AP Film Studies: Also Showing

Editor's Note: After filing his Muppets story this week, AP Kryza left an unintelligible voicemail for WW. Our transcription experts only made out the words "lemur," "sourdough," "stirrups" and "Piper Laurie." In his absence, we've enlisted Deborah Kennedy to keep us informed of what's playing in Portland's repertory theaters.

  1. As part of the Cinescopio series, the Hollywood Theatre screens Santo and Blue Demon vs. the Monsters, a 1969 Latin American cult classic about two masked wrestlers charged with saving the world from an encyclopedia of villains cooked up by mad scientist Bruno Halder. Hollywood Theatre. 7 pm Thursday, March 20.
  1. Once in a while you just need a little David Bowie, in spandex pants and Cats makeup, stroking crystal balls and bossing around a young Jennifer Connelly. Labyrinth has all that and then some, including a Fraggle Rock’s worth of Jim Henson puppet monsters. Laurelhurst Theater. March 21-27.
  1. Prior to earning his place in history as the first governor of California to have a heart made almost entirely of pig valves, Arnold Schwarzenegger was huffing and puffing his way through the jungles of Central America, fleeing a heat-sensing alien bent on the destruction of the human race. Predator: proof that being hot ain’t always cool. Academy Theater. March 21-27.
  1. Ever wondered what a 99-minute, one-take film in which the entire history of Russia is told by 1,000 costumed actors inside St. Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum might look like? Russian Ark is your answer. NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium. 7 pm Friday, March 21.
  1. Valley Girl changed the way we talked for a while. It also helped launch national treasure Nic Cage’s career and taught us how important it is to stop the world and melt with someone. Take note, millennials obsessed with the decade that preceded your birth: It doesn’t get more ’80s than this. Hollywood Theatre. March 21-24.
  1. In 1986, Shelley Long left Cheers to pursue a movie career. One result was Troop Beverly Hills, in which Long plays a soon-to-be divorced housewife in charge of the most spoiled group of Wilderness Girls ever. Lateral move? We report, you decide. With Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley fame as one of the girls. Hollywood Theatre. 7 pm Saturday, March 22.
  1. Whether because of Gary Cooper as a grim-jawed marshal or the dazzling Grace Kelly as a pacifist Quaker (we’re going with the latter), Bill Clinton screened High Noon a whopping 17 times at the White House during his presidency. You can be like Slick Willie twice this weekend. Hollywood Theatre. 2 pm Saturday-Sunday, March 22-23.
  1. As part of its Studio Ghibli series, the Northwest Film Center brings back Porco Rosso (2 pm Saturday, March 22) and Spirited Away (4:30 pm Saturday, March 22), two films from genius animator Hiyao Miyazaki. The former takes on World War II-era Italian fascism, and the latter follows one girl’s journey through a magical land populated by overgrown babies, flying dragon dogs and greedy black blobs. NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium. 

WWeek 2015

Willamette Week’s reporting has concrete impacts that change laws, force action from civic leaders, and drive compromised politicians from public office. Support WW's journalism today.