Some Days Are Better Than Others

'Some Days Are Better Than Others' review: moody Portlanders drift in a handsome cityscape

By Shawn Levy“Some Days” unfolds the lives of three loosely-connected Portlanders: a slacker working day jobs (James Mercer of the Shins), an animal shelter worker who dreams of being on reality TV (Carrie Brownstein of “Portlandia” and Sleater-Kinney), and a woman who sorts through donated goods at a thrift shop (Renee Roman Nose). Amid them, serving as a kind of font of wisdom, is an old tinkerer who finds beauty in the refractions of sunlight through liquid soap (David Wodehose, playing a role based on Oregon filmmaker and inventor George Andrus).

The slender, tender threads of plot involve aspirations, creativity, missed connections, and the tragic disposability of human life in an age when throwing things away--even precious things--is the norm. The images of Portland, its buildings, its landscape and, especially, its weather are pure, lovely, loving McCormick, and the contributions of cinematographer Greg P. Schmitt and composer Matthew Cooper are stellar.

The delicacy of the film might frustrate some audiences. As if watching a listless young relative do nothing in particular with his or her life, you sometimes want to shake these folks by the shoulders and tell them to get in gear. But then you realize that life has many gears and that moving slowly and somewhat aimlessly is no sin.Comment:  Renee Roman Nose is Native, so Some Days sort of counts as a Native film.

For more on the subject, see The Best Indian Movies.