AltWeeklies Wire
A Damning Look at Watts Goin' Onnew
Hand wringing about the rise of gang activity traditionally combines equal parts racial panic and blame deflection. What marks director Stacy Peralta’s turf is his dedication to undermining these reflexes.
Willamette Week |
Aaron Mesh |
03-11-2009 |
Reviews
Petite Movies With Hearts Big Enough for Oscarnew
For all their brevity, the short films nominated this year for the Oscar carry as much invention and feeling as any feature-length movie from last year.
Willamette Week |
Aaron Mesh |
02-04-2009 |
Movies
Laika Launches 'Coraline,' and Its Creators Wonder: What Now?new
There are fewer than 1,000 people in the world who specialize in stop-motion animation. Many of the 30 animators who worked on Coraline, as well as the more than 250 technicians and designers who labored alongside them, came to Portland with the hope that Laika represented something more stable.
Willamette Week |
Aaron Mesh |
02-04-2009 |
Movies
'Seven Pounds' is Agonizing, Incessant and Impervious to Ironynew
Will Smith continues in the vein of his last three movies by maintaining a clenched, anguished, clotted expression on his face. He has completed his transfiguration into the Fresh Prince of Airlessness.
Willamette Week |
Aaron Mesh |
12-17-2008 |
Reviews
'The Auteur' Bridges the Divide Between Porn and Comedynew
The central joke of The Auteur is the same one riffed on in Zack and Miri Make a Porno -- the absurd unsexiness of having sex on camera, made worse by the titles. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that both movies were directly inspired by the college-dorm game of making up the most ridiculous porn titles.
Willamette Week |
Aaron Mesh |
12-03-2008 |
Reviews
'Ballast': The Weight of Death in the Mississippi Deltanew
Ballast is the first film from director Lance Hammer, and it would be easy to call it one of those movies where "nothing happens," except that a lot happens -- a shooting, a car chase, several beatings. These things just happen very quietly.
Willamette Week |
Aaron Mesh |
12-03-2008 |
Reviews
James Bond is in Mourning ... but He Still Kills Peoplenew
From the catchy theme song by Jack White and Alicia Keys to a suitably vindictive fate for its villain, Quantum is still a very good Bond movie (if not quite a match for Casino, which was a great one).
Willamette Week |
Aaron Mesh |
11-12-2008 |
Reviews
Jolie Teams Up with Eastwood to Make an Insane Melodramanew
Only a director of Clint Eastwood's reputation and confidence could make a movie this brazenly batshit.
Willamette Week |
Aaron Mesh |
10-29-2008 |
Reviews
Dakota Fanning is Abused by Racism and Breakfast Foods in 'Bees'new
In case you are pondering whether to take your children -- or, bless your sweet little heart, yourself -- to see The Secret Life of Bees, it seems helpful to clarify up front that this is the Southern-set Dakota Fanning movie in which Dakota Fanning does not get raped. (That would be Hounddog.)
Willamette Week |
Aaron Mesh |
10-16-2008 |
Reviews
That's Bill Maher in the Spotlight, Losing His Religion.new
The catechism running through the movie is the question of who is more annoying: God or Bill Maher?
Willamette Week |
Aaron Mesh |
10-01-2008 |
Reviews
'Choke' is More Like a Group-therapy Sitcom Than a Movienew
Choke may be an adaptation of a Chuck Palahniuk novel, but it actually has a number of influences: It is predictably indebted to Fight Club, it intentionally carries echoes of The Last Temptation of Christ, and—probably less deliberately—it feels a lot like the TV show My Name Is Earl.
Willamette Week |
Aaron Mesh |
09-24-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Choke, Clark Gregg
Chuck Klosterman Attempts Fiction in 'Downtown Owl'new
The standard complaint about Klosterman as a pop-culture essayist is that he is a literary slacker, stubbornly quotidian: He can write about the familiar with fresh insight, but he refuses to write about anything other than the familiar.
Willamette Week |
Aaron Mesh |
09-17-2008 |
Fiction
Tags: Chuck Klosterman, Downtown Owl
The Prodigal Critic Returns with a Movie About His Dating Disastersnew
David Walker defined the job of Willamette Week screen editor with his lacerating judgments. When he left the paper in 2006, he turned his critical eye on himself--and emerged with Damaged Goods, his first full-length movie and a bilious examination of singles desperately seeking romantic affirmation.
Willamette Week |
Aaron Mesh |
09-17-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Damaged Goods, David Walker
The Coens Tighten the Beltwaynew
Burn After Reading, the subversive new comedy from Joel and Ethan Coen, prowls around the corridors of CIA headquarters at Langley, but it isn’t ideological either, unless you consider a despairing cackle an ideology.
Willamette Week |
Aaron Mesh |
09-10-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Cthulhu Shows You Can Go Home Againnew
But you will be raped by Tori Spelling.
Willamette Week |
Aaron Mesh |
09-10-2008 |
Reviews
