This week’s offerings are all about perspective. And derby cars.
Thursday
Missing (6:30p — Central Library, Rm 302)
To suggest Costa-Gavras has an interest in international relations would be an understatement. Political revolution and shadow dealings litter the Greek-born French director’s work, all of which can be traced back to his 1969 breakthrough Z, whichplumbed the assassination of Greek leftist Grigoris Lambrakis for investigative thrills. As “Cinesthesia’s” feature this month, Missing looks at another brilliant mind lost in wartime, when U.S. journalist Charles Horman was killed during the Pinochet-led overthrow of Salvador Allende in 1973. Missing dramatizes the fallout of Horman’s death through the eyes of his father (Jack Lemmon) and his wife (Sissy Spacek), implicating American guilt and empathy through a personal perspective and a profound sense of mistrust. (FREE.)
All freakin’ weekend
A War (Sundance)
Tobias Lindholm’s 2015 film has a lot on its mind. On the one hand, it’s just as the title says, depicting a Danish military effort to aid U.S. forces against the Taliban, all while preventing Afghan civilians from becoming collateral damage. A War‘s other half is more subtle, mushrooming the fallout of that occupation by putting a Danish general (Pilou Asbæk) on trial for actions that flirt with the classification of war crimes. Easily the least gaudy of this year’s Foreign Language Oscar nominees, this bifurcated war drama takes a subtler approach to its subject matter, questioning patriotism, complicity and justice through a sobering, outside approach.
Friday
A Monster With a Thousand Heads (7:00p — 4070 Vilas Hall)
Remember John Q.? Sure, you do. It’s the one where Denzel holds up a hospital to land his son an emergency transplant. A decade and a half later, the Nick Cassavetes melodrama doesn’t hold up particularly well, which is all for the best since A Monster With a Thousand Heads is more or less the same thing with added respectability. Director Rodrigo Plá’s slick and oh-so-taut effort (yes, 74 minutes) is also littered with drop-ins from Mexican character actors. (FREE.)
Saturday
The Big Short + Room (4:15p + 7:00p — Union South Marquee)
The Big Short wants to have its financially-savvy cake and eat it, too. The first (mostly) serious turn from Will Ferrell handler’s Adam McKay, this adaptation of Michael Lewis’s exposé on the 07-08 financial crisis knows talking about money is boring. The solution? Tongue-in-cheek segments with Margot Robbie in a bubble bath and Selena Gomez at the Vegas tables, self-aware breaths of fresh air to spice up the economics lectures. Delivered with a breezy pop sensibility, The Big Short is a tonal mess but mostly succeeds in explaining sub-prime mortgages to people who are just here to see Ryan Gosling in a wig.
Room fares much better. The crushing dramatic piece that netted Brie Larson a Best Actress Oscar last week and landed co-star Jacob Tremblay some new friends, Room throws you into the torturous life of a young woman. Confined to live out her days trapped in a shed in the backyard of the man who abducted and raped her, Larson’s character cares for a child she never asked for and yet could never live without now, and her performance lands somewhere between obligation and unconditional love. Director Lenny Abrahamson knows how to tug at the heartstrings with a bold, persuasive use of subjectivity, the centerpiece of which is an absolutely riveting escape attempt. (FREE.)
Sunday
Field Niggas + Buffalo Juggalos (7:00p — 4070 Vilas Hall)
Shouts to Chris Lay. “Juxtaposing these two between-the-cracks social subsets,” this week’s Micro-Wave Cinema double-feature offers pretty and nifty twin ethnographies. On the one hand, Field Niggas is the ideal torchbearer, basking residents of Harlem’s 125th Street and Lexington Avenue neighborhood in darkness as the disembodied dreams and opinions of asynchronous voices play in the background of Khalik Allah’s street portraiture.
The other finds unexpected beauty in Buffalo, among the city’s Juggalos. With stationary shots, the Insane Clown Posse’s most loyal in western New York demo-derby into shopping carts and hula-hoop in front of the local dam or, more effectively, show the mundane in mowing lawns and chiefing bowls. Of course, this trailer-hitch artwork — a filmic counterpoint to something like 60 Hours Among the Juggalos — features subjects exclusively in that trademark facepaint. Series curator Brandon Colvin is a fan of static shots, so this surprising FREE double-bill is really little surprise at all. Skype Q&As will follow.
Tuesday
The Vanquishing of the Witch of Baba Yaga (7:00p — Union South Marquee)
It’s hard to believe, but Jessica Oreck specifically went to war-torn Ukraine to depict Europe in the 21st century. This is what she came back with. As cryptic in form as its focus, Oreck’s visual essay is neither wholly documentary nor fictional, fusing animation, folk legends and cultural commentary for a half-animated, half-live-action allegory that replaces the characters of its titular Slavic fairy tale with soldiers and witches flying on giant mortars. Oreck is set to appear in-person. (FREE.)