemingly the only cinematic event in the last year not starring Matthew McConaughey, this simult-cast is a highly delicious event, bringing a near four-hour performance from one of the best operas in the world by the gold standard of Italian opera to Central Oregon. Sat., April 5, 9:55 […]
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Shoots and Ladders
Millennials, I blame you for Divergent
If you’re unfamiliar with Veronica Roth’s wildly successful “Divergent” trilogy, I’m sorry: I can’t explain the plot or premise to you in any detail, because there’s a very good chance that in the attempt, I would fall asleep, throw up, choke on my throwup, and die. And then who would take care of my cat? […]
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The Wind Rises
Hayao Miyazaki’s newest, and last, film
From acclaimed Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki (the man behind the vivid anime films Princess Mononoke, Ponyo, and Spirited Away) comes another dreamlike animation. A satisfying and soaring adventure for children’s imaginative minds and adults’ sense of whimsy alike. Miyazaki is known for his unique illustration; using simple, pen and paper techniques, the result is entrancing. […]
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Tantric Depression
Nymphomaniac: Lars von Trier’s long, hard shock
Nymphomaniac is a marathon. Released theatrically in two volumes (with a couple weeks’ recovery time in between, what with all the chaffing), Lars von Trier’s five-hour-long meditation on f***ing, fly-fishing, and the futility of love takes a kind of smug satisfaction in the severity of its indulgences—it revels in explicitness, violence, and anguish to an […]
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Better Than The Godfather III
Kermit & Co. return with Muppets Most Wanted
“We’re doing a sequel!” Kermit and Fozzie sing at the start of Muppets Most Wanted. “That’s what we do in Hollywood! And everybody knows that the sequel’s never quite as good!” Then either Statler or Waldorf chimes in: “How hard can it be? We can’t do any worse than The Godfather III!” And yes, thankfully, […]
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Playing Nice
The documentary Mistaken for Strangers tests the limits of two very different brothers
Though the DIY rock documentary Mistaken for Strangers does follow the 2010 tour of Cincinnati’s indie band The National—comprised of two sets of brothers and lead singer Matt Berninger—as they play to the largest crowds they’ve ever seen, the film is not about the band. It’s actually about, well, brothers—just not the brothers in the […]
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Kiss Me/With Every Heartbeat
Presented by Stars and Rainbows, Kiss Me/With Every Heartbeat is a well-paced family rom-dram. Slightly less steamy than a Swedish bathhouse (just slightly), the story trundles along the star-crossed love affair of Frida and Mia, two young attractive women who, whoops, meet at their respective parent’s engagement party; that is, they are destined to become […]
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Checking In, with Baggage
The next stop on the Wes Anderson Tour: The Grand Budapest Hotel
‘The excellent phrase, “a glimmer of civilization in the barbaric slaughterhouse we know as humanity,” is used twice in The Grand Budapest Hotel. Those words could describe a few things. They could refer to 1) the Grand Budapest Hotel, a pink and white and pristine resort that, like a colossal, obnoxiously ornate gâteau, sits high […]
