No Other Land is a remarkable cinematic document, and I would be pleased to see it take home the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at Sunday night’s Oscar ceremony. It provides a riveting, ground-level perspective on the aggressive tactics used by the Israeli military to drive Palestinian residents from the occupied territories of the West Bank, on the ostensible rationale that the territory is needed for a military firing range. It presents the victims of this violation of international law as fully human beings, and it depicts the unlikely partnership and friendship between a local Palestinian activist and an Israeli journalist as they attempt to record and publicize the cruel, illegal, and violent removal of people from the homes they have known for decades or longer. But, and I hate to say it, will the movie do any good?

After all, as we see within the film, this struggle has being going on for 25 years, and both Basel Adra, the Palestinian, and Yuval Abraham, the Israeli, have been interviewed by Western media many times. The bulldozing of Palestinian homes, forcing their inhabitants to literally live in caves, has been going on since a 2022 Israeli Supreme Court decision that gave the green light to demolitions that many international organizations consider war crimes against a civilian population. In other words, No Other Land isn’t breaking the seal on some horrific, previously unknown scandal. None of this has been going on in secret. By distilling the atrocities into a single feature-length film, and providing personal, tragic narratives to humanize the conflict, the Israeli-Palestinian collective that made the film surely hopes to attract global attention and, ideally, international condemnation of Israel’s actions. But if that hasn’t happened already, what are the odds?

I don’t mean to sound defeatist, just frustrated at the fact that, for all the acclaim and widespread availability that issue-oriented documentaries have achieved in the past couple of decades, the issues in question have almost never been addressed. Did Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine lead to a more rational gun control policy? Did An Inconvenient Truth convince Americans to prioritize the fight against climate change? More recently, did Navalny help its subject avoid his fate? Did 20 Days in Mariupol provide any real solace to Ukrainian victims of Russia’s invasion? At a time when the very notion of objective truth lingers on life support, it’s not shocking that the (supposedly) non-fiction films most successful in changing minds are fraudulent propaganda grenades such as the anti-immigrant election conspiracy rant 2000 Mules or the anti-science absurdity Plandemic. The six top-grossing theatrical documentaries of 2024 include the right-wing “expose” of DEI, Am I Racist?, two Christian evangelistic screeds, and something called Vindicating Trump.

As powerful, passionate, and well-made as a film like No Other Land is, then, does it do anything more than preach to the choir and earn a place in a time capsule? This is not, of course, to denigrate the efforts, bravery, and optimism of the people who put their lives on the line to bring back footage from the front lines. Nor is it to diminish the importance of bearing witness, or the value of spurring that choir to redouble its efforts to combat the treatment of some varieties of human as somehow less than human. But, gosh, it just feels like these efforts to bring the propagandistic power of movies to bear on the truly horrific state of so much in today’s world rarely have an impact on the larger conversation. For every The Thin Blue Line (which got a man off death row) or Blackfish (which resulted in real change to marine mammal exploitation), there are a thousand other voices shouting into the void.

The plea here is not for documentary filmmakers to stop serving up reality on a platter, though. The plea is for, somehow, the audience for truth-telling, humanizing, non-fiction filmmaking to grow beyond the population of people who, frankly, don’t really need to see it. If that doesn’t happen, vital and valiant work like No Other Land will remain little more than opportunities for virtue-signaling in the present and proof in the future that at least some voices cried out against injustice. (Opens Friday 2/28 at Cinema 21)

