Thursday
Wisconsin Film Festival: Closing Night (Sundance)
Yes, it’s the last day of the Wisconsin Film Festival, but to paraphrase Ben Reiser: there’s still plenty to see. The pervert in you might be jonesing to sniff John Waters’ underside in Polyester. For retro enthusiasts, there’s Harry Houdini’s appearance in The Grim Game. The local Wisconsinite also has an encore screening of Clarence, Kristin Catalano’s grassroots documentary about one of Milwaukee’s most rambunctious octogenarians and his decision to complete the secondary education he started 50 years ago.
“Bioneers” Encore Film Program (6:00p — Badger Rock Middle School)
Madison’s resiliency community group ties three short films: Humanity’s Great Transition, Plastic Vampire Slayer, and Divesting from Fossil Fuels. FREE and open to the public.
Starlight Cinema presents “The Art of Play” (7:00p — Union South Marquee)
WUD Film’s “Starlight Cinema” program has been an admirable venture for spreading the kaleidoscopic depths of avant-garde cinema. If there’s a criticism to be lobbed WUD’s way though, the sporadic screenings could use a bit of an audience warm up. For some illegitimate reason, experimental cinema is a turn-off to the average moviegoer and Thursday screenings of Sans Soleil (for example) could use a tie-in or introductory angle. Add some pep to the proceedings. Say, a blog entry on the importance of experimental cinema or a shorts program of Stan VanDerBeek and Bay Area collage artist Lawrence Jordan that gets at the “fun” parts of a pigeonholed medium. Wait, what was I complaining about? FREE.
Two Days, One Night (9:30p — Union South Marquee)
FREE.
All freakin’ weekend
She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry (Sundance)
If not for style, the first film from historical documentarian Mary Dore in 30 years is getting points for its thorough and exacting scope of women’s rights throughout the mid-60s and early 70s. Sifting through the diverse and occasionally sordid history of the movement, She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry looks at groups like WITCH (Women’s International Conspiracy from Hell!), the radical tongue-in-cheek guerrillas of the late 1960s, while profiling central figureheads like Kate Millett.
Child 44 (Point)
Gett: The Trial of Viviane Ansalem (Sundance)
True Story (Sundance, AMC Star, Point)
After Stephen Glass-ing himself out of The New York Times in 2001, Michael Finkel (Jonah hill) worked his way back up journalism’s respectability chain, a journey that started the ear-bending of an Oregonian murderer (James Franco) who used Finkel’s named as an alias hoping to get his attention. Jonah Hill’s more or less retired from comedy these days, but Franco’s still eclectic choices have lent themselves to both disappointment (127 Hours, Your Highness) and unexpected charm (Spring Breakers, The Interview). I have a suspicion that playing a man wanted for murdering his family won’t end up in the latter.
Unfriended (AMC Star, Point, Eastgate)
Monkey Kingdom (AMC Star, Point, Eastgate)
Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 (AMC Star, Point, Eastgate)
Friday
Foxcatcher (6:00p — Union South Marquee)
Make fun of the nose all you want, but Steve Carrell’s turn as billionaire/psychopath John DuPont is an exquisite display of peacocking insanity. Far colder and blunter than a movie about baseball statistics, Foxcatcher manages to show the other side of Moneyball‘s argument: What happens when we place too much stock in veteran players, the role of team leadership, and other superfluous intangibles? As the intermittantly estranged Schultz brothers, Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo dramatize ugly vengeance from the 1988 summer Olympics, while director Bennett Miller eschews the bittersweet “quests for truth” in his prior filmography for something just plain bitter. FREE.
To Kill a Man (6:45p — Alicia Ashman Library)
FREE.
Provincial Actors (7:00p — 4070 Vilas Hall)
FREE.
Wild (9:00p — Union South Marquee)
FREE.
