Spoilers abound in this article, not surprisingly.
“I get it.” astronaut Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) says to astronaut Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) at one point during “Gravity.” “It’s nice up here.” Earlier in the film, before everything goes to hell, Kowalski asks Stone what she likes best about outer space, and she says, “The silence. I could get used to that.”
By the standards of the UW-Cinematheque series or the Marquee Theater season, the Spotlight Cinema series at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art is rather modest. Five films on five Thursday nights in the fall. Yet the series is always well curated, bringing five movies that have never played in Madison before (and likely never would theatrically) to the big screen. Past years have included such major independent films as “Holy Motors” and “We Need to Talk About Kevin.”
Memories fade. Less than 3 years later, thinking back on the Wisconsin protests against Gov. Scott Walker’s plans to strip public-sector employees of most of their barganing rights, I start to question my memory a little. Were the rallies really that big? Were they really that loud?
Yes and yes, and a new documentary, “Wisconsin Rising,” serves as a document to remind us of that. The hour-long film by Sam Mayfield has its Wisconsin premiere at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Barrymore Theatre, 2090 Atwood Ave. Tickets are $5-$10 at the door, and Mayfield will be there to talk about the film and answer questions.
Friday was, frankly, too nice a day to spend inside a movie theater. But it was the one day I knew I could make it to Milwaukee for the 5th annual Milwaukee Film Festival. And at least I spent a lot of time outdoors in the two visually stunning documentaries I saw, “Breathing Earth” and “More Than Honey.”
“Breathing Earth” is the latest film from director Thomas Riedelscheimer, who made the wonderful “Rivers & Tides” about a decade ago about the work of artist Andrew Goldsworthy. Goldsworthy’s work was intended to work with the rhythms of nature, letting wind and water gradually erode them away. In “Breathing Earth” he focuses on another artist, Sunumu Shingu, whose work also depends on wind and water.
Shingu’s intricate geometric sculptures are like beautiful weather vanes, spinning and bowing and dipping according to the whims of the air currents. Shingu wants to use his work to celebrate something invisible in nature, and just watching them move is almost hypnotice. Riedelscheimer intercuts these images with gorgeous scenes of nature, wind ruffling through tall grass like a sheepdog’s fur, or an explosion of orange butterflies filling the sky, creating a contemplative and lovely viewing experience.
“Breathing Earth” is less successful in its narrative line, following Shingu’s attempt to build an entire village that runs on wind power. We follow Shingu and his wife from country to country, looking for a suitable spot to build the village, never quite finding the right one. It’s a little dull and pedestrian — far more interesting is Shingu talking about his upbringing, in particular the troubled older brother who inspired him to become an artist.
A stronger film overall was “More Than Honey,” which a film festival volunteer outside the Oriental Theatre said was already being called the “Chasing Ice” of 2013. It is a visually amazing film about the life of bees, with amazing close-up photography inside the hive, and even a jaw-dropping sequence from a bee’s eye view that follows another bee as it darts around a meadow. (That can’t be real, can it?) If ever a documentary deserved an IMAX 3D release, it’s this one.
What’s more, director Markus Inhoof’s film is fascinating as it tells about how bees think, and how their population is being decimated by a host of factors, all of them manmade. In their rush to get every larger and more profitable crops, commercial beekeepers have tried to domesticate bees into become docile little flying cows, with disastrous results for the ecosystem. Fortunately, Inhoof seems hope in, of all things, African so-called “killer bees,” which make pure honey and are too bad-ass to be messed with.
The festival continues until Oct. 10. For a complete schedule and other information, visit mkefilm.org.
The 2013 Milwaukee Film Festival kicks off Thursday and runs for two weeks, presenting over 240 films, filmmaker panels, live shows and other special events. The MFF 2013 calendar looks as eclectic as it is impressive, with series devoted to children’s films, music-themed films, and of course films with Milwaukee and Wisconsin tie-ins.
I’m planning to be there Friday to see a few films, so look for my report on the blog on Saturday. I’m tempted to say to just hit Interstate 94 on any given day and just see what’s playing, the quality of films is so high. (And the films play at some of Milwaukee’s most distinctive theaters — the palatial Oriental Theatre, the funky Downer Theatre, and the expansive new Fox Bay Cinema-Grill).
But to get you started on the film schedule at mkefilm.org, here are 13 things that caught my eye:
“Break Up Man” (Thursday, Sept. 26, 6:30 p.m., Oriental) — MFF always goes for a crowd-pleaser for the opening night selection, and this year is no exception with this popular German film, about a professional “break-up artist” who must end relationships in order to further his career.
“Kids’ Shorts : Size Small” (Saturday, Sept. 28, 10:30 a.m., Oriental) — The festival divides its children’s shorts by running time for little attention spans — here are the quick ones.
