With the early days of fall we can look forward to romantic walks in the falling leaves, hot apple cider, the Puyallup Fair (gotta love those baby piglets), cozying up with a book as the rain pours outside, or you could even visit a pumpkin patch! Go wild! With so many of my favorite activities in one season, I can barely find time to plan my Halloween costume or peruse the schedule for the Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival (now online – www.threedollarbillcinema.org/10), much less hit up the new releases. Hollywood had better give us its best shot to beat this competition.
New Releases –
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, dir. Oliver Stone, starring Shia LaBeouf, Michael Douglas, Carey Mulligan and Susan Sarandon. I love the 80s, and I real love movies about the down and dirty world of high-stakes finance (Working Girl for example), but I just don’t think I can suffer through another Shia LaBeouf movie. I also have a mental block that doesn’t allow me to like director Oliver Stone, despite the fact that he’s made plenty of good films. I also have a reflexive loathing for Michael Douglas, until I realize that he’s in every movie I like – Romancing the Stone, Fatal Attraction, Basic Instinct, DISCLOSURE! Maybe I just need to admit to myself that I’m a closet Michael Douglas fan. Lord help me.
You Again, dir. Andy Fickman, starring Kristen Bell, Sigourney Weaver, Jamie Lee Curtis, Betty White, Kristen Chenoweth. For starters I will say I have no shame, and I will fully embrace the Betty White band wagon. She certainly hasn’t worn out her welcome with this mary. I would also put down good money to watch Jamie Lee Curtis and Sigourney Weaver play reunited high school rivals. Throw in the hilarious Kristen Chenoweth as a perky (of course) wedding planner, and how can you go wrong? Unfortunately Hollywood has developed a track record of women-centric comedies going astray, losing their focus and then wallowing in a murky not-quite funny not-quite tender gray area; see Sandra Bollock’s The Proposal for example. Here’s hoping director Andy Flickman (The Game Plan, She’s The Man) can balance so many funny women in one movie without it dissolving into a mess.
Also opening this weekend is the Ryan Reynolds trapped in a coffin suspense flick Buried. A new Woody Allen – You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger, starring Anthony Hopkins, Naomi Watts, Josh Brolin, and Antonio Banderas, which looks shakier than the fabulous Vicky Christina Barcelona. An emotional drama starring (my girl) Mira Sorvino – Like Dandelion Dust. And Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, which tells me either the studios are desperate to find a new blockbuster to replace the Harry Potter franchise or that kids are into some really weird shit these days. Owls? Really?
Film happenings in Seattle
Central Cinema will show Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights (1997), Fri. and Sat. at 7 and 10, Sun-Wed at 9:30. On Tuesday at 7 they are showing The Lobster and the Liver, a documentary about Seattle cartoonist and Stranger Genius Award Winner Jim Woodring.
I strongly recommend getting advance tickets for Thursday’s Heathers Quote Along presented by The Action Pack. Just thinking about my favorite quotes makes me smile. Here’s where you can refresh your memory – and even get a Big Fun t-shirt.
Northwest Film Forum will present the series Arboring Film: Celebrating 15 Years at Northwest Film Forum with 15 features and 15 shorts that were made possible through support by Northwest Film Forum over the past decade and a half.
On Saturday the Grand Illusion will host an evening of drinks and hors d’oeuvres followed by showing the beautiful Casablanca (1942), which is a fundraiser for the independent cinema. It may seem terribly clichéd, but Bogart and Bergman’s teary farewell will always be one of cinema’s most pitifully heartfelt love scenes.
The highly praised Festival of New Spanish Cinema is at SIFF cinema –
The folks at the adorable Living Room are looking for your submissions for their first annual Silent Horror Film Festival. Please visit their website for details on how to enter.
Finally I’ll make a friendly reminder to all the porn fans (not that I’m to judge) that HUMP tickets go on sale VERY soon. They are also still accepting your submissions. From the Stranger website – HUMP! goes down November 5-6 at On the Boards in Seattle and November 13-14 at Cinema 21 in Portland. The deadline for submissions for HUMP! 2010 is 5:00 p.m. on October 15, 2010.
-Ryan Hicks
