BOWIE IN TIGHTS: LABYRINTH AT THE 99W DRIVE-IN

Some time back, I mentioned Portland's perennial love for a very short list of films, many of which have the name Jim Henson attached to them.  I'm not even going to pretend to understand.  While I definitely had my time in the sun with Mr. Henson, I've been out of short pants for a few decades now and don't find myself returning all that often to his oeuvre, though that's likely to change as my kiddo piles on the years.

Okay, full disclosure: not a day goes by without an Elmo clip being leveraged in exchange for tooth brushing, but I digress.

For those of you who enjoy marinating in childhood nostalgia, there's something to celebrate as the 99W Drive-in in Newberg welcomes back Henson's 1986 film Labyrinth, an extended experiment in puppets, musical fantasy, and David Bowie in very tight (or is it magical?) pants.  Sure, there's a fall chill in the air and the 99W isn't exactly a short drive from PDX, but bring a blanket, Portland, and you'll be rewarded for your efforts with a 35mm screening of your 3rd or 4th favorite film that doesn't star Seth Rogen or Paul Rudd, okay?  And, since the drive-in recently succeeded in their campaign to digitally upgrade their operation, this is pretty close to your final chance to see a film projected on actual film at a local outdoor theater.

As is the gold standard for drive-ins, admission to the 99W gets you a double scoop of film entertainment.  This week's second feature is We're the Millers, which currently holds a not-so-fresh score of 48% on a certain "tomatometer".  But, hey...Labyrinth!

Labyrinth plays in a double feature with We're the Millers on Friday, October 4th through Sunday, October 6th at the 99W Drive-in.  More info available here.

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SING-A-LONG WITH CAPTAIN VON TRAPP AT CINEMA 21

You can't get much more iconic than Julie Andrews spinning through Austrian hills in Robert Wise's The Sound of Music.  Well, beginning Thursday, Cinema 21's going to give you a chance to try your hardest to outsing the old girl when Sing-A-Long Sound of Music returns to Portland.  Whether you bring a group of friends or decide to caterwaul with a bunch of strangers, the event promises you the rare opportunity to be loud at the movies without getting tossed out of the theater on your head. 

Here's a glimpse at the release for the event:

The hit, interactive, musical phenomenon, SING-A-LONG SOUND OF MUSIC, returns to Portland for 7 full performances at Cinema 21 September 26 - October 6, 2013! Having started in the UK back in 1999, the Sing-a-Long Sound of Music show has now become a worldwide hit, playing to packed houses across the globe with over 10,000 performances in 11 different countries! It’s even filled the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles – 7 times! 

For those of you not yet converted, Sing-a-Long Sound of Music is a screening of the classic Julie Andrews film musical in glorious, full-screen technicolor, complete with subtitles so that the whole audience can sing along! The fun-filled show starts with a vocal warm-up led by the evening’s host, who also takes the audience through their complimentary "magic moments pack," containing various props to be used at strategic points throughout the film. Then there is the famous fancy-dress competition in which everyone who has come in costume is invited onto the stage to show off their fantastic tailoring skills. And the more venues we play, the more elaborate the costumes get. Previous entries have included: nuns of both genders (including a pregnant nun!), girls (and boys!) in white dresses with blue satin sashes, a lonely Goatherd, a man in a gold lycra catsuit (Ray a Drop of Golden Sun!), a gazebo and more! 

Get out your wimples and warm woolen mittens, put on your white dresses with blue satin sashes, cut up those chintz curtains and get your vocal cords warmed up because the city is alive with SING-A-LONG SOUND OF MUSIC! SING-A-LONG SOUND OF MUSIC is a fun, joyful, interactive event that makes an ideal girls' night or a unique family outing!

Sing-A-Long Sound of Music runs  Thursday, September 26th through Sunday, September 29th, plus Saturday, October 5th through Sunday, October 6th at the Cinema 21.  More info available here.

