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Brew Views: Fletch

Dr. Rosenpenis

By Casey Jarman

I think of Fletch as a sunny film noir. Though Chevy Chase prefers Lakers jerseys to crumpled suits and plays a slacker newspaperman rather than a two-bit detective, the film is surprisingly similar to genre-pushing latter-era noirs like Chinatown and The Long Goodbye. Fletch (no disguises: It's presented by Aaron Mesh's BAM) isn't as visually arresting as either aforementioned film, but it casts Chase as a cool, sarcastic antihero and serves as a love letter to that mythic Los Angeles where a man could truly reinvent himself—as a mechanic, a doctor, a hobo, a white basketball player with a huge afro, an undercover mattress-tag inspector...the possibilities were pretty much endless back in 1985.

  1. Showing at: Laurelhurst Theater.
  2. Best paired with: New Belgium Clutch Dark Sour Ale.
  3. Also showing: Young Adult (Academy, Laurelhurst, Mission). 

WWeek 2015

Casey Jarman

Casey Jarman

Casey Jarman is a freelance editor and writer based in East Portland, Oregon. He has served as Music Editor at Willamette Week and Managing Editor at The Believer magazine, where he remains a contributing editor. He is currently working on his first book. It's about death.