Crash Reel is not a film that will be shown by NBC during the 2014 Sochi Olympics. The remarkable documentary plainly, candidly and beautifully tells the story about Kevin Pearce, a top snowboarder and probably Shaun White’s biggest (and only?) rival—that is, until his accident. The story is fairly well-known, but even if you don’t […]
Film
Posted inCulture
The House I Live In
A documentary on public policies intersecting with personal lives
For the past decade, New York-based director Eugene Jarecki has been making engaging and smart documentaries about some of the most thorny political and social issues in America. With MTV quickness and PBS intelligence, the films tell epic stories about where public polices intersect with personal lives. His most recent, produced by a dynamic duo […]
Posted inCulture
Make Room for the Premier Award Ceremony
Could the Golden Globes eclipse the Oscars?
Two days before Christmas, and just in time to qualify his latest film, The Wolf of Wall Street for this year’s Oscar Awards, director Martin Scorsese hosted a screening for members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts, the governing organization that has handed out Oscars each year since 1929. Although the film has roundly […]
Posted inCulture
Watch these Movies
It’s a good week for film in Bend. Here are three worth watching this week.
Rockshow: Paul McCartney and Wings In 1976, Paul McCartney was peaking, again. It wasn’t a decade earlier, when adolescent girls screamed so hard that they fainted, but by the mid-’70s McCartney had moved on to more conceptual projects when he and the band Wings took on a 31-stadium Wings Over America Tour—his first in the […]
Posted inCulture
Future Sex, Love Sounds
Falling in love with Spike Jonze’s Her
Old people love Village Inn. Love it. For starters, nothing about the place has changed since 1958—and at a certain age reliability itself becomes of chief importance. Over Christmas, I busted my fantastic 88-year-old grandmother out of her retirement home and then floored it to Village Inn. Where, over lunch, she leaned over her tomato […]
Posted inCulture
Masters of the Universe
Money, sex, quaaludes, and The Wolf of Wall Street
Every once in a while, there’s a perfect sequence of film. The part with the plane in North by Northwest. The accidental gunshot in Pulp Fiction. The Raiders of the Lost Ark truck chase. 2001‘s zero-g workout scene. The beginning of Up. Blade Runner‘s tears in the rain. Buster Keaton. The POV tour of the […]
Posted inCulture
Top Five Movies of the Year
Narrative and docs!
Top Five Movies (Narrative) By Tin Pan Theater 1. Short Term 12 We laughed, cried and rejoiced with the characters in this film. It was the only movie of the year where the closing credits made us feel like we were saying goodbye to family. 2. Before Midnight The most realistic film about long term […]
Posted inCulture
Broadcast News
Anchorman 2: Ron Burgundy Ruins News Forever
Ron Burgundy tries to hang himself in the first 15 minutes of “Anchorman 2”—and for a second, even this Anchorman fan thought that might not be a terrible idea. It’s been nine years since the brilliant “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” began its long journey toward becoming a cult classic, and expectations for a […]
Posted inCulture
A Spoonful of Daddy Issues
Schmaltz, booze, and Disney in Saving Mr. Banks
If only Disney’s Saving Mr. Banks had been terrible, I could’ve screamed, “Damn you, Disneyfication!” from the chim-chimneyed rooftops. But the film is sweet and likeable, and not without a bit of an edge. It’s a Disney edge, sure, but it’s there. Mr. Banks is centered around Mary Poppins—particularly author P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson), who’s […]
Posted inCulture
Senior Moments
Not everything’s black and white in Nebraska
Woody Grant (Bruce Dern) is determined to get to Nebraska. He’s received a form letter notifying him that he may have won $1 million, which he’s inclined to accept at face value. All he has to do is go to the sweepstakes office in Lincoln and collect the prize. There are a few obstacles: Woody […]
