Local & Repertory
American Psycho Mary Harron makes slick work out of Bret Easton Ellis’ satirical novel, with Christian Bale convincingly cast as murderous yuppie. The 2000 film couches the violence at a dreamy, “Is this happening or not?” kind of distance. Since the book was published in 1991, but really looked back to the ‘80s, the movie feels like an artifact from the Reagan era. (R)
Harvard Exit, 807 E. Roy St., landmarktheatres.com, $8.25, Saturdays at midnight. Through Sept. 14.
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Charade Stanley Donen was famed as a director of musicals, and this delightful 1963 Euro thriller is fittingly light on its feet. With stars Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant, Charade is choreographed like a dance where neither partner trusts the other. Is suave but mysterious Grant a killer? Should newly widowed Hepburn trust him? And how can she resist him? (Even when playing shady, the man is still Cary Grant.) The footwork’s dazzling, and so are the lines. She: “I already know an awful lot of people, and until one of them dies I couldn’t possibly meet anyone else.” He: “Well, if anyone goes on the critical list, let me know.” The corpses do actually pile up (deserving villains all, including James Coburn and Walter Matthau), but Charade is mostly a nimble caper-comedy, like Hitchcock without the sin and dread. (PG) BRIAN MILLER Central Cinema, 1411 21st Ave., 686-6684, central-cinema.com, $6-$8, Sept. 6-11, 7 p.m.
The Graduates Bernardo Ruiz’s documentary follows several Latino high-school students and addresses efforts to correct a high drop-out rate among such teens. Actor Wilmer Valderrama and Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa are among the adults interviewed on the topic. (NR)
Frye Art Museum, 704 Terry Ave., 622-9250, fryemuseum.org, Free, Sat., Sept. 7, 2 p.m.
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The Harder They Come Jimmy Cliff stars in this left-field hit from 1972, which helped make reggae a global phenomenon. There are plenty of technical limitations and ragged spots to this rasta-gangster flick, but it’s also one of the most influential films of the ’70s, with a breakout performance by Cliff, playing the frustrated Jamaican slum dweller who turns to crime to further his singing career. The classic soundtrack includes the title song, “You Can Get It If You Really Want,” and “Many Rivers to Cross.” The plot is essentially that of the principled outsider versus a corrupt system, always timely for that reason. And Cliff, now an elder statesman of music, plays Monday at the Neptune. (NR) BRIAN MILLER Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave., 829-7863, nwfilmforum.org, $6-$10, Thurs., Sept. 5, 7 p.m.
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Heaven’s Gate SEE THE AGENDA, PAGE 23.
October Country Directed by Donal Mosher and Michael Palmieri, whose documentary Off Label is also playing NWFF this week, this 2009 doc makes a study of Mosher’s own family, where domestic violence runs rampant. The directors will attend Saturday’s screening. (NR)
Northwest Film Forum, $6-$10, Sat., Sept. 7, 5 p.m.; Sun., Sept. 8, 5 p.m.
The Rep Morgan White’s recent documentary celebrates art-house and repertory cinemas, including New York’s Film Forum and Austin’s Alamo Drafthouse. Interviewees include Kevin Smith, John Waters, and Atom Egoyan. (NR)
Grand Illusion, 1403 N.E. 50th St., 523-3935, grandillusioncinema.org, $5-$8, Mon., Sept. 9, 7 p.m.; Tue., Sept. 10, 7 p.m.
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Samurai Cinema One of the great pleasures in revisiting Akira Kurosawa’s action-filled 1954 masterpiece Seven Samurai is how the seven different samurai will consider the odds and adversity against them, then simply throw back their heads and laugh. They don’t look so grim and anguished as certain latter-day action heroes, although they’re both a product of and influence upon Hollywood. Toshiro Mifune stars as Kikuchiyo, an unwashed 16th-century peasant masquerading as a samurai, only grudgingly tolerated by the six real ronin defending a village against 40 bloodthirsty bandits just “for the fun of it.” Kikuchiyo entertains the village children with his mimicry, connects with its adults with his earthy humor, and wins the audience with his insecurities and bluster. And, of course, he fights like “a wild dog” when the time comes. See siff.net for showtimes. (NR) BRIAN MILLER SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave. N., 324-9996, $6-$11, Opens Sept. 9, Mondays through Oct. 21.
