Screen Listings

30 DAYS OF NIGHT

10 or Less Film Festival

[TWO NIGHTS ONLY] A grab-bag of films lasting less than 10 minutes, the annual festival is filled with savory morsels. The movies range from the inscrutable (Jody Thompson's Will of the Wisp, a feminist meditation in which a woman encounters a stallion, a shattered mirror and a bloody bed) to the startling (T. Arthur Cottam's Filthy Food, which cheerfully observes another woman eating a very suggestive lunch). But the indisputable highlight is I Met the Walrus, which combines a teenager's hotel-room interview with John Lennon with ornate animations literalizing everything the Beatle says. There's even some pretty little policemen in a row. AARON MESH. Hollywood Theatre. Friday-Saturday, Oct. 19-20.

3:10 to Yuma

In filming this Western duel between Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, director James Mangold is remaking a 1957 Glenn Ford picture of the noble-gunslinger variety, while underlining the ethical choices with extra ink. As Mangold last proved in his Johnny Cash biopic, Walk the Line, he has a deft hand with a cliché, but he doesn't like to leave any untouched. So 3:10 to Yuma may feature two men rushing to make a train, but they have a lot to talk over before they get there. R. AARON MESH. 99 West Drive-in, City Center, Vancouver Plaza.

30 Days of Night

A gang of hungry vampires turns a small Alaskan town into an all-you-can-eat buffet just as the sun goes down for a month's rest. Basing 30 Days on his graphic novel of the same name, screenwriter Steve Niles is so enamored with this twist on vampire mythology that he has one of the vamps mention they should've done this a long time ago. Regardless of such self-congratulatory meta-dialogue, the movie is a fresh take on an old legend. Much as Danny Boyle did for zombies in 28 Days Later, Niles and director David Slade (Hard Candy) have re-envisioned vampires—as lightning-fast Eastern European nihilists. These ghouls are far less human than many recent portraits of the lonely ones and more interested in chewing than erotically siphoning blood from their victims. And they do plenty of chewing. Josh Hartnett and Melissa George star as Eben and Stella, an estranged couple whose love is rekindled by the onslaught of bloodsucking fiends. Ben Foster of Six Feet Under plays the overdramatic stranger who helps the vampires sabotage the town of Barrow, Alaska. And Danny Huston is totally creepy and barely recognizable as Marlow, the head vampire. Some of the shots seem to be pulled directly from the graphic novel, and much of the dialogue is better suited to the word bubbles it emanated from, but for the most part, 30 Days of Night is a lot of fun, and more worthy of your nine bucks this Halloween than the latest installment of Saw. R. RYAN HUME. Broadway, Cedar Hills, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, City Center, Cornelius, Division, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Oak Grove, Sandy, Tigard, Vancouver Plaza, Wilsonville.

Across the Universe

A dreamboat named Jude meets a sweetheart named Lucy, and they accompany her brother Max on a voyage through the Beatles songbook. This initially sounds like a spectacularly irritating idea (let's play Moulin Rouge! with the Fab Four!), but in practice it's often astonishing, and might have worked even better if director Julie Taymor had followed her literal notion to its logical end and simply made a Beatles opera. PG-13. AARON MESH. Cedar Hills, Bridgeport, Lloyd Center, Pioneer Place.

Angels in the Dust

The true story of Marion Cloete, a white South African woman who moved her family to a rural area and opened an orphanage for the children of victims of AIDS. The documentary doesn't dwell upon her sacrifice (the Cloetes left a wealthy, gated community) but instead balances the reality of living with AIDS with the small pleasures that these children eke out in spite of the horror that surrounds them. Cloete is fierce and unflinching—in one instance, she first yells at the caregivers of a man who is dying from AIDS because they do not want him to go to the hospital, and then explains to a meeting of women that the same man is a serial killer because he has infected many women carelessly. Cloete is objective to a point, but her personal involvement is deep, and seeing her struggle with that balance is fascinating. JIM SANDBERG. Clinton Street Theater. Friday-Thursday, Oct. 19-25.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

The long-delayed, obnoxiously titled Assassination has the makings of a classic Western, starting with powerhouse performances. Playing the legendary outlaw in his last days, Brad Pitt is masterful. He's matched step for step by Casey Affleck as Ford, a fanboy whose admiration for the famed robber takes a dark turn. Affleck's performance is a revelation. Yet, although these ingredients are great, sophomore writer-director Andrew Dominik (Chopper) just can't make his story move. Boy howdy, is Jesse James a boring heap of uninspired dialogue and unnecessary subplots. It could have been a masterpiece. Instead, it'll suffer the same fate as Robert Ford himself: briefly discussed, then utterly forgotten. R. AP KRYZA. Cedar Hills, City Center, Tigard.

