Boyhood Origins (This Week’s Movies)

Patricia Arquette, Ellar Coltrane: a fragment of time in Boyhood

Links to reviews I wrote this week for the Herald and Seattle Weekly, and etc.

Boyhood. “Linklater calls for us to re-imagine how we treat movies and childhood.” (Here’s the SW version, in case of Herald paywall blockage.)

Cannibal. “The film is so beautifully lighted and framed that it’s almost as though Carlos is calling the shots, creating a movie world in which everything fits neatly into place.” (SW version.)

I Origins. “Once again the rationalists are forced to examine their atheistic beliefs – as they so often are in movies.” (SW version.)

And So It Goes. “The cranky-guy formula with very mild results.”

New installment of the Overlook Podcast ready for you: Put in the earbuds as former KUOW host Steve Scher and I talk about Mike Cahill’s I Origins and the tradition of films that favor the mystical over the rational. Check in here.

I turned up on KIRO radio’s “Mark Rahner Show” again last week, and we talked about The Purge: Anarchy, after which I stuck around for an exciting session of “Focus Group.” That hour is here; I come in halfway through.

Take a look at last month’s Framing Pictures panel, in which talkers Richard T. Jameson, Kathleen Murphy and I go over the likes of Snowpiercer, Jersey Boys, Edge of Tomorrow, and The Rover. Watch it online here. It’s also broadcast tonight at 8:30 on the Seattle Channel (likely channel 21 hereabouts).

 

 

Avengers Death Voice (Weekly Links)

Evans, Downey: Who is the super-est?

Links to reviews I wrote for the Herald, and etc.

The Avengers. “Achieves almost exactly what it seeks to achieve.”

Sound of My Voice. “The movie plays with the allure of a cult, by using some of the tools of the cult leader on us.”

Death of a Superhero. “Unfortunately hardened into formula.”

Elles. “Pretty obvious.”

On KUOW’s “Weekday,” I talk with Katy Sewall about the need for superhero movies – prompted, of course, by the arrival of The Avengers. It’s archived here; the movie bit kicks in at the 15:30 mark.

Next Thursday night I’ll present “Alien Encounters: Sci-Fi Movies and the Cold War Culture of the 1950s,” a free talk in the Humanities Washington speakers series, at the Renton History Museum, in Renton, WA, at 5 p.m. Location details here.

And next Friday, May 11, another installment of “Framing Pictures” unfolds at the Northwest Film Forum at 5 p.m.: three critics talking in depth about movies past, present, and future. Details here.

And “Framing Pictures” has a Facebook page now, so we can keep up to date with events (and perhaps keep the conversation going after events). Go here and “Like” it.

The Museum of History and Industry is hosting its second annual “History Is__” short film competition; a juried awards party will announced the winners next Saturday night, May 12. Get the info here.

At What a Feeling!, the Eighties continue to roll on, with vintage reviews of John Sayles’ Return of the Secaucus Seven, Marvin Chomsky’s Tank, and Blake Edwards’ Sunset.

Socialisme of the Planet of the Apes (Weekly Links)

"Apes" turning point or "Film Socialisme" montage element?

Links to review I wrote this week for the Herald, and etc.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes. “There really is something kind of epic about seeing the simian heroes swarming across an American landmark.”

Film Socialisme. “It’s Godard’s ‘Odyssey’: a journey around Europe, weighing in at different ports and finding strange alien visions at each.” 

Another Earth. “Fantastical Earth II concept.”

On KUOW’s “Weekday,” I talk with Steve Scher about drive-in movies, with notes on how to place the Drizzle Guard on your hood, as well as a couple of “Let’s All Go to the Lobby” bumpers. Talk is archived here; the movie bit kicks in around the 16-minute mark.

At What a Feeling!, a twofer review from 1987: the surfing picture North Shore and the slob comedy Disorderlies, starring the Fat Boys and Ralph Bellamy.