We hadn't spent five minutes with three of the eminently forgettable 20somethings cast as obligatory mutant fodder in Chernobyl Diaries when my friend hissed, "I already want all these people to die." Unfortunately, we had an hour or so to wait before that wish was granted.
Quite by chance, I recently came upon an item in the 49th issue of the Seattle Film Society's journal Movietone News, published in April 1976, which anticipated the launch of something quaintly termed the "First Seattle Festival of International Films." It makes for nostalgic and perhaps instructive reading. Were there as many estimable films in that inaugural, 19-film, two-and-a-half-week event as in any recent season of SIFF? Discuss amongst yourselves. Photo at left is from the Opening Night film The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum, with Angela Winkler. —RTJ
Another waft of indie milkweed, Safety Not Guaranteed won't stay with you much longer than it takes to walk out of the theater. Only audiences hooked on quirky romantic comedy unruffled by grown-up passion or personality will sink happily into the warm bathwater that is Safety. (At left: Aubrey Plaza)
Third in the lucrative series, this European adventure grabs you up for a brightly colored, fast-action odyssey full of energy and pizzazz—and never lets go. Three-dimensional effects are integral in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, climaxing in a spectacularly surreal laser light show under the Biggest Top ever. All in all, a "Mad"-cap romp that plays it straight....
Kathleen Murphy finds that a certain sense of déjà-vu in advance pervades the 2012 summer movie season. Even more so when you consider that this feature was written a month-or-so ago but only recently made public at MSN.com/Movies.
More than one film critic has already said, "We all owe Andrew Sarris everything." This invaluable writer, lifelong lover of movies, and irreplaceable man died Wednesday, June 21, at the age of 83. To write about his importance and influence is to be forced into using, in News publisher Mike Dillon's phrase, "the vertical pronoun." That is to say, it's impossible not to keep coming back to "I," "I," "I"—because any film critic worthy of the name has had Andrew Sarris as spiritual companion while watching every film, and writing every consideration of same. Kathleen and I were also blessed to have him and his lovely and eloquent wife Molly Haskell as personal friends. We shall all miss him terribly. Then again, we'll never be without him, because his words and teaching and example shine as they have for the past half-century, and will continue to shine wherever movies matter. Clicking "Read More" will get you to Kathleen's tribute she wrote for inclusion in the 2001 Festschrift Citizen Sarris, American Film Critic. And clicking the following URL will bring you a definitive portrait by Andrew's good friend and most stellar pupil, Time film critic and former Film Comment editor Richard Corliss: http://entertainment.time.com/2012/06/21/remembering-andrew-sarris-a-great-american-film-critic/
Quentin Tarantino is wrapping up his new movie Django Unchained, inspired by the 1966 spaghetti Western Django and its myriad successors (much as Inglourious Basterds was inspired by the cartoonish 1978 Italian war movie The Inglorious Bastards). This is probably a big reason why an eccentric 1967 Italian item named Django, Kill is being accorded a Blu-ray release. Still, there are other reasons why it should be seen to be disbelieved.
The Friday the 13th movies are such a crummy franchise that they should absorb any real-world curse attending that date when it turns up on the calendar. Or so we tell ourselves as we prepare for the next Framing Pictures outing, Friday, July 13, 5 p.m. at Northwest Film Forum. Co-founder Robert Horton will not be available for this session, but Richard T. Jameson and Kathleen Murphy look forward to talking movies with flâneur extraordinaire Bruce Reid. It's way too early to know what we're talking about ... wait, that didn't come out right. Just so we know what we're talking about when the 13th rolls around. Attendance is free; beer and wine, not. NWFF is at 1515 12th Ave. But wait, there's more. The June 15 event was preserved for posterity by a crew from The Seattle Channel (21 on your dial), and an only slightly edited version of that will be televised starting the night before our next session! We talked about Montgomery Clift, the world of Jan Svankmajer, the fanboy dissing of Ridley Scott's Prometheus, and the kickoff of the Jean Arthur series at SAM, among other things. At this point the Xfinity program guide lists five showings: 8:30-10 p.m. Thursday, July 12; 10-11:30 p.m. Friday, July 13; twice on Saturday, July 14, at 5-6:30 p.m. and 9-10:30 p.m.; and in the wee hours of Sunday the 15th, 1:30-3 a.m. What this looks and sounds like, we have no idea, but we invite you to check it out. And many thanks to producer Shannon Gee. —RTJ
Steven Soderbergh has been collecting his friendliest reviews in years for Magic Mike, so let's take a moment to wind back to the beginning: 1989, the year Soderbergh's debut sex, lies, and videotape won big at Cannes and, some say, launched the independent American cinema. Personally, I hold that there was plenty of independent American cinema long before 1989, but that's an argument for another time. I thought then and think now that sex, lies, and videotape was the second-best movie of its year, nipping at the heels of Gus Van Sant's Drugstore Cowboy. And my reviews of each of those films were high-water marks in my brief career as a Manhattan movie critic. The one for sex, lies follows here.
This Saturday morning, after the last of the walkers and runners are in and the trophies and raffle prizes given out, the 28th— annual Crown of Queen Anne Fun Run & Walk will be history.
I think Stephen Kessler watched too much TV growing up. But let me get back to that.
To view more of Milt Priggee’s work, visit www.miltpriggee.com.
Kathleen Murphy writes:Paranormal investigators Margaret Matheson (Sigourney Weaver) and Tom Buckley (Cillian Murphy) spend their time finding the fraudulent in every outbreak of the weird and inexplicable. "We look for red lights," Weaver's perpetually pinch-faced prof lectures her class. "Discordant notes ... things that shouldn't be there." And there you have it, the spot-on definition of Red Lights, a discordant thing that shouldn't be there, or here, or anywhere.
Kathleen Murphy writes:From the start, you can see why Martin Scorsese championed Easy Money (Snabba Cash, from the 2006 best-selling novel by Jens Lapidus). This Swedish gangster flick blasts out from under you like a high-octane muscle car, swerving through prison breakout to thug violence in a john to rich kids at play in an upscale club.......