Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life, Joann Sfar's César Award winning biopic, contains large flourishes of visual brilliance and imagination, but ultimately succumbs to the dreary aspects of the Celebrity Biopic formula. The movie is currently playing at the Harvard Exit. more ›

CHANNELING BARBRA STREISAND: If you love everything Neil Diamond, Bette Midler, or Barbra Streisand, you are in for a treat. The vocally gifted illusionist Edwards Twins, Anthony and Eddie Edwards (no joke), are in Seattle for a limited time to sing their asses off and impersonate many of the greats. People raves: "The Edwards Twins in many ways are better than watching the real thing." If you don't believe it, you will now. Seating can be hard to come by, so get there early. As a perk, on Tuesdays there's a two-for-one dinner special. Not bad! 6:30 p.m. dinner, 8:30 p.m. show // Julia's on Broadway, 300 Broadway East // Tickets: $25-35 more ›

SHORT FILMS: Tonight, the awards for this year's 48-Hour Film Project are being given out at the Harvard Exit, after a screening of top films. The festival this year included over 50 teams, who were given three elements to include in a film to be made in two days. The full screenings of all submissions took place back on June 23-25, but you can catch the creme de la creme tonight. 9 p.m. // Harvard Exit Theater // 807 E. Roy St. // $10 more ›

ONE SINGULAR SENSATION: James D. Stern and Adam Del Deo's award-winning documentary Every Little Step is finally in Seattle, and we think musical and film lovers alike will get a kick out of this new hit. The film follows the legacy of A Chorus Line, through four decades of amazing actors, behind-the-scenes dramas, and variations on the international musical favorite. Every Little Step is also the first documentary in Broadway history to be allowed filming privileges throughout the extensive audition process for last year's recent revival, showing anything and everything that is A Chorus Line. (4:15), 7:15, 9:35 p.m. // Harvard Exit, 807 East Roy // Tickets: $7-9.50 more ›

IN FULL GIAMATTIVISION: Cold Souls is the too-grimly titled existential comedy starring Paul Giamatti as Paul Giamatti. While rehearsing Uncle Vanya, Giamatti begins to lose himself in his character's depression, and looking for a temporary fix, stumbles across the new process of "soul extraction," as detailed in the New Yorker. While the movie is deadpan, Giamatti is not. His off-kilter spiral into soullessness is by turns hilarious and touching. more ›

LIPS LIKE SUGAR: It's been a long time since we saw it at Sundance last year, but Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck's follow-up to Half Nelson is finally in theaters. Sugar follows a young Dominican baseball player as he tries to make it through the farm teams and into the major leagues. Sez us: "This ain't no rag-to-riches sports story, nor is Sugar in the vein of Behind the Music, chronicling a meteoric rise and fall; instead, it's a much more complex and realistic portrayal of the professional athletic system. Once again, Boden and Fleck prove their high level of screenwriting skill and directorial talent. They know how to write a nuanced script and they know where to put the camera." Sugar continues its run at the Harvard Exit through Thursday. more ›

Saturday, May 9th, the Northwest Film Forum teams up with 826 Seattle to present a special screening of Away We Go, the latest film by Sam Mendes. The movie will be in theaters June 5th, but this sneak-peek will be at the Harvard Exit with Dave Eggers (who wrote the screenplay along with his author wife Vendela Vida) on-hand for a post-film Q&A. Away We Go is your basic coming-of-age road-trip thing, except this time around the people coming of age are a mid-30s couple (John Krasinksi and Maya Rudolph) expecting their first child. So their misadventure-laden journey is not just about finding themselves, it's also about finding the best place for their family. What is the meaning of home? And so on and so forth. more ›

Tonight marks the last movie in the Route 08: Scion Independent Film Series. This time the good people at Toyota are sponsoring a free screening of Chop Shop, the second film by writer/director Ramin Bahrani, best known for his depressing, yet totally stellar debut, Man Push Cart. Thematically, Chop Shop sounds like more of the same: more ›

A free movie, free booze, and DJ Cide spinning while you socialize beforehand? Say yes to Scion's Route 08, an independent movie series showing in Seattle at the Harvard Exit. Audrey discussed the ins and outs of corporate-sponsored lifestyle marketing events in preview of the last film, Heavy Metal In Baghdad; go read that again so you're spiritually prepared for the onslaught of Scionism, and then RSVP on the Scion website by 5 p.m. tonight in order to get free admission. The movie tonight is Quinceañera, and it looks like a great pick; check out the trailer below, and we'll see you at the pre-funk reception later this evening. more ›

Face it, folks: it's fall in Seattle, and along with cooler nights, leaves changing color, and the beginning of football season, fall also marks the annual Scion independent film series. Yes, it's corporate-sponsored lifestyle marketing aimed at the hip youth demographic, and yes, they just want the kids to buy their damn cars, but we're willing to shill for it when 1) it's free and 2) the films shown are actually worth seeing. The series kicks off tonight with Heavy Metal in Baghdad, the first full-length film made by the good people at Vice: more ›

We have no idea why there isn't an exclamation mark after new restaurant Olivar's name. It just seems natural. But there isn't, even though they must be excited to be open. We didn't go to the grand opening last night, but we could smell the kitchen and it made us very hungry. more ›