Screenings at Scarecrow Friday at 8 p.m. is the 1981 parody movie Student Bodies, a send-up of slasher flicks and other teenage genre staples. Saturday at 8 p.m. is the considerably more polished 1988 satire Heathers, with Winona Ryder and Christian Slater. Monday at 9 p.m., Runaway Daughters is a ‘50s-style juvenile delinquency flick directed by Joe Dante as part of the 1994 Showtime series Rebel Highway. Curator Mark Steiner will introduce the screening. Look for Julie Bowen, Paul Rudd (as the Brando-style motorcycle rebel), and even Fabian among the cast. Beer and wine are available from VHSpresso. 21 and over. (NR)
Scarecrow Video, 5030 Roosevelt Way N.E., 524-8554, scarecrow.com, Free.
Totally ‘80s Tuesdays “You’ve got a degree from NYU. What in?” “Philosophy.” “Any particular discipline?” “No, not really. Man’s search for faith. That sort of shit.” Care to guess who that philosopher is, and in what 1989 movie he kicks ass, trades quips with Sam Elliott (long before the Coen brothers got the idea), defeats Ben Gazzara, and wins Kelly Lynch? There can be only one man, one answer: Patrick Swayze in Road House. The 1989 movie finds Swayze in a contemplative mood. He’s a man of peace, yet not one afraid to fight. But the true fight, my friend, lies within one’s own mind. And the calm Swayze seeks through his mastery of martial arts is a deeply spiritual quest. But men—bad men, ruffians and rednecks—are drawn to his calm. They’re unbalanced and volatile; they flow like water to the serene Zen center that is Swayze, so that he, the sensei, can instruct them. Because he has a Ph.D in ass-whooping. And each beating is a lesson. Also playing, but not as a double-feature, is Swayze’s Dirty Dancing. See siff.net for showtimes. (R) BRIAN MILLER SIFF Cinema Uptown, $6-$11, Tuesdays through Oct. 22.
Wet Hot American Summer It’s 1981, the last day of the season at Camp Firewood, and everyone’s trying to get laid. Acquitting herself remarkably well, camp director Jeanne Garofalo pines after astrophysics prof David Hyde Pierce while a counselor lusts for a girl who only has thighs for lifeguard Paul Rudd. There are some peripheral twists—the big talent show, the imminent crash of Skylab—but this isn’t a plot-driven satire, folks. Instead, in their 2001 comedy, Michael Showalter and David Wain gleefully, tastelessly spoof ‘80s sex-at-summer camp flicks like Meatballs. WHAS frankly celebrates such depravities as a 34-year-old divorcee (Molly Shannon) being seduced by a prepubescent charge, gay marriage, and the love between a man and his refrigerator, anyway? (R) KURT B. REIGHLEY Central Cinema, $6-$8, Sept. 6-11, 9:30 p.m.
