Local & Rep
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007: Six Classi
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James Bond Films Sure, there are better films in the Bond canon, but how many have a Lotus Esprit sports car/submarine, an awesome theme song by Carly Simon, a giant, metal-toothed villain named Jaws, a supertanker that swallows other vessels, the greatest skiing stunt ever filmed, and the Pyramids? All that and more is featured in Roger Moore’s third and best James Bond movie (of seven): The Spy Who Loved Me, in which he and sexy Russian agent Barbara Bach search for two stolen nuclear subs. Don’t get me wrong: Daniel Craig and Skyfall are far, far better, but this 1977 romp is good cheesy fun in all the right ways. Moore was then 50 and increasingly reliant on stunt men to do, well, everything besides sip martinis and leer at the ladies. His smug puns and double entendres are both insufferable and hilarious, delivered better than Austin Powers ever could. The globetrotting franchise also visits the Alps and Sardinia. One of Bond’s own gadgets is a Seiko digital watch that prints ticker-tape messages. The epaulets on his wide-lapeled polyester sport jacket are also emblems of their time; and John Barry’s famous musical theme even gets a disco update. Sacrilege maybe, but you can dance to it. Spy runs Fri.-Sun., and Moonraker concludes the Bond retro from Sun.-Thurs. See the GI’s website for showtimes. (PG) BRIAN MILLER Grand Illusion, $5-$8, Through March 28.
Basic Instinct Paul Verhoeven scored a huge 1992 hit with this sexy crime tale starring Sharon Stone (the murder suspect) and Michael Douglas (the cop who falls for her). In following years, it probably set the record for DVDs being slowed down frame-by-frame during the famous interrogation scene. (R) Central Cinema, $6-$8, March 22-25, 9:45 p.m.; Wed., March 27, 9:45 p.m.
Crash Cinema Participants in MOHAI’s “History is [_____]” one-day filmmaking challenge will screen their shorts at this open-bar wrap party event. (NR) SIFF Film Center, $3-$5, Sat., March 23, 5:30 p.m.
Iraq: The War We Left Behind The tenth anniversary of our invasion of Iraq is commemorated by this screening and post-film discussion. (NR) Keystone Congregational Church, 5019 Keystone Place N., 632-6021, keystoneseattle.org, Free, Fri., March 22, 7 p.m.
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L.A. Rebellion The series, which honors African-American filmmakers after the Watts riots, concludes with Compensation (Fri.) and two packages of shorts on Sat. and Sun. See nwfilmforum.org for full schedule and details. (NR) Northwest Film Forum, $6-$10, Fri.-Sun., 8 p.m. Ends March 24.
Midnight Horror Call the tavern, or just drop by, to see what random gore flicks are playing in this ongoing series. Plus drink specials! (NR) Comet Tavern, 922 E. Pike St., 322-9272, comettavern.com, Free, Thurs.-Sun.
Money & Life Katie Teague, a former local, will introduce her new doc about wealth, need, and a sustainable economy. (NR) SIFF Cinema Uptown, $6-$11, Wed., March 20, 7 p.m.
Ornette Coleman’s Prime Time This hour-long music doc captures the legendary free-jazz musician at a 1988 concert in Montreal. (NR) Northwest Film Forum, $6-$10, Thu., March 21, 8 p.m.
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Silent Movie Mondays One innocent smooch leads Greta Garbo into adultery and disgrace in 1929’s The Kiss. Organist Jim Riggs provides live accompaniment. (NR) The Paramount, 911 Pine St., 877-784-4849, stgpresents.org, $10, 7 p.m. Mon., March 25.
The Sprocket Society’s Saturday Secret Matinees “Alien Encounters” is the March theme for various short films being screened. Ongoing is the 1939 adventure serial Zorro’s Fighting Legion. Total program length is about two hours. (NR) Grand Illusion, $5-$8, 2 p.m. Sat., March 23.
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The Thing SEE THE WIRE, PAGE 17.
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Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Directed by Mike Nichols, this 1966 adaptation of Edward Albee’s boozy marital drama stars a memorably spiteful Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton as the academics who need an audience to vent their rages. George Segal and Sandy Dennis play the younger campus couple who accept a fateful invitation for drinks. Mayhem ensues. Sample dialogue (Burton to Taylor): “In my mind, you’re buried in cement right up to the neck. No, up to the nose, it’s much quieter.” (PG) Central Cinema, $6-$8, March 22-25, 7 p.m.; Wed., March 27, 7 p.m.
