This weekend, Hollywood will once again throw itself a fancy party, and you're invited... to watch the nominees that are still in theaters! There's even a new Oscar hopeful release: Honeyland, a rare double nominee for Best Documentary and Best International Picture. (You should also check out our list of Academy Awards watch parties and other festivities.) Other options: the sprightly Margot-Robbie-as-Harley-Quinn vehicle Birds of Prey, the terrifying children's classic Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and one of the greatest films of all time, the sensual ghost story Ugetsu. See all of our film critics’ picks for this weekend below, and, if you're looking for even more options, check out our film events calendar and complete movie times listings.
Movies play Thursday–Sunday unless otherwise mentioned.* = Nominated for a 2020 Oscar
*1917
Legendary screenwriter William Goldman once said of the film industry, “Nobody knows anything,” and this is still mostly true, with one exception: If cinematographer Roger Deakins shot the movie, that movie is worth seeing on the biggest screen possible. Even if 1917 were solely the most impressive work of Deakins’ remarkable career—which it is—I’d be recommending it. But the World War I movie is also one hell of a stunning storytelling experience from director Sam Mendes, co-writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns, and editor Lee Smith. “But wait,” you say, “isn’t the whole point of this movie that there aren’t any cuts? Why did they need an editor at all?” 1917’s hook (or less generously, its gimmick) is that it’s meant to unfold in a single, unbroken take. It’s one of the rare instances of a film’s marketing actually benefiting the finished film, because of the way this knowledge is both paid off... and then subverted. BOBBY ROBERTS
Various locations
Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Director (Sam Mendes), Best Cinematography, Best Original Screenplay, Best Makeup & Hairstyling, Best Original Score, Best Production Design, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Visual Effects
2019 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Tour
This annual film tour of abbreviated features includes the best of the best out of Sundance, all gathered together in one place for your viewing convenience. The seven 2019 films in the 96-minute theatrical program include the awkward yet sweet romance of Sometimes I Think About Dying, whose painfully introverted protagonist goes from wondering how corpse flies might feel walking around on her dead skin ("like a billion tiny massages?") to thinking about the thread count of her colleague's sheets; Muteum, a charming animated short from Estonia about a visit to the museum that takes a funny turn; and Short Film Special Jury Award for Directing winner Fast Horse, a doc about our country's first extreme sport, Indian Relay, where jockeys ride horses bareback and jump from one horse to another amid racing. Also screening: Suicide By Sunlight, Brotherhood, The MINORS, and Crude Oil.
Northwest Film Forum
Sunday only
*2020 Oscar Nominated Shorts: Animated Program and Live Action Program
Sure, the Oscars’ depressing obsession with Joker (11 nominations! lol) has done even more damage to the crumbling reputation of an obsolete institution that barely even pretends to be anything other than an artistically meaningless, months-long bullshit marketing campaign. But once you look past a certain movie about how hard it is to be a white clown in America, there is some stuff getting recognized that’s actually good—and you’ve got a decent chance of catching some of it in the programs that collect this year’s nominated live-action, animated, and documentary shorts. If you’re only catching one of the programs, the animated one’s generally the way to go. ERIK HENRIKSEN
SIFF Cinema Uptown
Thursday only
Atlantics
The sea is ever present in French writer-director Mati Diop's first feature film, Atlantics. The ghost-haunted love story follows Ada (Mama Sane) after losing her beloved Souleiman (Ibrahima Traoré), who disappeared one night on a raft aimed for Spain along with other boys in town. It takes place on the outskirts of Senegalese's capital, Dakar, which is the westernmost city on the continent and dug into a peninsula. The Atlantic is the thread that binds Ada to Souleiman. It becomes a chorus that narrates from the wings: it is the sea that can be seen from Dakar's luxury houses that Souleiman helped build, but never saw payment from; the sea that Ada constantly, worryingly, looks into as if Souleiman's face, body, and soul would rise up and present itself to her, unharmed. The sea gives this ghost story a logic. JASMYNE KEIMIG
The Beacon
Thursday only
Bad Boys for Life
Michael Bay's absence behind the camera (although he briefly appears in a cameo that I reflexively booed) is immediately apparent. The action—still glistening, swooping, and forever circling, as directing duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah do some damn good Bay-raoke in their debut—is slower and mostly coherent. But even more remarkable: For the first time that I can remember, this is a Bad Boys movie primarily fueled by emotion as opposed to disdainfully rejecting it. And get this: That emotion? HUMILITY! I know. What the fuck, right? But fucks are abundant in Bad Boys for Life, and given often, flying just as freely as the one-liners, bullets, and grenades going off frequently and everywhere. BOBBY ROBERTS
Various locations
Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)
Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), no more the Joker's abused handmaiden, teams up with some superheroes to protect a little girl.
