Local & Repertory
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The African Queen In The African Queen, you get Katharine Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart, their little boat, and a very hokey—but very enjoyable—mismatched romance as they careen downriver toward a German gunship. World War I has broken out in Europe, and Hepburn’s spinster is determined to strike a blow for England. Bogart’s drunken river captain wants nothing to do with heroics—he’s like Casablanca’s Rick gone to seed (the part earned him an Oscar). But wouldn’t you know he gradually softens to Hepburn and embraces her cause? Director John Huston shot the 1951 Technicolor picture on location in Africa, where Hepburn got very sick while Huston and Bogart got very drunk. (NR) BRIAN MILLER Central Cinema, 1411 21st Ave., 686-6684, central-cinema.com. $6-$8. 7 p.m. Fri.-Tues. & 3 p.m. Sat.-Sun.
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Ernest & Celestine Can mice and bears be friends? NO THEY CANNOT—which is the one thing the denizens of the above-ground bear city and the subterranean, Borrowers-style mouse city agree on in this French/Belgian nominee for the 2013 Best Animated Feature Oscar. The two are linked by mutual fear and a weirdly interdependent dental-based economy too fancifully complex to go into here. (Mice and bears, that is, not France and Belgium.) But independent-minded and (consequently) lonely Celestine, who lives in a mouse orphanage and likes to draw, isn’t afraid of bears, shocking everyone. She befriends Ernest, a grumpy and none-too-successful busker, and the two outlaws (after raiding a confectioner’s) settle down in Ernest’s cabin. The pair’s final peril, after the Bear Police and Rat Police finally catch up with them, is scary enough for kids to enjoy, but not too scary to freak out parents. The masterful animation, sketchy and watercolory in a way that reminded me a bit of William Steig’s illustrations (CDB!), hits its peak of adorableness early with a mass mouse pillow fight, though a lot of what comes after comes close. (NR) GAVIN BORCHERT SIFF Film Center (Seattle Center), 324-9996, siff.net. $6-$11. 1:30 p.m. Sat.-Sun.
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Escape From New York SEE THE PICK LIST, PAGE 21.
Final Cut: Ladies and Gentlemen With this compilation film, Gyorgy Palfi pays tribute to the precious moments of movie history: It’s a feature-length mosaic weaving 400-ish clips into a single story. This film buff’s salmagundi is therefore fun to watch, but Palfi is also slyly teasing the sameness of so many movie plots. It always comes down to Boy Meets Girl, Boy Loses Girl, Boy Gets Girl Back Again. And so a coherent Every-narrative can be spliced together from movies as different as The Sound of Music, Stalker, Star Trek—The Motion Picture, and Stranger Than Paradise, to pick one alphabetical run (the film’s website lists all the sources). Final Cut walks through every step of the classic romance: the chance meeting, first date, kiss, wedding, disenchantment, reconciliation. It should be noted that this arc includes sex, and a few moments of explicit coupling are included from porno features. This movie lasts just long enough to make its clever point and let you marvel at the stunt, before it walks off into the sunset. It’s unlikely ever to be a DVD—rights issues would prevent that—so if you’re into the idea, this is your shot. See SIFF website for showtimes. (NR) ROBERT HORTON SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave. N., 324-9996, siff.net. Fri.-Sun.
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The Magnificent Andersons This series salutes the unlikely duo of Wes Anderson and Paul Thomas Anderson. The rather charming heist movie Bottle Rocket (from Wes) plays Tuesday, followed by the Vegas gambling tale Hard Eight (from Paul) on Wednesdays. Both are debut features. (NR)
SIFF Film Center, $6-$11. 7 p.m. Mon.-Tues.
Myra Breckenridge Part of NWFF’s pride-themed “Coming Out All Over” series, this is the scandalous 1970 adaptation of Gore Vidal’s scandalous novel, with an improbable cast featuring Raquel Welch, John Huston, Mae West, Farrah Fawcett, and Rex Reed. It’s pretty bad, but in a memorable kind of way. (NR)
Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave., 267-5380, nwfilmforum.org. $6-$11. 6:30 p.m. Thurs.
The Past Is a Grotesque Animal This new documentary follows musician Kevin Barnes (Of Montreal) and his unspecified troubles. (NR)
Grand Illusion, 1403 N.E. 50th St., 523-3935, grandillusioncinema.org. $5-$7. 7 p.m. Thurs., June 19.
Transformers: The Movie Take a trip back to 1986 with this animated Japanese feature, based on the toys, made long before Michael Bay got his hands on the franchise. With the voice of Orson Welles! (NR)
Grand Illusion, $5-$7. 10 p.m. Fri.-Sat.
Under the Skin Yes, this is the movie where Scarlett Johansson gets naked and—playing an alien huntress cloaked in human skin—lures men to their deaths. Let’s get that out of the way early. Adapting a 2000 novel by Dutch writer Michael Faber (not really a sci-fi guy), Jonathan Glazer dispenses with suspense or context. Instead we have process. Aided by some motorcycle-riding minions, Johansson’s unnamed character functions like part of the same hive-mind. She’s more worker bee than killer, a drone programmed to do one particular thing. This consists of driving around Scotland in a white van, calling out to single men with a posh English accent, then leading them back to her glass-floored abattoir. Her victims follow willingly and seem to die painlessly. (Also naked and erect.) Not only is the eerie, affectless Under the Skin not really sci-fi, it’s not really horror, either. Johansson is suitably blank (and gorgeous) for her dispassionate role, with several scenes filmed with ordinary Scots who were unaware of the hidden cameras. Intelligence is here vying with instrumentality. If this alien can question her role, consider her apartness from the hive, might she then have a soul? (NR) B.R.M. SIFF Film Center, $6-$11. 7 p.m. Mon.