Ongoing
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Argo Ben Affleck’s Oscar winner begins with the November 4, 1979, attack on the U.S. embassy in Tehran. While 52 Americans are held hostage, six embassy workers manage to escape, ultimately hiding out at the home of Canadian ambassador (Victor Garber). Determined to smuggle the houseguests out of Iran by disguising them as a film crew on a location scout, CIA exfiltration expert Tony Mendez (Affleck) enlists the help of John Chambers (John Goodman), a movie makeup artist, and Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin), an old-school producer. Between hokey wisecracks ribbing industry idiocy, the trio seizes on a dusty script for a Star Wars rip-off called Argo. Affleck’s movie doesn’t reflect who we are now so much as it argues for what Hollywood can be. It’s a love letter from Affleck to the industry that made him, shunned him, and loves nothing more than to be loved. (R) Karina Longworth Alderwood 16, Oak Tree, Lincoln Square, Meridian, others
The Gatekeepers Israeli director Dror Moreh says he was directly inspired by Errol Morris’ 2003 The Fog of War, which drew lessons from the Vietnam War that applied to Iraq and Afghanistan. But those were our wars, our bloody mistakes, political bungling, and costly occupations. Israel’s Occupied Territories, acquired after 1967’s Six-Day War, are a different matter. So too is its secretive Shin Bet security agency, which conducts counterterrorism operations in those Palestinian regions, including drone strikes and targeted assassinations. What’s most newsworthy here is that Moreh convinced six former Shin Bet leaders to go on record before the camera. They are surprisingly skeptical about Israeli policies for controlling the Occupied Territories. And while there’s no consensus view, if Moreh asked for a vote, it seems they’d go back to pre-1967 borders. Basically, though no one wants to come out and say it, the Six-Day War was a Pyrrhic victory, the acquisition of a demographic time bomb compounded by Israel’s settlement policies. One statement rings universal, and ex–Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin puts it in English for global emphasis: “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.” (PG-13) Brian Miller Harvard Exit
Life of Pi A stacked-deck theological inquiry filtered through a spectacular Titanic-by-way-of–Slumdog Millionaire narrative, Life of Pi manages occasional spiritual wonder through its 3-D visuals but otherwise sinks like a stone. Ang Lee brings to this high-seas adventure his graceful and refined aesthetics; the result is a slavish, proficient adaptation of Yann Martel’s 2001 novel. The story concerns the upbringing of Pi (newcomer Suraj Sharma) in India, his unbelievable experiences surviving a shipwreck aboard a life raft also occupied by a Bengal tiger, and his post-rescue efforts to convince Japanese officials that his tale is true—a three-part structure that’s framed by the adult Pi (Irrfan Khan), recounting his tale to a nameless writer (Rafe Spall). The story’s relentless articulation of its thematic aims proves a buzz kill, and the film spoon-feeds rather than enlightens. (PG-13) Nick Schager Sundance Cinemas, Thornton Place, others
Lore As World War II ends badly for the Nazis, fresh-faced teenager Lore (Saskia Rosendahl) sees her SS officer father hurriedly burn the evidence of his war crimes, while her mother barks bitter reprisals. Both prepare for their inevitable capture by the Allies. Neighbors want nothing to do with the five kids. The children duck Allied patrols and fellow refugees en route to Grandmother’s house. And they find the unlikeliest of protectors in a young concentration-camp survivor, Thomas (Kai Malina), with a startlingly clear-headed survival instinct and an instant grasp of the complicated new politics of postwar Germany. Lore and her four younger siblings trek through an ever-present now, a series of negotiations and confrontations for a 14-year-old growing up fast. She’s no innocent Riefenstahl mountain girl standing tall against evil; she’s not even particularly likable. Lore is alternately scared, angry, frustrated, and torn—especially about the Jewish “inferior” who time and again saves these children. The misty landscape of forests and fields and rivers is lovely, but Lore’s real odyssey is through a dead, deluded culture holding tight to its bigotry, nationalism, and grief for the fallen Fuhrer. (NR) Sean Axmaker Harvard Exit, Lincoln Square
