This Week in Seattle Cinema: Anything But Comic Books Edition

Big film news this weekend will surely gravitate towards the San Diego Comic-Con and the hotly anticipated opening of Captain America: The First Avenger, but that doesn't mean you grumpy, comic-book-hating cinephiles are out of options. While I also fully endorse you seeing A Not So Still Life at SIFF Cinema sometime this week, here are a few other undervalued screenings you can duck into in lieu of endlessly hearing about shield-throwing steroid users or if Hollywood's finally going to make a Krypto, The Super Dog movie.

Beginners
Harvard Exit Theatre (7/23-7/28)
A perfect antidote for those of you whose eyes rolled to the back of their head when they heard there was going to be another "bone your friends" movie featuring a prominent Black Swan actress this weekend, Mike Mills' Beginners is a heady dramedy-romance positively overflowing with chemistry amongst its three leads. Ewan McGregor plays Oliver, an emotionally guarded middle-aged man whose defenses are ravaged by a new love in his life, played to charming perfection by Inglorious Basterds star Mélanie Laurent. If that initial assault weren't enough, the death of his mother pulls back two startling secrets: his father is a homosexual and has been diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. What follows is an ambitious journey back though Oliver's emotional development and into the final years of his father's life, making for a disorganized, but intensely honest film that makes an ideal centerpiece for a romantic night out.

Tourist Trap
Grand Illusion Cinema (Tonight, 11 PM)
If you love nudity, kindly old men that aren't what they seem, and prolonged torture sequences, have we got a movie for you! Dodge the Capitol Hill Block Party crowds tonight with this mindblowing, late '70s horror film that starts off as an eccentric series of nods towards more "grounded" contemporaries like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre before quickly spinning into a hellish fever dream featuring homicidal mannequins and telepathic psychos. Tourist Trap was directed by David Schmoeller, a Texan director who rubbed elbows with the likes of master mindfuckers Luis Bunuel and Alejandro Jodorowski in his education -- and who wears that surrealist distinction quite unmistakably here.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
Grand Cinema (7/23-7/28)
Tacoma's lonesome crown jewel for indie film is now exhibiting this methodical adaptation of Lisa See's 2005 novel by the same name, directed by Chinese-American director and remake junkie Wayne Wang (The Joy Luck Club, Last Holiday). Like the book, the movie explores the trajectory of emotional conflict for Chinese women as presented by two loyal friendships separated by hundreds of years. Unfortunately, the film has a notably plodding pace and a baffling commitment to English that seems to constantly hinder its lead actresses, who don't come off as very comfortable with the language at all. However, if you were fan of The Joy Luck Club, you'll have a lot to chew on in this tradition-rich melodrama. Also, Hugh Jackman has decided to show up for a dramatically out-of-place cameo or two, so there's that.