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Tom Ranieri, owner of Cinema 21, proudly tells me he’s just finished fixing the beer fridge and was on to his next task—finding replacement bulbs for the heat lamp in the popcorn popper—when I arrived for our interview. A manager’s work is never done, but he was kind enough to talk about his beloved Portland institution, its history and upcoming 10-day film festival celebrating its centennial anniversary.
Cinema 21 was 55 years old when Ranieri was first hired as manager in 1980, when the space was bought by Seattle’s Seven Gables Corp. (he also sold theater ads on WW’s sales team at one time). It had previously changed names and seating capacity from its 1925 opening as film technology progressed.
“I had no training, no idea,” he says. “I mean, I liked movies, but I didn’t have a degree in it.”
Back then, it was a true repertory theater, exclusively showing second-run features in a program set by employees. Ranieri says the theater “played everything, basically,” often packaged in double features (e.g., A Clockwork Orange with performance., or Harold and Maude and King of Hearts). The biggest shows were often obscure or racier films that might never make it onto television.
“Every once in a while, we’d play a triple-X film and those would be packed,” he says. “Especially if they were in 3D.”
The variety of content is what helped establish the theater’s reputation as a pillar of Portland’s cinephile community. However, challenges arose as technology changed, starting with the advent of home video.
“The control that we all had in programming was no longer ours because a person could always go out and get it at a video store,” Ranieri says.
Cinema 21 expanded to first-run films, often with limited or independent projects. Ranieri recalls hosting Stop Making Sense for a two-week engagement and being sold out night after night. A24 remastered and rereleased the film in 2023, and it’s been on the theater’s schedule several times since.
Cinema 21’s biggest upheaval came around 2008 amid the financial crash. Ranieri took the opportunity to expand the theater by adding two more screens, and began working with a prolific film buyer to build relationships with distributors. It wasn’t without its troubles, but Ranieri learned to roll with the punches. “When we were building out the new section, there were all these problems that came up, and every time the solution to it was a better idea than what we had planned,” he says. “And I started kind of believing in silver linings.”
During its hundred-year lifespan, Cinema 21 has hosted a number of filmmakers promoting and discussing their work—not just local legends like Gus Van Sant or Kelly Reichardt, but also names like Wim Wenders, Steven Soderbergh and Richard Linklater.
“I would like to say that I just have a lot of friends who are filmmakers, but that’s really not the case,” Ranieri says, crediting the theater’s ability to attract high-profile talents to its standing among distributors.
One indie filmmaker with a special relationship to the theater is Tommy Wiseau, whose 2003 magnum opus The Room—celebrated as one of the all-time worst movies ever made—has played almost monthly at Cinema 21 for 16 years. Wiseau himself occasionally hosts the screenings. The theater went on to host the 2023 “pre-premiere” (as Wiseau insisted on calling it) of his sophomore feature, Big Shark. Ranieri indicates Wiseau has completed the script for his third project, meaning there’s more to come from our favorite Disaster Artist.
“I’ve gotten to know him pretty well, and I think he considers that we have a friendship,” Ranieri says, which he credits to being amenable to the auteur’s eccentricities.
Ranieri says an employee named Deanna suggested Cinema 21 celebrate its 100th year, as well as made “90%” of the preparations (he did not provide her last name when asked). Festivities include a party on Friday, Sept. 19, featuring a silent auction and raffle for, among other prizes, a year’s worth of Cinema 21 screenings. When considering whom to invite to the celebration, Ranieri was looking for “the person who is trying to put out the notion that movies should be seen in movie theaters.”
One man fit the bill perfectly: Sean Baker.
Upon winning this year’s Academy Award for Best Director for his film Anora, Baker used his acceptance speech to implore the audience to keep the theatrical experience alive, calling it “a communal experience you simply don’t get at home.”
“He should be at the 100th anniversary of a movie theater!” Ranieri says. “It fits!”
Ranieri chose to screen Baker’s 2015 film Tangerine as part of Cinema 21’s 100th birthday celebration. Leading up to it, the theater will screen other historically significant and creatively risky films like Fantasia, Beau Travail and Moonlight. Baker will attend the screening and take part in a Q&A with former Oregonian film critic and author Shawn Levy. Ranieri calls Tangerine “a miracle of a movie. It’s a movie that seems like it should be slight or an afterthought.…For me, it’s a dense film. There’s a lot going on and I just think the way [Baker] resolves it is just beautiful.”
SEE IT: Centennial Opening Night at Cinema 21, 616 NW 21st Ave., 503-223-4515, cinema21.com. 5:30 pm Friday, Sept. 19. $21.
