Break the Chain (PDXFF 2017) - Documentary Review

The Movie: Break the Chain

The Directors: Laura E. Swanson and Kirk Mason

The Story: The film chronicles two survivors of Human Trafficking - providing a detailed look at how trafficking goes unnoticed within our backyards. Kwami, a child survivor of Labor Trafficking, was enslaved for nearly five years with three other children in Ypsilanti, Michigan before anyone noticed. Debbie, a survivor of Sex Trafficking, takes us through her experience of being sold for sex around the Detroit-Area between the ages of 13 and 18. - BreakTheChainFilm.com

Secret Santa (PDXFF 2017) - Movie Review

The Movie: Secret Santa

The Director: Adam Marcus

The Cast: A Leslie Kies, Michael Rady, Michelle Renee Allaire, Pat Destro, Drew Lynch, Curtis Fortier, John Gilbert, Nathan Hedrick, Megan Helbing, Petra Areskoug, Ryan Leigh Seaton, Debra Sullivan, Michelle Allair, Freddy John James, Eddie Jordan III

The Story: A dysfunctional Christmas party turns deadly when an unexpected gift brings out the evil in everyone and turns the yuletide festivities into a fight for survival.

The Hollow Child (PDXFF 2017) - Movie Review

The Movie: The Hollow Child

The Director: Jeremy Lutter

The Cast: Jessica McLeod, Hannah Cheramy, John Emmet Tracy, Jana Mitsoula, Genevieve Buechner, Connor Stanhope, Johannah Newmarch

The Story: A troubled foster teen, Samantha, works to expose a dangerous supernatural impostor in her new family and rescue her foster sister.

Thor: Ragnarok - Movie Review

The Movie: Thor: Ragnarok

The Director: Taika Waititi

The Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Tessa Thompson, Mark Ruffalo, Idris Elba, Jeff Goldblum, Karl Urban, Anthony Hopkins, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tadanobu Asano, Ray Stevenson, Zachary Levi

The Story: This is what Thor and Hulk were doing during Civil War.

Blue (HIFF 2017) - Documentary Review

The Documentary: Blue

The Director: Karina Holden

The Story: Blue is a provocative journey into the ocean realm, witnessing this critical moment in time when the marine world is on a precipice.

Brown's Canyon (PDXFF 2017) - Movie Review

The Movie: Brown's Canyon

The Director: John Helde

The Cast: Lisa Every, Eric Jordan, Carter Rodriquez, Jenn Ruzumna, Sara Rucker Thiessen

The Story: Two self-help gurus plan to resuscitate their careers by co-hosting a women’s mindfulness retreat in the Utah wilderness. When surprise guests, a mudslide and a bowl of spoiled chili thwart their plans, their own lives unravel over one awkward weekend.

The VelociPastor (PDXFF 2017) - Movie Review

The Movie: The VelociPastor

The Director: Brendan Steere

The Cast: Gregory James Cohan, Alyssa Kempinski, Fernando Pacheco De Castro, Jesse Turits, Daniel Steere,

The Story: After losing his parents, a priest travels to China, where he inherits a mysterious ability that allows him to turn into a dinosaur. At first horrified by this new power, a hooker convinces him to use it to fight crime. And ninjas.

Wol-ha: Very Bad Moon Rising (PDXFF 2017) - Movie Review

The Movie: Wol-ha: Very Bad Moon Rising

The Director: Oh In-chun

The Story: Commissioned by a mysterious international collector with a large sum of money, a party makes an expedition to find “the tomb of Kisaeng Wolhyang”.

Thank You for Your Service - Movie Review

The Movie: Thank You for Your Service

Director: Jason Hall

The Cast: Miles Teller, Haley Bennett, Joe Cole, Beaulah Koale, Keisha Castle-Hughes, Amy Schumer, Erin Darke, Scott Haze, Omar J. Dorsey, Brad Beyer

The Story: A group of U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq struggle to integrate back into family and civilian life, while living with the memory of a war that threatens to destroy them long after they've left the battlefield.

Only the Brave - Movie Review

The Movie: Only the Brave

The Director: Joseph Kosinski (Oblivion)

The Cast: Josh Brolin, Miles Teller, Jeff Bridges, Jennifer Connelly,

The Story: Based on the true story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, a group of elite firefighters risk everything to protect a town from a historic wildfire.

TwoOhSix Picks - 2017 Hawaii International Film Festival

Aloha! I am very excited to once again be providing press coverage for the Hawaii International Film Festival (HIFF) which features a very unique perspective on film making while focusing on movies that come from all over the world with a heavy influence from the Asia/Pacific regions. After perusing this year's festival schedule, I have hand picked a selection of the films that I personally would not want to miss along with a few I have already seen and would highly recommend.

