Silver Screening: What to Watch in Portland's Theaters Nov. 4-10

Panthers and Peanuts and Beehives, oh my!

opening this week

The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution

A Riding the coattails of Michael Brown protests and the "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" nationwide movement against police brutality, The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution is a surprisingly fresh documentary, ready to shake you. Former Black Panthers speak between real movie clips, archival pictures and recordings detailing how the group made its mark on history. Diving straight into Oakland, Calif., Huey Newton and Bobby Seale are emblazoned onscreen in graphic scenes showing their militant practices like marching on the Capitol in Sacramento, openly armed, to protest the Mulford Act. They're captivating to watch—a crew in turtlenecks, sunglasses and leather jackets—and the film balances its profiles with coverage of historic events. Its aggressive, blunt style moves through the bloodbaths, prison sentences and protests that put the Panthers on J. Edgar Hoover's radar with revitalizing and tumultuous energy. Unforgettable, this film is an awakening even for people who watched the original coverage firsthand. NR. AMY WOLFE. Hollywood Theatre. 7 pm Thursday, Oct. 8.

Dying to Know

C Director Gay Dillingham's debut feature traces the lifelong friendship forged between the coolest professors ever thrown out of Harvard's psychology department: Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (better known as Ram Dass). They urge their countrymen to experiment with psychedelics and take up yoga, and effectively ruin dorm room discourse. Breezing through generational touchstones about Nixon and the early days of LSD, the film's anecdotes are charming. But analyzing unabashed self-publicists as they try to persuade people to abandon their beliefs is always a sad study in born followers and false prophets. More than anything, the film feels deeply inessential. Documentarians are eternally fascinated with the '60s, cycling through the same tie-dyed tropes each time a few moments of new footage appears, but these particular icons seem uniquely undeserving. NR. JAY HORTON. Cinema 21. Director attending Nov. 6-8.

The Keeping Room

B Within the first minute of The Keeping Room, three people get killed for no discernible reason, even before there's any dialogue. That efficiently sets the tone for what is a sparse, brutal movie set in the twilight days of the Civil War. As Union forces advance on the rural South, three women live alone, abandoned by the men who went off to fight. They're oblivious to how the war is going, but the fighting comes to them when a pair of vicious, AWOL Yankee soldiers arrive and the women have to defend themselves. It's a bleak, relentless movie, acted with a steely-eyed intensity that makes it feel important, though certainly not enjoyable. R. ALEX FALCONE. Living Room Theaters.

Miss You Already

C You're not allowed to openly dislike a movie about cancer. So instead, I will provide a more nuanced perspective by playing the game of yay/boo. Drew Barrymore and Toni Collette are super-duper best friends: Yay! Toni has cancer: Boo. Toni and Drew go on plenty of best-friend adventures while dealing with Toni's cancer, and they meet funny, interesting people: Yay! Everybody in the movie sounds exactly the same—women, men, adults, children, doctors, bartenders and wig makers all talk like they're the same person: Boo. It's nice to get a movie about female friendship because those are rare, and Toni plays an interesting, multidimensional person: Yay! But this platonic comedy has one-dimensional, expendable male characters: Boo. Sometimes it's funny: Yay! Sometimes it's gross—needles going into arms, vomit going into salad bowls, and a baby going out of Drew Barrymore: Boo. It's sad: Yay? I give it a C grade: Boo. That's still passing: Yay! PG-13. ALEX FALCONE. Clackama, Bridgeport.

The Peanuts Movie

A bald child named Charlie battles questionable fashion choices, impossible odds and bourgeoning hormones. Meanwhile, a canine World War I flying ace has lucid dreams in this flick from the director of the Ice Age movies. Regrettably, no WW writers were available to attend the crtics' screening held on the morning after Halloween. G. Bagdad, Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Mill Plain, Oak Grove, Bridgeport, Division, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Pioneer Place.

Still showing

Ant-Man

B+ If it were a comic book, it wouldn't be the kind you put in a Mylar bag. It'd be one that you read with greasy fingers and childlike relish. PG-13. AP KRYZA. Academy, Kennedy School, Laurelhurst, Mt. Hood, Vancouver, Valley.