Various locations
Candyman
Slashers aren't particularly known for things like nuance, or thoughtfulness, or tendencies towards social progressivism and empathy—so seeing all those elements foregrounded in Bernard Rose's adaptation of horror master Clive Barker's short story is startling,and that's before you get to the macabre artistry lent to the numerous (and fucked-up) kills, perfectly underscored by the stark compositions of Philip Glass. BOBBY ROBERTS
Central Cinema
Friday–Sunday
*The Cave
The director of the devastating Last Men in Aleppo delivers a look into the lives of Syrian women doctors from 2016-2018. Despite danger and sexism, these women work to treat patients in an underground hospital under the city of Ghouta, near Damascus. This documentary won the Audience Award at the Toronto Film Festival.
Grand Illusion
Thursday & Saturday-Sunday
Nominated for: Best Documentary
Chloe in the Afternoon
A man in a happy marriage is sorely tempted when a friend's former mistress sets out to seduce him in Eric Rohmer's classic serious comedy.
Seattle Art Museum
Thursday only
Citizen K
Oscar-winning documentarist Alex Gibney turns his considerable filmmaking prowess to a portrait of the former oligarch and current political exile Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who, after his imprisonment and seizure of assets, was forced by Putin to leave Russia.
Grand Illusion
Crippled Avenger
The Beacon calls this Chang Cheh action fest "outrageous, fantastic, and maniacally entertaining." Four heroes are terribly mutilated by a kung-fu master and his evil son. Seeking justice, they accept the tutelage of a much nicer kung-fu master in order to develop new strengths.
The Beacon
Saturday only
Cunningham
Merce Cunningham (who, as you Northwest dance aficionados may already know, attended Cornish College in the '30s) had a seven-decade career in dance and choreography, founding the world-famous Merce Cunningham Dance Company. This documentary juxtaposes archival footage, interviews, and new dance footage.
SIFF Cinema Uptown
Earth
Austrian director Nikolaus Geyrhalter (Homo Sapiens) offers a visually compelling meditation on heavy industry's devastation of the natural landscape as mining and construction companies literally move mountains to make money.
Northwest Film Forum
Saturday–Sunday
Fantastic Fungi
At its worst, Fantastic Fungi gets too woo-woo wacky for its own good (when the film’s discussion turns to magic mushrooms, the visuals turn into what is, as far as I can tell, just a psychedelic screensaver from Windows 95), but at its best, the doc pairs fantastic time-lapse imagery with a good dose of actual, mind-blowing science. Affable, passionate mushroom researcher Paul Stamets is joined by talking heads Michael Pollan, Andrew Weil, and narrator Brie Larson to examine everything from massive fungal networks that carry signals between disparate, distant plants to the psychological benefits of psilocybin. It’s an uneven trip, but a good one. ERIK HENRIKSEN
Varsity Theatre & SIFF Cinema Uptown
Female Prisoner #701 Scorpion
You probably already know in your heart whether or not you'd like to see the first film in this artsy women-in-prison exploitation trilogy, made in Japan in the 1970s. It's a hugely influential and stylish revenge tale, but it also carries major trigger warnings for sexual violence.