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CINEMA PROJECT TURNS 10, LOOKS BACK BEFORE MOVING FORWARD

Anyone who's glanced at this blog more than a few times knows that I have a big ol' soft spot in my heart for Cinema Project.  While they're not the only ones in town putting together incredible programs of experimental film (don't worry, EFF Portland, I love you, too), CP has kept their public exhibitions of outré cinema going for longer than most anyone would ever have expected possible.  You think it's difficult for indie and non-profit cinemas to turn a buck nowadays?  How's about a tight little crew of curators/film lovers without a permanent exhibition space and an exclusive focus on non-commercial works of art?  Needless to say, these folks are doing it for love, not money.

Which is why it's so fantastically inspiring that the organization is launching their 10th season this Saturday.  To celebrate their "tin" anniversary, CP is using their first screening of the fall to throw themselves a birthday party with a "best of" film presentation culled from the first 10 years of Cinema Project.

Here's what the good folks at the Project have to say about Saturday night's events:

Over the past ten years Cinema Project has organized and presented more than 100 unique film and video programs and only in rare instances do we ever show the same thing twice. The beginning of a ten-year anniversary, however, seems like a good time to break the rules and break into our own program archive. The first of two “best of” screenings (to be continued in Spring 2014), this program brings together a fun and unlikely mix of work that demonstrates the variety, breadth, and unique curatorial vision that Cinema Project is known for. Each past and present collective member has selected a favorite short film or video that he or she thinks deserves a second look, or that speaks anew to current political and cultural landscapes and personal outlooks. Older, newer, black-and-white, color, sound, silent, representational, abstract, psychedelic, poetic, diaristic, heavy, light: each is a skilled and personal production close to the artist who made it. This is the type of work we champion. 

At 10pm join us downstairs at the VFW Hall for a post-screening party and fall fundraiser kick-off, with DJs Cuica and Calle Danger, snacks, drinks, and sparkling conversation. Bring your dancing shoes!

Here's what's on tap for that evening:

Undefeated by Kevin Jerome Everson 

[US, 2008, video, b&w, sound, 1.5 min.] 

Associations by John Smith 

[US, 1975, 16mm, color, sound, 7 min.] 

 a-b-city by Brigitte Buhler and Dieter Hormel 

[West Germany, 1985, S8 transferred to video, color, sound, 8 min.] 

RE:THE_OPERATION by Paul Chan 

[US, 2002, Digital Video, color, sound, 26 min.] 

Nocturne by Phil Solomon 

[US, 1980/1989, 16mm, color, silent, 10 min.] 

Portrait, Tea Time, and Red Curtain by Helga Fanderl 

[Germany, 1992-2009, S8 blown up to 16mm, 18fps, color, silent, 7 min.] 

Offon by Scott Barlett 

[US, 1968, 16mm, color, sound, 10 min.] 

Ninety-Three by Kevin Jerome Everson 

[US, 2008, video, b&w, silent, 3 min.]

They had me at the inclusion Phil Solomon's Nocturne.  Need convincing?  How's about a look at another one of Solomon's films, PSALM III: "NIGHT OF THE MEEK" to wet your whistle before Saturday arrives.  It lives here.

Cinema Project celebrates their 10th year of existence on Saturday, September 28th at the VFW Hall (825 SE Mill St.).  More info available here.

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NOIR CITY ON THE NEW MARQUEE

Not much to say here, but, damn, doesn't Noir City look amazing on The Hollywood Theatre's newly restored marquee?  Anyone who came out to Friday's festivities already knows what a blast this mini-festival has been so far.  Host Eddie Muller presented beautiful 35mm prints of two obscure gems (Try and Get Me! & Sleep, My Love) to the enthusiastic crowd while offering up illuminating and entertaining pre-show banter before each film.

If you missed out last night, there's still plenty of Noir City Portland magic to take part in beginning today with the 1949 version of The Great Gatsby, followed by an additional two, rarely-screened films (Repeat Performance & The Come On).  And tomorrow brings yet another opportunity for a triple feature.  Anyone else planning on spending their weekend at Noir City?

Noir City Portland runs Friday, September 20th through Sunday, September 22nd at the Hollywood Theatre.  More info available here.

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ALL IS BRIGHT: THIS AIN'T NO BROMANCE

It's a rough world out there.  And returning after a long absence is a difficult proposition.  How appropriate is it that Phil Morrison's less than prompt follow-up to his 2005 indie hit Junebug concerns itself with a man attempting to find his bearings, both familial and internal, after having his life interrupted by a long stay in prison?  In many ways, Dennis (Paul Giamatti), the protagonist of All is Bright suffers under far less steep expectations than Morrison does here.  No one expects anything from Dennis; in fact, his wife, Therese (Amy Landecker), has completely written him off, telling their young daughter that he died, rather than bothering with the messy truth about his incarceration.