Quartet A decorous gathering of dames and other knighted U.K. doyens, Quartet centers on the residents of Beecham House, a baronial residence for retired musicians. Former conductor Cedric (Michael Gambon), bedecked in a series of fantastic caftans and charged with organizing the annual gala fundraiser, determines that the reunion of the foursome who shone in a long-ago production of Rigoletto will be the event’s biggest draw. Assembling the headlining act requires a few desultory scenes of encouraging Beecham’s newest addition, opera diva Jean Horton (Maggie Smith), to participate. Jean, once romantically involved with Reginald (Tom Courtenay), who passes the time giving gentle lectures to bused-in youths about the difference between opera and rap, states her objections sharply: “I can’t insult the memory of who I was.” That all-too-real fear for the eminences gathered here stands as the only true pathos in the sentimental and pandering Quartet, adapted by Ronald Harwood from his own 1999 play and directed by Dustin Hoffman, stepping behind the camera for the first time. “Their love of life is infectious,” says the staff doctor, holding back tears in the final minutes, belying the previous scenes of agony over hip-replacement surgery and Reginald’s stated wish to have “a dignified senility.” The physician might have been referring exclusively to the randy joker played by Billy Connolly, prone to public urination and violating the staff’s personal space–acts sanctifying the memory of who he still is. (PG-13) Melissa Anderson Bainbridge Cinemas, Kirkland Parkplace, Guild 45, SIFF Cinema Uptown
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Searching for Sugar Man Malik Bendjelloul’s Oscar-winning documentary is such a gift. In telling the tale of Sixto Rodriguez, a Mexican-American balladeer from Detroit who cut a couple of tepidly received LPs in the early ‘70s, vanished, and subsequently became an Elvis-sized rock god in South Africa, the Swedish filmmaker sidesteps arthritic VH1-style “where are they now” antics in favor of a more equivocal interrogation of celebrity culture. Bendjelloul interviews pertinent parties in standard rock-doc style, as well as the singer-songwriter’s charming, touchingly loyal grown daughters. It’s no huge surprise when Rodriguez himself turns up, still living the same modest existence as before his brush with micro-fame. Better still, Rodriguez’s casual disinterest in PR-blitzing his resurrection and apparent contentment with an ordinary working life lets Searching for Sugar Man hold up a mirror to what we’ve come to expect—and cynically refuse to accept—from artists in an age of pervasive, entitled notoriety. (PG-13) Mark Holcomb SIFF Cinema Uptown
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Silver Linings Playbook If you took the fighting out of The Fighter, David O. Russell’s previous movie, you’d be left with a close, fractious family like the Solitanos of his hugely appealing new Silver Linings Playbook. Instead of Boston Irish and boxing, we have Philadelphia Italian and the Eagles. The family patriarch (a fine, restrained Robert De Niro) is an OCD bookie bound by strange rituals to the team; his wide-eyed wife (Jacki Weaver) is the nervous family conciliator/enabler; and their volatile son Pat (Bradley Cooper, wired) is fresh out of the nuthouse with a restraining order from his ex. But Pat is looking for those silver linings through self-improvement: reading, running, losing weight, scheming to win back his wife. Russell’s pell-mell approach perfectly suits the story of Pat’s mania and wrong-footed romance with young widow Tiffany (the Oscar-winning Jennifer Lawrence), who’s even more titanic in her instability than Pat. (R) Brian Miller Kirkland Parkplace, Lincoln Square, Cinebarre, others
Stoker Eighteen-year-old India Stoker (Mia Wasikowska) is a sensual, feral sort of girl. After her beloved father is killed in a car accident, her mother Evelyn (Nicole Kidman) goes into a wilting, unstable state. Evelyn sparks to life when her late husband’s brother Charles (a brilliantly snaky Matthew Goode) arrives from Europe for a prolonged visit. India never knew she had an Uncle Charlie—first seen as an apparition at her father’s funeral—and she resents his intrusion, particularly after she sees the lustful looks he exchanges with her mother. Director Park Chan-wook, known for his violent thrillers in South Korea (Oldboy, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance), here makes his English-language debut. He builds India’s fear of her uncle by imparting each scene with an air of momentousness. The movie begins so delicately that its sudden shift to brutality comes as a surprise. Stoker retains a sense of creepy quiescence—India sharpens the bloody tip of a pencil into clotted red shavings; the camera follows a dried streak of blood on a hardwood floor—but the script (by actor Wentworth Miller) leaves too many gaps for Park to fill. But the masterly performances of the three leads, and Park’s subtle layering of suspense, offset the heavy-handed violence. (R) Erin K. Thompson Sundance Cinemas, Lincoln Square, Meridian, others
