Movies

The Canone Brothers are coming to town. The twin Americana artists' documentary "The Canote Twins" will screen at the Magic Lantern. The twins will perform Friday at Hamilton Studio and will play a square and contra dance Saturday at the East Spokane Grange.

The first time we glimpse Jackie (Katy O’Brian) on screen in “Love Lies Bleeding,” it is not particularly auspicious. But we haven’t yet seen Jackie through the eyes of Lou (Kristen Stewart), and that’s the only gaze that matters in this film. When Lou – the manager at a muscle-head gym – catches sight of Jackie prowling among the weight machines, skin gleaming, her powerfully muscular body reflected in the mirror, almost glowing, it’s like director Rose Glass is letting us in on a lusty little secret. Lou’s desire is so palpable you can smell it, and lucky for her, the feeling is mutual.

There’s a scene in “Kung Fu Panda 4” that resonates with anyone who’s struggled to meditate. The heroic panda, Po (Jack Black), plops under a blossoming peach tree, relaxes his paws and attempts to concentrate on a mantra. “Inner peace, inner peace,” he chants, but his mind can’t stay still. “Inner peace. Dinner please. Dinner with peas. In a sesame-soy glaze.” Spell broken, Po pads off having summed up this frantic sequel in, well, a pea. It aspires to be Taoism for tykes, but it’s just too fidgety.

Did Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer" have the best picture Oscar in the bag when it opened in theaters last July?

The beckoning spirit of Brazilian bossa nova floats through “They Shot the Piano Player.” A lot of ghosts, living and dead, float through, too – the aging but still vibrant musicians of that late ’50s/early ’60s musical revolution and the artists who live on only in recordings and archival interviews. But this animated documentary’s central ghost remains touchingly and frustratingly unknowable: Francisco Tenório Júnior, a gifted pianist, considered by his peers as one of the best of their generation, who disappeared in 1976 while on tour in Argentina.

“Dune: Part Two,” director Denis Villeneuve’s long-anticipated second chapter of the science-fiction epic, hit theaters this weekend. But it was secretly screened more than six weeks earlier in an unusual location: a palliative care facility, for a movie buff whose last wish was to see the sequel before he died.

Several years ago, while standing in line to see a movie at the Sundance Film Festival, I began talking to a guy who told me he represented a European film distribution company. He explained that his firm was desperate for what he called “product.”

Imagine a world devoid of color or warmth, foundering amid environmental catastrophe and tribal factions that threaten to bring humanity to the edge of fatal fanaticism.

One of the most beloved movie theaters in Los Angeles, the historic Village Theater in Westwood, is now under new management — and the owners include some of the biggest names in Hollywood.

Having snagged what can be a hard-to-get distribution deal for an indie film, “A Good Enough Day,” made in Spokane, dropped last week on Amazon Prime and Apple TV. Now anyone with an internet connection can watch this beautiful, award-winning meditation on life and death.

Coen brothers fans who have breathlessly awaited the solo fiction directorial debut of Ethan might want to cool their jets – or at least adjust their expectations. “Drive-Away Dolls,” the first Coen movie without brother Joel’s imprimatur, is a decidedly mixed bagatelle of B-movie riffs, late-’90s anti-style, lesbian raunch and retreads of beloved Coen classics. As a fast-paced, bawdy road comedy, this isn’t an inauspicious debut as much as a curiously flimsy and forgettable one. Your mileage may vary to the point of completely sputtering out.

The Beatles are getting the film treatment as Oscar winner Sam Mendes gears up to helm four films from each of the Fab Four’s perspectives — for which there will be “nothing off limits.”

"A Good Enough Day," a film shot in Kendall Yards, is now streaming on Apple TV and Amazon.

Sydney Sweeney, who is one of Hollywood's busiest actresses, stars in "Madame Web," which was released Valentine's Day.

On the night of Jan. 28, 1985, dozens of that era’s top rock and pop artists gathered to make a recording.

Most of the people at the "Bob Marley: One Love" screening I attended walked out of the theater singing along with the closing credits song, Marley's "Is This Love."

Once upon a time, comic book movies used to be camp, riding the line of silliness and sincerity that would suit the cinematic adaptation of a slim illustrated volume about superheroes and their exploits. But over 20 years ago, the superhero industrial complex rejected camp, becoming dark and gritty, then sarcastic and flip, then cycling back to wholesomely earnest again for a time. However, in these days of waning superhero enthusiasm, fatigue setting in, it seems there’s an opening for comic book movies to be stupid – stupidly fun – again, especially if “Madame Web” can tell their fortunes.

Christopher Nolan is one step closer to cradling his first Oscar. Saturday at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, the 53-year-old British director of "Oppenheimer" won the Directors Guild of America's award for feature film.  

Spokane immediately popped into Alexander Yellen’s head when he pondered where to shoot the road-trip portions of the film “Daruma.” Yellen briefly pondered locales while in his Los Angeles home while poring over his wife, Kelli McNeil-Yellen’s script.