The film picks up shortly after Dennis is released from prison.  What's his first move?  He returns to his rural, French-Canadian home where he's swiftly informed both Therese's lie and her involvement with Dennis' former best friend and partner-in-crime Rene (Paul Rudd), who Therese plans to marry once Rene's wife grants him a divorce.  With nowhere else to go, Dennis tracks down his romantic rival at a local bar, tries to beat him up, and (naturally?) ends up joining his Rene in an annual trek down to New York City to set up a seasonal Christmas tree selling business.  Yeah, this IS a Christmas movie...bet you never saw that coming.

If the plot sounds convoluted, rest assured, this film, like Junebug, doesn't grind too heavily on plot mechanics.  Instead, Morrison and screenwriter Melissa James Gibson treat these characters as people, albeit ones that sometime stray into situations just a smidge over the line separating the real from circumstances of a cartoonish nature.  When All is Bright sticks with its primary motif of two losers holding a predictably bad hand, it's at its best, resembling at times a modern update on a flavor of male camaraderie rarely portrayed in film since Elaine May's Mikey and Nicky (a bromance, this is, thankfully, not).  But, on the few occasions when the script pushes Dennis and Rene to act like people trapped in an indie comedy, the film stumbles, drops focus, and feels oddly flat.

All is Bright is unlikely to enjoy the same strong word of mouth leading to a slow-building success that Junebug did.  It's just not a film designed to register with a broad audience.  The characters aren't that likeable, nor is the action all that identifiable.  But it is a movie that deserves a chance from fans of quietly observant, character-driven cinema because, for each slight misstep that it contains, there's a charming counterpoint hidden just around the corner. 

All is Bright is currently available for viewing on VOD platforms such as Amazon Instant Video & iTunes.  The film opens theatrically in October.

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ROBERTO ROSSELLINI'S THE SOLITUDE TRILOGY aka WHAT I'M UP TO TODAY

Roberto Rossellini's The Solitude Trilogy has been screening over at my workplace all weekend.  Today marks the only time during the run that all three films, Stromboli, Europa '51, & Voyage to Italy will be shown in a single day.  I'm going to try to make it through all of 'em, though, if recent history has proven anything, I probably will give up before the day is done.  Extra incentive to stay at least through the 2nd film: Europa '51 is rarely screened theatrically; in fact, it's a rare 16mm print borrowed from a private collector that's being projected today.

The following film synopses are lifted directly from the NW Film Center's listings:

Stromboli:

The film where Rossellini fatefully met Ingrid Bergman, STROMBOLI—like their later VOYAGE TO ITALY—is a semi-autobiographical portrait of its star’s stranger-in-a-strange-land predicament. Bergman plays a Lithuanian war refugee who marries a fisherman on the remote Sicilian island of Stromboli in order to escape an internment camp. Moving from the environmental reality that characterized his earlier neo-realist films to a psychological realism foreshadowing Antonioni’s L’AVENTURRA (1960), Rossellini’s film contrasts the island’s desolate, volcanic landscapes with its leading lady’s emotional turmoil. The barren, sulfurous rock proves a formidable and unpredictable rival for Bergman’s ferocious will. “An intensely moving exploration of sainthood and spirituality.”—Martin Scorsese. (107 mins.)

Europa '51:

The second collaboration between Rossellini and Bergman chronicles the life of a wealthy American woman living in Rome who is thrown into turmoil when her young son commits suicide over what he perceived to be her lack of affection for him. The woman’s grief leads her to the realization that she has been living a shallow, bourgeois existence and propels her to change her ways. As if on a spiritual quest, she begins devoting her life to helping the less fortunate—a sick prostitute, an unwed mother with numerous children, and a young boy—all of which disturbs her husband in tragic reaction. While the film has been viewed as Rossellini’s vision of the state of the world in all its confusion, many also read it as an exploration of Ingrid Bergman’s personal struggle. (113 mins.)