Ongoing
Austenland Let’s follow a naive young woman on her dream vacation to an immersive, role-playing theme park that brings alive the world of Jane Austen novels. Here be proud young men, haughty dowagers, and drawing rooms with tea—a Comic-Con for BBC addicts. Our heroine is Jane (the role’s a blank, but Keri Russell does her best with it), whose life-size cardboard cut-out of Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy just isn’t enough to fill her Pride and Prejudice fantasy. She arrives at Austenland at the same time as a rich lady called Elizabeth Charming—the visitors all have vaguely Austenish names—played by the irrepressible Jennifer Coolidge. Once she begins mingling with the hired role-players, Jane is vaguely torn between Darcy-like Mr. Nobley (J.J. Feild) and rough-hewn stablehand Martin (Bret McKenzie, of Flight of the Conchords), but the film is too slack to generate even the rudimentary suspense that comedy needs. I did laugh, mostly at Coolidge and the spectacle of Austenland’s puffy-sleeved actors relaxing in their downtime. But overall the movie disappoints; even the topic of fiction fans who take their enthusiasm a little too seriously is only mildly touched on. (PG-13) ROBERT HORTON Pacific Place, Guild 45th, others
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Blackfish
Blackfish should be the final word on the subject of keeping orcas in places like SeaWorld, even if it probably won’t be. This relentless documentary circles around the 2010 death of Dawn Brancheau, a supremely experienced SeaWorld trainer who was killed in a performing tank by Tilikum, a 12,000-pound whale. But that death is the starting point for a film that makes a couple of general thrusts: Killer whales should not be kept in captivity, and the sea parks that own them have done a suspiciously incomplete job of informing their trainers and the public about how they operate their businesses. Interviews with former SeaWorld trainers paint a sad picture of a happy-face culture that sugar-coated the containment of giant wild animals; because of the industry’s expert PR spin, the trainers themselves would hear only vague rumors about injuries in marine parks. Director Gabriela Cowperthwaite looks into fatal incidents at Victoria, B.C.’s Sealand of the Pacific and Loro Parque on the Spanish island of Tenerife. The 1991 Victoria incident also involved Tilikum, which brought about the sale of the unfortunate whale to SeaWorld. The case is closed, and whales and dolphins are too high on the evolutionary scale to keep captive. (PG-13) ROBERT HORTON Varsity
Blue Jasmine There’s nothing comic about the downfall of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire, the inspiration for Woody Allen’s miscalculated seriocom. Blue Jasmine is an awkward mismatch of pathos and ridicule, less fusion than simple borrowing. Grafted onto the story of delusional trophy wife Jasmine (Cate Blanchett) is a Madoff-like fable of the recent financial crisis. In flashback, we see her husband (Alec Baldwin) buying her consent with luxury while he swindles the Montauk set. In the present timeframe, Jasmine is broke and living with her sister Ginger (Sally Hawkins) in a shabby San Francisco apartment. Jasmine is a snob who needs to be brought low, a task relished by Ginger, her boyfriend (Bobby Cannavale), and her ex (a surprisingly sympathetic Andrew Dice Clay). As with Baz Luhrmann’s recent The Great Gatsby, you sense that Allen wants to say something about our present culture of inequality and fraud, but he only dabbles, never probes. Perhaps because her heroine isn’t entirely Allen’s creation, he doesn’t finally know what to do with her. Jasmine is more foolish than evil, but there’s nothing funny about her final punishment. (PG-13) BRIAN MILLER Ark Lodge, Kirkland Parkplace, Harvard Exit, Sundance, others
Closed Circuit We’re in the aftermath of a terrorist bombing in London, for which a single alleged Islamic radical is held for trial. A quirk of British law—probably an intriguing point in real life, not so intriguing in the movie—stipulates the suspect be represented by two lawyers, one for open court, a second for closed proceedings involving top-secret issues of national security. Seems the two barristers, Martin (Eric Bana, late of Hanna) and Claudia (Rebecca Hall), had a fling in the past. After lying to the judge about this shared history, they prove spectacularly incapable of sticking to the no-contact rule as the case unravels. The plot complications are easy to guess, and director John Crowley (Boy A) can’t hide the mechanical grinding of the movie’s stumble into its trumped-up final act. Ordinarily one could take refuge in the excellent cast, but here it just reminds you of the wasted talent. In particular, Hall should check with her agent about putting this kind of role behind her. (R) ROBERT HORTON Oak Tree, Pacific Place, Kirkland Parkplace, Sundance, others
