A Seattle moviegoing lifestyle magazine
I believe most writers, especially those of us who cover the arts, have a small “dream interview” list, people that we’d love to talk to, should the stars align. High on my shortlist for about a decade has been documentarian Penny Lane. She’s directed some of the most unique and memorable documentaries in recent years, full of vivid characters. Some of her most notable films include Our Nixon, Nuts!, Hail Satan?, and Listening to Kenny G. She’s like a Gen X Errol Morris and she’s amazing.
Short reviews of two documentaries: Even Hell Has Its Heroes, about the NW rock band Earth, and Satan Wants You about the Canadian roots of the Satanic panic.
Two local documentaries, both making their world premieres at SIFF, are reviewed (and recommended!).
When I first learned that a movie for the Judy Blume classic novel of adolescent angst Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, I couldn’t help but feel cynical. It’s hard not to be considering how many great books I cherish have been turned into forgettable adaptations over the past few years. It brings me great joy to report back that the new film adaptation of Margaret is…quite good.
Judy Blume is such a wonderful subject for a documentary it’s almost a surprise that we’re just getting a doc about her life now. A career-spanning film about Ms. Blume’s life is long overdue. Besides being an almost-universally beloved author who has more people that confess to her (mostly adolescents) than the Pope, she just radiates warmth.
In this telling from the Broken Lizard team (Super Troopers, Club Dread), the time is 1186 France and Quasimodo (Steve Lemme) makes torture devices. He’s a loveable, harmless, area man who builds torture devices for a living. There’s a rivalry between the power-hungry King Guy (Jay Chandrasekhar) and the power-hungry Pope Cornelius (Paul Soter). From what I can tell, France has never had a King Guy and Pope Cornelius reigned from 251 to 253 AD.
To its credit, Renfield doesn’t take itself seriously for even a moment. That’s usually fine but the jokes and gags here fell flat almost 100% of the time. I wish there was a sense of cleverness to the humor, but there just isn’t. The acting (save for Cage) is unconvincing and the action scenes are campy (in a bad way).
Even though I am fast-developing a reputation as the easiest-to-cry member of the Seattle film press, I don’t think there’s anything I could’ve done to emotionally prepare for how powerful and quietly intense this movie is.
In the first few moments of the thrilling new movie Rodeo, we learn that its protagonist Julia is a lone wolf and antihero. She doesn’t make friends easily, she blows off work, has alienated her family, and she steals whatever she wants or needs. Her one passion is motorcycles.
It’s hard not to sympathize with the environmental activists turned ecoterrorists at the heart of the potent new movie How to Blow Up a Pipeline. Eight young persons have so much justified rage from the cruelties of American capitalism that they find the best course of action to blow up an oil pipeline in West Texas. This movie is a meticulously planned scheme about how the photogenic gang of eight plans to commit their act of terrorism.