War Witch Komona (Rachel Mwanza) is a child soldier in an unidentified sub-Saharan African nation. (The movie was made in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.) Narrating her story to her unborn child, the 14-year-old recalls the time, two years earlier, that her village was massacred by rebels and she was forced by their commander to shoot her mother and father. Abducted by the rebels, she’s saved from even worse abuse after her visions mark her as a witch, a living totem for the warlord known as the Great Tiger (Mizinga Mwinga), who commands by force of personality and perceived power. The material world merges with magic and superstition through Komona’s perspective, which French-Canadian director Kim Nguyen treats matter-of-factly. The ghosts of her parents and other war dead are not movie special effects, but actors caked in white mud and makeup, as in ritual theater. Nguyen skillfully reminds us of the child beneath the soldier, with a mix of innocence and survival instinct. By not identifying the war, he makes her story strictly a matter of power, not politics. These kids aren’t fighting for a particular cause or ideological leader. But in his determination not to exploit or sensationalize, Nguyen leaves Komona more symbol than person and her story a half-remembered nightmare. (NR) Sean Axmaker SIFF Cinema Uptown
West of Memphis We have a strong and unusual regional link to the West Memphis Three, the Arkansas teens wrongly imprisoned for almost two decades, blamed for killing three children in 1993. Among other celebrities, Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder became a passionate defender of the trio, one of whom, Jason Baldwin, now lives in Seattle. Interest in the case was raised mostly by the three acclaimed Paradise Lost documentaries directed by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky between 1996 and 2011. The West Memphis Three were finally freed in the summer of 2011, an event that received international media attention. So why do we need another doc on the subject, two years later? That is the question for producers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, who put their Lord of the Rings money to a good cause—offering both legal support and the funds for West of Memphis (directed by Amy Berg, Deliver Us From Evil). Unfortunately, their film never makes the case for its belated arrival. The doc creates a phony dramatic tension, starting at the beginning of the crime saga, pretending we don’t know the outcome. Damien Echols is treated as the main protagonist (he and his wife are credited as producers), Baldwin barely appears, and Jessie Misskelley Jr. (the slow one) is more of a prop. The only news here is hardly new, dating to 2007: DNA found at the crime scene matches that of the stepfather of one of the slain boys, Terry Hobbs, but it’s unclear if that evidence would be admissible in court. (R) Brian Miller Varsity
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Zero Dark Thirty Director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal dramatize the manhunt for Osama bin Laden. From the major details to the smallest ones, the reporting is so good you scarcely question a beat. Jessica Chastain gives a sensational performances as Maya, a young CIA officer obsessed with bin Laden. Waterboarding and starvation are depicted, without any of the moral outrage some might expect from a Hollywood treatment of this subject. Rather, Bigelow and Boal come not to judge but to show, leaving the rest up to us. This is superb journalism and even better filmmaking, culminating in an electrifying re-enactment of the raid on bin Laden’s Pakistan hideout. But what impresses most about Zero Dark Thirty is the long time it spends in the middle distance, immersing us in the workaday lives of agents and analysts who sacrifice much in the name of something bigger than themselves. (R) Scott Foundas Crest, Admiral, others
Theaters:
Admiral, 2343 California Ave. SW, 938-3456; Ark Lodge Cinemas, 4816 Rainier Ave. S, 721-3156; Big Picture, 2505 First Ave., 256-0566; Big
Picture
Redmond, 7411 166th Ave. NE, 425-556-0566; Central
Cinema, 1411 21st Ave., 686-6684; Cinebarre, 6009 SW 244th St. (Mountlake Terrace)., 425-672-7501; Cinerama, 2100 Fourth Ave., 448-6680; Crest, 16505 Fifth Ave. NE, 781-5755; Egyptian, 801 E. Pine St., 781-5755; Grand Illusion, 1403 NE 50th St., 523-3935; Guild 45, 2115 N. 45th St., 781-5755; Harvard Exit, 807 E. Roy St., 781-5755; iPic Theaters, 16451 N.E. 74th St. (Redmond), 425-636-5601; Kirkland Parkplace, 404 Park Place, 425-827-9000; Lincoln Square, 700 Bellevue Way N, 425-454-7400; Majestic Bay, 2044 NW Market St., 781-2229; Meridian, 1501 Seventh Ave., 223-9600; Metro, 4500 Ninth Ave. NE, 781-5755; Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave., 267-5380; Oak Tree, 10006 Aurora Ave. N, 527-1748; Pacific Place, 600 Pine St., 888-262-4386; Seven Gables, 911 NE 50th St., 781-5755; SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave. N., 324-9996; SIFF Film Center, 305 Harrison St. (Seattle Center), 324-9996; Sundance Cinemas, 4500 Ninth Ave NE, 633-0059; Thornton Place, 301 NE 103rd St., 517-9953; Varsity, 4329 University Way NE, 781-5755.
