This week in Madison movies features Breeders, Karen Aqua at MMoCA, Finding Dory and the greatest superhero movie of all-time.
Thursday
Breeders (6:30p — Central Library, Rm 302)
If instead of threatening retirement David Cronenberg went into softcore pornography, he might come up with something resembling Breeders, where gruesome rapes in city subways are found to be the work of aliens, abducting and sexually assaulting young women in an attempt to take over. With a “plot” designed to encourage characters to disrobe for the camera, Tim Kincaid’s 1986 piece of bad sci-fi only has so much time to indulge in third-rate prosthetics and fourth-rate line deliveries. (See:”Until this happened each one of them had been a [pause] virgin!”) The best part of this FREE “Bad Cinema” selection might be the weirdly lustful voiceover guy in the Wizard Video trailer.
All freakin’ weekend
Finding Dory (Sundance, AMC Star, Point)
Even as a thematically thinner Pixar entry, the original Finding Nemo has staying power in timeless character design which find a sweet spot between simple concepts and memorable personalities. In other words, the Nemo universe is a far richer one to explore than that of Cars or Monsters, Inc. Returning director Andrew Stanton takes everyone’s favorite Blue Tang (Ellen Degeneres) and sends her on a soul-searching quest to find herself. Rather than recreating its predecessor’s admittedly wrote plot, Dory gets pensive, using its title character’s short-term memory loss as a vehicle for personal discovery — and an appreciation of just how amazing Albert Brooks is.
Friday
“Karen Aqua’s Kaleidoscope” (9:30p — MMoCA Rooftop)
Up there with Pinball Number Count, Karen Aqua’s animal-based segments stand among Sesame Street‘s best numerical pieces not involving the Count. Rooftop Cinema’s 11-film sampling of the director, whose career was cut short in 2011 from ovarian cancer, starts at the beginning with her 1976 thesis Penetralia, working all the way up to Taxonomy, her final piece. Aqua’s style is a distinct one, with an angular representation of form with clear cubist influences. Kakania uses a swarm of jazzy brass and commuters for a frenzied embrace of movement, while Perpetual Motion turns that movement into circular variations on time. If you can dig her “Petroglyphs” of the letter “S,” this one’s appointment viewing. (Admission is $7 or FREE for MMoCA members).
Tuesday
The Dark Knight (7:30p — Majestic Theatre)
Majestic staff are choosing from their favorite directors’ best movies for their FREE summer Brew ‘n Views and even though The Prestige isn’t playing this week, the best superhero movie ever is a worthy Christopher Nolan entry. Post-Avengers revisionism would have us believe Marvel Studios is setting a new standard for superhero flicks but DC’s lone bright spot on the silver screen has stood the test of time, toxic fandom and too many TNT marathons. Propelled by Heath Ledger’s already iconic re-imagining of the Clown Prince of Gotham, Nolan’s follow-up to the very solid Batman Begins breaks down hero clichés with a no-holds-barred reckoning of surveillance states and mirror images of vigilante justice. With promising district attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart, who’s never been better) as its crumbling moral center, The Dark Knight swaps out generic world domination schemes for the very human risks at the heart of our own (relatively modest) machinations. Besides, where else can you find a superhero villain whose only goal is to get himself killed by the hero? (Doors at 7:00p.)
Wednesday
Any Number Can Win (7:00p — 4070 Vilas Hall)
One of three weekday series this summer, Cinematheque’s survey of “French Tough Guys” hops from Jean Gabin to Lino Ventura to Jean-Paul Belmondo — and with support from the French Embassy’s Cultural Services Offices on several prints. Here, Gabin plays an ex-con who enlists the services of a fellow thief (Alain Delon) and a small-time mechanic (Claude Cerval) as Gabin resists the urge to finally settle down before old age catches up with him. This is a heist movie though and through, but leave it to C’tek to recognize the “60s cool” inside familiar stories. (Admission is FREE).