ALSO OPENING

My Dead Friend Zoe: This Oregon-shot debut feature from writer-director Kyle Hausmann-Stokes accomplishes a rare thing. It’s both an effective spotlight on the widespread occurrence of PTSD in military service members and an affecting, darkly comic story about an Afghan War veteran, Merit (Sonequa Martin-Green), who’s humorously haunted by her dead friend Zoe (Natalie Morales). Back stateside, Zoe begrudgingly attends court-ordered group therapy sessions led by Dr. Cole (Morgan Freeman), whose efforts to get her to open up are met with hostility. Her resistance to all this touchy-feely stuff is encouraged by Zoe, who serves as Merit’s imaginary smartass bestie and roommate. In flashbacks to Afghanistan, we see how this dynamic emerged between two women who would never have crossed paths if not for the Army. When Merit gets enlisted to help her grandfather Dale (Ed Harris) as he struggles with the early stages of Alzheimer’s, she takes the excuse to abandon therapy and visit him at his rural home outside Molalla. He’s also a vet, and a stubborn one, too, and while you can see the arc of their relationship from a mile off, it’s depicted with humanity and integrity. How Zoe went from a living friend to a dead one isn’t revealed until the final act, and it hits hard. A lot of the credit for that goes to Morales’s genuinely funny performance, but the entire cast delivers committed performances. Hausmann-Stokes, a veteran himself, has made numerous short films on issues related to veterans and gun control, and all major cast members also served, as photos during the end credits demonstrate. It’s tempting to say the movie isn’t political—after all, it doesn’t take a stance on the War on Terror or American imperialism or anything like that. It simply wants to convey that military service comes with a cost, and that veterans should be able to access mental health services when they need them. But at a time when critical services at the Veterans Administration are on the verge of being cut, that feels like an unexpectedly radical take. (Opens Friday 2/28 at Regal Fox Tower and Bridgeport Village)

Riff Raff: The cast is promising, to say the least: Bill Murray, Ed Harris, Jennifer Coolidge, and, okay, Pete Davidson. So promising in fact, that one can’t help but wonder how they were assembled to enact this relatively rote comedic thriller about the intrusion of a misbegotten past onto an idyllic present. Vincent (Harris) is enjoying life with his wife Sandy (Gabrielle Union) and stepson DJ (Miles J. Harvey), who’s about to head off to Dartmouth in the fall, at their summer house in rural Maine. The last thing he needs is for his son Rocco (Lewis Pullman) to show up out of the blue with his very pregnant girlfriend Marina (Emanuela Postacchini) and comatose mother Ruth (Coolidge), Vincent’s first wife, in tow. Especially when it turns out that they’re being pursued by a pair of hired killers (Murray and Davidson) because of some unpleasantness that went down back in Boston. With all that talent on screen (including Harvey, who’s a delightfully deadpan discovery), it would be almost impossible to avoid some entertaining moments. It’s especially fascinating to watch Murray play a truly reprehensible character. And, in a meaningless but notable coincidence, Harris plays the patriarch of a racially mixed family in two movies opening on the same day (see above). Director Dito Montiel, who has a filmography full of big-name stars (Robin Williams, Dwayne Johnson, Channing Tatum, Robert Downey, Jr.) in lesser-known parts, seems to be going for a Quentin Tarantino meets The Brady Bunch vibe. But the reliance on violence overwhelms the amusing turns by Coolidge and Davidson, each playing to type, and a lower-stakes conflict would have allowed the movie to explore the family dynamics in a more thorough and meaningful fashion. (Opens Friday 2/28 at Regal Fox Tower, Clackamas Town Center, and Oak Grove Cinemas)

Vermiglio: In the winter of 1944, in an isolated village in the Italian Alps, World War II may be nearly over, but its effects on Vermiglio are still strongly felt. For one thing, there are few adult men in town, so when a pair of soldiers—the local Attilio (Santiago Fondevilla) and his Sicilian comrade Pietro (Giuseppe De Domenico)—show up, it’s a big deal. Some are hostile to the men, who they see as deserters, but the resident schoolteacher and voice of reason, Cesare (Tommaso Ragno), counsels generosity. Pietro and Lucia (Martina Scrinzi) fall in love, while Lucia’s younger sisters attempt to do well enough at their father’s school to be the one family member allowed to leave Vermiglio and pursue an education. Writer-director Maura Delpero drew on her own family’s history, and her film pulsates with the gentle rhythms of an almost pre-modern society. Eventually, however, a narrative of disruption and nostalgia emerges, centering on the way war, even without physical proximity, can introduce new and challenging forces into a hermetic and seemingly stable world. Delpero films the village and its inhabitants with clear-eyed empathy, and populates her movie with distinct faces, many of them (including Scrinzi) non-professionals). It’s a beautifully shot portrait of a bygone community, one remembered fondly but not nostalgically. (Opens Friday 2/28 at Regal Fox Tower)