Elysium Elysium hangs in orbit, a giant spinning space station of deluxe McMansions and WASPy country clubs; it’s a brief supersonic ride from the filthy, overpopulated Earth of 2154. Down below, Max (Matt Damon) is a worker-drone who must find a way to get to Elysium and fix his decaying body after radiation accident at the factory. Already you can see the outlines of Neill Blomkamp’s allegory, a world divided between the haves and the have-nots (such a remarkably consistent vision in futuristic fiction). The orbital Elysium is so brilliantly visualized, Blomkamp might’ve benefited from exploiting it more—at least for satirical points. Most of the time we’re on Earth, in a Los Angeles that resembles Mexico City. Damon knows exactly how to lock Max into focus; Jodie Foster (leading with clenched jaw) is on point as the Elysium security chief; and William Fichtner is scrupulous as a corporate jerk. Less successful are Wagner Moura and Sharlto Copley in supporting roles. If this movie lacks the startling originality of Blomkamp’s 2009 District 9, it’s still workable enough to qualify as satisfying old-school science fiction. (R) ROBERT HORTON Alderwood 16, Cinebarre, Cinerama, Majestic Bay, Meridian, Thornton Place, others
The Grandmaster Wong Kar-wai’s U.S. cut of The Grandmaster, already a huge hit in China, relates often-filmed life of Ip Man (1893–1972), the celebrated martial-arts master who redefined kung fu and eventually tutored an eager young Bruce Lee. He’s played by Tony Leung, the ridiculously cool star of Wong’s In the Mood for Love, whose serene half-smile is as powerful a weapon as his fighting moves. A fair amount of 20th-century Chinese history is alluded to, including the Japanese invasion preceding World War II, but mostly as backdrop. More compelling is a long-burning attraction between Master Ip and the alluring Gong Er (Zhang Ziyi), which culminates in something dreamy and romantic in the final reels. You sense that Wong would rather be photographing furtive glances and cigarette smoke; by comparison, staging action and telling a story are unwanted—if beautifully executed—distractions. Whatever cultural emphasis this edit of The Grandmaster has, it is one odd picture, with too much kung fu for discriminating arthouse audiences and too many dreamy pauses for the grindhouse crowd. (PG-13) ROBERT HORTON Alderwood 16, Oak Tree, Cinebarre, Varsity, Lincoln Square, Meridian, others
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In a World… Carol Solomon (writer-director Lake Bell) is a voice nerd, fascinated by the accents she covertly tapes with her ever-present Dictaphone, yet her career is confined to voice coaching, not doing voiceovers for movie trailers, her family trade. When her widowed father Sam (Fred Melamed) kicks her out of the house to make way for a young new girlfriend (Alexandra Holden), he condescendingly tells Carol, “I’m going to support you by not supporting you.” Implicit in his rebuke is that women, with their higher voices, have no place in his manly profession. Then the couch-surfing Carol catches a break at a recording studio run by amiable Louis (Demetri Martin). Everything that transpires among Lake’s players is predictable, but in a pleasant, breezy way. In a World… plays like an overstuffed sitcom, with Carol’s wacky friends and neighbors dropping in for brief, effective bits (these include Nick Offerman, Rob Corddry, and Tig Notaro). It’s a knowing industry satire, but not a mean industry satire. Bell doesn’t write the conflicts, easily resolved, or characters any deeper than they need be—save for the imperious yet fragile Sam. Some may recall the wonderful Melamed, an actual voiceover artist, from the Coen brothers’ A Serious Man. His Sam is sexist, sure, but also a wounded bundle of pride whom Carol must somehow nudge off his voiceover throne. (R) BRIAN MILLER Sundance, others
