{Kill List opens in Seattle on Friday, March 2, and is screening at SIFF Cinema at the Uptown through Thursday, March 8}

Kill List is one of those movies that you can’t say too much about, or you’ll ruin it for everybody. It’s also really f’ing hard to describe. Part criminal thriller, part horror, part character-driven drama—I don’t know, you guys. I’m still trying to figure it out!

With stark title cards announcing each plot transition (The Priest, The MP, and The Hunchback), and a title frame that’s comprised of an ominous symbol, Director Ben Wheatley sets the tone for something decidedly different.

Starting with a long introduction to family man/assassin Jay and outlining his close relationship with fellow assassin Gal, the film takes its time setting up each character, and then moves quickly through the men’s next trio of “jobs”—which starts out forebodingly, with a handshake sealed in blood.

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I am a total freak and held out reading The Hunger Games for a long time because I am such a HUGE fan of the 2000 film Battle Royale, and I thought the premise sounded a little too similar…but I admit it! I was wrong. THG trilogy was fantastic and I can't wait for the movie. 

That said, I am beyond thrilled that the Northwest Film Forum is screening Battle Royale every Friday at 11pm, starting 3/2 and running through 3/30 - because if you haven't seen it, you NEED TO (regardless of if you're planning to see The Hunger Games or not). 

Battle Royale is all about discipline, or rather, how future Japan keeps unruly High School students in check - by selecting one class to participate in the "BR Act", which basically means a fight to the death, with only one winner. The students are released on an island and have 3 days to murder everyone else in sight, and are fitted with electronic collars that will blow their heads off if they refuse to comply. 

While BR doesn't have as much glamour and ceremony as THG, opting for a much starker vision of the future with less political maneuvering, it does have TONS of splatteriffic blood and gore (yay!). It also has, you know, a plot. With romance, and stuff. Anyway, my point is: GO SEE IT. 

{Battle Royale | Northwest Film Forum | Fridays, 3/2-3/30 at 11pm | Tix: $10, $6 NWFF members}

{Better Than Something is screening at the Grand Illusion Cinema March 2-8}

Like many rock docs, Better Than Something is short on facts. The chronology of events in Jay’s life is vague, discographies are absent, and if you didn’t know the names of all his many bands and side projects before watching it, you still won’t afterwards. What the film does, though, is assemble interviews with Jay and the people who knew him, together with archival concert footage, into a mosaic portrait of the artist. The film gets out of its own way, and places the focus squarely on Jay himself. If you didn’t know who Jay Reatard really was before watching Better Than Something, you’ll have a pretty good idea afterwards.

Better Than Something reveals Reatard as a real punk, in both the authentic and the "asshole" senses of the word. A self-taught musician, Jay played a five gallon bucket on his earliest records because he couldn’t afford drums. He invented new recording techniques in his garage sale-stocked home studio because he didn’t know or care how other people got the job done. He also routinely stormed offstage, abruptly ending his fevered performances, or even continued performing while assaulting members of audience -- or his own band.  He managed to be simultaneously smarter and more messed up than most of the people around him.

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Vintage shop, or someone's home? The friendliest man alive invites random people into his home to browse and talk. (Get out your tissues!)
"That's so beautiful that I could fill that little void for them. That's why I keep my door open."

Design 101: Instructions on creating the perfect modern movie poster.

"The enormity of their flat brain..." Werner Herzog tells you to look a chicken in the eye.

Two great things that go great together: The Jurassic Parks and Recreation tumblr.

I am GOD! The best college recruiting video ever made (warning: not for those squeamish about bloody special F/X!)

Books + Surgical Tools = Insanely detailed art.

Not the bees! The 100 best Nicolas Cage quotes.

Awwwww. Adorable 8-bit Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters.

{Act of Valor opens in Seattle area theaters on Friday February 24th}

The men who serve in the Navy SEALs are true American heroes. The same as the firefighters who ran into the burning towers on 9/11, or a dedicated inner city schoolteacher who spends their own salary on materials for the kids.

SEALs train for years and risk their lives to become the tip of America's spear. Make no mistake, we want them on that wall. It's certainly no deficiency of theirs that none of that rigorous training is focused on cinematic acting. As such, it seems wrong to criticize their performance in a motion picture. I've seen better, but I've also seen far worse actors onscreen than the ruggedly handsome men of Act of Valor who often perfectly channel the blank emoting skills of Keanu Reeves.

