John Waters in the flesh, more LakeFrontRow Cinema, Phantom of the Paradise, & vampires from Park Chan-wook
Thursday
Creepers (6:30p — Central Library, Rm 302)
It’s worth noting that while Dario Argento’s standing has fallen by the wayside in recent years, he wasn’t reviled back in 1985 for making questionable Dracula movies. If you wanted to draw a laugh from the audience, the studio would have to, oh I don’t know, butcher the crap out of his thriller starring a psychic Jennifer Connelly. Presumably, they would give it a nonsensical title like, say Creepers, and then try to pass it off on American markets. Hypothetically speaking, of course. (A FREE co-presentation courtesy of “Bad Cinema” and the Madison Public Library’s “Eerie Tales” month-long promotion.)
Trainwreck (7:00p — Union South Marquee)
Writer/director/hot-enough-for-TV-comedian Amy Schumer plays a flaky journalist who second-guesses her boyfriend-free philosophy when she’s tasked with a cover story on Bill Hader’s sports medicine doctor. (FREE.)
“This Filthy World: An Evening with John Waters” (7:30p — Mills Hall)
Okay, so this isn’t a movie per se, but the director behind some of cinema’s most transgressive and absurd forays into pop culture relevance is worth at least a footnote in this week’s calendar. Waters’s title, as keynote speaker for UW’s LGBTQ History Month, brings some formality to what will no doubt be an unfiltered and frank evening. The title of WUD’s FREE Distinguished Lecture, a little less so.
Hairspray (9:30p — Union South Marquee)
(FREE.)
The Shining (10:00p — Point)
All freakin’ weekend
Bridge of Spies (Sundance, AMC Star, Point)
Saving Private Ryan came out in 1998, which means it’s been a whole 17 years since Tom Hanks had to trek into enemy territory and save another American’s ass. Well he’s back again with Steven Spielberg, this time to draw out and dramatize a Hollywoodian take on the “U-2 Incident.” In 1960, Soviets shot down an American spy plane, calling out the Eisenhower presidency for a blatant Cold War blunder while holding pilot Francis Gary Powers hostage in the process.
Crimson Peak (AMC Star, Point)
Guillermo del Toro is at his best when he’s pursuing a passion project, and he’s been chipping away at this one since he wrapped Pan’s Labyrinth. Set in Victorian England, the giallo throwback puts Mia Wasikowska’s novelist in the middle of a love triangle with Tom Hiddleston and Charlie Hunnam and then sticks them in a creepy mansion with Hiddleston’s sister (the infallible Jessica Chastain). Immaculately designed with a habit of drawing out tension to extreme lengths, Crimson Peak may or may not pay off; I’m just praying for no giant robots. (There’s a Madison Film Forum meetup on Tues for $5.)
Goosebumps (AMC Star, Point, Stoughton Cinema Cafe)
Viewer Beware, You’re in For What Might Be a Halfway Decent Kids Movie? Night of the Living Dummy is still an unnerving story concept but in hindsight, R.L. Stine’s scares-for-kids book series seems thoroughly ensconced in late-90s pop culture. So it’s more than reasonable to question the timing for a live-action spin-off. Leave it to Jack Black though to give this thing legitimacy. Starring as the children’s author, Black headlines this loose adaptation of Stine’s books as their titular characters come to life; he also voices that damn dummy.
Freeheld (Sundance)
Laurel Hester passed away in 2006 but before the Ocean County lieutenant succumbed to cancer, she spent her remaining time fighting for her pension benefits to be transferred to her domestic partner. As chronicled in the Oscar-winning 2007 documentary short of the same name, the media coverage and litigation surrounding Hester’s civil rights battle gets retold with Julianne Moore as Hester and Ellen Page as her partner Stacie Leigh Andree.
Meet the Patels (Sundance)
I’ll go out on a limb and say that India’s views on marriage seem a little different than our own. Take the case of Indian-American Ravi Patel, who after a devastating breakup takes a camera with his filmmaker sister Geeta and heads to India to visit his parents, happily married and beginning to suspect their son might not be straight. When he arrives, Patel learns that his mother and father have prepared a thorough set of potential matches, showing love for their son while shamelessly overstepping their boundaries at once. Maybe Indians and Americans aren’t so different after all.
Bruce Lee – The Fighter (AMC Star)
I’m embedding a trailer because it’s both essential to understand this Telugu action film is not about the martial arts legend and because Ram Charan’s stuntman is nicknamed after him. Key distinctions, guys.
Goodbye, Mr. Loser (AMC Star)
A middling man at the end of his wits is transported back in time to his high school days, where he can rectify everything that went wrong and reverse his lifetime streak as a loser. This is being marketed as a quirky comedy, but it sounds more like a wonderful fantasy than anything else.
Woodlawn (Point)
101 Dalmatians (Fri-Sun — Point)
Sans Glenn Close. (10:00a, 12:30p, 3:00p)
Friday
Trainwreck (6:00p — Union South Marquee)
(FREE.)
The Chambermaid (6:45p — Alicia Ashman Library)
(FREE.)
Zulu (7:00p — 4070 Vilas Hall)
The British military must be sick and tired of always playing the heavy. In Cy Endfield’s 1964 war movie though, his officers (including a young Michael Caine in arguably his first significant screen role as Lt. Gonville Bromhead) are practically sympathetic after their battalion is besieged by thousands of native Zulu warriors who, understandably, just want the UK to go back home. Set in the late 19th century when European colonization was still in vogue, what would become present-day South Africa sets the stage for a film that Madison Film forum‘s Susan Rathke calls a story about learning the value of setting aside “colonial hubris.” (FREE.)
