“Marjoe” is the Cinematheque’s latest Academy Film Archive restoration.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Duane Dudek on some bad blood between 12 Years a Slave director Steve McQueen and his screenwriter, Mequon native John Ridley, who took home the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar last Sunday:
When I spoke to Ridley last year, he was generous in his remarks about McQueen, the British conceptual artist turned filmmaker. Subsequently, Ridley told me it would have looked like “photobombing” if he had gone onstage with the large group at the Golden Globes. That night McQueen did thank him from on stage.
UW-Madison’s Leo Rubinowski on the Cinematheque’s latest Academy Film Archive restoration Marjoe and its subject, once the youngest ordained preacher:
During the first extended sequence in which we see Gortner work a crowd, there is an abrupt and brief change of scene from the tent to an office, wherein we find Marjoe and his host dividing the night’s take. Later, during the 24-Hour Prayer Crusade sequence, a close-up of the lead preacher’s gaudy, glittering broach complements audio of her assurances that donations will not be wasted on foolishness. At every turn, Marjoe works to remind its audience that big religion means big business for traveling evangelists.
The Cap Times’ Rob Thomas previews 12 “can’t miss” entries at this year’s Wisconsin Film Festival:
The guide for the festival, which runs Thursday, April 3, through Thursday, April 10, lists more than 140 films, from independent dramas to locally made documentaries to classic cinema, all screening at Sundance Cinemas and at several venues on campus. Also, for the first time, there will be a full day of programming downtown on Sunday, April 6, at the Capitol Theater in the Overture Center.
The Isthmus’ Kenneth Burns on the Palestinian drama Omar, which opens this weekend at Sundance Cinemas Madison:
The film also transcends its genre, the way good thrillers like The French Connection do. Omar is a focused, outraged statement on the Palestinian situation, and if you’re looking for a balanced view, you won’t find one here. Omar and his team believe in their cause. They believe they are justified in carrying out the sniper attack that leaves a soldier dead. That development occurs early on and sets in motion everything that follows, including Omar’s imprisonment and torture. Looming over several scenes is the ugly isolation wall — which, Abu-Assad says in the press kit, is as much about separating Palestinians from Palestinians as it is about separating Palestinians from Israelis.