Fourth Row Center

When the director of the indie The Merry Gentleman suffered a ruptured appendix, actor Michael Keaton stepped up and delivered a beautiful, quiet and contemplative film about two souls looking for redemption and release from the horrors of their pasts while struggling with issues of trust and acceptance as they face painful and uncertain futures. Set in Chicago, Keaton plays a loner who struggles with the horrible things he does for a living, and is about to end it all when a woman (Kelly MacDonald) running from her past as the wife of an abusive husband interrupts his attempt and ultimately saves his life. This one moment draws the characters together into a complex relationship that has dangerous – and perhaps deadly – consequences. But these characters, drawn with light stokes of the director’s brush, manage to embed themselves into the psyche of the viewer, resonating with a power that is both puzzling and refreshing. The Merry Gentleman is not an easy film to sum up without givi

Moon is one of those festival films that manages to surprise and delight, as it far exceeded my expectations. Often, "independent" and "sci- fi " add up to a nice effort and only that, with two much effort expended in trying to make "cool sci- fi " while leaving story and character back on Earth. Not so, Moon . English director Duncan Jones said his influences were the original Alien , Silent Running and Outland , and he's crafted a story about a simple blue collar working man who's finishing up a three year contract mining helium on the moon and wants nothing more than to return to his wife and child back on Earth. But with two weeks to go before returning to Earth, Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell, in a role written with him in mind) begins to suspect that he is not alone on the moon. To continue with the synopsis would include a spoiler on which the entire plot of Moon turns, so I will say only that Sam is tested physically and psychologically to his l

I am sitting in the Egyptian theater waiting on Moon to start. It's been a good festival thus far, as I've seen films ranging from a Romeo and Juliet-inspired tale of teen angst and forbidden love to a few of the great classics classics of American cinema. Tonight I am here to see a cabin fever flick set on the moon starring Sam Rockwell as an astronaut who has spent three years alone overseeing a mining operation and, with two weeks to go before he is to return to earth discovers that he may not be alone. The Egyptian is one of those huge, grand old city cinemas with lush velvet curtains everywhere and colorful ornamentation (in this case, the theme is, well, Egyptian). They feature typical art house fare - independents, foreign films, classics and great weekend midnights like Raiders of the Lost Ark , Bladerunner and The Princess Bride . Tonight's feature is sold out, and the place is packed. Fourth row center feels like the middle of a sardine can. But the cinematic ex

In The Answer Man Jeff Daniels plays the author of a bestselling book on spirituality who is himself still searching for answers to life's most painful questions. He lives in fear of being discovered as a fraud and his solitary life is invaded by a few fearful and searching souls who believe he holds the answers they've been seeking. At its core The Answer Man is about fear -- fear of being alone, of not knowing where our lives are headed, of losing those close to us, of not finding the answers to the questions that plague our lives. Daniels is immensely likable as the bitter sage who gleans answers to his own questions through the act of helping others. He is supported by a capable cast that includes Lauren Graham as the love interest. The Answer Man is not a perfect film, but neither are its characters.

Among the many programs featured each year at the film festival it is perhaps the archival program that I enjoy the most. I have screened many great films from years past, both well known and obscure, in large venues packed with movie lovers. This year's archival screenings are introduced by Robert Osborne, that knowledgeable, film-savvy host from Turner Classic Movies. He's like a professor: he knows everything about every movie ever made. And he is also much like a favorite uncle who knows all the family gossip, but in Osborne's case they are stories from Hollywood's Golden Age. Watching him introduce a movie is like having him in your living room, rummaging through you DVD collection and offering observations like,"Once Hitchcock completed filming the classic shower scene he realized he could never use Janet Leigh in a movie again because viewers would forever associate her with Psycho ." Osborne introduced The Adventures of Robin Hood starring Errol Flynn

The Seattle International Film Festival is back and again this year I am going to cram as many films as I can into the 25 days of non-stop screenings. SIFF boasts 268 features and 124 shorts this year, as well as the usual few surprises. Today I screened a new film called Shrink , starring Kevin Spacey as Henry Carter, a successful Los Angeles “psychiatrist to the stars” who turns to drugs following the death of his wife. The movie deals with loss, suicide and drug addiction. But despite the heavy subject matter the superb cast delivers a good deal of humor and humanity along the way. Shrink is also about movies – watching movies, loving movies and making movies. The lives of an obsessive-compulsive Hollywood power agent, a struggling screenwriter, two substance-abusing film actors and a distraught teenager who escapes her pain by cutting school and going to the cinema orbit and intersect with Carter as his life and career spiral out of control. This is a film about broken people sea