Ranked: Spotlight Cinema’s 2014 lineup

My Letterboxd watchlist is at a hefty 203 films and without looking, I can promise you half of those are 2014 releases. Mercifully, the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art just brought that number down a little bit.

As announced yesterday, MMoCA’s Spotlight Cinema returns to help shorten everyone’s to-see lists with films that “don’t open in Madison.” Curated by UW-Madison’s Tom Yoshikami and Mike King, Spotlight consistently fills arthouse gaps even Sundance can’t cover; two years ago, the program brought the city its only theatrical presentation of Holy Motors and last year it was responsible for a slew of under-the-radar documentaries.

This year, the series moves to Wednesday nights and expands from five to eight (!) films. Both Rob Thomas and Arts Extract’s Scott Gordon have done a fine job previewing the films already. But what about ranking them?

The increased program alone is worth celebrating but “hump day” isn’t always as convenient a time as those Cinematheque Saturday double-bills. Rest assured, you’ll be far better off (and far more sane) checking each and every one of these off your watchlist than seeing a Robert Zemeckis re-release in IMAX, but in the event your time is so valuable as to miss the newest Polanski joint, here’s a prioritization of your options:

8. Jealousy (Oct. 22)

Philippe Garrel once again casts his creative muse and son (Louis Garrel), this time as a man who leaves his wife and daughter for another woman. Featuring a score by Téléphone’s Jean Louis-Aubert, the longtime French director picks at the emotional highs and lows in the wake of this life-changing decision with an autumnal, bohemian cool. What looks like tremendous black & white photography (courtesy of veteran Willy Kurant) certainly helps.

7. Venus in Fur (Oct. 15)

Three years out from his parental chamber drama, Roman Polanski is back with an even more claustrophobic effort. Venus in Fur throws theater director Mathieu Amalric in the snares of Emmanuelle Seigner, an actress who gets the drop on Amalric as he places the finishing touches on his latest stage play. Limited to the confines of a single theater, word of mouth has Seigner stealing the show as a “force of comeuppance.” In fairness to Amalric, he’s the only other credited cast member.

6. The Strange Little Cat (Nov. 5)

Now extend the contrivances of Polanski’s bottle concept and add ten actors. The Strange Little Cat takes the prize for “most redundant title” among any Spotlight film this year, but its intimate 24-hour catalog of one family’s day inside their Berlin apartment promises quirk and malaise in equal measure. Learning under the tutelage of the inimitable Béla Tarr, Swiss-born twins Ramon and Silvan Zürcher make their feature-length debut with a project they’ve self-described as a “horror film without any horror” — even if the presence of cats contradicts such a concept.

5. Eastern Boys (Oct. 29)

When a man works up the nerve to solicit sex from one of the many Eastern-European young men at a Paris train station, their supposed rendezvous quickly goes awry. Robin Campillo writes and directs this twist on home invasions. The best case scenario? We get a trenchant critique of European immigration reform masquerading as a French Funny Games.

4. Force Majeure (Nov. 12)

An avalanche would ruin any family’s ski trip. In Force Majeure it may ruin the family itself. Director Ruben Östlund snaps a three-year hiatus in a drama Little White Lies Magazine’s David Ehrlich described as “The Loneliest Planet chilled and served family style.” Expect a bubbling examination of family roles and masculinity in the face of cowardice and a crap ton of snow.

3. Zero Motivation (Nov. 19)

And I thought my office was unproductive. A squadron of female Israeli soldiers is relegated to bureaucratic form-filing as they bungle their way through life, love, and any and all shreds of civil service. The takeaway here is Spotlight brings Zero Motivation to Madison ahead of any foreseeable stateside run and while MMoCA’s press release describes this Tribeca release as “Girls meets Catch-22,” the tone of its trailer is much more suggestive of a “Hogan’s Heroes meets Bridesmaids hybrid.” Same difference.

2. We Are the Best! (Oct. 1)

Lukas Moodysson adapts his wife Coco Moodysson’s graphic novel about a group of socially outcasted girls who start a punk band in early 80s Stockholm. For all of its (intentional) lack of musicianship, We Are the Best! scores the most points for sheer attitude and its affectionate attention to growing pains. What’s “punk’s not dead” in Swedish?

1. Only Lovers Left Alive (Sept. 17)

Spotlight is packed with small release goodness, but the number-one spot’s a no-brainer. Jim Jarmusch’s infectiously watchable vampire flick doubles as a heroin junkie’s buddy movie between Tilda Swinton’s bookish optimist and Tom Hiddleston’s fatigued musician. It also kicks off MMoCA’s months-long cavalcade. Hopping between Tangier and Detroit, the White Witch and Loki patronize the better half of humanity as they riff on famous dead friends, drowsy post-rock, and just how damn boring we “zombies” are. Spotlight’s Tom Yoshikami estimated via email that MMoCA’s 35mm presentation will likely be “the only one in the region.” If that isn’t enough to dissuade you from ordering on VOD, it’s no wonder these vamps find us all so insufferable.

• Spotlight Cinema begins on Wednesday Sept. 17. All shows start at 7:00p with the MMoCA lecture hall opening at 6:30p. Admission is $7 for general admission and FREE for MMoCA members.