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South Sound Cinema
Christopher Wood on April 16th, 2013
I see you now, peeking out your bedroom window with trepidation, scanning the skies for the next threat of rain. (Don't ask how I know where you live, just ignore the nondescript vehicle cruising slowly past your home ... YOU LOOKED! *tires squeal*)
Where was I? Right, your feeling of house
South Sound Cinema
Christopher Wood on March 19th, 2013
We begin this month's edition of South Sound Cinema in Tacoma's quaint Proctor District, where since early February the esteemed Blue Mouse Theatre has transformed itself into a veritable Stargate portal to global cinema. The Sister Cities International Film Festival has already flung audiences to Israel, Cuba and Japan, and
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Christopher Wood on March 4th, 2013
And if you desperately missed all the snow and ice denied us this season, or, like me, prefer watching all winter activities through an indoor screen, the Capitol Theater has an event that should make both camps happy. Friday, March 8, the Olympia Film Society and The
South Sound Cinema
Christopher Wood on February 19th, 2013
I only have one thing to say to you: OSCAR!!
Well, I guess I can say a little more. (The Volcano does pay me by the word, you know, and doesn't cue the exit music when I ramble on.) But speaking of drawn-out speeches, the 85th annual Academy Awards has arrived,
Arts Features
Christopher Wood on December 27th, 2012
Let's review: So what did you get accomplished in 2012? Some of you graduated from high school/college, some welcomed a bouncing baby boy/girl into the world, still others found/lost that perfect job. (My condolences to the latter.) As for me, just another typical year fighting my future self while rising
Arts Features
Christopher Wood on September 11th, 2012
In 1985 the world met The Goonies, then nothing happened for a while. Suddenly, goon-mania returned with a vengeance last year, starting with the Seann William Scott's hockey comedy called ... yep, Goon. And only last month did Matthew Perry begin starring in yet another sitcom entitled Go On. (Okay,
Arts Features
Christopher Wood on May 30th, 2012
Hell hath no fury like a lover scorned. Spartan king Menelaus loses Helen to Paris, and he launches a thousand ships to reclaim her and raze Troy as a pretty bonus. Mark Zuckerberg's girlfriend dumps him, and he passive-aggressively retaliates by building his own empire not on land, but online
Afterword
Christopher Wood on May 15th, 2012
I wouldn't go so far as to say The Writer's Lodge in Seattle will cast a spell over all visitors, but the ambiance does work some kind of magic. A combination of senses hit me at once upon seeing the newly-opened Lodge last week - the sunshine, the bubbling fountain
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Christopher Wood on April 13th, 2012
Watching a good independent film at a festival is a bit like meeting The One, then losing his/her number - you may never run into each other again. But The Grand Cinema, our local cinematic Cupid, believes in second chances, and second screenings. So in case you missed Losing Control
Arts Features
Christopher Wood on April 4th, 2012
I pledge allegiance to the flag ...
Our Father, who art in Heaven ...
What else can you recite verbatim from your school days? I know that after 17 years of private and public education, not much stuck with me into adulthood. And don't ask me about the Bible - just trying
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Recent Blog Posts
Walkie Talkie Blog
Christopher Wood on October 10th, 2012
I witnessed some great talent in Tacoma last night. And I don’t mean The Beebs.
I managed to avoid the gridlock crawling towards the Mecca-like Justin Bieber concert, heading north instead for Day 6 of The Grand Cinema’s Tacoma Film Festival. This particular evening’s selection called itself Grit City Flicks,
Walkie Talkie Blog
Christopher Wood on August 17th, 2012
Reading about 25 promising talents of independent film on a magazine page or tiny smartphone screen is one thing. But getting to interact with these talents and seeing their work in a theater makes the experience much more ... I don't know ... 3-D perhaps?