Black White + Gray, A Walk Into the Sea

[THREE DAYS ONLY] If these short documentaries (screened in tandem by the NW Film Center) are any indication, artists are both lovers and destroyers of their closest confidants. Showing as a double bill, the films focus on pop artist Andy Warhol's and homoerotic photographer Robert Mapplethorpe's gay lovers, respectively. Director Esther Robinson uses A Walk Into the Sea to uncover what happened to her uncle, Danny Williams, a brief member of Warhol's Factory who vanished mysteriously at age 27. While the movie is about solving Danny's disappearance, Robinson goes to great lengths to reveal how Andy Warhol abused and stole ideas from the artists around him. When an aging Factory member explains how "everybody else was, well, very closed off...very much for themselves," Robinson zooms in on a picture of Warhol, suggesting that his love affair with and rejection of Williams contributed to the young man's disappearance. Black White + Gray, by contrast, is blindly complimentary to its subject matter: Sam Wagstaff, a museum curator who was both mentor and lover to Mapplethorpe, is described by his friends (including an oddly mustachioed Patti Smith) as a visionary whose "exhibition[s] sent shock waves through popular culture." Rather than examine Wagstaff's personal flaws—like remaining closeted for years or engaging in a dangerous party lifestyle—director James Crump suggests Wagstaff's artistic accomplishments are all that matters. Both films analyze how an artist's personal life can affect his work, but only A Walk Into the Sea inspires us to care. PAIGE RICHMOND. Whitsell Auditorium. Friday-Sunday, Oct. 19-21.

The Bothersome Man

Dropped off by bus in an antiseptic purgatory where the wine contains no alcohol and the food no flavor ("hot chocolate, pussy, burgers: Nothing tastes any good," a fellow citizen complains), a man tries to find some snatch of beauty or love. AARON MESH. Living Room Theaters.

The Bourne Ultimatum

The presumed final chapter in Jason Bourne's adventures, The Bourne Ultimatum stands like a giant over the rest of the summer's "threequels." Picking up right where Supremacy left off, Matt Damon is hell-bent on tracking down the government agents who turned him into a monster, which means more globe-trotting, more fast walking, more chases and some truly gnarly fight sequences. PG-13. AP KRYZA. Cedar Hills, Cinemagic, Movies on TV, Tigard, Vancouver Plaza, 99 West Drive-in.

Broken English

As imagined by director Zoe Cassavetes (yes, the daughter of John), Parker Posey's Nora self-medicates the way real people do: She feels intoxicated because it's better than feeling something worse. It's not terribly difficult to imagine where Broken English goes from there, but it's not so easy to predict the dimensions of acting Posey shows. R. AARON MESH. Living Room Theaters.

Bübiwulf

[ONE NIGHT ONLY] A women's studies professor by day, Hendrick Shooting Horse transforms in the moonlight into a werewolf who likes to fondle breasts. That's about as much plot as you're going to get from this juvenile, sophomoric and often extremely funny low-budget movie from the producers of the local cable-access show The vonHummer Hour. Filmed in Portland's Alberta Arts District, Bübiwulf pokes broad (ahem) fun at academic sensitivities. "Perhaps, in time, this campus will come to see your penis as your greatest victimization," goes a standard line, "and the student body will rush forward to embrace your penis!" I can't exactly recommend any of this silliness, but I can't say I'd mind watching more of it. AARON MESH. Hollywood Theatre. 7 pm Tuesday, Oct. 23.

