AltWeeklies Wire
Food Porn: An Interview With Tit, Ass, and Taco-Lovin' Tony Stamolisnew
Photographer Tony Stamolis just made a book about his favorite things. His favorite things happen to be naked ladies and tacos.
The Portland Mercury |
Alison Hallett |
04-01-2010 |
Food+Drink
Brothers Brings the War Homenew
Director Jim Sheridan's adaptation has a contemplative steadiness far more common in European films than American ones.
The Portland Mercury |
Alison Hallett |
12-07-2009 |
Reviews
'Precious': Who Wants Some Oprah-Approved Ghetto Tourism?new
Sexual abuse and incest are realities, and there's no reason why art shouldn't confront them. But when pop culture addresses them (and Precious, with its against-all-odds cheerleading and music-video casting, is very much a pop-culture commodity), the results deserve scrutiny.
The Portland Mercury |
Alison Hallett |
11-19-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: Precious, Lee Daniels
The Shadowy Panels of 'You Have Killed Me'new
You Have Killed Me is a graphic novel in the hyper-stylized tradition of film noir.
The Portland Mercury |
Alison Hallett |
08-06-2009 |
Original Work
'We Did Porn' Peeks Behind the Curtain of the Alt-Porn Industrynew
Oh, pornography. Progressives still get turned around. Does it victimize women? Reinforce impossible sexual expectations? Cheapen intimacy? In his new book, Zak Smith cuts to the crux of the confusion: "The most hideous thing about pornography, of course, is that it works. On you."
The Portland Mercury |
Alison Hallett |
06-19-2009 |
Nonfiction
'The Cake Eaters': Not as Interesting as Cakenew
The Cake Eaters is another well-intentioned indie drama you don't need to see.
The Portland Mercury |
Alison Hallett |
03-26-2009 |
Reviews
New Scott Pilgrim!! Squee!!new
Everybody loves Scott Pilgrim—and if they don't, it's only because they haven't met him yet.
The Portland Mercury |
Alison Hallett |
02-05-2009 |
Fiction
'He's Just Not that Into You': The Longest, Most Unnecessarily Complicated Chick Flick Evernew
He's Just Not That Into You looks like a fun, awesome chick flick, and parts of it live up to that promise —- but unfortunately, this bitch is long, and by the time it finally ended, it felt more grueling than any bad date I've ever had.
The Portland Mercury |
Alison Hallett |
02-05-2009 |
Reviews
'Twilight' Makes a Far Better Movie Than Booknew
Largely freed from Stephenie Meyer's ponderous prose, the movie is surprisingly campy and fun, with a cheerful sense of humor about its own ridiculousness.
The Portland Mercury |
Alison Hallett |
11-20-2008 |
Reviews
Patti Smith Gets the Documentary She Deservesnew
With Dream of Life, director (and Smith superfan) Steven Sebring has assembled a strange and beautiful tribute to Smith, equal parts biography, music video, and love letter.
The Portland Mercury |
Alison Hallett |
10-31-2008 |
Reviews
Ed McClanahan's Memoir is Generous and Irreverentnew
Formally meticulous and thematically irreverent, O the Clear Moment is a loose collection of autobiographical pieces in which McClanahan reflects on an idyllic childhood in small-town Kentucky, chronicles the successes and humiliations of high school, and opens a few small but well-placed windows onto his adult eccentricities.
The Portland Mercury |
Alison Hallett |
10-31-2008 |
Nonfiction
'Veeps' is an Irreverent Guide to the History of the Vice Presidencynew
There are three people on the blue side of the political spectrum who benefited from the selection of the profoundly terrifying Sarah Palin as a vice-presidential candidate: Tina Fey, Bill Kelter, and Wayne Shellabarger.
The Portland Mercury |
Alison Hallett |
10-24-2008 |
Nonfiction
David Sedaris Cranks Out an Airplane Readnew
When You Are Engulfed in Flames does feature flashes of that off-kilter Sedaris wit, but more often the stories here are quickly read and more quickly forgotten: entertaining enough, but easy to put away when the wheels hit the tarmac.
The Portland Mercury |
Alison Hallett |
07-03-2008 |
Fiction
Willy Vlautin's 'Northline' Really has Its Own Soundtracknew
The slow-strummed ballads that accompany Northline provide a lush companion to Vlautin's starkly descriptive prose, and wisely, they're wordless, so you can listen and read at the same time.
The Portland Mercury |
Alison Hallett |
05-01-2008 |
Fiction
Portland: Comic Meccanew
So by now everyone in Portland knows that, to quote one of the most cliched newspaper headlines ever, "comics aren't just for kids anymore."
The Portland Mercury |
Alison Hallett |
04-24-2008 |
Books
