Marshland, Japanese animation and a new outdoor series lead off a top-heavy week in movies
Friday
Marshland (7:00p — Hawthorne Library)
Between the death throes of Franco Spain and the first gasps of democracy, a pair of Madrid detectives trace the disappearance of two sisters during carnival season, discovering a link to a string of teenage murders. Director Alberto Rodriguez and frequent co-writer Rafael Cobos play off their mismatched detectives’ personalities, as Javier Guttierez’s brutish veteran butts up against Raul Arevalo’s family man idealism. “The Spanish way of True Detective“ might be damning with faint praise for the Hawthorne branch’s FREE “Adult Swim” series. The upside here is more of a Spanish language Seven.
The Incredibles (8:30p — Breese Stevens Field)
With Bodega markets and forthcoming Wilco and Cake concerts at Breese Stevens Field, Madison is in the midst of the renaissance that is appreciating a perfectly fine space for warm weather events. “Catch and Reel” is the latest step forward, a Capital Times-sponsored outdoor series that’s essentially Milwaukee’s “Point Fish Fry and a Flick” with additional menu items like Korean BBQ salmon burgers and portobello wraps. Originally announced as more of a lowest common denominator thing throughout the summer, series voting has opened things up a bit with this weekend’s Harry Potter theme getting an upgrade with one of Pixar’s all-time greats. (Admission is FREE with gates opening at 7:00p).
“Naoyuki Tsuji’s Magical World” (9:30p — MMoCA Rooftop)
With nothing beyond a botched 2007 home video release, the five films of Naoyuki Tsuji aren’t likely to find a better treatment than the digital projections in Rooftop Cinema. Pulling from the animator/sculptor’s career from 1992 to 2005, the program includes “For Almost Forgotten Stories” where low-key staging and stop-motion puppetry recall the charms of ILM dejarik boards and early Tim Burton effects. “Trilogy About Clouds” toys with the corporeal form, as Tsuji’s amorphous, charcoal-based sketches dissolve from dreamy wisps of human figures into nighmarish pustules, a disorienting blend of the sensual and the terrifying. (Admission is $7 or FREE for MMoCA members).
Monday
A League of Their Own (9:00p — Memorial Union Terrace)
As young men were getting drafted to fight overseas, Americans had to supplement their favorite pastime on the homefront. Enter all-women baseball leagues like the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, the loose inspiration behind Penny Marshall’s 1992 classic, where farmhand sisters Dottie (Genna Davis) and Kit (Lori Petty) are recruited from the Oregon countryside to play for the Rockford Peaches. Baseball is already the most cinematic of professional sports with “bottom of the 9th” finales and plenty of time for inter-inning banter. Marshall ups the ante, sticking with the ragtag Peaches and their Chicago has-been manager Jimmy Dugan (a wonderfully hammy Tom Hanks) with long takes. Kudos to WUD Film for not just plugging in The Sandlot. (FREE admission).
Wednesday
Jules and Jim (7:00p — Bos Meadery)
(Doors at 5:00p with FREE admission.)