For the third year in a
Walkie Talkie Blog
Christopher Wood on June 25th, 2012
We sure do love us a good prequel, the party before the party. Friday night's "Sneak Peek" event at The Grand Cinema was the Prometheus to its here-before-you-know-it Tacoma Film Festival (October 4-11), except it actually made sense and involved a lot less alien goo. Attendees answered trivia about the
Walkie Talkie Blog
Christopher Wood on May 23rd, 2012
When undertaking a sprawling 15-hour film (yes, FIFTEEN) about the history of global cinema, one can start just about anywhere. Mark Cousins, who wrote and narrates The Story of Film: An Odyssey, begins near the end, 103 years after the invention of motion pictures. For his documentary's first images he
Walkie Talkie Blog
Christopher Wood on May 22nd, 2012
Filmmaker Denny Tedesco has spent the last several years touring the world with his labor of love, a documentary entitled The Wrecking Crew, and this week it arrives in Tacoma for one day only. The Grand Cinema will host afternoon and evening screenings of the film on Wednesday, May 23,
Walkie Talkie Blog
Christopher Wood on May 7th, 2012
STIFF's evening show at Grand Illusion Cinema last Sunday brought a mixed bag of films to a nearly packed house. A Man, Buried (which I previewed in an earlier Movie Biz Buzz) started things off on the right note, with viewers enjoying this magical, darkly comic fable. While Tacoma's Rick
Walkie Talkie Blog
Christopher Wood on May 2nd, 2012
Can you believe already three years have passed since producer/co-writer Randy Sparks finished his short comedy It Don't Rain on Sunny Days? Even more unbelievable is that I and the Volcano still can't shut up about it. Actually, I get into such a forward-thinking mindset, always seeking out the newest
Walkie Talkie Blog
Christopher Wood on May 1st, 2012
The jagged white triangle of Rainier explodes against a blue sky during the warmest day Tacoma has probably basked in this year. At first glance, the large house overlooking downtown looks as cheery as the weather, yet it houses a cold secret. See that? Someone has even blacked out a
Walkie Talkie Blog
Christopher Wood on April 24th, 2012
Late in 2011, a French director, hardly known to American audiences, came to this country with his film The Artist and won the admiration of critics and five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Now we head back east, as select American moviemakers invade the shores of France for next month's
Walkie Talkie Blog
Christopher Wood on April 17th, 2012
WRITER/DIRECTOR JESSE WATSON'S FILM TO SCREEN AT STIFF >>>
We all have multiple identities. Sometimes, Tacoma's Rick Walters makes films. He produces, acts, and has even written and directed his own short, 2011's Scamp. At other times he wears the title Dad for his son Race (the two performed together in
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Recently Reviewed Movies
Christopher Wood on March 30th, 2011
Independent cinema serves as a refuge for many, a means of expression for those marginalized groups that otherwise wouldn't have a voice (or willing listeners for that matter). Mainstream media cannot hope to cover all viewpoints of an issue; sometimes the only way the rest of us even know a
Christopher Wood on October 26th, 2012
It looks like any office lobby in any corporate high-rise - a receptionist's desk with computer and keyboard, a few chairs for visitors to wait in while leafing through generic coffee table books. But Doug Stapleton has sinister plans for this place, oh yes. Last weekend it transformed into the
Christopher Wood on September 15th, 2010
One of cinema's main attractions involves its promise to carry us off and into worlds beyond our everyday living and imagining. Much of the eclectic lineup scheduled for this year's Tacoma Film Festival (Oct. 7-14) takes place in different states, on different continents, and a few emerge purely from their
Christopher Wood on July 12th, 2011
No one likes it when a party has to end. Cinegeek that I am, every year when the Tacoma Film Festival wraps I want it to start all over again, not only to replay the movies I did see, but to catch what I missed the first time.
In a way
Christopher Wood on April 4th, 2012
My birthday, January 2008: Laughing nervously as a crazed Daniel Day-Lewis delivers his now-classic line, "I ... drink ... your ... MILKSHAKE!" in the finale of There Will Be Blood.
Summer 2007: Marveling at the sheer scope of Danny Boyle's sci-fi spectacle Sunshine.
Fall 2005: (Over)acting all over the UWT campus in
Christopher Wood on October 5th, 2011
How about a magic trick? Most films perform one; they conceal as much as they reveal. They have us so mesmerized by the world flashing onscreen that we barely tune in to that other world just beyond the frame, that of the film's creators. They cover up their own tracks
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