The Assassin

B- Chinese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien's The Assassin is a bizarre, surreal film. It follows a mysterious female assassin tasked with killing her royal cousin in ninth-century China, yet the movie takes great pains not to be an action flick. Characters flit in and out of the narrative with seemingly little consequence. It is a film packed with a mythos, sometimes overexplained and sometimes very vague. Most importantly, it's a work of painterly beauty, with the Chinese countryside captured in long, inconsequential shots that linger on flickering flames or peonies swaying in the breeze. Which is to say, Hsiao-Hsien's take on the martial-arts epic is divisive. This is a film that's content to show three seconds of a battle between its heroine (Qi Shu) and an army of imperial guards, then cut away abruptly, never to speak of it again. The director seems set on turning his chosen genre on its head in something of a Chinese arthouse take on the revisionist Western. It's an enigmatic, befuddling, frustrating film that doesn't defy expectations so much as ignores them altogether. For some, the effects will be hypnotizing and mind-blowing. For others (like me), The Assassin will come off as a tease, or even a troll, whose central crime is being dull and dismissive. Either way, it's glorious to look at and impossible to stop pondering. NR. AP KRYZA. Hollywood, Fox Tower.

Black Mass

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A- Much like the city's other exports, Boston's gangster flicks vary in quality from genre-shattering genius (The Departed, most '90s bands, the people who invented America) to mind-numbing pantomimes of misogyny (The Boondock Saints, Boston sports fans, Mark Wahlberg). Scott Cooper's Black Mass is the latest cinematic try. It tells the story of Boston's most notorious criminal, James "Whitey" Bulger (Johnny Depp) and the deal he made with the FBI's John Connolly (Joel Edgerton) that ensured he could do whatever he wanted for decades. R. JAMES HELMSWORTH. Hollywood, Fox Tower.

Bridge of Spies

B- Steven Spielberg was born to convey viewers through weird and wonderful alternate realities. Even though history is nearly as illusory as a dinosaur theme park, the director's gift just doesn't shine as brightly when he contends with humanity's past. Bridge of Spies, starring Tom Hanks as an insurance lawyer recruited by the U.S. government to negotiate a spy-for-spy trade with the Soviet Union, benefits from a caustic screenplay by the Coen brothers. While Spielberg is pretty good even when he's on auto-pilot, there is little here that doesn't feel perfunctory. PG-13. CHRIS STAMM. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Mill Plain, Living Room Theaters, Oak Grove, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy, St. Johns Theater.

Burnt

Everyone is always in the kitchen, and you'd think one crowded with Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, Emma Thompson and Uma Thurman (Uma!) would be on fire. Cooper is bad-boy chef Adam Jones, who's looking for another ego trip, aka Michelin star. We didn't realize Cooper was already in that career dead zone where he takes roles about "the love between two people, and the power of second chances." Poor Uma. Screened after deadline. R. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Mill Plain, Cornelius, Oak Grove, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Fox Tower, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Tigard, Wilsonville.

Crimson Peak

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B+ There are all manner of ghosts in this gorgeous, tragic tale, but to call it a horror film is to completely mislabel Guillermo del Toro's meticulously crafted, old-fashioned tale of twisted souls and timeless longing. Scary isn't really the point. The things that go bump in the night are not nearly so terrifying as the people who walk the earth, and the film is so immersive and gorgeous that the plot is secondary. The film is a little too slow-moving for those expecting something more jolty and probably a little too obvious for those looking for a deep mystery. While it's not del Toro's most compelling work, it's very surely his most beautiful. R. AP KRYZA. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Pioneer Place, Tigard, St. Johns Cinemas.

Everest

B+ In 1996, a stranded group of climbers, including New Zealand mountaineer Rob Hall (Jason Clarke) and writer Jon Krakauer (Michael Kelly), met a massive storm at the top of the world. Today's CGI and 3-D technology puts the viewer on the mountain in a visceral way. The competitive tension between Hall and hotshot American climber Scott Fischer (Jake Gyllenhaal) moves the plot along quickly as each man is driven to test the boundaries of safe practices for the sake of pride. PG-13. LAUREN TERRY. Eastport, Evergreen, Fox Tower, Tigard.

Goodnight Mommy

B+ There's a twist at the cold heart of German directors Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz's Goodnight Mommy that most viewers will probably see coming, but that doesn't kill any of the tension in this deeply troubling horror show. Set in an isolated lake house, the film centers on twin brothers Lukas and Elias, whose mother (Susanne Wuest) comes home from facial reconstruction surgery with a head wrapped in bandages and a newfound malevolence toward her sons. R. AP KRYZA. Cinema 21.