Annabelle: Creation - Movie Review

The Movie: Annebelle: Creation

The Director: David F. Sandberg (Lights Out)

The Cast: Anthony LaPaglia, Samara Lee, Miranda Otto, Lulu Wilson, Talitha Eliana Bateman, Stephanie Sigman

The Story: 12 years after the tragic death of their little girl, a doll maker and his wife welcome a nun and several girls from a shuttered orphanage into their home, where they soon become the target of the doll maker's possessed creation.

TwoOhSix Picks - 2017 Portland Film Festival

The 2017 Portland Film Festival, one of the "coolest film festivals in the world", is back with a slate of films, events, workshops, and parties that any film fan would fall in love with. After taking a look at this year's lineup, I've put together a selection of movies that have caught my attention and feature genres that I love to watch.

TwoOhSix Picks - Amplify Her at the SIFF Uptown

On Thursday, October 26th, Seattle's very own SIFF Uptown Cinema will be hosting the "Purple Carpet Tour" which features Amplify Her, a mostly local and all female made documentary, graphic novel, and animated motion comic series that explores the rise of female artists in the electronic music scene. It is a collaborative exploration of feminism within corporate culture and shows how women can thrive when creativity and passion is given an opportunity to push through industry constraints.

Award-winning filmmakers Ian MacKenzie and Nicole Sorochan 

This is going to be a fantastic multi media event that will also include an after party with an all female DJ lineup performing at Re-Bar including WALA, one of the women featured in the documentary. Tickets are available exclusively through the Eventbrite ticketing page. General admission tickets are available as well as special VIP tickets that include a copy of the ground breaking graphic novel.

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Geostorm - Movie Review

The Movie: Geostorm

The Director: Dean Devlin

The Cast: Gerard Butler, Jim Sturgess, Abbie Cornish, Alexandra Maria Lara, Daniel Wu, Eugenio Derbez, Amr Waked, Adepero Oduye, Andy Garcia, Ed Harris, Zazie Beets

The Story: Disaster threatens the planet after weather controlling satellites are compromised.

Battle of the Sexes - Movie Review

The Movie: Battle of the Sexes

The Directors: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris

The Cast: Emma Stone, Steve Carell, Andrea Riseborough, Natalie Morales, Sarah Silverman, Bill Pullman, Alan Cumming, Elisabeth Shue, Fred Armisen, Eric Christian Olson, Martha MacIsaac, Jessica McNamee, Lewis Pullman, Chris Parnell

The Story: The true story of the 1973 tennis match between World number one Billie Jean King and ex-champ and serial hustler Bobby Riggs.

Marshall - Movie Review

The Movie: Marshall

The Director: Reginald Hudlin

The Cast: Chadwick Boseman, Josh Gad, Dan Stevens, Kate Hudson, Sterling K. Brown, James Cromwell, Keesha Sharp, Roger Guenveur Smith , John Magaro, Ahna O'Reilly

The Story: About a young Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American Supreme Court Justice, as he battles through one of his career-defining cases.

Trailers Are Cool: Star Wars, New Mutants, Thor, Pacific Rim, Black Panther

The last couple weeks has seem some fantastic trailer releases and I can't stop watching them! Okay, so I stopped long enough to compile there here so we can all watch them continuously for hours on end. Which trailer is your favorite? Which movie are you most looking forward to?

Happy Death Day - Movie Review

The Movie: Happy Death Day

The Director: Christopher Landon (Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones)

The Cast: Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, Ruby Modine, Charles Aitken, Laura Clifton, Jason Bayle, Rob Mello

The Story: Mean spirited sorority girl must relive the same day over and over until she solves her own murder.

The Foreigner - Movie Review

The Movie: The Foreigner

The Director: Martin Campbell (Casino Royale)

The Cast: Jackie Chan, Pierce Brosnan, Rufus Jones, Katie Leung, Charlie Murphy, Orla Brady, Lia Williams, Michael McElhatton, David Pearse, Tao Liu, Ray Fearon, Rory Fleck Byrne

The Story: A humble businessman with a buried past seeks justice when his daughter is killed in an act of terrorism. A cat-and-mouse conflict ensues with a government official, whose past may hold clues to the killers' identities.

Blade Runner 2049 - Movie Review

The Movie: Blade Runner 2049

The Director: Denis Villeneuve (Arrival)

The Cast: Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Robin Wright, Ana de Armas, David Dastmalchian, Jared Leto, Mackenzie Davis, Dave Bautista, Lennie James, Carla Juri

The Story: A young blade runner's discovery of a long-buried secret leads him to track down former blade runner Rick Deckard, who's been missing for thirty years.

Wasted! The Story of Food Waste - Documentary Review

The Movie: Wasted! The Story of Food Waste

The Directors: Anna Chai, Nari Kye

The Story: Through the eyes of famous chefs, audiences will see how they make the most of every kind of food, transforming what most people consider scraps into incredible dishes that create a more secure food system.

American Made - Movie Review

The Movie: American Made

The Director: Doug Liman (Edge of Tomorrow)

The Cast: Tom Cruise, Domhnall Gleeson, Sarah Wright, Jesse Plemons, Caleb Landry Jones, Alejandro Edda, Benito Martinez

The Story: The story of Barry Seal, an American pilot who became a drug-runner for the CIA in the 1980s in a clandestine operation that would be exposed as the Iran-Contra Affair.

