After nabbing the Cannes Film Festival’s coveted Palme d’Or, Abdellatif Kechiche’s romantic drama “Blue is the Warmest Color” comes to Sundance Cinemas Madison this weekend.
11/18 UPDATED: WUD Film’s screening of The Formula has been added to Wednesday’s programming.
Thursday
Honor Flight (12:45p, 2:45p, 4:50p — Point; 2:45p, 4:50p — Eastgate)
Smokey and the Bandit (7:00p, 9:20p — Point, Eastgate)
Afternoon Delight (7:00p — Union South Marquee)
The Cinematheque and WUD Film welcome director and UW-Madison alum Jill Soloway to a screening of her debut film, Afternoon Delight where a complacent Kathryn Hahn buddies up with Juno Temple’s stripper. A panel discussion with Soloway on how the film deals with femininity will follow. FREE.
The Way, Way Back (9:30p — Union South Marquee)
A young wallflower (Liam James) reluctantly accompanies his pushover of a mother (Toni Collette) and her passive-aggressive boyfriend (Steve Carrell) on a summer lake home trip. While there, takes up a job, makes friends with Sam Rockwell’s waterpark supervisor, and gains a ‘lil confidence to stand up for himself. One of WUD Film’s two FREE screenings this week.
Friday
The Way, Way Back (7:00p — Union South Marquee)
Millhouse: A White Comedy (7:00p — 4070 Vilas Hall)
Emile de Antonio completed his Richard Nixon documentary in 1971, so it doesn’t cover the Watergate scandal or the President’s subsequent impeachment. But that’s about all this documentary, assembled purely from archival footage, doesn’t cover in chronicling Nixon’s rise in politics, from the House of Representatives to the White House. FREE.
Underground (8:45p — 4070 Vilas Hall)
It’s a veritable de Antonio double feature this Friday! In Underground, De Antonio interviews members of the Weather Underground, a former leftist radical group hellbent on overthrowing the United States Government. FREE.
The D.L.F.A. (9:30p — Barrymore Theatre)
Darin Limvere’s documentary tells the story of a group of bold mountain climbing enthusiasts. Dubbing themselves the Devil’s Lake Fuk-ness Association” or (D.L.F.A. for the PG crowd), the group made their earliest ascents up Wisconsin’s very own Devil’s Lake State Park. The screening will be followed with a Q&A featuring the director. Tickets are $10. Order advance passes online or at Boulders Climbing Gym on Commercial Ave.
Mean Girls (9:30p — Union South Marquee)
It’s like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder how Li-Lo can keep from goin’ under. In this 2004 smash hit, Lindsay Lohan makes war with the popular “plastics” crowd and proves that high school can be a tough place to grow up. One of two FREE screenings this weekend.
Zardoz (11:59p — Union South Marquee)
Close your eyes and picture Sir Sean Connery in “a red nappy, knee-high leather boots, pony tail and Zapata moustache.” Those words, from the UK’s Channel 4, aren’t all there is to this science fiction cult classic, but they should be enough to convince you to catch it at midnight. FREE.
All freakin’ weekend
Blue is the Warmest Color (Sundance)
Following its enthusiastic Cannes breakout, this french drama, where two young girls fall in love, has attracted some heat in recent months — from its own actors. ACcording to its co-leads, director BLANK was rather abusive on set, particularly during a graphic love scene — the one that earned it the NC-17 rating.
The Best Man Holiday (AMC Star, Point, Eastgate)
1999’s male-centered romantic-comedy The Best Man starred Taye Diggs as an up-and-coming (WC) novelist who struggles to reconcile impending success with his personal life. This sequel to Malcolm D. Lee’s film is set 15 years after the first, finding old romances and grudges return over the holiday season.
Ram Leela (AMC Star
Deepika Padukone and Ranvir Singh co-star in this Hindi language re-enactment of the story of Rama, one of the Hindu god Vishnu’s seven avatars. Just don’t go asking about the movie by its title this weekend — if petitioners have their way, it might be called something else by Friday.
Saturday
New Faces of Independent Film (3:00p — 4070 Vilas Hall)
Join Mohammad Gorjestani, Scott Blake, and Anahita Ghazvinizadeh — three up-and-coming directors selected in Filmmaker Magazine’s annual talent list — as they screen their short films at the Cinematheque this saturday. A Q&A discussion with the directors and Filmmaker Magazine Editor Nick Dawson will follow. FREE.
The Criminal Code (7:00p — 4070 Vilas Hall)
Pre-code Hollywood is the flavor this week in Cinematheque’s FREE early Howard Hawks retrospective. Walter Huston, a mainstay leading man in early cinema, stars as the warden of a prison occupied by men he once helped put away. Phillips Holmes and Boris Karloff co-star.
Fruitvale Station (7:00p — Union South Marquee)
New Year’s Day would mark the final day in the life of Oscar Grant, a young man senselessly gunned down by an Oakland police officer in 2009. Actor Michael B. Jordan and director Ryan Coogler create a stunning recollection of the tragedy with Fruitvale Station. One of two FREE screenings.
Mean Girls (9:30p — Union South Marquee)
Hard Target (11:59p — Union South Marquee)
Action stylist John Woo directs Jean-Claude Van Damme, here as an out-of-work Cajun drifter, who helps Yancy Butler track down her missing father all while evading manhunter Lance Henriksen. Desson Howe of The Washington Post once wrote of this midnight selection that “When Van Damme isn’t duking it out with the English language, scriptwriter Chuck Pfarrer is filling Henriksen’s mouth with villainous pseudo-profundities.” Sounds like a winner to me. FREE.
Sunday
JFK (1:10p — Sundance)
Over at The Dissolve, Noel Murray revisited Oliver Stone’s wild, cinematic essay on the plot behind John F. Kennedy’s assassination. And it just so happens that JFK is also Sundance’s “Classics” selection this week. I smell a conspiracy.
The Tarnished Angels (2:00p — Chazen Art Museum)
As a reporter in New Orleans, Rock Hudson takes up with Robert Stack’s circus pilot and his wife (Dorothy Malone) in Douglas Sirk’s adaptation of William Faulkner’s novel. FREE in CinemaScope.
Fruitvale Station (3:00p — Union South Marquee)
Monday
Rush: Clockwork Angels Tour (7:00p — Point, Eastgate)
Marcus Theatres is screening this concert film featuring footage from the band’s 2012-13 worldwide tour promoting their Clockwork Angels album. Naturally.
The Rolling Stones — Sweet Summer Sun (1:00p, 3:45p — Point, Eastgate)
Sure, you could watch the Stones’ 2013 summer concert in Hyde Park from the comfort of your home Blu-ray player. But even the biggest TV doesn’t beat that Ultrascreen, right?
Pulp Fiction (10:10p — Point, Eastgate)
Tuesday
The Rolling Stones — Sweet Summer Sun (12:55p, 7:00p — Point, Eastgate)
Pulp Fiction (3:40p, 9:45p — Point, Eastgate)
Wednesday
JFK (1:10p,7:00p — Sundance)
Rolling Stones — Sweet Summer Sun (4:05p, 10:10p — Point, Eastgate)
Pulp Fiction (12:45p, 6:50p — Point, Eastgate)
The Formula (7:00p — Union South Marquee)
In this romantic comedy, two engineering students discover a mathematical formula that reveals the secret to picking up chicks. I knew I picked the wrong major. Actor Brandon Baker and co-director Joe Clarke will be in attendance