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The summer blockbusters have hit. Now, it's time for "Bulgaria's Baby of the Decade" and a remake of Ben Hur. Never fear, the Portland Film Festival is coming next week. Until then, get your indie game going with the POWfest Animations on Monday. Here's what to watch on Portland's big screen Aug. 17-23.
OPENING THIS WEEK
Ben Hur
From the writer of 12 Years A Slave, the director of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and the producer of, gulp, The Bible comes this third filmic spectacular adapted from the 19th-century best-seller Ben-Hur. Jack Huston takes the reins from Charlton Heston as the titular nobleman-turned-slave, and though screened too late for review, earlier iterations of the story suggest that we'll see galleys rowed to ramming speed, cameos from Jesus Christ, and a horse-drawn-carriage Death Race. Evangelicals and gladiator devotees, your chariots await! PG-13. JAY HORTON. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Lloyd, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Tigard, Vancouver.
Related: We ranked the top 5 Jesuses on film.
Chronic
B- David is a home care nurse who works intimately with terminally ill patients, played stoically by Tim Roth (The Hateful Eight, Pulp Fiction). He bathes them, feeds them and becomes emotionally reliant on their suffering, while the film asserts that most families are either reluctant or unable to stomach the grueling responsibility of caring for a dying loved one. With long, stagnant scenes of suffering, the film forces viewers to confront the emotional trauma of bonding with the vulnerable and moribund. Chronic invites the audience to stew in uncomfortable moments, and the ending is duly unsatisfying, but considering the film's themes, that feels like a logical conclusion. NR. CURTIS COOK. Clinton Street Theater. 7 pm Tuesday, Aug. 23.
Free to Run
B It's rare that a nice summer's day goes by without runners abandoning their treadmills and taking to the streets, but in 1960s America, jogging was a far from common pastime. Free to Run focuses on the history of long-distance running, tracking its evolution from "oddball" recreation to popularist sport. The film does take some awkward detours (few viewers will be eager to learn more about a Swiss running magazine named Spiridon), but Run hits its stride when discussing the history of women in marathon running and highlighting the struggles that pioneers like Kathrine Switzer faced in order to break through gender barriers. NR. CURTIS COOK. Cinema 21.
Little Men
A- In the quiet, beatless drama of Little Men, two 13-year-olds, Jake and Tony, bond over artistic dreams while their parents negotiate an unprofitable Brooklyn dress shop's new lease. The neighborhood is gentrifying quickly, and Jake's father (Greg Kinnear) feels forced to raise the rent on Tony's mother (Paulina García). The boys are vulnerable and magnetized, but the impasse reached by the immovable García and the reluctantly realistic Kinnear is the acting feat. Director Ira Sachs draws a fine line down the middle of Little Men. Adults are their problems; children are their friendships. Watching that line begin to move is a mundane heartbreak. PG. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Fox Tower.
POWfest Animations
You have a lot of animated options right now. Rather than watch the blockbuster features that are out in theaters—sausages telling dick jokes and a big, green dragon—POWfest's monthly screening night at the Clinton gives you 13 short animations by women filmmakers. Among them, standouts include a short called Heroes about the love between an albino man and the moon, which looks like it was drawn by a Basquiat and Betsey Johnson hybrid, and Inertia, a roughly sketched existential film by circus artist Emily Hughes. NR. Clinton Street Theater. 7 pm Monday, Aug. 22. $5-$10.
Related: Kubo and the Two Strings is the biggest summer animation from Portland's Laika studio.
War Dogs
C+ War Dogs is the true story of two 20-something potheads, Efraim Diveroli (Jonah Hill) and David Packouz (Miles Teller) who scored a $300 million Pentagon contract to supply Afghanistan with weapons. The pressure of having crucial military strategies rest on their shoulders proves to be too much, however, and the pair is forced to make increasingly illegal decisions to keep the guns flowing. The film tries to offer a smart, funny look into the shady world of government defense contracts, but dull narration, racist stereotypes, uninspired weed jokes, and inexplicable scene breaks turn what could have been a humorous tale of ineptitude in the Bush administration into a haphazard rehashing that's probably really funny if you've never smoked marijuana before. R. CRYSTAL CONTRERAS. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Living Room Theaters, Oak Grove, Vancouver.
Viktoria
C Born without a bellybutton, Viktoria is named "Bulgaria's Baby of the Decade," a title which comes with its own private chauffeur and a direct line to the head of state. Life isn't bad for the national brat until the fall of communism leaves Viktoria standing in bread lines and dreaming of a life abroad. The film starts as a surreal and satirical tale of the twilight of Bulgarian communism but quickly devolves into a self-indulgent, endless fever dream. The dark humor and captivating scenography is too often overpowered by heavy-handed symbolism, including one three-minute scene in which milk rains down on Viktoria's emotionally distant mother. NR. CRYSTAL CONTRERAS. NW Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium. 7 pm Friday and 4 pm Saturday, Aug. 19-20.
Willamette Week
