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The man was adding new movie titles to the Capitol Theater's glowing marquee when I arrived Wednesday night. Apparently later in the 31st Olympia Film Festival's run I could watch NATURAL LI E and DI DE CON CO, so either filmmakers these days really dig inscrutable names for their movies,
Walkie Talkie Blog
Once upon a time, the city streets in movies belonged to Dustin Hoffman. See him in Midnight Cowboy, his hobbling Ratso bellowing "I'm walkin' heah!" to a careless downtown cabbie; cradling his injured son while sprinting blocks to find the nearest ER in Kramer Vs. Kramer; emerging for the first
Walkie Talkie Blog
Writer's note: This will be my last installment of recommmended films you can find at local libraries. Enjoy. If you still wonder why Iron Man 3 felt like a movie straight out of the '90s (this film opened with Eiffel 65's "Blue" and dressed a character as Vincent Vega from Pulp
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Every Tuesday, and sometimes on Friday, "Check This Out" recommends movies available at your friendly local library. So you can satisfy your next film fix at the place with the books. If Hollywood in the '60s needed an "issues film," Stanley Kramer was usually the man for the job.
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Every Tuesday, "Check This Out" recommends movies available at your friendly local library. So you can satisfy your next film fix at the place with the books. Before all the salad dressing and philanthropy, Paul Newman didn't always play the nicest of guys onscreen. Early in his long career,
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Every Tuesday, "Check This Out" recommends movies available at your friendly local library. So you can satisfy your next film fix at the place with the books. "Drama is life with the dull bits left out," the wise Hitchcock tells us. So what excitement could one possibly find in
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Every Tuesday, "Check This Out" recommends movies available at your friendly local library. So you can satisfy your next film fix at the place with the books. I once read an essay on Alfred Hitchcock's film Vertigo (currently poised at the top of my favorites list) in which the
Walkie Talkie Blog
Every Tuesday, "Check This Out" recommends movies available at your friendly local library. So you can satisfy your next film fix at the place with the books. You must think me quite the Scrooge this week, thumbing my nose at this computer-animated adaptation of Dickens's classic mere days before
Walkie Talkie Blog
Some days you just don't feel like paying for another Redbox rental, and the next movie on your Netflix queue takes FOREVER to arrive in your mailbox. And recession or no, who can pass up free, convenient
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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,
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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
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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
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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
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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,
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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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WRITER-ACTOR TONYA YORKE'S FILM LISTEN ACCEPTED AT STIFF 2012 >>> With already two films to its credit this year, Tonya Yorke's In the Room Productions quickly moves into the spotlight. While the Tacoma actor-producer's effort in The Shootout, a western about gunslinger Jesse James, nears completion for the festival circuit, last
