Staff Picks
While you wait for fall movie season to get underway (with some of the best films of the year, from Pacific Northwest filmmaker Kelly Reichardt’s electrifying “The Mastermind” to the locally shot-and-set stunner “Train Dreams”), there’s a bunch of great programming to see at Seattle’s indie moviehouses. Here are some recommendations for September.
The Beacon
The spectacular film series Destroy Me More: Self-destruction and Mutual Annihilation as a Transcendental Art begins with a bang with David Cronenberg’s erotic vehicular demolition classic “Crash” (Sept. 5, 6, 7, 10). A dreamlike exploration of desire, death and destruction, it’s one of Cronenberg’s best. Then there’s Marina de Van’s New French Extremity knockout “In My Skin” (Sept. 5, 8, 9, 10). This macabre, mournful vision uses gore to excavate the agony buried deep inside a woman whose life is coming undone, creating a compassionate character study that never blinks in the face of violence. Similarly unblinking is Claire Denis’ “Trouble Every Day” (Sept. 14, 16, 18). It’s her most uncompromising film, from its structure to its disquieting descent into depravity, that’s also her most hauntingly honest about the human condition and the horrors we inflict on each other. The rest of the series includes “Kotoko” (Sept. 9, 11), “The Piano Teacher” (Sept. 12, 13, 15), “Alucarda” (Sept. 19-20), “In the Realm of the Senses” (Sept. 20 and 24) and “Identikit” (Sept. 22, 23, 25), though it’s the closer, Julia Ducournau’s “Titane” (Sept. 26, 27, 30), that ties everything together. Though in conversation with Cronenberg’s “Crash,” there’s nothing like it as Ducournau crafts a meditation on identity and found family as uniquely brutal as it is beautiful.
4405 Rainier Ave. S., Seattle; 206-420-7328, thebeacon.film
Central Cinema
Shifting gears to some lighter fare, you can see a gloriously goofy Andy Samberg vehicle, “Hot Rod” (Sept. 5-10); a silly Kevin Bacon monster movie romp, “Tremors” (Sept. 5-10); and a screening of the rare sequel that goes harder than the first, “Blade II” (Sept. 11).
1411 21st Ave., Seattle; 206-328-3230, central-cinema.com
Northwest Film Forum
The annual Local Sightings Film Festival returns this month with a rich bounty of great regional works such as a 20th-anniversary screening of Robinson Devor and Charles Mudede’s enduring Seattle-made “Police Beat” (Sept. 19); Jackson Devereux and Lachlan Hinton’s outstanding documentary about a modern Oregon mystery “Not One Drop of Blood” (Sept. 20); Jacy Mairs’ thoughtful coming-of-age drama “Trash Baby” (Sept. 20); Sarah Hoffman’s patient documentary exploration of our relationships with wolves “Wolf Land” (Sept. 26); and Kenzie Bruce’s complex portrait of people freed from prison working to become firefighters “Firebreak” (Sept. 28). Outside Local Sightings, you best catch Guy Maddin’s bonkers black-and-white wonder of a film “Brand Upon the Brain!” (Sept. 5-7, 12-14), which was shot in Seattle and made a splash after playing at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2006. It’s an audaciously experimental, often terrifying and always evocative encapsulation of memory that boldly dances between genres while remaining entirely its own. Then there’s the delightful “Don Hertzfeldt Presents: Animation Mixtape” (Sept. 5-7, 12-14). Copresented with the local Sea Slug Animation Festival and with a new animated intro from Hertzfeldt, it features films from new voices as well as classic works that may inspire you just as they did the acclaimed animator.
1515 12th Ave., Seattle; 206-329-2629, nwfilmforum.org
SIFF
It’s “Stars Wars” month at SIFF Cinema Downtown. Its Ultimate Cinematic Marathon features “The Phantom Menace” (Sept. 5, 13, 16), “Attack of the Clones” (Sept. 5, 13, 17), “Revenge of the Sith” (Sept. 5, 13, 18), “Solo” (Sept. 5, 8, 18), “Rogue One” (Sept. 6, 8, 15), “A New Hope” (Sept. 6, 9, 12, 15), “The Empire Strikes Back” (Sept. 6, 10, 12, 16), “Return of the Jedi” (Sept. 6, 11, 12, 17), “The Force Awakens” (Sept. 7, 9, 14), “The Last Jedi” (Sept. 7, 10, 14) and “The Rise of Skywalker” (Sept. 7, 11, 14). If you’re looking for films that are a little bit closer to our galaxy, go check out new restorations of Shinji Sōmai’s “Love Hotel” (Sept. 5-6) and “The Friends” (Sept. 6-7) at SIFF Film Center, where you can also go see the critical trio of documentaries “A State of Passion” (presented by The Grand Illusion on Sept. 11), “Democracy Noir” (Sept. 12-15), and “New Wave” (Sept. 23). Jay Duplass, who previously starred in the late, great Seattle director Lynn Shelton’s stellar film “Outside In,” will be coming through town to share his latest directorial gem of a dramedy, “The Baltimorons,” which opens Sept. 17 at SIFF Cinema Uptown followed by him leading a Q&A.
SIFF Cinema Downtown, 2100 Fourth Ave., Seattle; SIFF Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave. N., Seattle; SIFF Film Center, 167 Republican St., Seattle; 206-464-5830, siff.net
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