Truth be told, the non-professional actors tend to exceed the professionals in this one. Anything negative to follow is squarely directed at the rest the folks involved in Act of Valor, who decided that the way to give their straight-to-video script a marketing boost was to cast active duty military members. Not to mention the decision open with a five minute explanation where the directors speak straight to the camera to set the expectation that if you don't love the film, then you clearly hate America.

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{Perfect Sense is screening at SIFF Cinema at the Uptown starting today, Friday, 2/17 - through Thursday, 2/23}

A love story wrapped around a frightening Sci-Fi premise, Perfect Sense is one of those films that’s hard to pin down—is it a story about the connections we form when we’re frightened? A tale of true, pure, meant-to-be love? A commentary on how the human race reacts in times of crises? A cautionary tale about how you should appreciate every moment in your life because you don’t know when it could be taken away? It’s kind of all of these things, and a little bit more.

Beautiful immunologist Susan (the always sultry Eva Green) is suffering from major depression due to an apparently horrific break-up, but decides to return to work just as a mysterious illness is starting to spread across the world. Michael (Ewan McGregor) is a chef whose restaurant just happens to be across the street from Susan’s flat, so it’s inevitable that they’ll meet, be initially resistant to each other, and then of course, fall in love.

The twist being that while they’re doing that, an unexplained and apparently incurable disease is ramping up...

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{Safe House opens in Seattle area theaters on February 10th}

Safe House is the film equivalent of a beer-soaked 20th anniversary high school reunion. In that everything feels comfortingly familiar, you're pretty sure who will turn out to be a jerk, and when you wake up the next morning you'll realize nothing was as deep or as good looking as it felt at the time. You're not upset you went, but it still feels like the evening could have been so much better. Leaving you only secure in the belief that Denzel Washington still rocks (that last part may not apply to your high school reunion, of course).
 
Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds) is the keeper of a CIA safe house in Johannesburg. It's not an enviable post and he wiles away his time bouncing a ball against the wall and trying to get transferred to Paris. In the meantime he courts the woman he truly loves, even though that love results in him constantly lying to her. At the same time Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington) is in town acting smooth and making a deal to buy some intel on the black market. Before long all hell has broken loose and he's on the run from a well-armed group of badasses. Cornered, his only choice leads him straight into the arms of the US government.

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There's a great selection of films going on at the Northwest Film Forum next week (well, there's always good stuff at the NWFF, if you want to get technical about it) that we wanted to make sure you were hip to. It's called American Film Week, and it's running in the spirit of a mini- / non-festival: a series of "bold American films, offering you just one choice a night." Brilliant!

We're particularly excited about Fever Year, a documentary about the grueling of Andrew Bird's 165-date tour, and Bombay Beach, a "rich and emotional portrait of the lives of some of California's absolute poorest" with a musical score by Zach Condon {best known for directing many a Beirut video} -- but the whole week is worth a visit, so much so that we're giving away a pair of passes to the entire run of screenings.

More from the NWFF blog:

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{The Innkeepers opens at the Grand Illusion Cinema on Friday, February 3rd. It is also available through video on demand}

The Innkeepers is likely to be seen as a breath of fresh air by fans of scary ghost stories. Benefiting from a throwback vibe and deeper character construction than one has been trained to expect from a horror flick, it's a hard to turn away from package. I cared about what happened to the characters as the cranking suspense gave me a serious case of the creeps. It's a fun ride, even if the final wrap up was a bit under whelming. Though that probably says a lot more about how strong the first half was than anything else.

If the ending had fully delivered on my early-stage tension, I might not be in a condition to commit my thoughts to page. Director Ti West pulls strong performances out of his three main characters, Sara Paxton and Pat Healy as the innkeepers in question - and the hotel it takes place in. The Yankee Pedlar Inn plays itself, albeit I expect more evil, variation (sort of like NPH in the Harold and Kumar movies), with more brides who took their life on their wedding night and now haunt the space for eternity.

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I don't even know what to say about this short film, except I liked it -- and apparently so did Slamdance and SXSW. Maybe you will too?

"Hannah, hit the button on the seismic reactor, which is definitely a real thing"

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