AltWeeklies Wire
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 Party Never Ends; 'Entourage' Never Changesnew
Everything you probably need to know about Entourage can be summed up in the fact that the show's been off the air for a year and it doesn't feel like it's missed a week.
Willamette Week |
Daniel Carlson |
09-17-2008 |
TV
'Blackbird' Resembles 'Rashomon' Except the Victim is a Childnew
A critical success in Edinburgh, London and New York, this Olivier Award-winning drama places characters Ray and Una in the filthy breakroom of Ray's employer for 90 minutes to air their dirty laundry.
Willamette Week |
Ben Waterhouse |
09-10-2008 |
Reviews
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
Discovering the Bbest of Pica's 2008 TBA Fest.new
Here are our top TBA picks, organized thematically.
Willamette Week |
Staff |
09-03-2008 |
Movies
Tags: film festivals
Alex Holdridge on the Perils of Shoestring-Budget Filmmakingnew
The Midnight Kiss director explains the dark place where indie filmmaking meets Starbucks.
Willamette Week |
Aaron Mesh |
08-27-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Some Things are Rotten in 'Hamlet 2,' but Not Steve Coogannew

Coogan is the master of center-stage asshattery. In place of an arrogant blowhard, Coogan is reduced to the drama teacher who cares a little too much and is painfully oblivious to the way his effeminate enthusiasm alienates his students.
Willamette Week |
Saundra Sorenson |
08-20-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Andrew Fleming, Hamlet 2
Woody Allen's European Sex Romp is a Shocking Triumphnew

Vicky Cristina Barcelona is a breezy triumph for Allen, not so much a return to form as a discovery of new perspective. It's the delight of an old jester discovering that his best material -- youth, and its illusions -- is inexhaustible.
Willamette Week |
Aaron Mesh |
08-13-2008 |
Reviews
'Tropic Thunder': When Satire Goes Badnew
Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Tom Cruise all play parodies of recognizable Hollywood types—the lunkhead, the coke fiend and the unscrupulous executive—but who exactly is Tom Cruise in the position to lampoon? This is a satire of movie-industry excess constructed by the very people made fat and happy by that industry.
Willamette Week |
Aaron Mesh |
08-13-2008 |
Reviews
Guy Maddin, Now With More Hockeynew
With My Winnipeg, Maddin attempts a heroic midlife flight from his mythic Manitoban birthplace.
Willamette Week |
Chris Stamm |
08-06-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Guy Maddin, My Winnipeg
'Tell No One': The Less You Know, the Bigger the Payoffnew
Being blindsided by the film’s clever twists, cold-sweat pursuits, tragic romance and stellar performances is a distinct cinematic pleasure.
Willamette Week |
AP Kryza |
07-30-2008 |
Reviews
'Step Brothers' Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly Perfect the Comedy of Retardationnew

The touched man-child is a comedy staple. Step Brothers marks the apotheosis of exploiting a repressed urge to laugh at brain-damaged antics. It is also the best film Ferrell and company have made since Anchorman.
Willamette Week |
Chris Stamm |
07-23-2008 |
Reviews
J. Gary Mitchell's Puppets Fight Pedophilianew
Mitchell, a soft-spoken 70-year-old with a dapper white mustache, has been directing and producing short educational movies for three decades, creating characters who warn against smoking and drinking. But his specialty since 1985's What Tadoo is gently informing children about sexual abuse.
Willamette Week |
Aaron Mesh |
07-23-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Holy Bummer, Batmannew

Why so serious? Maybe because Heath Ledger's dead.
Willamette Week |
Aaron Mesh |
07-16-2008 |
Reviews