10 Cloverfield Lane, Krisha, John Wayne’s stoicism, and the claustrophobic terror of The Descent
Friday
Another Dawn + In the Palm of Your Hand (7:00p + 9:00p — 4070 Vilas Hall)
LACIS’ “Four From Mexico” series gets retro this week with a monochrome noir double bill. Another Dawn holes up an intrepid government official (Pedro Armendáriz) with an old lover (Andrea Palma) and her husband (Pedro Armendáriz) as he flees from a corrupt regime dispatching of any dissenting bodies. Roberto Gavaldón’s thriller is just as twisty and far stranger, where a scheming “seer” uses his wife’s wealthy connections to tell his own fortunes and uncovers a murder plot in the process. He should have seen that coming. UW Cinematheque wraps its Latin, Caribbean, and Iberian Studies collaboration this weekend for FREE.
All freakin’ weekend
10 Cloverfield Lane (AMC Star, Point, Stoughton Cinema Cafe)
Is this a sequel? Is this a prequel? Will it come with a teaser for Star Wars: Episode VIII? Probably by design, this follow-up to 2008’s handicam monster hit has a lot of mystery surrounding it. Are those aliens from the first one back? Why is John Goodman in this? Will director Dan Trachtenberg make up for the time he lost on that Y: The Last Man adaptation? So many questions, so much Abrams. Your guess is probably better than mine.
Saturday
Untitled (Just Kidding) (1:00p — Central Library, Rm 302)
Chicago-based headscratcher Jesse Malmed presents an experimental program designed to mess with your perceptions. Perceptions of video, media in general and really, any which way that we communicate — or in this case, miscommunicate. Part of the attraction of Malmed’s series — headlined by his Self-Titled (Rough Cut) that plays with the familiar in a cheeky, extroverted fashion — is the subtle feeling that you’re never getting the same show twice. Malmed personally pairs his programs with recited performances, the dialogue of which is never exactly the same. (FREE.)
Krisha (3:00p — Union South Marquee)
WUD Film screens a sneak peak of Trey Edward Shults’s thrilling micro-drama in which a black sheep (Krisha Fairchild) returns home only to unravel the family’s Thanksgiving dinner plans. From A24, which embellished their status as a distributor of quality cinema with Oscar wins for Room and Ex Machina, Krisha was shot in just nine days and features many members of Shults’s own family in the cast for that personal touch. (FREE.)
The Descent (11:00p — Union South Marquee)
Easily one of the best horror films to come out in the 2000s, Neil Marshall’s taut piece of claustrophobia gets under its viewers’ skin with a great cast of spelunkers who fall victim to a host of cave-dwelling “crawlers.” The creatures (think bat-faced versions of Smeagol with sharper teeth) are frightening, and Marshall gets plenty of terror from tight spaces and low lighting. The real horror though comes from the setup, with the anxiety of one woman’s near-death experience returning to haunt her all over again. (FREE.)
Monday
The Quiet Man (7:00p — Brocach Irish Pub)
St. Patrick’s Day isn’t until Thurs, but St. Patrick’s Cathedral is hosting a FREE screening of The Quiet Man at the Capitol Square’s Irish Pub. A John Ford production post-World War II, The Quiet Man actually made studio heads at Republic Pictures nervous, contractually obligating their director to make Rio Grande for them in case it tanked at the box office. It didn’t. The John Wayne-Maureen O’Hara romance sends Wayne’s Irish-born Pittsburgher back to his homeland to reclaim the family farm and birthplace, only to have the former boxer run into love (see: a fantastic O’Hara) and the strong-arming of her dickish brother (Victor McLaglen).
Wednesday
Wild and Scenic Film Festival (7:00p — Barrymore Theatre)
River Alliance Wisconsin’s lineup this year features shorts on open-cast mining, giant salamanders, and cattle ranchers determined to keep their cows and soil healthy. Hosted by former River Alliance chair Lindsay Wood Davis. (Admission is $12 in advance, $15 day of).