Now You See Me A quartet of street hustlers and rising stars of the various corners of the magic trade are recruited by a mysterious hoodie-wearing figure for a series of epic stunts. Billing themselves as “The Four Horsemen,” misdirection man Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg) and his former assistant Henley (Isla Fisher), “mentalist” Merritt (Woody Harrelson) and card-sharp Jack (Dave Franco) proceed to star in magic “events” where they catch the imagination of the world, and their super-rich promoter (Michael Caine). Mark Ruffalo is the comically hyper-ventilating FBI agent always a step behind The Four Horsemen. Morgan Freeman is the mysterious magic expert who may be helping the feds, explaining to them (and the audience) how tricks work. Or maybe he’s playing another game. Freeman and Ruffalo make strong impressions. But there’s little character development, and the point of view shifts, willy nilly, between the magicians—who start to feel they’re willing puppets in some larger scheme—and the cops, while Ruffalo works himself into a fine comic fury. Now You See Me is finally a plot-heavy thriller, with too much explaining and need to explain. (PG-13) ROBERT HORTON Crest
Pacific Rim Giant robots fighting huge monsters, but no guys in rubber suits stomping on cheap models! Guillermo del Toro does for kaiju and mecha flicks what Lucas and Spielberg did for old serials. The result is well done, fun, and exhausting. Near-future Earth is several years into a war against kaiju (like roided-up Godzillas) invading through a dimensional rift on the ocean floor. Celebrity pilots from major nations pair up in psych-linked teams to take ‘em out in 250-foot robots called “Jaegers.” Washed out after a kaiju tears his pilot brother out of their mangled mecha, unpredictable young Becket (Charlie Hunnam, Sons of Anarchy) gets called back to duty as increasing kaiju-frequency starts to spell big, loud doom. Idris Elba (The Wire) intimidates as commander of the threatened Jaeger force—and he does not like to be touched. Rinko Kikuchi fills at least two stereotypes as the enigmatic Japanese wannabe pilot who may not be ready. Comic relief Charlie Day is half a bickering egghead pair (with Burn Gorman). And del Toro regular Ron Perlman is a sight to behold as a black-market kaiju-parts dealer with the coolest boots in either dimension. The movie’s cliche-heavy and character-light, but not even close to Michael Bay dumb. In fact, even if you didn’t grow up with a kaiju-mecha soft spot, it’s pretty cool. Skip the 3-D, though. (PG-13) MARK RAHNER Crest
The Spectacular Now In this agreeable adaptation of a 2008 young-adult novel by Tim Tharp, teen protagonist Sutter (Miles Teller) leads a wildly unsupervised life of partying and blown-off homework. He wakes up on a lawn, unsure where he left the car, which introduces him to smart-girl Aimee (Shailene Woodley). They’re total opposites, and The Spectacular Now is the story of their unlikely yet plausible romance. (Oh, and Sutter is plainly an alcoholic, though that term is curiously omitted here.) Director James Ponsoldt’s young duo behaves with a likable, naturalistic ease. There are no Hughesian quips or ridiculously hunky/beautiful high-schoolers here. Both these kids are from families close to slipping out of the middle class, shadowed by the recession. In response to such stresses (absent fathers, etc.), Sutter’s credo is “Live in the now,” while ever-striving Aimee’s goals are to own a horse farm and work for NASA. They’re both living in a bubble, but such is first love. Reality intrudes in a clunky third act, as a road trip to find Sutter’s father (Kyle Chandler) yields predictable results. The storytelling here surpasses the story. Every generation needs its new Say Anything. This isn’t that movie, but it earns points for trying. (R) BRIAN MILLER Harvard Exit, Lincoln Square, Thornton Place, Sundance, others
The Way, Way Back Fourteen-year-old Duncan (Liam James) and his divorced mother Pam (Toni Colette) are dragged to a Massachusetts beach rental by her overbearing new bf Trent (Steve Carell). Trent. There is no way we are going to like a guy named that (and a car salesman, of course), and Duncan emphatically dislikes the bullying Trent. In this awfully broad and familiar tale, unhappy Duncan finds a sympathetic mentor in Owen (Sam Rockwell), the flippant king of the local water park where Duncan lands a summer job. Owen is the anti-Trent: goofy and fun-loving, spitting out nicknames and bald lies, treating his staff with affectionate sarcasm, and harboring a not-so-secret thing for his boss (Maya Rudolph). While the drunken adults enjoy “spring break for adults” (per Duncan’s glum crush object, played by AnnaSophia Robb), Duncan finds new pals and self-confidence. We’ve seen this story a thousand times. But what are its incidental pleasures? Rockwell, Rockwell, and Rockwell. (PG-13) BRIAN MILLER Kirkland Parkplace, Guild 45th, Meridian, Thornton Place, others