The Beacon
Thursday only
*Ford v Ferrari
F v F is about how corporations can’t help but crush the passion and innovation they so desperately need. In this case, the crushees are race car designer Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) and driving phenom Ken Miles (Christian Bale), both of whom are forced to cajole, finagle, and manipulate the suits at Ford in an attempt to win the famed Le Mans road race. Director James Mangold (Logan) smartly avoids the emotionally manipulative tricks found in other sports biographies, and Damon and Bale are, unsurprisingly, excellent and affecting. The problem? It’s impossible to ignore the two elephants in this room: The fetishization of white male toxicity and car culture, topics which society is trying to deal with and solve… not celebrate. This makes Ford v Ferrari a very good movie that, a decade ago, would’ve been considered great. Now it feels like a brand-new film that’s already an antique. WM. STEVEN HUMPHREY
Regal Meridian 16
Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Editing, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing
Thursday only
The Gentlemen
There’s an odd (and fun) sense of formality to The Gentlemen, director Guy Ritchie’s newest crime flick that trades the downtrodden, violent British grit of his former films (like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch) for a classier vibe that’s still violently gritty. Matthew McConaughey is, as usual, McConaughey (that’s a good thing), Colin Farrell is a case study in unflappable hilarity, Hugh Grant is England’s greatest treasure, and The Gentlemen is a fun, twisty-turny joyride through Britain’s well-heeled drug trade. Its moments of shocking, often comical violence should pair nicely with a snifter of good cognac. WM. STEVEN HUMPHREY
Various locations
Gretel and Hansel
Osgood Perkins, son of Anthony Perkins (of Psycho fame) and director of the well-reviewed artsy-horrors The Blackcoat’s Daughter and I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House, takes the classic woodsy fairy tale to folk-grotesque extremes.
Various locations
*Harriet
Aside from the assistance that the formerly enslaved Harriet Tubman got from the Underground Railroad, it’s hard to imagine exactly how she pulled off all her heroics. With Harriet, audiences are given a live-action reimagining of Harriet Tubman’s journey to self-liberation: changing her name, hiding in bales of hay, being chased by dogs, and getting cornered by armed men on a bridge before jumping into the river. Harriet shows how Tubman (Cynthia Erivo) got help from a secret network of safe houses and trusted free Blacks (Leslie Odom Jr. and Janelle Monáe) who stuck their necks out to help her cause. Throughout the film, the only music you’ll hear, gladly, are negro spirituals—songs that enslaved Blacks used to express their sorrow and joy, and to secretly communicate. Harriet doesn’t subject the sensitive viewer to excessive gore or violence (though there is one particularly unsettling scene), because for once, this is a story in the “slave movie” genre about tremendous triumph, leadership, and Tubman’s unwavering faith, both in God and herself. JENNI MOORE
Crest
Nominated for: Best Actress (Cynthia Erivo), Best Original Song ("Stand Up")
*Honeyland
Hatidze is living in a way that has all but disappeared. She subsists in the Macedonian mountains in much the same world as her ancestors hundreds of years ago: hut made of stones, no electricity, no running water, living off the land. She lives with her very old mother, surviving by harvesting honey and selling it in the town market. Much of documentary follows Hatidze as she takes care of her mother, does her beekeeping, and moves around the land. She exists in harmony with her environment, taking only what she needs. When a nomadic Turkish family with seven wild kids and a RV arrive and set up nearby with their herd of cows, they change the atmosphere drastically. The father is under heavy pressure to support the family, and he has little regard for the environment or engaging in sustainable practices. The doc is an interesting glimpse into a quiet, old way of life. Macedonia is a beautiful and ancient land with lots of rocks and few trees. The pace of the doc, however, is slow and there is little story, and the film can sag a bit while the people just hang out and go about their daily business. GILLIAN ANDERSON