When Marnie Was There (8:30p — Union South Marquee)
After screening what may be Studio Ghibli’s last feature-length effort over a holiday weekend, Cinematheque’s questionable life choice has been rectified by WUD Film on a more reasonable weekend. You’ll have to tolerate an English dub, though. (FREE.)
The Shining (10:00p — Point)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (10:00p — AMC Star)
Lost Highway (11:00p — Union South Marquee)
Saying a David Lynch film is “dreamy” is like saying a pool party is “wet.” Technically you’re right, but you’re skipping over the fun. In his 1997 psycho-noir, Lynch uses classical techniques in non-traditional ways: fades, dissolves, theatrical staging, out of body experiences, hallucinatory spats of lustful murder. The usual. And that’s all while Bill Pullman and Patricia Arquette try to make it in a city where something that vaguely resembles Robert Blake can exist. (FREE.)
Saturday
Demon in the Waiting Room (3:00p — High Noon Saloon)
The third installment in Madison-based genre dude Ben Wydeven’s “Raven James” shorts sits in between his first and The Waiting Room, the latter of which screened earlier this year at the High Noon Saloon. Wydeven will close out his booze hound medium’s mishaps with the undead using his signature saturated color palette and plenty of murky psychological territory. There’s even a tie-in music video to boot. ($5.)
When Marnie Was There (6:00p — Union South Marquee)
(FREE.)
L’inferno (7:00p — 4070 Vilas Hall)
Cinemathque may have their deepest cut yet this weekend when they screen the oldest Italian feature, Francesco Bertolini, Adolfo Padovan, and Giuseppe De Liguoro’s 1911 adaptation of The Divine Comedy. Preceded by The Dante Quartet, a kaleidoscopic hand-painted 1987 experimental film that was the result of Stan Brakhage’s obsessive reading of every English translation of Dante Aligheri’s work. (FREE.)
Trainwreck (8:30p — Union South Marquee)
(FREE.)
The Shining (10:00p — Point)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (10:00p — AMC Star)
Lost Highway (11:00p — Union South Marquee)
(FREE.)
Sunday
Phantom of the Paradise (2:00p — Chazen Art Museum)
The Halloween season is upon us and if the FREE “35mm Forever!” series is trying to tell us anything, it’s that we’re not getting weird enough. Thankfully, Brian DePalma’s batshit musical adaptation is here to help. After (Muppet Movie songwriter) Paul Williams’ producer gets new concert digs, a phantom stranger begins offing his star talent in succession. A weird 70s mixture of the original Phantom of the Opera, Goethe, and Oscar Wilde, this trippy horror musical has gone on to undo the negative praise audiences once lobbed its way. (Apparently it was also a kind of Star Wars coming of age experience for Daft Punk.)
My Fair Lady 50th Anniversary (2:00p — Point)
When Marnie Was There (3:00p — Union South Marquee)
(FREE.)
Trainwreck (6:30p — Union South Marquee)
(FREE.)
Monday
“The Short Films of John Roberts” (6:30p — Central Library, Rm 302)
LakeFrontRow Cinema is having an off month, and that’s by design. We’ve deviated from our usual bi-monthly habits to fit three more evenings into our 2015 schedule. This month, we’re presenting three pieces from John Roberts, who also works as a visual effects artist for Milwaukee’s Independent Studios. Don’t let Roberts’s slim filmography fool you as he’s had his hand in spinning together punk fables (The Wheel) while channeling his off kilter enthusiasm into manic music video projects, too (“Sunshine” from Kane Place Record Club). The real highlight of the evening though is Lemon, a dark suburban fairy tale where a young girl goes to extreme lengths to put her lemonade over on a small town. Roberts, who took home the “Milwaukee Show” award in 2009, won the Cream City Cinema award for it in this year’s jury awards. I’ll never admit to drinking the Kool-Aid, but lemonade is a different story. (FREE.)
Tuesday
Attack on Titan: End of the World (7:30p — Point)
I’ll defer to Jim Kreul for any backstory on this one.
Wednesday
La Vida y Los Muertos (5:00p — Union South Marquee)
Life and the Dead is a visual documentary-style mosaic “that captures the beauty, the joy, the sadness and the magic of the Day of the Dead in Oaxaca, Mexico.” Presented FREE by the UW Latin American, Caribbean & Iberian Studies program. (FREE.)
The Gift (6:45p — Union South Marquee)
(FREE.)
Fidelio: Alice’s Odyssey (7:00p — Madison Museum of Contemporary Art)
(Spotlight Cinema is FREE to members and $7 for everyone else.)
Thirst (7:00p — Alicia Ashman Library)
Park Chan-wook directs blood-thirsty Catholic vampires. Now we’re talking. (FREE.)
L’Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio (7:00p — Helen C. White Building, Rm 4281)
(FREE.)
Back to the Future, Part II Party (7:00p — AMC Star, Point)
Apart from the Chicago Cubs’s postseason hopes and ads for Pepsi Perfect, 2015 doesn’t look a whole lot like the way Robert Zemeckis envisioned it back in 1989. That’s not stopping Marcus Theatres (or really, half the internet) from cashing in on the joke. Trivia and a costume contest at 6:30p will precede the “anniversary” screening. And please, leave your hoverboards at home.
Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (9:15p — Union South Marquee)
With the wry flavor of Tucker and Dale vs. Evil and the hokey schtick of Moonrise Kingdom, this one could go either way really. Paranormal Activity veteran Christopher B. Landon moves away from found footage with this horror comedy about a scout troop whose last merit badge might be for dispatching their small town’s scores of undead. The zombie sub-genre may have run its course, but here’s hoping WUD Film’s FREE sneak peak of this Halloween weekend release is more Zombieland and less Zombeavers. Starring David Koechner and Joe breakout Tye Sherdian.