Monthly Archives: August 2014

“Life Itself”: Roger Ebert goes to the movies one last time

ebert-award

“Life Itself” has its Madison premiere at 3 p.m. Saturday at the Union South Marquee Theatre, 1208 W. Dayton St., as part of the UW-Cinematheque summer series. PG-13, 2:03, three and a half stars out of four. FREE!

“For me, the movies are like a machine that generates empathy.” — Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was a great film writer for many reasons, but one of them was that he wasn’t just a great film writer, just writing about movies when he was writing about movies. Read through his reviews, and you’ll find political arguments, philosophical musings, remembrances of his boyhood in Champaign-Urbana. He believed that the beauty and the power of a great movie didn’t stop at the concession stand, but extended out the front doors into — life itself.

Continue reading →

Instant Gratification: “Enemy” and four other good movies to watch on Amazon Prime and Netflix

ENEMY_DAY4-0054

Well, this could get complicated. Up until now this weekly column has focused exclusively on Netflix, since they’ve usually been the one to get the jump on new releases, with Amazon Prime and Hulu focusing more on television. But then I saw Amazon Prime is releasing “Enemy,” part of an exclusive new deal it struck with the studio A24. So I’m going to start broadening the column from here on out to include other streaming platforms. Hopefully, this won’t get too confusing.

Pick of the week: “Enemy” (Amazon Prime) — My full review is here. Canadian director Denis Villeneuve reteamed with Jake Gyllenhaal after “Prisoners” in this unsettling tale of a meek history professor who finds out he has an exact doppelganger, a cocky young actor. As they wrestle over who is the “real” self, Villeneuve bathes the film in a sense of dread that’s Cronenerberg-esque.

Continue reading →

Instant Gratification: “Mad Max” and four other good movies to watch on Netflix Instant

Mad Max 1

I’m filing the Instant Gratification column a little late this week to catch some of the new movies that Netflix just made available for streaming on Aug. 1. And there were a lot of them. Click on the title, and the link will take you directly to the movie on the Netflix site. Enjoy!

“Mad Max” — With the dynamite trailer for the 2015 reboot “Mad Max: Fury Road” released this week, it’s a great time to revisit the 1979 original, a nasty bit of “Oz-sploitation” starring an impossibly young Mel Gibson who goes from good cop to vigilante in a hurry.

Continue reading →

The five movies you have to see in Madison: Aug. 1-6, 2014

Faster-Pussy-Cat-Kill-Kill
1. “Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!” (7 p.m. Friday, Union South Marquee) – The UW-Cinematheque summer season is a great way to keep abreast of classic cinema, and that’s certainly true of this screening of Russ Meyer’s 1965 camp classic about three supervixens taking revenge on the leering men around them. Hey, audience? My eyes are up here.

Continue reading →

“Get On Up”: James Brown paid the cost to be the boss

getonup

“Get On Up” is now playing at Point, Eastgate and Star Cinema. PG-13, 2:18, three stars out of four.

At first, watching the James Brown biopic “Get On Up” is like listening to his greatest-hits album on shuffle. First, we’re in 1988, when a track-suited Godfather of Soul fires a rifle into the ceiling at one of his businesses and is chased by police. Then we’re back in 1968, as Brown and his band flyon a transport plane to a show in Vietnam, enemy gunfire all around. (While his band cowers, Brown seems more offended than anything else that the Viet Cong might cause him to be late for the show.)  Then we’re back in 1939, as a young Brown growing up poor in rural Georgia, the prize in a lifelong tug-of-war between his abusive parents.

Continue reading →

“Guardians of the Galaxy”: A guy, a girl, a wrestler, a raccoon and a tree walk into a bar . . .

guardians-galaxy-walking

“Guardians of the Galaxy” opens Friday at Point, Eastgate, Star Cinema and Sundance. PG-13, 2:02, three stars out of four.

A guy, a girl, a wrestler, a raccoon and a tree walk into a bar . . .

The punch line is “Guardians of the Galaxy,” which injects a much needed adrenaline shot of silliness into the summer blockbuster formula. Using a team of Marvel backbenchers and directed by Jason Gunn, who completely subverted the superhero film in “Super,” “Guardians’ isn’t quite the anti-Marvel Marvel film some folks were hoping for. It uses the same formula and beats as “The Avengers” or “Thor” — it just seems to have a lot more fun with them.

Continue reading →