For the first half, French-Canadian director Denis Cote’s “Vic + Flo Saw a Bear” plays like a naturalistic drama about an older lesbian couple starting a new life on a farm in rural Quebec. I expected certain things to come to pass — suspicion from the locals, touching love scenes, and an overall affirmation of the enduring power of love.
Yeah. Yeah, no.
Pick of the week: “The Master“ — My full review is here. My favorite movie of 2012 was Paul Thomas Anderson’s masterpiece that puts the lie to the American ideal of the “free-thinking, self-made man.” Anderson’s two men — a physically and emotionally damaged veteran (Joaquin Phoenix) and a charismatic cult leader (Philip Seymour Hoffman) are deeply flawed, but find their flaws fit together in a charged, fascinating way.
“The Battered Bastards of Baseball” is now streaming on Netflix. R, 79 minutes, three stars out of four.
Bing Russell was never the guy at the center of the frame. A “plumber actor,” as his more famous son Kurt called him (not unkindly), Russell worked hard in the ’50s and ’60s in small parts in countless Hollywood Westerns, perhaps best known for playing Deputy Clem on 13 seasons of “Bonanza.” I didn’t know “Bonanza” had a “Deputy Clem” either.
“Third Person” opens Friday at Sundance Cinemas. R, 2:17, one and a half stars out of four.
Man, it’s so hard to be a famous writer. Holed up in a swanky Parisian hotel suite, occasionally pecking away at the laptop, with only occasional visits from Olivia Wilde for company. Seriously, I don’t know how I do it.
“Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” (all week, Point, Eastgate, Star Cinema , Sundance) — In the subgenre of “reboots that are better than they have any reason to be,” the last two “Apes” movies stand alongside the “jump Street” movies. The word on this sequel, set 10 years after the events in “Rise” after a simian virus has decimated the human population, apes and humans find themselves in an uneasy and easily breakable truce.
“The Double” has its Madison premiere on Friday, July 11 at 7 p.m. at Union South Marquee Theatre, 1308 W. Dayton St. as part of the UW-Cinematheque summer series. R, 1:33, three stars out of four. FREE!
Richard Ayoade’s “The Double” has basically the same plot as Denis Villeneuve’s “Enemy,” in which a nebbishy nobody finds he has a an exact twin, a cockier and more successful version of himself. Somebody needs to flip the script and make a movie about an arrogant stud who comes across his own nerdy doppelganger.
Since up to 60 percent of the human body is water, consider the documentary “Watermark” to be something of a self-portrait.
Pick of the week: “Renoir“: My full review is here. The legendary painter in his late years is the subject of this French biopic, but the real star is the colors, the frame dappled with gorgeous orange and vermillion that the artist himself would have envied. Aside from the arresting visual poetry of the film, it’s otherwise an agreeable but shallow look, as the painter’s son (who will one day become “Rules of the Game” filmmaker Jean Renoir) falls for one of dad’s nude models.
“Snowpiercer” is now playing at Star Cinemas. R, 2:09, four stars out of four. The guys at madfilm.org have planned a “Madison Meetup” to go see “Snowpiercer” at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Within the space of a 60-foot-by-9-foot train car, “Snowpiercer” packs in more action, inventiveness, energy and ideas than most summer blockbusters that have whole galaxies at their disposal. The long-awaited English-language debut from South Korean writer-director Bong Joon-Ho (“The Host”) is a sleek sci-fi/action epic that has a lot on its mind and an exquisite sense of momentum and pacing. This thing MOVES.
“Godzilla: The Original Japanese Version” (Friday, July 4, 7 p.m., Union South Marquee) — There’s something a little . . . perverse . . . about showing the original 1950 Japanese “Godzilla” on Independence Day, given that the big green lizard’s swath of destruction is a metaphor for the devastation Japan suffered five years early at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And, well, that was us. If you’ve only seen the campy color sequels on Saturday afternoon TV or “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” you should check out this haunting version. FREE!
Madison Movie 