All freakin’ weekend
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (Sundance)
Before Cap Times’ Rob Thomas or The Dissolve got to see this saccharine dramedy about a teen diagnosed with cancer (Olivia Cooke) and the cinephile loner (Thomas Mann) who’s forced to keep her company, it drew a ton of praise out of Sundance for its encyclopedic references to Criterion Classics — and for having the balls to lie to its audience and admit it in the same breath. Whether you find disease-addled YA stories manipulative or endearing, there’s a charming “sweded” quality to the Z-grade parodies Mann and best bud (RJ Cyler) scrape together, and that’s strong enough to wipe away any crocodile tears.
Jurassic World (Sundance, AMC Star, Point, Stoughton Cafe)
After Spielberg’s groundbreaking original in 1993 (which still holds up) and two subsequent sequels (which, well… don’t), the “Park” is back and ready to wipe The Lost World and Jurassic Park III from existence. Somehow, some way, Michael Crichton’s theme park is not only still open, it’s bigger than before. “Jurassic World” is now run by Bryce Dallas Howard’s no-nonsense manager and when the Indominus rex, the latest ill-fated genetic modification, escapes, it’s up to Howard and a veloci-wrangler (Chris Pratt) to find her two nephews (Ty Simpkins, Nick Robinson) amid the devastation. To be fair, “indominus” is Latin for untamable. What did you think would happen?
I’ll See You In My Dreams (Sundance)
After two decades of living on her own, Blythe Danner’s widow and former singer finally, reluctantly learns to open herself back up to the world, meeting a pool boy (Martin Starr) and a charming, mustachioed bachelor (Sam Elliott) in the process. A UNC grad and John Hillcoat acolyte, director Brett Haley’s first feature The New Year cost about $5,000 to make, but he turned to Kickstarter to round out the production value on this one, and by at least one account, it sounds like it paid off.
Love & Mercy (Sundance)
The Brian Wilson biopic expands to Hilldale.
Paddington (AMC Star)
AMC begins its $5 summer charity series “AMC Cares,” which runs Mon-Thurs at 12:00p and 10:00p and Fri-Sun at 12:00p again.
Friday
God’s Slave (6:45p — Alicia Ashman Library)
(FREE.)
Rooftop Cinema presents “Powers of Light and Space” (9:30p — Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Rooftop Sculpture Garden)
Featuring Norman McLaren’s Pas de Deux, an eerie, optically-printed dance film, the Eames brothers’ iconic exploration of magnitude (Powers of Ten) and another selection from last week’s experimental humorist John Smith, “Rooftop Cinema’s” ten-year best of celebration continues. (Admission is FREE to MMoCA members and $7 for the rest of us.)
Stop Making Sense Brew ‘n View (10:00p — Majestic Theatre)
Among the greatest concert films of all time, this Talking Heads collab between frontman David Byrne and Jonathan Demme is acutely spartan in its aesthetic — which only highlights the intrinsic “dance party” Majestic is throwing for this. Still not convinced? Let Byrne do the rest. ($5. Doors at 9:00p.)
Saturday
The Renaissance of Mata Ortiz (12:00p — Madison Museum of Contemporary Art)
Part of a tie-in to this weekend’s trunk show, MMoCA screens Scott Petersen’s documentary on the Chihuahuan village of Mata Ortiz and its resurrection of Mesoamerican pottery. (FREE.)
Sunday
Penguins of Madagascar (10:00a — Point)
If you hold your thumb over the Twentieth Century Fox releases, Marcus Theatres’s $3 family discount series looks pretty okay.
Monday
Penguins of Madagascar (10:00a — Point)
$3.
Cars (9:00p — Memorial Union Terrace)
FREE.
Wednesday
Penguins of Madagascar (10:00a — Point)
$3.
The Terminator (2:05p, 7:40p — Sundance)
Antoine et Antoinette (7:00p — 4070 Vilas Hall)
A factory foreman (Roger Pigaut) and his salesgirl wife (Claire Maffei) have their hopes of a better life dashed when they lose a winning lottery ticket. Jacques Becker, who worked under the tutelage of Jean Renoir, paints a vivid, intimate social landscape of Parisian life against a dramatic (and occasionally comedic) backdrop of desperation. The first entry in their “New French Restorations” and one of three separate programs this summer, Cinematheque is back, baby. FREE.