JUG BAND IDOL: Starting today, Greg Vandy of KEXP's The Roadhouse will hold live auditions for a new jug band. Without a harsh Brit, we're not sure what to expect, but we know it's unmissable. more ›

The end is near! You're running out of chances to stand in line for a SIFF film, so if you haven't yet, get on it. Things wrap up this weekend. In the meantime, here's the rundown on our picks for today through Thursday. It's quite a week. For all SIFF screenings, the general/member ticket prices are $11/$9 (and matinees $8/$7), except for gala screenings and other special events, which cost more. more ›

REALLY GOOD DOCUMENTARY: Here's yet another reason that SIFF has won the loyalty of Seattle's filmgoers, , a terse, refreshingly un-preachy documentary that attempts to unravel the mystery behind the murder of an American nun in the Brazilian rainforest. more ›

This is the end, the end of free movies, care of Scion. Single tear. Via their Route film series, the youth-oriented car company has already tackled the true-to-life topics of blood diamonds in hip hop and nightclubbing in the late '80s NYC queer community. Now for something completely different: more ›

Well, it's been a month, and that can only mean one thing: time for the next free edgy youth culture documentary, care of Scion. Last time around, the topic was blood diamonds in hip hop; this time it's all about nightclubbing in the late '80s NYC queer community. more ›

Scion's back in town bringing music, art, and culture to the kids. Sure it's subversive corporate lifestyle marketing to the coveted youth demographic, but we do like that it's free. Their art installation is at BLVD Gallery for a few more nights, while their film series is running once a month at the Harvard Exit. Somehow we missed the September film (Mayor of Sunset Strip), but we'll definitely be there tomorrow night for Bling: A Planet Rock. more ›

About three lives ago, when we were living in a scientific research station in Ecuador, we watched The Postman (Il Postino) with a group of Westerners. After the movie, which is one of our favorites, we were sitting there, wondering why the room had suddenly gotten all dusty, when a privileged teenage British hipster/tourist named Aelys (pronounced like Alice, but her parents preferred the Welsh spelling) announced that she hadn't liked the movie because it was too slow. Charlie's Angels 2, she liked, but not this. more ›

Rachel Hynes is a former barista and yet still enjoys spending time in espresso places. She will review them. This is her first such review. more ›

It's SIFF's last bleary-eyed, numb-assed, popcorn-butter-fingered weekend, so if you haven't stopped in for some film-festy fun, you gotta act fast. We held Audrey upside-down and shook her until she gave us some selections -- no, no, you deserve the best. There's no telling how far we'd go to make you happy. more ›

Sniff sniff, single tear. It's the last full week of SIFF, so you're well approaching your last chance till next year to take in some of that sweet filmy goodness. SIFF's not just movies; this week offers both the Opticlash 2 VJ battle at the CHAC and the Face the Music party at Neumo's, the latter of which includes performances by Viva Voce, Jesse Sykes, and Siberian. Tickets for both are going fast! more ›

We are, in fact, over half-way there, and yet we continue to live on a prayer--a prayer that the latter half of SIFF contains nearly as many fine films as what's been shown thus far. Seattlest applies our well-honed knowledge of all things cinema to the SIFF catalogue in order to point out some notable films playing this weekend: more ›

This week the weather's cooperating a bit more. Nothing like escaping rainy days with a film festival (except if you get stuck in a downpour while waiting in line, so pack that umbrella). Once inside you'll be golden thanks to your perusal of Seattlest picks. Trust us. Golden! more ›

This weekend the National Weather service is calling for mid-70s to 80 degrees. You may want to recover from heatstroke by rehydrating in an air-conditioned theater with other bepinkenned Seattleites, and their melanin-endowed friends savoring their little moment of schadenfreude. (Here's the Seattle Times cheat sheet on the various venues.) more ›

Memorial Day weekend is finally behind us, so it's time to settle into SIFF. Yes, it's absolutely lovely outside, but Seattleites can only handle so much sun. Get away from all that UVA/UVB exposure and spend your time in the theaters' comfortable darkness. more ›

Now that the opening gala has kicked off SIFF all proper-like, it's time to join the orgy of cinema for the next 25 days. For all film screenings, the general/member ticket prices are $10/$8 (and matinees $7/$5), except for gala screenings, which are $25/$23, and the closing night film event, which is $40/$35. more ›

BENEFIT: The Clif Bar Save Our Snow Tour, featuring DJ Sabzi from the Blue Scholars, stops by Fremont to help start global cooling. First they came for the snow, but we said nothing, because we follow the sun. more ›

*Carrie Clark mp3s here. more ›

THEATER: You have only five more chances to catch WET’s latest offering, In Disdress Now: Redux. Marya Sea Kaminski’s one-woman show was originally developed as as part of On the Boards' Northwest New Works Festival in June 2006. Now the “story of a girl wrestling meaning out of love, porn, and the folds of an enormous red hoop dress” has been expanded into a full-fledged tour de force. more ›

The Scion film series comes to an end Tuesday night at the Harvard Exit with Pablo Aravena's graffiti documentary Next: A Primer on Urban Painting, featuring interviews with the likes of Futura, Lee Quiñones and Doze Green, as well as younger art collectives like the Inkheads, the Barnstormers and Heavyweight. more ›