Thursday
The Linguists (6:00p — Union South Marquee)
A documentary that follows two linguists as they travel to the world’s remotest places in search of our dying languages. I wonder if they find anyone who still knows Adobe Flash. Co-presented FREE by WUD Film and the UW Language Institute. Professor David Harrison will host a Q&A afterward.
Runaway (6:30p — Central Library, Rm 302)
“Bad Cinema” presents this FREE creation from Michael Crichton in which Tom Selleck hunts down malfunctioning robots. That’s all you need to hear.
Nightcrawler (8:30p — Union South Marquee)
Jake Gyllenhaal stars as a skinny weirdo who scams and slithers his way to a successful career in crime journalism and all at the low, low price of sacrificing empathy for his fellow humans. FREE.
All freakin’ weekend
Antarctica: A Year On Ice (Sundance)
This 2013 documentary captures the frigid essence of life in Antarctica. (Optional: Save your money and simply step outside.)
Still Alice (Sundance, AMC Star, Eastgate)
Julianne Moore’s Columbia professor finds her personal and professional life slowly wither away after being diagnosed with early Alzheimer’s Disease. A devastating one-woman show, Julianne Moore has really always been this good; it’s just taken a while for everyone else to catch up.
McFarland, USA (AMC Star, Point, Eastgate)
Kevin Costner stars as California’s most successful long-distance running coach of all time in leading his team of predominantly Chicano runners to a championship — and through a number of divisive social issues, too. Based on a true story, like any movie based on cross country.
Hot Tub Time Machine 2 (AMC Star, Point, Eastgate Stoughton Cinema Café)
To jump back into my own time machine from WUD Film’s sneak peek this week:
“When Rob Corddry’s douche bag billionaire from the first one is shot under mysterious circumstances, Craig Robinson and Clark Duke use those magical Jacuzzi bubbles for live-saving, debauchery-inducing purposes and accidentally send themselves to the future with Adam Scott. (Presumably a producer looked into the future and figured John Cusack would want more money.”
The Duff (AMC Star, Point, Eastgate)
Arrested Development‘s Mae Whitman tries to shirk her high school’s label of “Duff” (or “Designated Ugly Fat Friend”). The rest of her class is presumably using shallow Hollywood standards. Her?
Friday
The Boxtrolls (10:00a — Point, Eastgate)
Marcus Theatres’ Kids Dream series presents Laika’s latest in which an orphan boy is raised by an underground group of smelly, disreputable creatures — I wonder if they’re the same people who liked ParaNorman. $2.
The Theory of Everything (6:00p — Union South Marquee)
If you missed this Stephen Hawking biopic when it played in theaters and then missed it again when it played at the library earlier this week, WUD’s giving you another few FREE shots this weekend — if you want them.
O Brother Where Art Thou? (6:45p — Alicia Ashman Library)
The Coen Brothers’ riff on Homer’s Odyssey is goofy, broad and more than a touch obvious with its Great Depression backdrop and yet still completely works. Now we just have to explain George Clooney’s singing. FREE.
King Lear (7:00p — 4070 Vilas Hall)
“William Shakespeare, Jr. the Fifth” sounds a little convoluted until you realize Peter Sellars’ distant descendant of the Bard is a character in a Jean-Luc Godard movie. Sellars and Tom Luddy adapt the timeless tale of a king who slowly decays into madness with their own unique spin: a relative of Shakespeare (Sellars) is trying to preserve Billy’s plays after everything gets nuked. That definitely sounds like a Cannon Films production. FREE.
A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (9:00p — Union South Marquee)
Women in the Middle East are directing movies, regardless of whether their countries want them to or not. Haifaa al-Mansour shot Wadjda entirely from the inside of a van, but impressive feat of covert direction aside, this story’s a little different than a girl and her bike. Iranian-American Ana Lily Amirpour’s debut follows a young woman who preys on the townsfolk of Bad City, blissfully unaware that she is out for their blood. Essentially your Madison premiere, this part-pulp novel, part-western, part-vampire movie, part-Iranian New Wave film is 100% legit. FREE.
Galaxy Quest (11:30p — Union South Marquee)
Victory or death. Or Star Trek parody. All are acceptable. FREE.
Saturday
Best Picture Festival: Day Two (10:00a — AMC Star, Point, Eastgate)
You can see The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Imitation Game, Selma, and Birdman at Marcus. Or Boyhood, The Imitation Game, American Sniper, and The Theory of Everything at AMC Star.