Goosebumps

A- It's easy to be skeptical about a 2015 Goosebumps film in 3-D. Jack Black plays R.L. Stine, who joins forces with a couple of cute kids to fight every monster he's ever written about and save the town. The movie is cheap-looking, and there are more logical flaws than I could possibly list in this space, but the premise is clever, the action is fun, the jokes land, and it's only a little bit scary. Just like the books. So put away your cold, blackened heart and enjoy the silly fun of Jack Black running around with a bunch of monsters. PG. ALEX FALCONE. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Mill Plain, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Pioneer Place, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy.

Grandma

C+ Like a feminist companion piece to last year's Bill Murray feature St. Vincent, Paul Weitz's Grandma tells the tale of Elle (Lily Tomlin), who takes her neglected granddaughter (Julia Garner) under her wing when the teenager comes asking for money for an abortion. R. AP KRYZA. Fox Tower.

Hotel Transylvania 2

Adam Sandler's hotel is flourishing. PG. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Cornelius, Milwaukie, Oak Grove, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Hilltop, Movies on TV, Pioneer Place, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy.

The Intern

B+ As an active widower and retiree in need of something to keep himself busy, Ben (Robert De Niro) applies to a senior internship program at "About the Fit," a Topshop-like online clothing site founded by the dedicated Jules Ostin (Anne Hathaway). PG-13. LAUREN TERRY. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Living Room Theaters, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Sherwood, Tigard.

Jem and the Holograms

The 1980s girl-power cartoon about a rock band that solves crimes on the side gets the live-action treatment in a film by Jon Chu (G.I. Joe Retaliation, Step Up). PG. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Mill Plain, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Hilltop, Movies on TV, Pioneer Place, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy.

Labyrinth of Lies

B You've probably already seen enough movies about the Holocaust. There's been so much art made about this horrible period of world history it's hard to imagine a time when the word "Auschwitz" didn't immediately conjure numerous terrifying images from silver screens. But Labyrinth of Lies focuses on just such a time: 1960s Germany, when former Nazis exercised enough power over the German government to cover up details about the war. Alexander Fehling (Inglourious Basterds) is Johann Radmann, a plucky young prosecutor who uses his office to investigate—and eventually charge—22 men in German criminal court for their actions during the war. This was a first in the country's history. Filmmaker Giulio Ricciarelli's debut features a gripping story, told through nostalgic shots of men in Mad Men-style suits, debating heavy matters in lofty courtrooms, riding pastel Vespas through the countryside or pacing stories-tall archive rooms. The film's only real flaw is being a bit too on-the-nose (Radmann carries a note from his dad telling him to "always do the right thing"). PG-13. ALEX FALCONE. Cinema 21.

The Last Witch Hunter

D- The Last Witch Hunter attempts a lot of twists and turns, and it all ends up rating lower than Vin Diesel's voice. Diesel grunts and groans as Kaulder, an immortal witch hunter fighting to save civilization. The bland characters and shallow storyline are heavily reliant on special effects—bugs crawling on the evil witch who is releasing a plague on humanity, and extravagant sparks of magic that light up the screen. But sparks can't blind us to the horrible acting between Kaulder and Chloe (Rose Leslie), the witch he befriends. As in most cases, more Michael Caine would be a vast improvement. The rare sparks of talent here are Caine as an elderly priest and Elijah Wood, who stays wide-eyed, airy and Frodo Baggins-like for the entire movie. The greatest disappointment of all is that the ending promises an unfortunate sequel. That comes off like a threat. PG-13. AMY WOLFE. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Mill Plain, Cornelius, Oak Grove, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Pioneer Place, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy.

The Martian

B- Take the buzz surrounding The Martian with a boulder of salt. It's just a pretty good sci-fi yarn based on Andy Weir's book that stumbles on its own ambition. When a massive storm hits the Martian exploration project and Watney's team leaves him for dead, the skilled botanist realizes that the only way to escape starvation and space madness is to "science the shit" out of his situation. As always, Scott's direction is spot-on. PG-13. AP KRYZA. Bagdad, Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Oak Grove, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Pioneer Place, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy.

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials

C Still runnin'. PG-13. ALEX FALCONE. Clackamas, Bridgeport, Division, Movies on TV.

Meet the Patels

B- Ravi Patel has American dreams of finding his soulmate. PG. LAUREN TERRY. Fox Tower.

Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation

A None of this film's merits is unique to the Tom Cruise-led series, but they add up to something that's top-of-class for the genre. PG-13. ALEX FALCONE. Vancouver.

