Seattle's Indie-Pop Press – Music Reviews, Film Reviews, and Big Fun
With over 400 films playing the 40th Seattle International Film Festival, there was NO WAY I was going to be able to watch and write about what got me into those theater seats before the festival was over—or, more importantly, before they screened for the last time during it. Here’s a quick list of films
If for some reason over the past month you’ve missed the TIG SIFF team’s extensive coverage, overlooked the ’round-the-block queues at some of our fine local movie houses, and/or remained oblivious to the palpable cinematic energy felt throughout the 206 and surrounding area codes, you’ve been at least vaguely aware that our local cinema megathon was
It feels a bit unseemly to trumpet such a mainstream movie during this Festival of the Wonderfully Obscure, but How to Train Your Dragon 2 is absolutely wonderful and deserves trumpets. It opens 5 years after the events of the first film. Berk is now an idyllic, gravitationally precarious but architecturally impressive hamlet with a
The end of this year’s cinema mega-thon is nigh, and if you’ve slacked on your SIFFage there’s still time to do something about it. Here I present to you seven sure-fire hits that I personally guarantee will provide you some major cinematic enjoyment, all unspooling (digitally) over the next few days. DON’T MISS: The Great
{Rigor Mortis opens in Seattle on Friday, 6/6, and is screening at AMC Pacific Place} I was pretty psyched to watch Rigor Mortis (especially since I’d just missed it at SIFF), mostly because I knew that Takashi Shimizu was involved as a producer, and I love all incarnations of his Ju-On films—including the American remake
Prior to seeing God Help the Girl, I’d only been a somewhat-interested fan of Stuart Murdoch and Belle & Sebastian—hearing their most popular songs in passing. Sure, I listened to plenty of friends rhapsodize about The Boy with the Arab Strap and agreed with them that it sounded great; I just never cared enough to scrape
Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter is based on an urban legend that a Japanese woman mistook Fargo for a documentary and came looking for the treasure so cleverly buried by Steve Buscemi under an inch or so of snow. Director David Zellner and his brother and co-writer Nathan imagined what might have driven someone to seek
This program is a highlight of the festival every year: 12 diverse short films united only by their appropriateness for all ages. Most but not all are animated, but you certainly needn’t be a child or a parent of children to enjoy the suite. My 4-year-old daughter, 7-year-old son, and I went to see it
Sailing is the kind of activity that seems utterly opaque to those who don’t partake. Like horse-back riding, for example. “How hard can it be to sit on a horse?” asked no one who’s ever done it for more than an hour or so. “How hard can it be to sail a boat?” Very. Turning
{Chinese Puzzle opens in Seattle on Friday, 5/30, and is screening at Landmark’s Seven Gables Theatre} Cédric Klapisch continues his story of writer Xavier Rousseau—and the women that surround him—in Chinese Puzzle, the third film in a trilogy that started in 2002 with L’Auberge Espagnole and continued in 2005 with Russian Dolls. Now 40, Xavier