Carbuncle

[ONE NIGHT ONLY] A vile social worker preys on the mentally handicapped woman he's assigned to protect. Two small boys get in an alleyway tussle with much larger boys. A teenage girl encounters a strange man outside her mobile home. And the director of this movie appears onscreen to torment his cast with antisocial behavior and impossible demands. It's all part of the warped vision of director T. Arthur Cottam—who plays, naturally, a director named "T. Arthur Cottam." As with his short Filthy Food (screening this weekend at the 10 or Less Film Fest), Carbuncle is less an objectionable prank than it is a cockeyed way of looking at the familiar. Unfortunately, it's also muddled to the verge of incoherent, and more than a little drab. There's a gem hiding somewhere in Cottam's trailer-park universe; it just needs a whole lot of polishing. AARON MESH. Jupiter Hotel. 6 pm Sunday, Oct. 21.

The Comebacks

David Koechner in a parody of sports movies that might be charitably described as "scattershot." These are dark days for David Koechner. Not screened for critics. PG-13. Cedar Hills, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, Cornelius, Division, Movies on TV, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Sandy, Tigard, Vancouver Plaza, Wilsonville.

Crossing the Line

In 1962, U.S. Army private James Dresnok crossed the landmine-ridden Korean Demilitarized Zone. Now, 43 years later, Dresnok is the last surviving American defector to North Korea. In Daniel Gordon's documentary, Dresnok recounts his transformation from cultural outsider to propaganda film star to integrated North Korean family man. Hulking and jowly in his communist-cut suits, smirking around a mouthful of gold teeth, Dresnok looks like a Bond villain. And given his treasonous defection to the communists, it'd be easy casting. But the truth is more complex. When he defected, Dresnok didn't hope to sell military secrets; he didn't know any. And it wasn't communist ideology that lured him. Dresnok simply decided a new life in North Korea couldn't be any worse than his old one in the States. Rootless, hopeless and angry, Dresnok just walked north. His reasons are, if not understandable, at least believable. But Dresnok's glowing praise of North Korea's government evokes skepticism. In 2004, Sgt. Charles Jenkins, who defected to North Korea in 1965, returned to America, condemning North Korea and accusing Dresnok of sadistically binding and beating him repeatedly. Jenkins' conflicting story underlines a theme in Crossing the Line: It's hard to know what to believe. ETHAN SMITH. Living Room Theaters.

The Darjeeling Limited

Wes Anderson's fifth film is not his best, but it contains moments of maturity he has never shown before. Adrian Brody, Jason Schwartzman and Owen Wilson play three brothers who have boarded an ornate Indian train for a "spiritual journey," which mostly seems to consist of consuming a lot of spirits, along with tranquilizers and prescription medications. The question at the heart of any criticism of The Darjeeling Limited—and Anderson's directorial vision—is whether he knows what to do with the messy, absurd world. I don't think this movie provides a definitive answer, but it contains some encouraging signs. R. AARON MESH. Fox Tower.

Eastern Promises

On its surface, David Cronenberg's voyage into London's Russian-mob underworld tells a familiar story. Stop me if you've heard this one: A newborn baby is menaced by ruthless gangsters until a gruff hero arises to the child's defense. But Eastern Promises isn't just a movie with haunting themes playing under its surface: It's a movie explicitly concerned with how surfaces warp the things they cover up. R. AARON MESH. Broadway, Lake Twin, Lloyd Center, St. Johns Twin Cinema-Pub,

Eco-Sicko

[TWO NIGHTS ONLY] The Northwest Film Center continues to chronicle environmental horror, this time with The Grapes of Wrath and Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster. Nothing like a radioactive dragon to remind us to recycle. AARON MESH. Whitsell Auditorium. Grapes screens 7 pm Wednesday, Oct. 17. Smog Monster screens 7 pm Friday, Oct. 19.

Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Shekhar Kapur's sequel to 1998's Oscar-garnished Elizabeth is an overripe bodice-ripper, complete with gauzy images, a militaristic score and a ceaselessly swirling camera. It starts out bad, and swiftly descends into the stupefyingly awful. Cate Blanchett, having achieved a restrained hauteur the first time around, loses it all here—one minute she's screaming hysterically, the next she's rallying the British troops in a full suit of armor, red wig streaming down her cheeks, as if Kapur thought he was directing a Joan of Arc movie. As the English triumph and God saves the queen, a beatific white light beams upon Blanchett's features—not even Mel Gibson would sink to this level of crass hagiography. We are not pleased. PG-13. AARON MESH. Cedar Hills, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, Cinetopia, City Center, Cornelius, Division, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Tigard, Wilsonville.

