Belladonna of Sadness, directed by Eiichi Yamamoto, is an erotic tale of violence and revenge set in medieval France and told through psychedelic animation. Based off the book Satanism and…
Chapo Trap House visits Portland
The leftist political comedy podcast Chapo Trap House made two appearances at Holocene on Sunday, April 1. Hosts Matt Christman, Felix Biederman, Virgil Texas, Amber A’Lee Frost and Will Menaker…
Nice girls don’t wear cha-cha heels
If you’re familiar with John Waters’ movies, you’re either a huge fan or are generally baffled by his continued popularity in the underground film circuit. I highly doubt that film…
Feminist cinema debuts at 5th Ave.
In celebration of International Women’s Day on Thursday, March 8, 5th Avenue Cinema is showing two shorter pieces: Left On Pearl and Genesis 3:16. Left On Pearl is a 2017…
MR. PICKLES! GOOD BOY!
I’m a metal newbie. I like Pallbearer a lot, and I’m a huge fan of Mastodon—although I don’t know if it counts as metal. However, when I decided to review…
Find it at 5th Ave.: ‘Precious’
Lee Daniels’ 2009 drama Precious remains a source of controversy in the film community. Positive and negative criticisms of the film tend to form a hyperbolic spectrum. While Precious is…
‘Boyz N The Hood,’ a classic in New Black Realism
Boyz N The Hood is a 1991 film infused within the American cinema lexicon and has become a film nearly everyone knows of, even if they’ve never watched it or…
‘Chameleon Street,’ Fascinating, forgotten and (mostly) factual
Chameleon Street, the only film by writer-director Wendell B. Harris Jr. is, in some ways, a classic American narrative. A young man (Harris) is unsatisfied with his life and decides…
‘La Noire de’ is a short and bitter upheaval of European cinema
Sometimes you don’t need your film to be two hours long to make an impact. La Noire de is a 50-minute condemnation of mid-century European attitudes toward Africans. The film…
‘I Am Cuba,’ a Soviet technical marvel
However you feel about the politics of a pro-Castro drama funded by the Soviets screening on Portland State campus, you owe it to yourself to see I Am Cuba. In…
“I Wake Up Screaming” Goes Deep in Noir
Director Bruce Humberstone’s thriller I Wake up Screaming (1941) features a mix of flashback-heavy noir and comedy as it tells the story of a New York boxing promoter (Victor Mature)…