We’re the Millers Drug dealer David (Jason Sudeikis) must make good a debt to his slick supplier (Ed Helms) by bringing a huge load of marijuana across the border from Mexico. David’s idea: Hire three strangers to pretend to be his nauseatingly clean-cut family, the better to escape detection while driving through customs in a motor home. Jennifer Aniston plays a cynical, wised-up stripper; then she’s playing the goody-two-shoes masquerade on top of that, which is supposed to be funny because we see the cynical stripper beneath the chirpy surface. Except we don’t, because what we see is Jennifer Aniston. Game as she is, the worst moments are the strip scenes, when Rose goes down to her undies (there’s no nudity from Jennifer Aniston, unlike certain other actresses we could mention whose names rhyme with Angelina Jolie). The performance is awkward and unconvincing, as though Aniston knows she’s not getting away with it. Nothing kills a laugh like feeling bad for a performer—and you will feel bad for Jennifer Aniston here. (R) ROBERT HORTON Cinebarre, Kirkland Parkplace, Lincoln Square, Meridian, Thornton Place, others
World War Z There’s no slow build-up to this new zombie apocalypse. Director Marc Forster, who bungled much of the action stuff in Quantum of Solace, sets up a headlong pace and really goes for it. The planet’s suddenly overrun with zekes—movie slang for the undead—and Brad Pitt’s character is called back into service to help the U.N. fight the onslaught. I’m a little vague on what his job description is, but he appears to be an expert in very bad situations. After the grandness of the first 90 minutes, the last section is appealingly small-scale. It’s a major change from the first cut of the long-gestating movie, a finale that was scrapped and reshot. Pitt has no real character to play, although the film is at pains to remind us of his family-man concern. He carries the picture without having a character to play, because he’s Brad Pitt. However, the PG-13 rating is an absurd box-office decision that robs the film of some of its (figurative and literal) guts. (PG-13) ROBERT HORTON Crest
The World’s End In this this third Edgar Wright-Simon Pegg-Nick Frost collaboration, five grown Englishmen try to reprise a failed 1990 pub crawl. Decades later, the obnoxious black sheep Gary (Pegg) is the least successful of the bunch (how much so is gradually revealed), still stuck in the past. The rest of them—played by Frost, Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman, and Eddie Marsan—have accepted boring bourgeois adulthood as their due. They don’t want to leave their comfortable London lives for the leafy suburb of Newton Haven, which seems quite changed upon their return. There, however, The World’s End suddenly and enjoyably shifts genres (that being Plot Turn A). The film gets a needed jolt of energy: clumsy, comic fight scenes, panicked chases from pub to pub, and lines like, “Pop her head off like an aspirin bottle!” This works fine for a while—until, like the first section, it runs out of ideas. In their screenplay, Pegg and Frost again return to their love of cheesy old movie genres and the vicissitudes of male friendship (see Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead). But here they’ve got to write a unified ending for both disparate halves of the movie, and they don’t. Instead they cough up Plot Turn B, an epilogue that should’ve been kept for the DVD extras. For all the prior goodwill generated by the Wright-Pegg-Frost combine, The World’s End plays like three different sketches from their early days in English TV. (R) BRIAN MILLER Ark Lodge, Cinebarre, Lincoln Square, Meridian, Thornton Place, SIFF Cinema Uptown, Sundance, 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
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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; 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.