Mistress America

B- Greta Gerwig's newest collaboration with director Noah Baumbach has depreciated every day since I saw it. It's a buddy movie about two intolerably self-centered women in New York. PG-13. ALEX FALCONE. Laurelhurst.

Once I Was a Beehive

D Mean Girls meets Mormonism in this family-friendly movie about keeping the faith. Once I Was a Beehive follows angst-filled 16-year-old Lane (Paris Warner), who's coping with the death of her father and that her mother has remarried a Mormon. Lane attends a Mormon sleep-away camp with her newly acquired cousin and aunt. With the help of overly ecstatic, drama-filled girls, the weeklong endeavor leads her to find support in her Mormon counterparts. The movie's underlying message: The Mormons are not trying to convert you, they just want to educate. With spiritual bonding activities, like rolling into camp on Noah's ark, and keeping-the-faith motivational messages, the movie is a religious diatribe of biblical proportions. For the right audience, it might be a spiritual awakening and endearing coming-of-age story, but most Portlanders' awakening will consist of coming to and wiping away a spot of drool as the credits roll. NR. AMY WOLFE. Movies on TV.

Our Brand Is Crisis

B- This film is based loosely on a 2005 documentary, which was based on a 2002 Bolivian presidential election. In a way it's triple-distilled truth, but mostly it feels like an over-interpreted copy of a copy of a copy. But while the documentary was a cautionary tale about exporting American-style politics, the new movie—directed by David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express) and produced by the politically active silver fox George Clooney—drills a simpler message: "Politics are evil." The acting and some decently funny moments (like a llama getting hit by a car, which I felt guilty for laughing at) mask the feeling of being force-fed idealism well. But as with all force-feeding, I still ended up feeling sick to my stomach when it was over. R. ALEX FALCONE. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Living Room Theaters, Cornelius, Oak Grove, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy.

Pan

Director Joe Wright (Atonement, Hanna) remakes the iconic children's story as a modern-day action flick with Hugh Jackman and Rooney Mara. Screened after deadline. PG. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Movies on TV.

Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension

B+ Eight years ago, Jason Blum's cheapo horror empire began with a $15,000 festival filler. The sixth and final installment of his "found footage"-fueled franchise, Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, arrives bearing the same tricks as its predecessors. Longtime series editor Gregory Plotkin finally directs, giving us bravura jump cuts spliced for maximum humor and dread as we watch a normcore suburbanite couple film their beloved daughter drifting toward the clutches of a perhaps-not-imaginary fiend. This time, we're also treated to 3-D glimpses of the demon via the jerry-rigged VHS camera that the parents found hidden in their new McMansion. Alas, the effects may suffer from first-run showings at Living Room Theaters and the Avalon Theatre since Regal Cinemas—like many chains—was frightened off by the producer's unholy alliance with an all-too-apropos threat: video on demand. R. JAY HORTON. Avalon, Mill Plain,Living Room Theaters, Oak Grove, Sandy.

Rock the Kasbah

C- I love a good fish-out-of-water story, but why do all the fish have to be old white guys? In Rock the Kasbah, Bill Murray plays a has-been—or perhaps never-was—rock manager named Richie Lanz, whose favorite client (the insufferable Zooey Deschanel) finds her way onto a USO tour of the war-torn Middle East. This should perfectly set the stage for Murray to improvise his way through the film without a clumsy plot to keep him in check, as he did during his late-career peak (Lost in Translation, Broken Flowers). But director Barry Levinson has other ideas—including armed showdowns, a hooker with a heart of gold (Kate Hudson), and mansplaining the world to angry Arabs. If the movie doesn't fully collapse under the weight of all that sound and fury, it at least bows. I can hear the sighs and groans. "It's just a comedy," you say. And if Rock the Kasbah were a fully slapstick affair, I wouldn't nitpick it so much. But while the film's not-so-subtle message is about women's liberation, male characters run the show. In the end, Rock the Kasbah isn't so much offensive as it is painfully boring. There just have to be other fish in the sea. R. CASEY JARMAN. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Forest Theatre, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Fox Tower, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville.