Voyage to Italy (aka Journey to Italy):

A reserved British couple (Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders) take a break from the chaos of London and retreat to the rugged landscape of Naples, only to find that outside of the structure of their everyday lives, the tedium of their marriage begins to emerge. Under the glistening surface of its minimal plot, Rossellini’s film amasses subtle details and small moments that build towards one of postwar cinema’s most enigmatically poignant conclusions. Again, Rossellini’s use of the environment as a relevant character is a precursor to Antonioni’s bleak industrial landscapes, serving as a link between neo-realism and the subjective, psychological cinema of the 1960s. (97 mins.)

The Solitude Trilogy: Stromboli, Europa '51 & Voyage to Italy screens at the NW Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium (in the Portland Art Museum).  Click here for more info.

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PIFF 36: AMERICAN WINTER

Offering a glimpse at what it is to fall out of the middle class, Joe & Harry Gantz' American Winter whispers a harsh truth into the ear of the viewer: it could happen to anyone.  The eight Portland-based families to which it is happening in the film deal with it in a variety of ways, but most wear a look akin to PTSD as they struggle to stay afloat in a society with little safety to offer those who have fallen behind.  Their stories are all similar; the primary breadwinner lost their job (or in one case, their life) and has been unable to find new means of support, leaving their entire family vulnerable in the midst of an economic crisis the likes of which most of us have never seen before.

The Gantz' efforts here ditch the more lurid, voyeuristic aspects of their work on television (Taxi Cab Confessions) for an honest inside view of families struggling for their lives.  American Winter began as a profile of users of Portland's unique non-profit 211info, a resource hotline that connects people to emergency services based in "health, community, and social services."  While the non-profit is still a part of the final piece, the filmmakers smartly chose to follow the experience of a small group of families seeking out 211's help.  The result is a film that lives on the humanity and despair of these victims--ordinary folks like you and me--who are dealing with the biggest tragedy of their lives.  Depressing?  Yes, but also absolutely necessary; American Winter is a great piece of social filmmaking.

Highly recommended.

American Winter will screen at the 36th Portland International Film Festival at the NW Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium (in the Portland Art Museum) on Sunday,  Feb. 17th at 3pm and at Cinemagic on Monday, Feb. 18th at 7:30pm. 

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KUNG FU THEATER presents INVINCIBLE POLE FIGHTER

The Hollywood Theatre's monthly Kung Fu Theater series hosts Lau Kar Leung's 1984 Shaw Brothers' classic Invincible Pole Fighter (aka Eight Diagram Pole Fighter) for a one-night-only, rare 35mm screening on their big downstairs screen.  If you're not already a rabid fan, all you really need to know about this one is that it's Kung Fu Theater major domo Dan Halsted's favorite kung fu flick of all time.  'Nuff said; the man knows his martial arts cinema.  The rest of us?  We're just here to learn.

Here's the lowdown on the event:

Kung Fu Theater presents an extremely rare 35mm print of the kung fu masterpiece Invincible Pole Fighter! Around here, we consider this the greatest kung fu movie of all time. Advance tickets are strongly recommended for this show. 

Invincible Pole Fighter (1984) A family of fighters is ambushed by invaders in a fierce battle that leaves the family's father and four of six brothers dead. One of the remaining brothers (Gordon Liu) swears revenge, and forces his way into the Shaolin Temple to master his pole fighting skills. When his younger sister is kidnapped by the invaders, it's payback time. After numerous jaw-dropping fight scenes, there is a massive climactic battle that ranks among the greatest action scenes in movie history. This film is directed by martial arts master Lau Kar Leung (36th Chamber of Shaolin), stars Gordon Liu (36th Chamber, Kill Bill) and was a huge influence on the Wu Tang Clan. This is an all-out kung fu masterpiece. 

Invincible Pole Fighter plays one-night-only at the Hollywood Theatre on Tuesday, February 12th at 7:30pm.  More info available here.

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PIFF 36: LORE

Some eight years after Somersault, Lore marks the return of Australian director Cate Shortland.  Anyone worried that Shortland's abilities may have been dulled by the intervening years between features can rest easy.  Her second feature is a complicated journey through a physical/psychological terrain scorched by the malignancy of the Third Reich.  The film plays out like a dark dream, weighted down by a tragedy far too complex for its young characters to fully fathom.  Essentially, Shortland has succeeded in fashioning a tale that supports (albeit in a conflicted sense) the notion that the children of the Nazi era were also victims of their country's madness.

