Gary Wolcott's "Mr. Movie" column has appeared in the Tri-City Herald since 1992. The Tri-City native now lives in Portland, Ore., and watches about 250 movies each year. This member of Portland's association of movie critics, Far From Hollywood, believes movies are made to be seen on theater screens and should be seen there and not on television screens. Have a question for Mr. Movie? Click on "Add Comment" below. Mr. Movie has joined Twitter. Follow him here.
A Japanese family gathers to celebrate the life of the deceased oldest son.
He died saving a boy from drowning. The boy now a man also attends.
Still Walking is about one day in the life of the family and centers around the surviving son and the disappointment of his doctor dad.
What happens on the screen and to the characters is ordinary. Average. A day in the life of a few people.
Ordinary and average have never been so extraordinary. Still Walking is an amazing movie, a complex, yet simply told dissection of the dynamics of family.
Mr. Movie rating: 4 1/2 stars
Not rated, probably PG-13 for mature themes. It plays Friday, Dec. 4 only at 8 p.m. at the Battelle Auditorium.
5 stars to 4 1/2 stars: Must see on the big screen
4 stars to 3 1/2 stars: Good film, see it if it's your type of movie.
3 stars to 2 1/2 stars: Wait until it comes out on video.
2 stars to 1 star: Don't bother.
0 stars: Speaks for itself.
'A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas' lots of highs, very few lows
At least the studios waited until after Halloween to release the year's first holiday movie.
Four days to be exact. But who’s counting? Used to be that holiday movies hit a few weeks later — on Thanksgiving. Not anymore or that anyone notices. For years, many of the big box and major hardware stores have started their Christmas decoration, lights and stuff displays in August.
Kudos to Battelle Film Club for bringing 'The Hedgehog'
The Hedgehog is a subtitled French film from 2009 that finally got released in the U.S. last year, and thanks to the Battelle Film Club , it will be seen in the Tri-Cities.
The story centers around Paloma, an 11-year old girl whose interests are philosophy and art.
No one in her family can relate. Her parents barely speak to each other much less to Paloma. The disconnected mom talks to plants, and the psychiatrist but can’t talk to her daughter. Dad is nowhere to be found.
35th Annual Portland International Film Festival begins
The 35th Annual Portland International Film Festival has begun. It runs through February 25. For film fans this one is loaded. There are 140 films from 36 different countries — 93 are features and 46 shorts.
Portland isn’t that far from Tri-Cities art film lovers. This entry reviews a few films from the first weekend and Monday. I’ll be posting reviews throughout the series until its conclusion February 25th.
Written and directed by Emilio Estevez, The Way casts real-life dad, Martin Sheen, as Tom.
He’s a middle-aged dentist with a structured, ordered life. Tom is driven, successful and doesn’t understand his free-spirit son. After you sow a few wild oats, you settle down, go to college, become a professional and join regular society.
Battelle Flim Club presents 'Le Bonheur' with much happiness
This week, the Battelle Film Club
presents Le Bonheur , a French film with the title that translates to “Happiness.”
The title of the subtitled flick is appropriate. Francois is happily married to the beautiful Therese. They have two equally beautiful kids. The very much in love Francois and Therese and the children spend many happy hours being — well — happy.
Francois meets Emilie. Like everyone else, she’s happy. He’s instantly smitten. Moments later, Francois is completely in love. So is she. They have an affair. Nothing super sordid. Just a happy get together once or twice a week. In fact, the more he sees Emilie, the deeper he falls in love with her, the deeper he falls in love with his wife.
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