The Guest (11:30p — Union South Marquee)
Coming from the beat-you-over-the-head-cleverness of Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett, The Guest dooms itself to “pretty okay” as soon as it announces its shellshock focus. Be that as it may, Downton Abbey‘s Dan Stevens plays a nigh unreadable ex-soldier whose mysterious past is unspooled and splayed out by burgeoning scream queen Maika Monroe (It Follows). Like the PTSD mindset it tries to tap into, the end result is more self-serving and crazy than satisfying, but Steve Moore’s tinny synth clusters adorn a film score that’s invasive and enveloping. Unlike any surprise grenades its creators lob your way, The Guest‘s soundtrack sneaks up on you. FREE.
Saturday
The Dark Matter of Love (1:00p — Bishop O’Connor Center)
FREE.
The General (2:00p, 7:00p — Capitol Theater)
“Duck Soup Cinema” returns to the Overture Center with this Buster Keaton classic in which the silent film madman straddles his love of Marion Mack and his love of locomotive engines. In thois case, he’s literally straddling those things. Among the greatest of Keaton’s films and a hallmark for stunt enthusiasts everywhere, “The Great Stone Face” risks his life for boxcars and cow-catchers. Dennis James, the arranger behind the film’s restored orchestral score, will provide live organ accompaniment on the Lord’s instrument. Admission varies.
Wild (6:00p — Union South Marquee)
FREE.
Call Me Madam (7:00p — 4070 Vilas Hall)
What happens when Irving Berlin teams up with How the West Was Won‘s Alfred Newman and Ethel Merman (It’s a Mad, Mad , Mad, Mad, World.) Merman allegedly held out on reprising her socialite-ambassador role from Broadway for more money. Thankfully, she didn’t. FREE.
Two Days, One Night (9:00p — Union South Marquee)
FREE.
The Guest (11:00p — Union South Marquee)
FREE.
Sunday
The Hired Hand (2:00p — Chazen Art Museum)
FREE.
Foxcatcher (3:00p — Union South Marquee)
FREE.
Monday
An American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs (2:00p — Alicia Ashman Library)
A continuation and spiritual successor to filmmaker Grace Lee’s 2006 doc The Grace Lee Project, this 2014 Wisconsin Film Festival alum finds Lee returning to one of her former subjects. Grace Lee Boggs, the feminist philosopher and activist, gets a solo treatment dedicated to her now 99 years of life, social outreach, efforts for change, and the “evolution” of her life philosophy. FREE as part of the Madison Public Library’s “BOOM” senior film series.
Travel Adventure Series: The Heart of San Francisco with Sandy Mortimer (7:30p — Union South Marquee)
Also plays Tuesday. Full admission prices available at uniontheater.wisc.edu
Wednesday
The Sound of Music (2:00p, 7:30p — Sundance)
AGHET: A Genocide (3:00p — Union South Marquee)
A FREE “Genocide Awareness Screening” with post-film discussion.
Ex Machina (4:00p — 4070 Vilas Hall)
An announcement made earlier today, the Cinematheque’s surprise engagement takes its cues from another big-time get for Madison: Inside Llewyn Davis — if only by association. That Coen Bros. film also starred Oscar Isaac, but this time the actor isn’t playing an asshole musician. Isaac’s more of a reclusive CEO who invites Domnhall Gleeson to test a groundbreaking (and exotic, depending on whom you ask) piece of A.I.. The directorial debut of 28 Days Later scribe Alex Garland has been met with moderate praise since a laboriously slow release schedule that began in January across the pond. The “Turing test” has been science-fiction enthusiasts’ metric for measuring artificial intelligence but perhaps “When will this come to Madison?” is a tough enough question for any robot. FREE on 35mm.
I Can Quit Whenever I Want (Smetto Quando Voglio) (7:00p — UW Van Hise Building. Rm 375)
FREE.
Losing the West (7:00p — Union South Marquee)
Co-presented FREE by WUD Film and CALS Student Association.