Coming directly after the death of Hitler, teenaged Lore (Saskia Rosendahl) and her four siblings are left alone after their parents are imprisoned for war crimes.  The kids are forced to flee to safety as the allied forces carve up Germany into territories.  While on the long voyage to their grandmother's house, the meet up with Thomas (Kai-Peter Malina), a Jewish teenager who serves as both a protector and a painful reminder of the evil that motivates the journey.  The six youngsters move through the war ravaged landscape in the only way they know how, clinging onto each other as they unsteadily make their advances.

With its trip to Grandma's house motif, Lore could easily have upped the dark fairy tale aspects that, while present, never overtake a matching sense of realism.  What results is a magical realism (note: not exactly magic realism, but moving towards it at times) that treats images of death and decay in equal esteem as visions of light streaming through foliage.  Sure, there's a bit of Red Riding Hood in there, but there's also a more than healthy nod to Nicholas Roeg's Walkabout, too.

Highly recommended.

Lore will screen at the 36th Portland International Film Festival at the NW Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium (in the Portland Art Museum) on Sunday,  Feb. 10th at 7:30pm and at Regal Lloyd Center 10 on Monday, Feb. 11th at 5:45pm.  More info available here.

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GRINDHOUSE FILM FESTIVAL presents CONVENT OF THE SACRED BEAST

While buying a copy of Black Narcissus on blu-ray a few years ago, a couple of snarky clerks working the Barnes & Noble Criterion sale started cracking jokes about nunsploitation.  I doubt they were referring specifically to Noribumi Suzuki's 1974 film Convent of the Sacred Beast (aka School of the Holy Beast), but there's really not a title out there that more fully inhabits that descriptor.  It's a film that piles up such nunsploitation/exploitation traits as s&m (lots o' whipping, sometimes with thorns!), lesbian nuns, dirty old bishops, and various perversions based in Catholic imagery.  So, of course, it was only a matter of time before it showed up at the Hollywood Theatre's monthly Grindhouse Film Festival event.

Here's what the Grindhouse folks have to say about Tuesday night's presentation:

The Grindhouse Film Festival presents the only known 35mm print of the Japanese nunsploitation film Convent of the Sacred Beast. 

Convent of the Sacred Beast (aka School of the Holy Beast) (1974) A young woman enters a convent to investigate the mysterious death of her mother. The convent turns out to be a steaming hotbed of immorality, and the woman must deal with a lesbian mother superior, a sleazy archbishop, and nuns who submit to S&M punishments for their sins. Filled with sex and violence, and filmed with beautiful cinematography, this is an erotic mix of giallo and sexploitation. This is one of a kind, and not to be missed. 

35mm sexploitation trailers before the movie

Convent of the Sacred Beast plays one-night-only at the Hollywood Theatre on Tuesday, January 29th at 7:30pm.  More info available here.

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56 UP: STILL COMPELLING AFTER ALL THESE YEARS

It's been seven years since 49 Up and, like clockwork, director Michael Apted returns with 56 Up,  the latest installment in his groundbreaking Up series.  Checking in with the lives its English subjects every seven years since they were young schoolchildren, this series of made-for-television documentaries has yielded an amazingly emotional look at ordinary lives lived; their failures and triumphs aired for all the world to witness.  It's one thing to appreciate the idea that informs these films, but watching them is an entirely different experience, as it's possible to be drawn into the otherwise private details of the lives of complete strangers.

If this sounds roughly like the effect of watching a season of reality tv, it's probably due to the undeniable influence that the Up series has had on that genre; Apted's initial chapter in the series predates An American Family, PBS' 1971 experiment in reality-based television, by seven years.  The difference between the Up series and, say, Jersey Shore, is profound; whereas most reality television takes on a leering gaze, the Up series has always had more anthropological aims in mind.  In Apted's hands, the 14 subjects who have taken part in the series have been less representatives of themselves than of the universal experience that is living life and gathering stories along the way.

