Things of a theatrical nature for the January 7th weekend

By the time you read this, Best of 2010 should be up and renting. Come in and see our favorite DVD & Blu-ray releases of last year and let us know what we missed. If you're looking to get your movie fix outside your living room, here's what's showing on some screens around town: SIFF Cinema is hosting the Nordic Heritage Museum's second annual NORDIC LIGHTS FILM FESTIVAL, featuring acclaimed contemporary films from Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, and Norway. Visit their site for the full lineup, which includes a free screening on Saturday of MILLENNIUM: THE STORY, a documentary on late The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo author Stieg Larsson. Northwest Film Forum has this to say about this week's new film GUY & MADELINE ON A PARK BENCH: "With nods to Jean-Luc Godard's BAND OF OUTSIDERS and Jacques Demy's UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG, Damien Chazelle's debut...is a refined updated version of the French New Wave's pioneering throw-everything-to-the-wind-and-see-what-sticks approach." Anything that combines those two films should be fantastic. Speaking of Godard, NWFF also has what the director called "my second first film," the 1980 exploration of an urban midlife crisis EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF. There's almost too much good stuff showing at Central Cinema; there's the perennial favorite GHOSTBUSTERS, the totally disturbing transformation horror of VICTIM, Jean-Claude Van Damme's STREET FIGHTER presented in "Hecklevision" ("Your smart-ass texts appear LIVE on the screen!"), Three Dollar Bill Cinema's screening of GIRLS WILL BE GIRLS on Wednesday, a BETTER OFF DEAD quote-a-long, and a week long run of THE NEVERENDING STORY. It's probably easier to watch that whole scary wolf part in public and with a drink or two. There's also a lot going on down the street from us at Grand Illusion Cinema. They're showing GRANT MORRISON: TALKING WITH GODS, a documentary about the renowned comics author/magician/philosopher. Saturday marks the beginning of The Sprocket Society's SCI-FI SATURDAY SECRET MATINEE. The series runs every weekend from now until March 26th with a different secret sci-fi classic plus segments of the 1936 FLASH GORDON serial. In the Late Night spot, there's the 1969 South African kids film LOST IN THE DESERT. This hallucinatory adventure isn't available on DVD so don't miss this chance to see it. We're also happy to see Columbia City Cinema forging on into the future and highly recommend you see something there this weekend (TANGLED is surprisingly enjoyable). The Golden Globes are next Sunday, so you may also need to catch up with some nominees. The frontrunner for most awards is THE SOCIAL NETWORK, which returned to some theaters around town this week and will also be out on DVD & Blu-ray on Tuesday. Happy viewing to all.