Exiled

It has long been established that people who live in glass houses should not throw stones, but here comes Hong Kong director Johnnie To with an important corollary: Gangsters who dine in glass restaurants should not plan to conduct assassinations there. An atrium shootout is just one of the absurd set pieces in To's Macau mayhem, which pays tribute to Sergio Leone and is stylized to the brink of absurdity. R. AARON MESH. Living Room Theaters.

The Game Plan

Do you smell what Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is cookin'? It's pretty pungent. The former WWF star's newest vehicle, The Game Plan, is the Jersey Girl of sports movies—a Disney-produced piece of cinematic poo that stings the nose like a burnt, sugar-coated baby turd. PG. AP KRYZA. Cedar Hills, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, City Center, Cornelius, Division, Movies on TV, Oak Grove, Sandy, Tigard, Vancouver Plaza, Wilsonville.

Global Concern: Human Rights on Film

[TWO NIGHTS ONLY] Two more NW Film Center studies of justice: In Hot House, director Shimon Dotan takes his camera inside the Israeli prisons that hold hundreds of Palestinians—many of them serving multiple life sentences for crimes committed in connection with the Hamas or Fatah organizations. By letting the prisoners and guards tell their own stories, Dotan gives a face to the abstract idea of "enemy," be that Palestinian or Israeli. At one point a prisoner says that outside of the prison, the only way they usually see each other is through gun sights; the prison is one of the few opportunities these people have to interact with one another. It becomes clear over the course of the film that to the Palestinians, being behind the white walls and blue bars of the Israeli prison is no different from their lives outside of them. Cocalero follows Evo Morales, the leader of Bolivia's socialist party, on the campaign trail in the days leading up to the presidential election. Morales, an indigenous South American, came into his political career organizing the coca growers of Cochabamba in central Bolivia. Cocalero conflates the socialist uprising with the struggle of the coca workers against the United States' imperialist anti-drug forces with success; the film is inspiring and unique, if only to see into another country's political process. It is a stark contrast from our country's politicians—for whom taking an on-camera swim in a muddy river in their underwear would be career suicide—that Morales and his comrades are surprisingly candid. JIM SANDBERG. Whitsell Auditorium. Hot House screens at 7 pm Thursday, Oct. 18. Cocalero screens at 5 pm Sunday, Oct. 21.

Good Luck Chuck

If voluntarily witnessing Dane Cook go down on a stuffed penguin with utter carnal desire is the last visual you'd find funny, then Good Luck Chuck is probably not for you. The story line is just entertaining enough to get away with crass, sexually charged fratitude. R. ELIANNA BAR-EL. Vancouver Plaza.

The Heartbreak Kid

The Farrelly Brothers remake of Elaine May's honeymoon-gone-awry farce is misanthropic, mean-spirited and culturally insensitive. And God help me, I liked it. Ben Stiller's aggrieved shtick wore thin a decade ago—which makes it all the funnier that the Farrellys offer him not a shred of sympathy.R. AARON MESH. Broadway, Cedar Hills, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, Cornelius, Division, Movies on TV, Oak Grove, Sandy, Vancouver Plaza, Wilsonville.

In Between Days

Director So Yong Kim follows a Korean girl named Aimie (Jiseon Kim) as she plods through the slushy streets of Toronto's immigrant neighborhoods with a boy she likes but can't express her feelings to. Oh, Aimie: What's she gonna do? Not much, it turns out: She and her almost-boyfriend (Taegu Andy Kang) steal radios from cars, hang out in soda shops and nearly experiment with sex. I recognize these characters are dazed by alienation, but the problem feels deeper: These two kids are Natural Born Mopers. AARON MESH. Living Room Theaters.

In the Shadow of the Moon

If you believe they put a man on the moon, here's a documentary to remind you how incredible that feat actually was. David Sington's film combines rich outer-space footage from the NASA archives—much of it never seen outside government warehouses—with moving testimonies from the rocket men. PG. AARON MESH. Hollywood Theatre.