Ark Lodge Cinemas & Grand Illusion
Friday–Sunday
Nominated for: Best International Picture, Best Documentary
*Jojo Rabbit
The latest from Taika Waititi starts off with a bright, Wes Andersonian whimsiness: Young Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis) joyously bounces about at summer camp, having the time of his life as he frolics and laughs with his second-best friend Yorki (Archie Yates) and his first-best friend, the imaginary Adolf (Waititi). Just one thing: Jojo is at Hitler Youth camp—their campfire activities include burning books—Adolf is Adolf Hitler, and World War II is winding down, with Germany not doing so great. Both because of and in spite of its inherent shock value, Jojo Rabbit—based on a book by Christine Leunens—is just as clever and hilarious as Waititi’s other movies, but as it progresses, the story taps into a rich vein of gut-twisting melancholy. There’s more to the complicated Jojo Rabbit than first appears, and only a director as committed, inventive, and life-affirmingly good-hearted as Waititi would even have a chance of pulling it off. He does. ERIK HENRIKSEN
Various locations
Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Production Design, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress (Scarlett Johansson), Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, Best Production Design
Just Mercy
In this dramatization of a true, infuriating story, Michael B. Jordan plays the lawyer Bryan Stevenson, who, with the help of activist Eva Ansley (Brie Larson), fights racism and systemic legal injustice to save the life of an innocent condemned man, Walter McMillian (Jamie Foxx).
Various locations
Keepers of the Dream: Seattle Women Black Panthers
This mini-fest of five short documentaries, produced by Patricia Boiko and Tajuan LaBee, serves as an introduction to the courageous actions of women Black Panther activists, from Frances Dixon to Phyllis Noble Mobley. Local musical star SassyBlack provides the scores. Stay on for a Q&A with the filmmakers, plus activists Vanetta Molson-Turner, Youlanda Givens, and Winona Hollins Hauge, facilitated by assistant director Malika Lee.
Northwest Film Forum
Friday only
Keiko Takemiya Boys Love Double Feature
Get your fill of gay anime with The Poem of Wind and Trees (1981) and The Door into Summer (1987) in this double-feature screening of adaptations of Keiko Takemiya's manga.
The Beacon
Sunday only
*Knives Out
Knives Out [is] Rian Johnson's phenomenally enjoyable riff on a murder-mystery whodunit. The less you know going in, the better, but even those familiar with mysteries will likely be caught flat-footed. Things begin in the baroque mansion of famed mystery novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer), who is very, very dead. Through flashbacks, monologues, and the genteel but razor-sharp questioning of investigator Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), we meet the rest of the Thrombeys—played by Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Toni Collette, Katherine Langford, and more, with everyone clearly having a goddamn blast—and we hear about a billion motives and a billion alibis. Somebody killed Harlan, and while Benoit Blanc is on the case, Knives Out quickly spirals into unexpected territory. In a time when filmgoing is dominated by familiar franchises, seeing an original movie executed with as much care, glee, and skill as Knives Out feels like an experience that's entirely too rare. ERIK HENRIKSEN
Various locations
Nominated For: Best Original Screenplay
*Les Misérables
Suburban poverty and police violence provide a throughline from the 19th-century setting of Victor Hugo's novel to the Muslim populace of present-day Paris in Ladj Ly's critically acclaimed, Cannes Jury Prize-winning adaptation. In a suburb of Paris, Brigadier Stéphane Ruiz takes part in an arrest that turns deadly, and the neighborhood responds with fury to the act of police brutality.