As we pick up once again with the familiar faces in 56 Up, many of them are beginning to evaluate where they are in their lives, often within the context of the series and how it has and has not fairly represented them.  Some complain that it has offered the public a sense of identification that isn't earned, and, surely, being repeatedly approached by complete strangers who want to commiserate with you over the private details of your life must be exhausting.  Neil Hughes, whose past struggles with homelessness made him the subject that most viewers worried about in prior chapters, has found stability and is probably the most vocal in his protests that people don't know how he feels just because they've seen small slices of his life on the telly every seven years.

All in all, 56 Up isn't going to surprise viewers, whether or not they've checked in with the series before.  But it does offer the same comforts as the past few chapters, mainly the possibility of transformation over time, as many of the "characters" found within have achieved some form of peace with the way their lives have unfolded.  Like previous installments, 56 Up betrays its roots in television, especially how each person's story remains a discrete section of the larger whole; Apted doesn't cut between the tales as he might were he presenting a feature documentary, so, even if we're seeing it in theaters in the U.S., the overall style is that of the small screen.  This should in no way dissuade anyone from checking in with it, though, as this latest chunk of the Up series retains its fascinating power to pull viewers into the lives of its subjects.

Highly recommended.

56 Up premieres at the IFC Center in NYC on Friday, January 4th.  It opens locally at Cinema 21 on January 25th.  More info available here.

 
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GLOW - THE STORY OF THE GORGEOUS LADIES OF WRESTLING: THE RETURN OF BIG BAD MAMA

Where was I when ladies wrestling was a regular fixture on broadcast television?  Brett Whitcomb's new documentary GLOW: The Story of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling paints a picture of massive fame, if not fortune, experienced by these very 1980s ladies, plucked out of obscurity and placed in a televised ring of glory.  The Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (go ahead, try the link--you'll be amazed) filled the screen on Saturday mornings for years, offering an alternative, but no less campy, option to the testosterone fueled WWF (now WWE) of the time.  Partly due to the program's day and time slot, the fan base that developed around GLOW was primarily made up of children, although, as one of the film's subjects points out, hung-over frat boys were a big part of that crowd, too.

As a film, GLOW has a lot of the essential elements in place.  There's the undeniably oddball story of a Vegas-financed, all-female wrestling team, made up of mostly non-wrestlers who had to learn their trade on the job.  Whitcomb has access to all the colorfully named personalities on hand: Mt. Fiji, Little Egypt, Matilda the Hun, Jailbait, and Big Bad Mama, to name just a few.  And since we're talking about a television show, there's a ton of archival footage on hand, too, including one nasty looking injury and a large slathering of posturing in line with what we think of when we think of televised wrestling.  If there's one thing missing from the story, it's the perspective of the fans; the size of GLOW's following is mentioned often, yet there's never any insight offered up from the rabid audience that developed around these Gorgeous Ladies.

Still, Whitcomb offers up a deep look into a forgotten moment from our not so distant pop culture past.  A doc like GLOW promises on the surface to supply viewers with something to laugh at--and there's certainly more than enough ridiculous stuff to giggle about here--but, surprisingly, the film digs below the surface, unearthing a more emotional perspective than one expects from a documentary about ladies' wrestling.  If you're not moved by the story of Mt. Fiji, you're not human.  Even if you find wrestling exceedingly dull, the excitement that GLOW generates will spare you the sleeper hold.

GLOW: The Story of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling plays two-nights-only at the Hollywood Theatre beginning on Saturday, January 5th at 7pm.  More info available here.

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ANY DAY NOW: KEEP IT IN THE FAMILY

Travis Fine's Any Day Now is a well-intentioned, 1970s period piece exploring a gay couple's fight to retain custody of a child with special needs.  Based on a true story, the film's aims are regrettably matched with an overly melodramatic, tin-eared script that isn't up to the task of breathing life into a scenario that really shouldn't require any punching up at all.  It's a film that never surprises, always embracing the safest, most oft-trod path to describing its characters and their conflict.  To make matters worse, actors Alan Cumming and Garret Dillahunt pour just about everything they've got into the portrayal of their characters.  Their efforts do rescue several scenes from the bland, go-nowhere tendencies of the script, but it's not enough to combat Fine's worst impulses, which continually drag the piece through one tired cliché after another.