Into the Wild

There are all kinds of movies that could be made from Jon Krakauer's book Into the Wild, which recounts the short life of Christopher McCandless—a young man who left everyone he knew to live off the Alaskan wilderness, and wound up dying of starvation in an abandoned bus. The one made by Sean Penn is infuriating, self-important, bewitching and poignant—which is appropriate, since McCandless (Emile Hirsch) was all of those things as well. But the movie possesses one quality that its hero apparently lacked: It understands the feelings of people not named Christopher McCandless. R. AARON MESH. Fox Tower, Cedar Hills, Bridgeport, Cinetopia, City Center.

The Jane Austen Book Club

There's a reason why women love Jane Austen. Her books present a frank, worldly voice all buttoned up in Regency-period garb. But take away the fancy clothes and insert a couple hundred years and you get a bunch of stressed-out women in bad outfits bellyaching about life. PG-13. KELLY CLARKE. Bridgeport.

The Kingdom

Peter Berg has made an action movie that is set in Saudi Arabia, that includes a great many terrorist bastards getting wasted, and is ultimately a responsible and even a very fine piece of filmmaking. The movie's final 30 minutes are so richly vengeful they border on crass wish fulfillment, but what's come before casts doubt on the wish. R. AARON MESH. Broadway, Cedar Hills, Bridgeport, Division, Forest, Movies on TV, Roseway, Wilsonville.

The Lives of Others

Gerd Wiesler (the late Ulrich Mühe) is ordered to spy on a theatrical couple, and the once-robotic Stasi operative is tested beyond imagining. R. BECKY OHLSEN. Living Room Theaters.

Lust, Caution

To answer the most pressing question about Ang Lee's Lust, Caution: Yes, there is certainly enough graphic sex in it to earn an NC-17 rating, but it's not the sort of sex that happy people will enjoy watching. The characters played by Tang Wei and Tony Leung have violent sex. Then they have acrobatic sex. This is followed by mournful sex. All of it is very solemn sex. But Lee's movie has started going wrong well before Leung sticks his crouching tiger into Wei's hidden dragon. The 158-minute World War II espionage story has a promising opening hour, then fades into a tearjerker both sonorous and dull. NC-17. AARON MESH. Fox Tower.

Michael Clayton

George Clooney plays the titular guy behind the guy behind the guy, a law-firm "fixer" who finds himself embroiled in a sinister case not so easily fixed. It tends to throw a wrench into your legal strategy when the chief counsel (Tom Wilkinson) has stopped taking his medication, declared himself "Shiva, the god of death," and is holed up in his loft with damning evidence and a month's supply of baguettes. The directorial debut of longtime writer Tony Gilroy (the pen behind all three Bourne movies) is literate, sleek and elegant—and certainly never dull, though the material feel a touch rehashed. R. AARON MESH. Cedar Hills, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, Cinetopia, City Center, Cornelius, Division, Fox Tower, Lake Twin, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Oak Grove, Sandy, Tigard, Wilsonville.

Mr. Woodcock

Expectations should always be kept low for a movie with a dick joke in its title, but this one is nearly agreeable. That's entirely thanks to Billy Bob Thornton as the titular gym teacher, a sadistic old coot who torments Seann William Scott. PG-13. AARON MESH. Cinema 99, Movies on TV.

The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3-D

Though it's hard to complain about seeing Tim Burton's collaboration with Henry Selick trotted out again, it's at least a little ironic that a movie about a guy tired of Halloween traditions is now a Halloween tradition. PG. Bridgeport, Cinetopia, Lloyd Center.

One Way Boogie Woogie/27 Years Later

[ONE NIGHT ONLY, DIRECTOR APPEARANCE] The Northwest Film Center and 40 Frames bring director James Benning to Portland to show two portraits of urban Milwaukee. Whitsell Auditorium. 7 pm Tuesday, Oct. 23.

Once

A winsome romance about a street musician trying to finish a demo tape, Once has the same ratio of irritation and appeal as a first album by any lachrymose singer-songwriter: You can condemn it for being histrionic and self-pitying, but you'll have to do so with a lump in your throat. R. AARON MESH. Hollywood Theatre, Moreland.

