OREGON ENTERTAINMENT

The latest movie and TV news and reviews, music, events, dining and more

When it comes to brewpubs, we Portlanders are spoiled for choice, as the Brits say. With two dozen to choose among, we can find the perfect pint for any mood.

Beervana, as Portland's known, has more breweries and brewpubs than any city on the planet, and that means never being more than a mile from the freshest beer imaginable -- beer that traveled no more than a few yards from the fermenter to the serving tank to your pint glass. It means patronizing places where the brewers are a creative force, not just rubber-booted employees; where they can free themselves from production brewing to whomp up truly special beers, which patrons promptly drink up, allowing the brewers to exercise their creativity yet again.

Continue reading "Beervana: John Foyston Goes In Search of the Perfect Pint" »

Not long ago, it might have been possible to narrowly define the kind of photography being practiced locally. Now it would be nearly impossible. The variety of photographic practices has multiplied. Most of all, so has the talent.

Part of that blooming is on view at Quality Pictures, where gallery director Chas Bowie offers the public a look at Northwest photography through four varied talents: Liz Haley, Andrew O'Brien, Alexis Pike and Mark Searcy. Like their respective approaches, the work by these photographers varies in interest and quality. And though we will surely hear more about them in the future, what do these photographers say about photographic practice right now?

Continue reading "Review: NW Photo Talent Through Four Lenses" »

"CHANDNI CHOWK TO CHINA"

The world seems a lot smaller after watching the first (I think) Bollywood kung fu movie, filmed in India and Thailand and at what appears to be the Great Wall of China.

This epic-length, lavish and presumably expensive action-comedy tells how a blithering, potato-worshipping idiot (major Indian star Akshay Kumar) goes from chopping vegetables in a Delhi marketplace to a muscular, self-assured kung fu master facing down an equally adroit Chinese gangster. Nikhil Advani's film casually mixes a transnational cast and Hindi and Chinese dialogue. It's got killer musical sequences with songs that sound like Bhangra, American R&B and hip-hop pureed with a dash of Far East spice.

Continue reading ""Beyond the Multiplex"" »

Most movies about the Holocaust rightfully depict Jews as victims of the genocidal terror that spewed forth from the Nazi regime. After all, 6 million dead provides plenty of tragic material. But relentless tales of stoic suffering can also help create a culture of victimhood, which is why films like "Defiance" are a nice change of pace within the litany of "never-forget" stories. Without neglecting the ultimate horror of those years, the film presents a tangible example of potential victims fighting against their oppressors and even achieving victory. And, better yet, it's based on a true story.

Continue reading "Movie Review: Tough Jews: "Defiance"" »

"Last Chance Harvey" is basically "Before Sunrise" for middle-aged people, only with less interesting conversations and a more formulaic construction. It's handsomely made but contains few surprises.

Before completely burying this warmhearted little project with faint praise, I also want to emphasize that "Last Chance Harvey" contains two fine lead performances that make it pleasant to watch.

Continue reading "Movie Review: Dustin in Love: "Last Chance Harvey"" »

"Stranded: I've Come From a Plane That Crashed in the Mountains"

A stupendously poignant, humane and inspirational documentary about an undeniably appalling event: the crash of an airplane full of rugby players in the Andes in 1972, resulting in the necessity of the survivors consuming their dead friends and teammates to stay alive. Director Gonzalo Arijon assembles all the (now middle-aged) survivors for interviews and even takes them back to the scene of their ordeal. You won't think about life, death, humanity, reverence or fortune -- good or ill -- in the same way. See it. (Living Room Theaters)

Continue reading ""Levy's High Five," Jan. 16-22" »

It isn't that Christopher Wallace, aka Biggie Smalls, aka The Notorious B.I.G., isn't a worthy subject for a biopic. A larger-than-life character (literally and figuratively), one of the great rappers and the victim of a senseless shooting, he's a pivotal and epochal icon who lived an emblematic story.

It isn't that Jamal Woolard, the newcomer cast in the seemingly unfillable role of Biggie, isn't up to the task. Like the man he plays, he's charismatic, menacing, funny, tender and immensely watchable.

No, the problem with "Notorious" is that it is a poorly made film on the most basic levels of craft.

Continue reading "Movie Review: "Notorious"? More Like 'Infamous'" »

"Boxers don't have an old-timers day," declared a gangster to a pug in "Pulp Fiction," and, he might have added, neither do pro wrestlers. Those cartoonish men with outsized bodies and personalities, those giants of sport and show, those slightly laughable icons of bombast, derring-do and smackdown -- where do they go when the limelight fades or when their bodies can no longer take the punishment that life in the ring entails?

I'm not talking about superstars like Hulk Hogan or The Rock, whose wrestling days seem like incidental preludes to their later careers. I'm talking about guys who had a heyday and then, seemingly, vanished -- guys like Randy "The Ram" Robinson.

Continue reading "Movie Review: Rourke Grapples with Himself in "The Wrestler"" »

A bunch of folks dancing to Billy Joel songs not performed by Billy Joel: Doesn't exactly sound like Broadway blockbuster material, does it? But as conceived and choreographed by Twyla Tharp, one of the most acclaimed figures in the world of dance, "Movin' Out" takes a shaky premise and gives it strong, graceful life. Using multiple characters but no dialogue, just songs and movement, the show crafts a narrative about American life in the '60s and after, from the scars of Vietnam to the pursuit of home and healing. That's not a new story, granted, but, as Ben Brantley wrote in The New York Times, "Tharp and her vivid team of dancers unearth the reasons certain cliches keep resonating and, more important, make them gleam as if they had just been minted."

7:30 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Keller Auditorium, 222 S.W. Clay St.; $25.50-$60.50, Ticketmaster or 503-241-1802

Edgar Meyer, who won a 2002 MacArthur "genius" grant, is one of the premier double-bass players today, as Portland audiences know from his frequent appearances at Chamber Music Northwest. Meyer brings his skill to the Oregon Symphony with two double-bass concertos: Giovanni Bottesini's lively Concerto No. 2 and Meyer's own Concerto No. 1. Music director Carlos Kalmar leads the program, which includes Charles Ives' 1906 "Central Park in the Dark," which evokes various Manhattan nightclubs, and Antonin Dvorak's somber yet forceful Sixth Symphony.

7:30 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, 8 p.m. Monday; Schnitzer Hall, 1037 S.W. Broadway; $15-$98, student rush $10, 503-228-1353 or Ticketmaster.