Cumming plays Rudy.  He's living in a squalid, dump of an apartment building, barely making ends meet and putting up with the loud parties of the junkie (Jamie Anne Allman) who lives next door.  When Rudy discovers that his neighbor has left her young son, Marco (Isaac Leyva), without adult supervision, he tries to comfort the boy.  When he finds out that she's been arrested, he decides to take in this discarded child with Down Syndrome.  Somewhere in between all this, Rudy and Paul (Dillahunt) meet at the bar where Rudy performs as a lip-syncing drag queen.  Their attraction is immediate and they act on it.  And, whad'ya know, Rudy soon pulls Paul, who works as a lawyer in the district attorney's office, into his attempts to hang on to Marco.

I know what you're thinking.  All of this sounds compelling enough, but the film often feels like its trying to fulfill the time requirement to qualify as feature length.  It's only 97 minutes long, but, if you took out all the filler (like the parts about Rudy's desire to be a real singer, or Paul's struggle to remain in the closet at work), it might only clock in at barely over an hour.  Still, a more streamlined film that kept its focus on the couple's fight to retain custody in the face of rampant prejudice would have been a far more successful film, narrative-wise (witness the similarly-themed accomplishment that was last year's In the Family).  What we have here instead is a sad story relayed in a manner that is always sure to indicate when we're supposed to feel sad; cue melancholic music.  The cast and story deserved far better.

Any Day Now begins its run at Living Room Theaters on Friday, January 4th.  More info available here.


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UNIVERSAL 100TH ANNIVERSARY SERIES STARTS TOMORROW AT THE NW FILM CENTER

This coming Friday night, the Northwest Film Center begins their month-long cinema party for the newest centenarian on the block, Universal Pictures.  What that celebration translates to is the return of 17 films dating from between 1916 (Lois Weber & Phillips Smalley's rarely screened silent Where are My Children?) and 1989 (Spike Lee's career-best Do the Right Thing).

There's a whole lot of good running throughout the schedule, but, if I could only pick a few to see, I wouldn't miss Douglas Sirk's 1954 melodrama Magnificent Obsession, Erich von Stroheim's 1919 silent Blind Husbands, or Anthony Mann's 1950 western Winchester '73.  And, of course, you can never go wrong with Jaws or To Kill a Mockingbird.

Here's a blurb pertaining to the series from the UCLA Film and Television Archive that I swiped off the Film Center's site:

“The Universal Film Manufacturing Company incorporated in 1912, the result of a merger between a number of independent companies that had been battling Thomas Edison’s Motion Picture Patents Trust. Universal would go on to become the oldest continuously operating film producer and distributor in the United States. In an industry defined by change, Universal’s spinning globe logo has remained, along with its back lot and tour in Universal City, Calif. 

From its beginning under Carl Laemmle, there existed a tension between Universal’s need to produce low-budget ‘programmers’ and the ‘major minor’s’ desire to compete alongside better-capitalized studios—with their national theater chains—on the level of big-budget A pictures. Ironically, while several of Universal’s early ‘prestige’ titles are beloved classics today, including ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (1930), it remains the B pictures, including its iconic 1930s horror cycle (FRANKENSTEIN, DRACULA, THE MUMMY), that epitomize its contribution to film art and commerce. This irony informs Universal’s post-war emergence as a global entertainment power. After anti-trust actions leveled the playing field in the 1940s, Universal moved into the A-list with superlative mass entertainment that ennobled populist genres, including westerns (WINCHESTER ’73), thrillers (THE BIRDS), and sex farces (PILLOW TALK). Universal also innovated new industry practices, pioneering the ‘percentage deal’ and embracing television production. 

 It changed the game again with JAWS (1975), which established the ‘blockbuster’ formula that still dominates the industry today. Throughout its history, Universal has translated economic necessity into a uniquely American challenge to the distinctions between prestigious and popular entertainment.”

And here's an awesome video clip featuring all the various permutations of the Universal Pictures logo over the years:

 Now on to the trailers!!!

The Universal Pictures: Celebrating 100 Years series begins at the NW Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium (in the Portland Art Museum) on Friday, January 4th at 7pm.  More info available here.

 
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