ON DEMAND

Cold Wallet: It’s highly doubtful I would have given this impressive little thriller a shot were it not for the “Steven Soderbergh Presents” above the title. But, hey, if it’s good enough for ol’ Sodey (I can call him that), it’s good enough for me. And it is, in fact, pretty good. If you’ve ever been tempted to dive into the cryptocurrency pool, you can probably identify with Billy (Raúl Castillo), a down-on-his-luck divorced dad who puts all his digital chips on the table through a company called Tulip. But when news breaks that Tulip’s CEO has died and the fund has crashed, Billy’s investment becomes worthless. And when he learns on Reddit that said CEO is rumored to have actually faked his death and is hiding out in a mansion not far away, Billy teams up with that conspiracy-minded Redditor (Melonie Diaz) and his martial arts trainer (Tony Cavalero) to go on a “whale hunt.” With touches of dark humor, writer John Hibey and director Cutter Hodierne lean into home invasion tropes while keeping more than a few surprises up their sleeves. All the crypto lingo goes down easy, since Hodierne and Hibey know that most their audience can’t tell an Ethereum from a Bitcoin. (A “cold wallet” is apparently a sort of external hard drive for storing cryptocurrency keys offline. The more you know…) Harnessing the fury of the screwed-over 99% without bludgeoning us with it, Cold Wallet at least provides a reasonable, reliable return on your investment. (Available on demand starting Friday 2/28)

ALSO OPENING

Badnaam: Following his release from prison, an outlaw with a tragic past challenges a ruthless crime boss for control of the local alcohol black market. (Movies on TV)

Brothers After War: Jake Rademacher reunites with his brothers and fellow soldiers from his Iraq embed, revealing a unique perspective on war’s impact and the transition from active warriors to veterans. (Bridgeport Village)

Last Breath: A true story that follows seasoned deep-sea divers as they battle the raging elements to rescue their crewmate trapped hundreds of feet below the ocean’s surface. (wide release)

No Address: It follows a group of homeless people as they struggle to survive on the streets against a harassing gang, an unforgiving community, and the local authorities. (Eastport Plaza, Clackamas Town Center)

Superboys of Malegaon: The journey of an aspiring filmmaker as he bands together his group of friends to make a film for his town, Malegaon. (Movies on TV)

ALSO THIS WEEK

Cascade Festival of African Films: The 35th edition wraps up with the 2022 Kenyan drama Shimoni, about an ex-convict’s return to his village, and the 2021 Tunisian film Under the Fig Trees, set among a group of orchard workers over the course of a single day. (PCC Cascade campus, Friday 2/28 and Saturday 3/1 respectively)

Left Behind: This documentary follows the quest by a determined group of parents to open the first public high school dedicated to students with dyslexia in New York City. (Cinema 21, Sunday 3/2)

They Call Her Death: This modern-day homage to female-revenge films and spaghetti westerns was shot entirely on 16mm. (Clinton St. Theater, Monday 3/3)

REVIVALS

Friday 2/28

• Appropriate Behavior [2014] (Tomorrow Theater)
• Ator: The Fighting Eagle [1982] (Cinemagic, on 35mm)
• Blood of a Poet [1932] (5th Avenue Cinemas, through 3/2)
• Bound [1996] (Academy Theater, through 3/6)
• Carnival of Souls [1962] (Academy Theater, through 3/6)
• Dirty Dancing [1987] (Academy Theater, through 3/6)
• Noroi: The Curse [2005] (Hollywood Theatre)
• Snowpiercer [2013] (Cinema 21, also 3/1)

Saturday 3/1

• Basket Case [1982], Basket Case 2 [1990], and Basket Case 3: The Progeny [1991] (Hollywood Theatre)
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind [2004] (Tomorrow Theater)
• King Kong [1933] (Cinema 21)
• Love and Basketball [2000] (Tomorrow Theater)
• Mamma Mia! [2008] (Clinton St. Theater)
• The Women [1939] (Hollywood Theatre)

Sunday 3/2

• Bend It Like Beckham [2002] (Tomorrow Theater)
• Eve’s Bayou [1997] (Clinton St. Theater)
• Space Jam [1996] (Tomorrow Theater)

Monday 3/3

• Wild at Heart [1990] (Cinema 21)

Tuesday 3/4

• Dry Wood and Always for Pleasure [Les Blank birthday celebration] (Clinton St. Theater)
• Empire of Ash 3 [1989] (Hollywood Theatre, on VHS)
• Mulholland Dr. [2000] (Cinema 21)

Wednesday 3/5

• Lady Terminator [1988] (Hollywood Theatre, on 35mm, also 3/8)
• Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me [1992] (Cinema 21)
• Willow Springs [1973] (Clinton St. Theater)