Oswald's Ghost

Those six seconds in Dallas get another 90 minutes on film—this time in a sleek, Kennedy-assasination-for-beginners package. The even-handed documentary is a perfectly acceptable crash course in the conspiracy theories and debunking that has swirled around Lee Harvey Oswald; it offers nothing new to the well informed, but then it suggests fairly convincingly that few Americans are informed about Nov. 22, 1963, at all. The film's opening segment is the most compelling: The use of archival network-television footage conveys how the live assassination of a presidential assassin was "not only appalling, but uncanny." That mood dissolves somewhat after the Warren Report, as director Robert Stone (no relation, but speaking of uncanny...) lets the many theorists have their say. It speaks volumes about the wild speculation still surrounding JFK that the voice of reason in Oswald's Ghost is Norman Mailer. AARON MESH. Hollywood Theatre. Saturday-Monday, Oct. 20-22.

Paprika

The latest anime contribution from Satoshi Kon (Tokyo Godfathers) concerns a dream-sharing headset called the DC Mini, which looks like an iPod gone very, very sinister, and is mostly a pretext for a movie about dreams within movies within dreams. AARON MESH. Living Room Theaters.

Portland Lesbian and Gay Film Festival

The best 10 days of queer cinema in the Northwest finishes off with a closing-night screening of Shelter. It's Brokeback Mountain starring surfer dudes, but with none of Larry McMurtry's spare, explosive dialogue or Ang Lee's breathtaking cinematography. What's left is a simple and attractively shot love story starring two hotties: the achingly beautiful Trevor Wright as struggling artist and gay-conflicted Zach, and goateed butch Brad Rowe as his patient, father-figure lover (and, strangely, former childhood friend) Shaun. Zach confronts his own sexuality (bi-curious or 100 percent homo?), family drama (helping to raise a sister's kid, the adorable Cody) and artistic dreams (CalArts or bust) in idyllic San Pedro, with Shaun's mild-mannered guidance and the help of a few beer-induced make-out sessions. A slickly produced romance sure to inspire fag-surfer frenzy. STEPHEN MARC BEAUDOIN. Shelter screens at Cinema 21 at 8 pm Saturday, Oct. 20. See Movie Times for more festival events.

Rendition

Gavin Hood's tortuous torture picture opens with CIA analyst Jake Gyllenhaal's partner getting killed in a suicide bombing intended to assassinate someone else. The film has a different fate: It's in the wrong place at the right time. With new revelations of secret Bush-Gonzales torture memos emerging every week, the moment has never been more ripe for a movie about the United States' use of "extraordinary rendition"—shipping terror suspects to overseas prisons. But this is not that movie. Hood (Tsotsi) has directed a mess that manages to be simultaneously pedantic and confused as it follows a wrongly arrested engineer (Omar Metwally) and the conscience-stricken boy (Gyllenhaal) who watches his waterboarding. Hood takes great pains not to offend with his message, whether he's giving dragon lady Meryl Streep a speech about how government policy saves lives, or setting the wet work in the nation of "North Africa." But he still manages to offend anybody who cares about plausible drama. Reese Witherspoon is reduced to pitching hysterical fits in congressional offices, Streep proves her mastery of accents by affecting several in the same movie, and Gyllenhaal manages to deliver a climactic, noble Shakespearean quotation after drinking himself to sleep for weeks. With the exception of an ill-used Peter Sarsgaard, the whole thing is about as credible as a Dana Perino press conference. R. AARON MESH. Cedar Hills, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, Cinetopia, City Center, Cornelius, Division, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Sandy, Tigard.

Resident Evil: Extinction

Milla Jovovich continues to survive the apocalypse without the aid of critics. R. 99 West Drive-in, Cedar Hills, Cornelius, Division, Movies on TV, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Sandy, Tigard.

The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising

Given The Seeker's immediate barrage of product placement—a montage of Motorola and Samsung—it's no surprise the filmmakers have little regard for the integrity of their material. The movie is based on Susan Cooper's 1974 fantasy classic, but you'd hardly know it. Characters have been deleted and transparent plot twists inserted, and all the magic and mysticism of Cooper's novel has evaporated. PG. ETHAN SMITH. Cedar Hills, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, Forest, Movies on TV, Wilsonville.