AMC Seattle 10 & Varsity Theatre
Nominated for: Best International Picture
Thursday only
*Little Women
I say this with my whole heart: Greta Gerwig's Little Women is wonderful. Full of wonder, inspiring wonder, embodying wonder. Which is hard to do as the eighth adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's beloved 1868 novel of the same name. Gerwig's adaptation—which she both wrote and directed—feels neither redundant nor stale. Rather, it's a fresh, modern-feeling take on a well-trodden story, stuffed with excellent performances, witty dialogue, and gorgeous costumes. The film jumps between Jo's "present" life in a post-Civil War America and her childhood, living at home with her three other sisters and mother, awaiting the family patriarch to return home from the war as they struggle to make ends meet. The direction and sense of characters are particularly strong in this adaptation. It fleshes each sister out so that she feels real and worthy of empathy, not purely serving as a star vehicle for Ronan in the same way the Winona Ryder version arguably did. JASMYNE KEIMIG
Various locations
Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Actress (Saoirse Ronan), Best Supporting Actress (Florence Pugh), Best Costumes, Best Original Score, Best Adapted Screenplay
Mickey and the Bear
On its surface, Annabelle Attanasio's Mickey and the Bear appears to be your standard, gloomy, coming-of-age tale, its focus Mickey, a wise-beyond-her-years teenager-on-the-brink-of adulthood from a poor family in a small Montana town. Amid working (her taxidermy job reflects her impulse to fix things) and hanging with her loser boyfriend, she takes care of her war vet dad Hank. He's the Bear, wounded both physically (the cause of his opioid addiction) and mentally (he has some righteous PTSD). James Badge Dale plays the role like a violin, but the strength of Mickey and the Bear lies in the performance of relative newcomer Camila Morrone, who, as Mickey, carries the weight of the film in her soulful eyes and enigmatic smile. When Mickey is finally pushed to action, it's a relief, suffusing Mickey and the Bear with a feeling of hope amid the darkness and transforming a good film into a great one. LEILANI POLK
Northwest Film Forum
Thursday only
Moving History: Poetry in Motion
Moving History is the Moving Image Preservation of the Puget Sound's quarterly ciné-collage of rare and archival footage of Seattle and environs. This edition celebrates Black History Month with, among other footage, interviews with artist Jacob Lawrence and civil rights activist Dr. Samuel B. McKinney and video of Seattle Civic Poet Jourdan Imani Keith and Washington State Poet Laureate Claudia Castro Luna.
Northwest Film Forum
Sunday only
Nosferatu
"Prestige horror" isn't new; great directors have worked in the genre since the existence of the motion picture. Esteemed local critic Robert Horton will head this screening series of horror masterpieces, starting with F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu (1922). Discover or revisit these classics and discuss them with your fellow movie nerds.
Scarecrow Video
Saturday only
Part of The Art in Horror
*Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood
We spend the bulk of our time with three people: Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), an earnest, anxious, B-list actor whose career is right about to curdle; Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), Rick's toughed-up, chilled-out former stuntman and current BFF; and Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie), a bubbly, captivating actress who's just starting to enjoy her first taste of success in show business. Two of these people—the ones who're beginning to realize the world is no longer all that interested in what they have to offer—are fictional. The third is not, and how much you know about the real-life events that occurred in and around Los Angeles in 1969 will profoundly color your experience watching the film. How Tarantino plays with history in Once Upon a Time is one of the more intense and surprising elements of the film—and, thankfully, it's also one of the best. ERIK HENRIKSEN
Crest
Friday–Monday
Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Director (Quentin Tarantino), Best Actor (Leonardo DiCaprio), Best Supporting Actor (Brad Pitt), Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Production Design, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing
*Parasite
Parasite is director Bong Joon-ho at his very best. It's a departure from the sci-fi bent of his recent movies, though it's no less concerned with the state of society today. Set in Seoul, South Korea, the families and class issues at play reflect our global era, in which the disparity between the haves and have-nots seems to be widening. Parasite follows the Kim family, who secretly scam their way into the lives of the wealthy Park family. Slowly and methodically, the Kims begin to drive out the other domestic workers at the Park residence, each time referring another family member (who they pretend not to know) for the vacant position. And so the poorer family starts to settle comfortably into the grift—until a sudden realization turns their lives upside down. The resulting film offers an at turns hilarious and deeply unsettling look at class and survival, its essence echoed in the environments the characters inhabit. JASMYNE KEIMIG
Various locations
Shown in black-and-white at SIFF
Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Director (Bong Joon-ho), Best Film Editing, Best International Feature, Best Production Design, Best Original Screenplay
Portrait of Jennie
Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotten star in this expressionistic supernatural romance about a frustrated painter who encounters a beautiful ghost, who first appears as a young girl, then seems to grow older. Music Box Films calls this "easily the strangest film ever recalled fondly by your TCM-loving aunt."