Better Watch Out (SIFF 2017) - Movie Review

The Movie: Better Watch Out

The Director: Chris Peckover

The Cast: Olivia DeJong, Levi Miller, Dacre Montgomery, Virginia Madsen, Patrick Warburton

The Story: On a quiet suburban street, a babysitter must defend a twelve-year-old boy from intruders, only to discover it's far from a normal home invasion.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle - Movie Review

The Movie: Kingsman: The Golden Circle

The Director: Matthew Vaughn

The Cast: Taron Egerton, Colin Firth, Channing Tatum, Halle Berry, Mark Strong, Julianne Moore, Jeff Bridges, Edward Holcroft, Michael Gambon, Sophie Cookson, Hanna Alström

The Story: When their headquarters are destroyed and the world is held hostage, the Kingsman's journey leads them to the discovery of an allied spy organization in the US. These two elite secret organizations must band together to defeat a common enemy.

The Osiris Child: Science Fiction Volume One (SIFF 2017) - Movie Review

The Movie: The Osiris Child: Science Fiction Volume One

The Director: Shane Abbess

The Cast: Kellan Lutz, Daniel MacPherson, Luke Ford, Isabel Lucas, Temuera Morrison, Rachel Griffiths, Teagan Croft

The Story: Set in the future in a time of interplanetary colonization, an unlikely pair race against an impending global crisis and are confronted by the monsters that live inside us all.

The Tiger Hunter - Movie Review

The Movie: The Tiger Hunter

The Director: Lena Khan

The Cast: Danny Pudi, Jon Heder, Rizwan Manji, Karen David, Sam Page, Iqbal Theba, Parvesh Cheena, Michael McMillian, Kevin Pollak

The Story: A young Indian man relocates to 1970s Chicago to become an engineer, but when his job falls through, resorts to an elaborate charade with misfit friends in order to woo his childhood sweetheart.

Walking Out (LSFF 2017) - Movie Review

The Movie: Walking Out

The Director: Alex Smith and Andrew Smith

The Cast: Matt Bomer, Lily Gladstone, Alex Neustaedter, Bill Pullman

The Story: An urban teenager journeys to Montana to hunt big game with his estranged father. Father and son struggle to connect, until a brutal encounter in the heart of the wilderness changes everything.

Zilla and Zoe (LSFF 2017, PDXFF 2017) - Movie Review

The Movie: Zilla and Zoe

The Director: Jessica Scalise

The Cast:  Greg James, Aida Valentine, Sam Kamerman, Kurt Conroyd, Mia Allen

The Story: To win the contest of her dreams, Zoe will have to turn her sister's wedding into a horror film.

Mother! - Movie Review

The Movie - Mother!

The Director: Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan)

The Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Ed Harris, Michelle Pfeiffer, Brian Gleeson, Domhnall Gleeson, Jovan Adepo

The Story: A couple's relationship is tested when uninvited guests arrive at their home, disrupting their tranquil existence.

TwoOhSix Picks - 2017 "Local Sightings" Film Festival

Northwest Film Forum's Local Sightings Film Festival is celebrating it's 20th year and 2017 promises to be the best and most innovative event yet. From September 22nd through the 30th, attendees will be able to enjoy feature films, short films, workshops, and special programs including VR content that promises to push film making into the future. The four films listed below are my can't miss picks although there is so much more going on, you'll want to check out everything the festival has to offer.

It (2017) - Movie Review

The Movie: It (2017)

2017 Favorite Horror Movie

The Director: Andy Muschietti

The Cast: Bill Skarsgård, Jaeden Lieberher, Finn Wolfhard, Sophia Lillis, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Chosen Jacobs, Jack Dylan Grazer, Wyatt Oleff,

The Story: A group of bullied kids band together when a monster, taking the appearance of a clown, begins hunting children.

The Hitman's Bodyguard - Movie Review

The Movie: The Hitman's Bodyguard

The Director: Patrick Hughes (The Expendables 3)

The Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson, Gary Oldman, Salma Hayak, Elodie Yung

The Story: The world's top bodyguard gets a new client, a hit man who must testify at the International Court of Justice. They must put their differences aside and work together to make it to the trial on time.

The Villainess (악녀) - Movie Review

The Movie: The Villainess (악녀)

The Director: Jung Byung-gil

The Cast: Kim Ok-bin, Sung, Joon, Shin Ha-kyun, Bang Sung-jun, Kim Seo-hyung

The Story: A woman assassin leaves a trail of bodies behind her as she seeks revenge.

Second Nature - Movie Review

The Movie: Second Nature

The Director: Michael Cross

The Cast: Collette Wolfe, Sam Huntington, Carollani Sandberg, Riley Shanahan, Carolyn Cox

The Story: A woman and man compete in an unusual race for mayor when gender roles magically reverse.