With April here, my mind’s been focusing on the weather — which explains the brain freeze, actually. “What’s Playing, Madison?” arrives a little late this week:
Friday
Dallas Buyers Club (6:00p — Union South Marquee)
Our heroes are always 10 years away, but Matthew McConaughey’s Oscar-winning performance is only a few blocks. FREE.
El Bulli: Cooking in Progress (6:30p — Sequoya Branch Library)
A delightful documentary that looks at Spanish chef Ferran Adrià’s preparations for next year’s menu options. FREE.
Jacquot de Nantes (7:00p — 4070 Vilas Hall)
More FREE Jacques Demy, this time by way of wife Agnès Varda, who recreates her artist husband’s early life in occupied France.
Frozen (8:30p — Union South Marquee)
Replacing a previously scheduled avant-garde screening at the Union, the ubiquity of Disney’s animated hit has reached fever pitch. There’s even a singalong presentation on Friday. FREE-zen.
The Wolf of Wall Street (11:00p — Union South Marquee)
FREE.
All freakin’ weekend
Bears (AMC Star, Point, Eastgate)
John C. Reilly narrates Disney’s documentary that follows a family of brown bears in the Alaskan peninsula.
Under the Skin (Sundance)
Sexy Beast‘s Jonathan Glazer directs Scarlett Johansson, an alien who feasts on unsuspecting young men, in this artsy thriller.
Dom Hemingway (Sundance)
Jude Law plays a safe-cracker back on the streets after refusing to squeal during a lengthy prison term. Dom Hemingway returns from the Wisconsin Film Festival.
Transcendence (Sundance, AMC Star, Point, Eastgate, Stoughton Cinema Cafe)
Christopher Nolan’s former cinematographer makes his directorial debut in a techno-thriller about a man who slowly becomes more machine than human. Sounds like a perfect metaphor for the direction Johnny Depp’s career has been going.
A Haunted House 2 (AMC Star, Point, Eastgate)
Marlon Wayans’ haunted house spoof gets a sequel. Now that’s scary.
Saturday
Frozen (6:00p, 8:30p — Union South Marquee)
The Wolf of Wall Street (11:00p — Union South Marquee)
Compulsion (7:00p — 4070 Vilas Hall)
Richard Fleischer enlists Orson Welles, Bradford Dillman and Dean Stockwell in recreating the attempted “perfect murder” by Leopold and Loeb. FREE.
Sunday
The Birds (2:00p — Chazen Art Museum)
I’ve yet to take issue with Cinematheque’s fantastic 35mm series on Hitchcock. Until now. The Birds is what you guys choose to play this week? You couldn’t have picked Topaz for Easter Sunday instead? FREE.
Frozen (3:00p — Union South Marquee)
Monday
The Neverending Story (12:00p, 2:20p, 4:40p, 7:00p, 9:20p — Point; 12:10p, 2:30p, 4:45p, 7:00p, 9:15p, — Eastgate)
As far as 80s fantasy characters go, Falkor the luckdragon is a pretty memorable one. But “Falkor” for the name of a “dragon” that looks more like a dog? I’ve got some words for Maurice Sendak on mixing allusions.
Without a Fight (6:00p — Chazen Art Museum, L140)
A FREE screening of this documentary on social powers of soccer in Kiberia, one of Africa’s largest slums.
Lost Worlds of the Middle East, with Rick Ray (7:30p — Union South Marquee)
Rick Ray’s Travel Adventure series stops in the Middle East to discuss major conflicts between four nations. Ticket information here.
Tuesday
Slavery By Another Name (7:00p — State Historical Society auditorium)
The final film in the Created Equal Civil Rights documentary series tells the story of unpaid black laborers during World War II. FREE.
Lost Worlds of the Middle East, with Rick Ray (7:30p — Union South Marquee)
Wednesday
The Neverending Story (12:00p, 2:20p, 4:40p, 10:30p — Point; 12:10p, 2:30p, 4:45p — Eastgate)
The Ten Commandments (1:15p, 8:00p — Sundance)
‘A city is made of brick, Pharaoh. The strong make many. The weak make few. The dead make none. But all enjoy a cocktail with their Cecil B. Demille.’
Connected by Coffee (7:00p — Union South Marquee)
Believe it or not, this documentary on a fair trade coffee movement has nothing to do with those who frequent the capitol square every morning. Co-premiering (!) FREE courtesy of WUD Film, LACIS, and the Havens Center.