Shoot Shoot Shoot

[ONE NIGHT ONLY] Cinema Project presents the stateside premiere of '60s counterculture shorts from the London Film-Makers' Co-operative. Groovy! New American Art Union. 7:30 pm Wednesday, Oct. 17.

Superbad

Seth Rogen has co-written an entire movie about two high-school seniors trying to buy alcohol in the firm hope that underage drinking will lead directly to underage sex. It ranks among the funniest movies ever made. R. AARON MESH. Cinemagic, St. Johns Twin Cinema-Pub.

The Ten Commandments

The fall's truly inexplicable entry: A cartoon Moses story, which we're pretty sure was done nine years ago and called The Prince of Egypt. On the plus side: Ben Kingsley contributes vocal work. On the minus side: The computer animation appears to have cost $12. PG. Sandy.

Things We Lost in the Fire

Early in Things We Lost in the Fire, David Duchovny walks in on his wife and daughter watching TV and crying. "Lifetime again?" he asks. The same question might be asked of Things We Lost, an Oscar bid gone awry. The film centers on Audrey (Halle Berry), a mother of two mourning the death of her husband (Duchovny, dead from first frame but alive in flashbacks). For atonement, she reaches out to her late husband's childhood friend Jerry (Benicio Del Toro), a former lawyer, now a heroin junkie. She cleans him up, lets him bond with her kids, lashes out at him—pretty much everything you'd expect from a Lifetime film, but with big stars. Berry, alternating between screaming and crying, further discredits her Monster's Ball Oscar win (which, it's arguable, was a "thank you for the nudity" present). Del Toro does what he can with the material, brooding and twitching through the motions. Danish Director Susanne Bier simply fills the screen with extreme close-ups and withdrawal montages. Things We Lost in the Fire (which features no fire at all) is a misstep for all involved, a tear-jerker that humps every cliché imaginable. In that sense, maybe it's an Oscar contender after all. R. AP KRYZA. Cedar Hills, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Pioneer Place.

This Is England

The affable skinhead Woody (Joe Gilgun) takes ypoung Shaun (Thomas Turgoose) under his wing, and then Combo (Stephen Graham) emerges from prison and offers himself as a less-benign father figure. AARON MESH. Living Room Theaters.

Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married?

We don't know, Tyler. For the tax benefits? Not screened for critics. PG-13. Cedar Hills, Division.

We Own the Night

Two questions dominate James Gray's cops-and-Russian-mobsters flick. First, will Joaquin Phoenix choose his unforgiving daddy (Robert Duvall) or his unbelievably boring girlfriend (Eva Mendes)? Second, will anyone care? Professional standards prohibit me from addressing the first question, but rest assured that the second answer is no. R. AARON MESH. Cedar Hills, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, Cinetopia, City Center, Cornelius, Division, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Tigard, Vancouver Plaza.

Weirdsville

It took me several years to tire of the heroin drama. Thanks to director Allan Moyle (Empire Records), it took me 90 minutes to tire of the heroin comedy. Maybe it would have helped if Moyle hadn't shot Weirdsville like an Evanescence music video, all translucent glow and sped-up camerawork. Or maybe if the jokes had been funny—Willem Wennekers' screenplay labors under the assumption that nothing inspires belly laughs like an old-fashioned fatal O.D. When two Ontario junkies (Scott Speedman and Wes Bentley) go to bury their dead lady friend under a drive-in movie theater, they encounter a trio of Satanists, and peculiarity ensues. Here and there, a bit of absurdity actually works: a mobster who enjoys curling, or a little person (Jordan Prentice) with a penchant for medieval reenactments. But more often the hijinks are sordid and grim: Harold and Kumar Go to Hell, basically. Meanwhile it's something of a surprise to see Bentley here, looking like he's spent the past decade watching that American Beauty plastic bag and forgetting to shave. R. AARON MESH. Hollywood Theatre.

Vanaja

From India comes a movie that proves that no matter where we may live, no matter what cultural barriers may divide us, we can all be bored by giggling children. I wasn't compelled by the juxtaposition of vibrant Bollywood colors and a stilted social-injustice plot. AARON MESH. Hollywood Theatre.