John Ford

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By | January 01, 0001

Review: True Grit (2010)

The Coen brothers are True to Grit
Those who saw John Wayne's Oscar-winning, scenery-chewing turn as "Rooster" Cogburn in Henry Hathaway's 1969 adaptation of True Grit might have a hard time shaking that off when it comes to appreciating Jeff Bridges in the same part.
By PETER KEOUGH | February 24, 2011

Music for the love of it

From the Schemers to the Men of Great Courage, Mark Cutler’s songs have always gotten to ‘that special kind of place’
Whether driving his Men of Great Courage on a tune about a spooky midnight stroll, or gently declaring a deep camaraderie with “We Shall Always Remain Friends,” Cutler’s concocting a soundtrack to the feelings in the room.
By JIM MACNIE | May 05, 2010

The onliest Sonny

Rollins looks at 80
Sonny Rollins has held the unofficial title of world’s greatest living improviser at least since the early ’70s, following the death of John Coltrane and the second of two extended Rollins sabbaticals from public performance.
By JON GARELICK | April 15, 2010

Review: Sweetgrass

Triumph of the wool
One of the most enigmatic close-ups I’ve seen on screen this year is of a sheep. It stares into the camera at the beginning of Ilisa Barbash & Lucien Castaing-Taylor’s documentary about a round-up of the critters in Montana’s Beartooth Mountains, ruminating thoughtfully, as enigmatic as the Mona Lisa.
By PETER KEOUGH | March 30, 2010

Review: ASP's The Duchess of Malfi, Nora's The Cherry Orchard

Dying breeds
T.S. Eliot famously opined that John Webster saw "the skull beneath the skin."
By CAROLYN CLAY | January 13, 2009

Just a little bit

‘Lossless’ at The Sert Gallery, ‘Overflow’ at Laconia Gallery, Garry Knox Bennett at the Fuller, and String-Theory-inspired art and music at NESAD
Digital-era experimental filmmakers occupy a rich and interesting place in relation to the new technology available to them.
By RANDI HOPKINS | September 23, 2008

Crowded stage

Ballet showcase grows and grows
Portland Ballet Company will present its annual Portland Dances! New Works Showcase, a sampler of original jazz, modern, point, and experimental choreography.
By EMILY PARKHURST | August 27, 2008

Fearsome Otto

Remembering Preminger
My one brush with the late Otto Preminger seems like a typical encounter.
By GERALD PEARY | May 13, 2008

Body of War

Poetic Americana
Tomas Young volunteered for the US Army right after 9/11, hoping to be sent to Afghanistan and chase down Osama bin Laden.
By GERALD PEARY | April 09, 2008

Social dancing

Portland Dances! addresses society's problems
Portland Ballet isn’t all pliés and tendus.
By KELSEA BRENNAN-WESSELS | August 15, 2007

Editors' picks 2007: City Life

Best empty space, best downtown escape from the city, and more
Bally Total Fitness, Pleasant Street Park, and In Our Hearts.
By PORTLAND PHOENIX STAFF | January 25, 2010

Cars

Pixar's rise of the machines is slow death in the fast lane
This noisy animated paean to NASCAR and Route 66 gets mired in the middle laps on a grippy track.
By JUSTINE ELIAS | February 20, 2007

Devine DVDs

Film-smart gifts for people who think they’ve seen everything
Sure, we all know Get Smart! is out on DVD in time for the holidays, and the Superman films (all of them, going back to 1948), and Mission Impossible: The Ultimate Missions Collection , sure, sure, as if you could miss the bleating sirens of studio publicity.
By MICHAEL ATKINSON | December 07, 2006

Whitey wash

Scorsese, Damon, and DiCaprio honor The Departed
One of the first questions at a Manhattan press conference for Martin Scorsese’s Boston-set mob thriller is addressed to “Matt and Ben.” Fateful Departed: Scorsese haunts the mean streets of Beantown. By Peter Keough
By BRETT MICHEL | October 04, 2006

Film angel

Janet Gaynor at the Harvard Film Archive
Janet Gaynor was the first actress to win the Academy Award, and in her day — the late-silent and early-talkie eras — she was fantastically popular, especially in the 11 movies she made with the likable, curly-haired Charles Farrell.
By STEVE VINEBERG | September 27, 2006

Sifting Shakespeare

Ron Rosenbaum on Bottom, bottomlessness, the Bard, and . . . Ron
“For the spirit searcheth all things, yea, the bottom of God’s secrets.” That quotation from the 1557 Geneva Bible’s First Corinthians is the unlikely foundation of Ron Rosenbaum’s The Shakespeare Wars .
By JEFFREY GANTZ | September 19, 2006