A Seattle moviegoing lifestyle magazine
“The story unfolds mostly in a dank Argentinian prison where Valentín is being held for his revolutionary activities. Desperate to extract information from him as torture has thus far proven ineffective, prison officials introduce a new cellmate, Molina, who is sent to spy on Valentín in exchange for the promise of release to see his ailing mother in her final days.”
Margaret Qualley stars as Honey O’Donohue, a Bakersfield, CA private investigator on a mission to uncover the suspicious circumstances behind a woman’s death just before their scheduled meeting. The case pulls her into the orbit of a shady church and its sleazy pastor, Reverend Drew (Chris Evans). Qualley is magnetic throughout, commanding attention with her rapid-fire PI cadence. This is absolutely her movie, and she almost saves it from itself. Almost.
Since it’s debut on Broadway in 2013, the musical After Midnight has been a popular revue across the country, with its latest production currently taking stage at the Fifth Avenue Theatre through this weekend. It’s unlike anything I’ve seen on stage before, and it’s well, well worth your time and attention. This is the second successive production at the Fifth Avenue that I’ve reviewed after the immensely fun Bye Bye Birdie, and both are unqualified successes.
Like the previous Naked Gun and Airplane! movies, the comedy here relies on puns, physical humor, deadpan, and visual gags. Most of the bits fall flat (the law of averages demands it), and the humor can sometimes be scatological and certainly not for everyone—but man, did I enjoy it. Director Akiva Schaffer, from the comedy trio the Lonely Island, clearly knows how to generate laughs in the compact 85 minute running time.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re probably aware that there’s a new Superman movie heading to theaters this summer. If you are living under a rock, the Man of Steel will cheerfully use his super-human strength to hold up said rock long enough to move yourself, your family, and your worldly possessions to much more stable housing.
On opening night, last Friday, everyone I spoke to before the show told me about how much fun they expected or how excited they were for the Fifth Avenue Theatre’s new production of Bye Bye Birdie. That included the gentleman who scanned my ticket, a bartender, and the elderly couple seated next to me. It was the first “fun” play to hit the stage this year, they all told me. They were all correct, it was a blast.
SIFF is wrapping up this weekend and there are only a few more days before it’s all done. Eight films are in the Documentary Competition and I’ve seen them all.
Two years ago, upon the release of the first half of the finale, I asked this question: “Is there a long-running blockbuster movie franchise that is more dependably good than the Mission: Impossible films with Tom Cruise?” I answered probably not then and still believe that to be true.
SIFF prides itself on its selection of offbeat films and for that, I am thankful. Man cannot subsist on documentaries about indigenous water rights and unfairness in the Mexican penal system alone. I don’t know if these are going to be the weirdest movies at SIFF (Fucktoys and Spermageddon issue some promises in their respective titles I expect them to deliver on), these are some of the notable, uhh, unique offerings so far.
People who know me IRL (mostly) know that I’m a cross stitcher. I spend dozens of hours a week on my couch, usually 2-3 hours nightly and more on weekends stitching. Outside of work and sleeping, it takes up the next biggest block of my time. I’ve even made some stitching projects that combine my hobby with movies. This is all to say that I am delighted that SIFF is offering one of their theaters for crafty movie fans this Sunday at noon, promising a place to congregate while the beloved (though not by me) movie Labyrinth plays on screen.