The Beacon
Saturday only
Raise Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins
Join Meaningful Movies for their 17th anniversary with a screening of Raise Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins. Here's what The Stranger's Nathalie Graham has to say about the film: "Did you know one of George W. Bush’s most ardent critics was a journalist from his own state? Molly Ivins was the loudest liberal voice covering the Texas legislature. She eventually followed the Bush clan from the state house to the White House. But that was hardly the height of her career. Ivins had long made a name for herself as a journalist. Her sometimes abrasive style was unique and boisterous. In Raise Hell, Ivins’s story clips along breezily, punctuated by her dry wit. It’s an easy watch, but it’ll leave you wondering: What would the late Ivins have thought of the White House’s current tenant?"
Keystone Church
Friday only
Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project
Matt Wolf's offbeat documentary chronicles the strange habit of Marion Stokes, a wealthy former civil rights activist who recorded 70,000 hours of news on VHS over a period of 30 years. Vivian Hua, the executive director of the Forum, calls this film "amazing."
Northwest Film Forum
Thursday only
*Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
I found The Rise of Skywalker, the last film in the Skywalker saga, boring. And it was not even a long movie, and I'm a fan of the director's (J.J. Abrams) work (particularly Mission: Impossible III—the best in that franchise), and many of the visual effects are impressive—particularly the haunting business of bringing the late Carrie Fisher back to life. But all together, the film is burdened by too much sentimental family stuff (you are my granddaughter, you are my son, you killed my parents, and so on), and its end did not know how to end for a very long time. CHARLES MUDEDE
Regal Meridian 16 & Regal Thornton Place
Nominated for: Best Visual Effects, Best Original Score, Best Sound Editing
Tombs of the Blind Dead
The Beacon kicks off its month of apocalyptic zombie movies with this Portuguese gorefest about undead Knights Templar unleashed upon some unsuspecting college kids. It doesn't look, well, good exactly, but it should be lots of fun for lovers of '70s schlock. Here's the Beacon's spin: "Made in the last days of the Francoist dictatorship, Amando de Ossorio's Blind Dead series necessarily evokes the fear of fascism's resurgence, even as it died. Enough time has passed since that we realize the collapse of fascist regimes in the 20th century was not in any way final. They return. Ossorio's blind, skeletal templars are both some of horror's most haunting screen monsters and a striking metaphor for a fascist-religious power alliance that is depressingly familiar."
