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You've binge-watched Bey on your own, you've trolled the comment wars and you've asked: "Is Beyonce the Bill Nye of Feminism?" Now you can weigh in, live. That is, if you get a coveted ticket to PSU's event at the Northwest Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium.
We will repeat that phrase because it will never cross the internet-waves again: "a coveted ticket to PSU's event at the Northwest Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium."
In other news:
The much-anticipated Angry Birds movie builds the franchise pyramid higher.
You can't afford Paris, but you can get drunk on Trader Joe's wine and watch a documentary about Nazi's pillaging the Louvre.
Zac Efron wears a shirt for a little bit, in Neighbors 2.
Finally, watch 75 minutes of profound blankness restored impecably at the Hollywood's River of Grass.
OPENING THIS WEEK:
The Angry Birds Movie
Perhaps the greatest Finnish-American collaboration this decade is this movie based on a game based on anger management therapy and avian flu. When green pigs take over Red's island paradise, the vitriolic bird and his buddies take matters into their own hands. Birds don't have hands, but these ones do have eyebrows to rival Scorsese. Screened after deadline.
Rated PG. Playing at: Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Lloyd, Pioneer Place, Tigard, Vancouver.
Francofonia
[ B- ] Patience helps where fine art is concerned, and Aleksandr Sokurov's documentary about the Louvre is no different. Feeding history and war through the lens of art, Sokurov gives us a platter of food for thought. After the first 10 minutes, which is a slogging slideshow of low-quality images, we meet the men who saved Paris' art from German occupation and learn about a period when the Louvre was Le Musée Napoléon to house Napoleon Bonaparte's spoils of war. While the blurry slideshows recur, they are balanced with shots of Parisian architecture and the stunning halls of the Louvre. Don't give up before the first beautiful camera pan that climbs up the side of a Parisian apartment and crests with a view of the entire city.
Not Rated. Playing at: Cinema 21.
Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising
Frenemies Seth Rogen and Zac Efron reprise their roles as a young dad and a college grad, joining forces to protect the block from Chloë Grace Moretz and her anti-sorority, which is out to prove it has just as much a right to party as the frats do. Screened after deadline. See wweek.com for Lauren Terry's review.
Rated R. Playing at: Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Lloyd, Pioneer Place, Tigard, Vancouver.
Lemonade
You've already watched Lemonade like 100 times. You've discussed it with your friends and your co-workers at length, three times a day. Now, take your theories and ideas out into the world and join other members of the Beyhive and a panel that includes Intisar Abioto, Hannah Abioto and Deena Bee for a viewing and discussion of the truly awesome visual album.
GO: NW Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium. 6 pm Tuesday, May 24.
River of Grass
[ B ] Like many auteur debuts, Kelly Reichardt's River of Grass feels personal. The 1994 foray is set among the director's suburban Miami roots, transposing teenage angst onto an unmoored housewife caught up in a shooting accident. But unlike her louder-voiced, indie contemporaries, Reichardt arrived with near-clinical montage and silence, sharpened here by a 2015 digital restoration. Since, Reichardt has trekked darkly through the Oregon wilderness in Wendy and Lucy, Old Joy and Night Moves, but initially her stark minimalism felt aggressive and intentional. The act of framing any unsightly object in River of Grass—an overpass, a crime-scene photo, a broken TV—purposefully banishes a comedy bit in progress or a rapidly oncoming plot point. This style of omission can flummox, and Reichardt herself once called River of Grass "a road movie without the road, a love story without the love, and a crime story without the crime." What's left is 75 profoundly blank minutes and a fearless camera creating and destroying with every single cut.
Not rated. Playing at Hollywood Theatre. 7:30 pm Wednesday, May 18.
Buy tickets here:
Willamette Week