Room

B+ In this riveting adaptation of Emma Donoghue's novel, an abducted woman must raise her son in a confined space, providing as normal an upbringing as possible while captive. To maintain a stimulating setting for her child, Ma (Brie Larson) keeps him busy by using both their imaginations to create a social environment, arranging exercise and reading lessons throughout the day and even playtime with anthropomorphized characters named Bed and Lamp. Director Lenny Abrahamson (Frank) brings out the underlying dynamic of sanctuary versus prison with flying colors, aided by Jacob Tremblay's sincere, wonderstruck performance as little Jack. R. LAUREN TERRY. Fox Tower.

Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse

According to promotional posters, the secret is Swiss. Not screened for critics. R. Avalon, Oak Grove, Sandy, Joy.

Sicario

A Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada) is a talented FBI agent specially recruited into a task force fighting a brutal war against Mexican drug cartels. She spends the whole movie confused and on edge while taking orders from the mysterious Benicio Del Toro (Snatch), who manages to act without ever fully opening his eyes or mouth. As the real mission of the task force slowly takes shape, so do beautiful sweeping helicopter shots of the border zone and heartbreaking vignettes of all the people affected by drug war. R. ALEX FALCONE. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Hollywood, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Fox Tower, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV.

Steve Jobs

B This is the more high-profile and undoubtedly better of the two movies, with Danny Boyle at the helm and Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave) in the lead role instead of Ashton Kutcher (Dude, Where's My Car?). The film isn't a glowing portrayal of Jobs, but it's also not the hack job that writer Aaron Sorkin did on Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network either. Sorkin sets the movie entirely in the minutes right before three of Jobs' major keynote speeches: This three-act concept makes sense on the surface, but in practice it feels gimmicky and limiting to force exposition of every major aspect of Jobs' life into backstage conversations just before the most important public presentations of his life. The film's saving grace is the acting. Never seeming quite human, Fassbender's Jobs oscillates between enthusiasm for his own ideas and outrage that the world can't keep up with him, in exactly the way that people close to the genius described him. R. ALEX FALCONE. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, CineMagic Theatre, Mill Plain, Cornelius, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Fox Tower, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville.

Trainwreck

c Amy Schumer is the absolute tops, but Trainwreck isn't worth the ticket price. R. ALEX FALCONE. Academy, Kennedy School, Laurelhurst, Valley.

Truth

B- What's not to like about a movie helmed by the screenwriter of Zodiac, a movie with speedboat pacing, a frenetic Cate Blanchett and the subdued warmth of Robert Redford? Unfortunately, a lot. James Vanderbilt's Truth is a Titanic of a Hollywood blockbuster that smashes into the iceberg of an unredeemable premise. Just before the 2004 presidential election, 60 Minutes producer Mary Mapes and anchor Dan Rather exposed a potential controversy surrounding President George W. Bush's time in the Texas Air National Guard. When their sources proved unreliable and Rather and Mapes were forced to leave the show, they chose to defend their conduct instead of facing up to their obvious errors. Vanderbilt tries to make heroes of Rather and Mapes, continuing an argument that should have ended long ago. And even if you don't care about journalistic ethics, you still have to sit through two hours of Topher Grace's face. R. ZACH MIDDLETON. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Bridgeport, City Center, Fox Tower, Movies on TV.

Vacation

D+ You can look forward to the same opening tune of Lindsey Buckingham's "Holiday Road," but this spin on 1983's National Lampoon's Vacation replaces the original's irreverent, campy charm with puke scenes. R. LAUREN TERRY. Vancouver.

Victoria

B+ A two-hour-plus, city-spanning crime drama that was filmed in just a single extended shot (and reportedly completed on only the third take), Victoria deserves attention for harboring such seemingly impossible ambitions. Director Sebastian Schipper manufactures an intricate choreography of street life and character interplay to compensate for the absence of story-advancing edits in this film about four Berlin bank robbers orchestrating a heist. And those opening scenes—in which a Spanish cafe girl meets up with the mismatched band of boozy hoodlums to roam the seamier side of early-morning Berlin—burst from the screen in a furious whirl of reckless youth, untamed and defiantly uncut. NR. JAY HORTON. Cinema 21.

The Visit

B – M. Night Shyamalamadingdong has lost the luster of his early career, so it's no surprise he's making little $5 million found-footage horror movies. PG-13. ALEX FALCONE.Academy, Laurelhurst.

The Walk

B Pulling off a moving film about Phillipe Petit's walk on a tightrope between the Twin Towers sounds next to impossible. But for better or worse, director Robert Zemeckis has never been too concerned about what's possible. PG. CASEY JARMAN. Academy, Laurelhurst.

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