The Boxtrolls (10:00a — Point, Eastgate)
$2.
Interstellar (3:00p — AMC Star)
There’s a one-day IMAX re-release of Christopher Nolan’s “A.I. meets The Lakehouse” space odyssey with an additional 13 minutes of behind-the-scenes footage.
A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (6:00p — Union South Marquee)
FREE.
No More Road Trips? with Rick Prelinger (7:00p — Chazen Art Museum)
Archivist and filmmaker Rick Prelinger has accrued over 60,000 individual titles in his collection of films but lately, his passions have shifted to collecting home movies. No More Road Trips? was assembled from hundreds of pieces of footage from curious donors and estate sales alike from the last 80 years for a transnational cinematic car ride from the east coast to the west. Entirely sound-free save an ambient soundtrack, No More Road Trips? invites the audience to engage with the geographical history and intimate social slices recreated onscreen. (Just don’t yell at all the smoking Baby Boomers. They can’t hear you.) FREE.
Confidential Report + F for Fake (7:00p, 9:00p — 4070 Vilas Hall)
Mr. Arkadin was, by Orson Welles’ own estimation, his “most butchered film” and this studio-approved cut (one of five versions at least) sounded like a particularly bad spy thriller to the director. If it were up to me (it isn’t), I’d have begun with F for Fake, a mockumentarian engagement of fiction and fact, lies and truth, and the tangled webs storytellers weave both in and out of cinema. We all know Welles as the renaissance actor-writer-producer-director-frozen pea huckster. But master magician? Not so much. Now you see him… FREE.
Nightcrawler (9:00p — Union South Marquee)
FREE.
Galaxy Quest (11:30p — Union South Marquee)
FREE.
Sunday
The Boxtrolls (10:00a — Point, Eastgate)
$2.
We Want the Colonels (2:00p — Chazen Art Museum)
The penultimate entry in Cinematheque’s FREE Mario Monicelli series:
“Advocating for a harder line, a fascist party deputy (La Cage Aux Folles star Tognazzi) decides to overthrow his fellow officers. Inspired by the real-life coup attempt of Prince Valerio Borghese, Monicelli’s black comedy evokes an hilarious and sometimes grotesque vision of contemporary Italian politics and society.”
The Theory of Everything (3:00p — Union South Marquee)
FREE.
Monday
True Grit (2:00p — Alicia Ashman Library)
I was pretty “meh” on Joel and Ethan Coen’s remake of the John Wayne Western — and even with the Dude as Rooster Cogburn. Then again, the worst Coen Bros movie is probably better than most John Wayne westerns. Fill your hands! FREE.
Out Here (7:00p — Union South Marquee)
Beyond the always appreciated punny title, Out Here‘s snapshot of the lives of queer farmers gives a valuable look at the relationship between food production and the LGBTQ community. The Queer Farmer Film Project‘s documentary is on tour and its latest stop is Madison. Co-presented FREE by WUD Film and FH King.
The Notebook (7:00p — Point, Marcus)
Ladies Night’s $5 admission series is back — for better or worse.
Tuesday
Jesus de Montreal (7:00p — Union South Marquee)
Denys Arcand re-casts a Passion play to fit an updated, unconventional, and much more literal interpretation of the Crucifixion Story. Co-presented FREE by WUD Film and the Lubar Institute.
Wednesday
Whiplash (6:30p — Pinney Library)
FREE.
Out in the Night (7:00p — Union South Marquee)
Don’t let its under-the-radar status fool you into thinking there’s a humble intent behind Blair Dorosh-Walther’s documentary. In 2006, a group of lesbians defended themselves on the streets of the West Village against an assault and rape and were subsequently put on trial for attempted murder. Dorosh-Walther digs into the judicial controversy and subsequent biases surrounding the “New Jersey 4.” Co-presented FREE by WUD Film and the Social Cinema Series with a post-screening discussion led by UW’s Young, Gifted and Black Coalition.
Il caimano (7:00p — UW Sterling Building, Rm 2335)
A dramedy of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s downfall. And yes, it’s tax-FREE.
The Fast and the Furious (7:00p — Point, Eastgate)
Marcus Theatres lets you gear up (sorry) for Furious 7 with a weekly retrospective, and this is the one that started the franchise’s improbable success. Paul Walker’s undercover detective collides with the illegal world of underground street racing and Vin Diesel’s bulging biceps. Hey, at least it’s not 2 Fast 2 Furious.