The Beacon
Part of Haunted Light
Friday only
Ugetsu
Part sensual ghost story and part cautionary tale about profiteering from war, Ugetsu is a stunning film. Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi in 1953, the film concerns two families in a small village during the rampant civil wars of the 16th century. One couple is tragicomic: The pathetic and groveling husband wants to be a famous samurai, and his wife, who spends most of her time dragging him home. The other family is grimly flawed. Masayuki Mori plays a man who doesn't want to escape his trade so much as achieve transcendence through it, and he throws pots at a breakneck speed, hoping to sell his wares at war-inflated prices in the city. His wife (played by the great Mizoguchi muse Kinuyo Tanaka, who would become the first Japanese woman to direct a film in that same year) gently warns him to resist his greed. Neither husband pays heed, and soon the men are recklessly pursuing fame, wealth, and sex while their vulnerable wives wait behind. ANNIE WAGNER
The Beacon
Friday–Sunday
Uncut Gems
As Howard Ratner, a professional jeweler and asshole in Manhattan’s Diamond District, a great Adam Sandler rarely leaves the screen in Uncut Gems, and the plot is basically Howard and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. That isn’t a shock, considering the film comes from brothers/writers/directors Josh and Benny Safdie, who party-crashed the arthouse scene with 2017’s Good Time (in which Robert Pattinson was the one playing an asshole having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day). Uncut Gems is larger in scope, but like Good Time, it has a moral vacuum at its center—it takes place in the no-man’s-land where society’s walls crumble, and where those who look out only for themselves can best navigate the rubble. The Safdies aren’t interested in morality tales but amorality tales, and their stories’ no-holds-barred recklessness, at first freeing, steadily grows exhausting. Thankfully, the Safdies also know how to shoot, cut, and score like nobody else. There’s a twitchy, addictive energy to Uncut Gems, and the Safdies’ choppy, rapid-fire cuts coalesce into a surreal, exhilarating landscape of prismatic hues, blaring fluorescents, and sharp LEDs, all while the analog synth score by Daniel Lopatin (AKA Oneohtrix Point Never) adds to the lurid beauty. ERIK HENRIKSEN
Various locations
Weathering With You
Audiences seem to love director Makoto Shinkai (Your Name) and his approach of pairing an original plot with standard anime emotional blocking: boy meets girl, girl has weather powers, boy and girl reach for each another’s arms in climactic moments, a character runs until they are exhausted and then they keep running, and also someone must die. Even when Shinkai introduces some interesting ideas about an impending climate apocalypse (oh, like us!), it all feels familiar: The world isn’t saved, but the world doesn’t end. The world continues, changed. SUZETTE SMITH
Regal Meridian 16 & Regal Thornton Place
We Believe in Dinosaurs
If you've never heard of young-earth creationists, We Believe in Dinosaurs offers a sound introduction as it documents their building of an enormous, $120 million "life-size" Noah's Ark in rural Kentucky to prove that the Bible is scientifically and historically accurate. These are folks who reject evolution, think that the Earth and its lifeforms were created by god 6,000 years ago, and look at the story of Noah as factual and the flood as the reason we have all these dino fossils all over the world. Shot over four years, from blueprints to opening day of Ark Encounter, to the aftermath a year later, We Believe in Dinosaurs tells a story of the relationship between science and religion, and religion and politics, and also reveals a disturbingly widespread form of willful ignorance in the U.S. LEILANI POLK
Northwest Film Forum
Friday–Sunday
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
This 1971 classic, directed by Mel Stuart and adapted from the novel by Roald Dahl, has all of the creepy, whimsical, musical elements you love and is 100% Johnny Depp-free.
Central Cinema
Friday–Sunday
Withnail and I
The British filmmaker Bruce Robinson wrote and directed one of the greatest comedies ever made about pretentious artsy types and the pain of letting the good times pass you by. In Withnail and I, two unsuccessful (and usually drunk) young actors named Withnail and Marwood decide to slum it in the country with Withnail's depressed, lecherous gay uncle. Don't miss your chance to see Richard E. Grant (as Withnail) in all his glory: "We've gone on holiday by mistake. We're in this cottage here. Are you the farmer?"
The Beacon
Saturday only
Zombi Child
French director Bertrand Bonello (Nocturama, House of Tolerance) returns with another hyperatmospheric film that intertwines two storylines. In one, a man is enslaved and zombified in colonial Haiti. In another, a white girl at a prestigious boarding school becomes entranced by her Haitian-descended classmate and seeks to appropriate voodoo for her own purposes.
SIFF Film Center
Friday–Sunday
ALSO PLAYING
Our critics don't recommend these films, but you might want to know about them anyway.