“Blow Out” (Saturday, Sept. 28, 4 p.m., Oriental) — Brian DePalma’s paranoid thriller will be presented by several writers from The Dissolve website (the Wisconsin Film Festival should have them up next year!)
“Wings of Desire” (Sunday, Sept. 29, 3:45 p.m., Oriental) — Any chance to see Wim Wenders’ wondrous film about angels watching over Berlin, one of them yearning to be human, is worth seeing, especially in a lustrous 35mm print.
“Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me” (Sunday, Sept. 29, 7 p.m., Oriental) — This documentary on the life of a Hollywood and Broadway legend will be unlivened by the fact that the festival just announced that Stritch herself will be at the screening.
“Muscle Shoals” (Monday, Sept. 30, 7 p.m., Downer and Thursday, Oct, 3, 7 p.m., Fox Bay Cinema Grill) — This documentary looks at the legendary Alabama recording studio, where everyone from the Rolling Stones to the Drive-By Truckers have recorded classics.
“After Tiller” (Tuesday, Oct. 1, 7 p.m, Oriental) — There are only four doctors in the U.S. willing to perform third-trimester abortions, and this extraordinary documentary chronicles their work in the face of death threats.
“Ludwig II” (Wednesday, Oct. 2, noon, Oriental, and Sunday, Oct. 2, noon, Downer) — If you like long, engrossing epics, settle in for this 160-minute biopic of the Bavarian king known as the “mad monarch.”
“The Girls in the Band” (Thursday, Oct. 3, 4:45 p.m., Oriental, and Tuesday, Oct. 8, 5 p.m., Fox Bay Cinema Griill) — Similar to “20 Feet From Stardom,” this documentary looks at female musicians overlooked in their time — only this time it’s jazz session musicians who weren’t properly credited in a male-dominated genre.
“We Are What We Are” (Friday, Oct. 4, 9:30 p.m., Oriental) — In this stylish and gripping horror film, a father and his two daughters keep to themselves in a small town, and with good reason — they’re cannibals.
“An Evening with Paul Attanasio” (Saturday, Oct. 5, 7:30 p.m., Oriental) — This one-of-a-kind evening explores the work of Milwaukee native and Hollywood writer-producer Attanasio, as he presents and talks about his many acclaimed projects for film and television, including “Donnie Brasco” and “Homicide: LIfe on the Street.”
“August: Osage County” (Monday, Oct. 7, 7 p.m., Oriental) — The all-star adaptation of Tracy Letts’ play is one of the hottest tickets at the festival, but some rush tickets may be available at the door.
“Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me” (Sunday, Oct. 6, 8 p.m, Fox Bay Cinema Grill, and Wednesday, Oct. 9, 4:45 p.m., Downer) — This documentary on the legendary power-pop band should appeal to fans of Alex Chilton and company.
When I first heard about “Escape From Tomorrow” premiering at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, I naturally assumed I would never get a chance to see it. An edgy, hallucinatory drama shot secretly on the grounds of Disneyland? The mouse-eared attorneys from Magic Kingdom would surely shut that down faster than you can say “It’s a Small World.”
But not only has “Escape” escaped legal threats, but it’s opening Oct. 10 at Sundance Cinemas as part of the next round of its Screening Room series, setting aside Theater 1 for weeklong runs of independent, foreign and documentary films. This upcoming series is only five films instead of the usual eight, presumably because we’re getting into Oscar season, and the theater will want to have all six screens available for some fall heavyweight films.
Over the weekend, I wrote a story for The Cap Times on the precarious existence of many of America’s drive-in theatres. The future was already shaky for drive-ins (only about a tenth of the 4,000 to 5,000 drive-ins operating in the 1950s) still exist, and they now face an existential threat — digital cinema.
Most theaters have already switched from 35mm film to digital projection (in Madison, only the second-run Market Square and on-campus venues still show 35mm) as the studios make fewer and fewer film prints available. Digital looks better, it never degrades, and playing a film is as easy as pressing a button, unlike swapping and threading film reels.
But digital projectors also cost $80,000 to $100,000, and that cost has been prohibitive for many drive-ins. Now, as the summer season is over, studios have said they’re all but stopping 35mm prints in 2014, which could wipe a lot of drive-in theaters out. Honda attempted to draw attention to the problem with its projectdrivein.com contest, where fans got to vote for which drive-in theater got one of nine free projectors courtesy of Honda.
Luckily for Madison fans of retro al fresco cinema, our local drive-ins were ahead of the curve. Goetz Sky-Vu Drive In Monroe went digital last year, and Hi-Way Outdoor Theatre in Jefferson was one in the first in the nation to go digital back in 2010.
Did anybody ever deliberately start watching “Mystery Science Theater 3000” on purpose? It feels like every fan I run across (myself included) has an origin story with the cult ’90s TV series that sounds like this: “There was this show on, and I didn’t know what was going on! But it was just so funny, and I just kept watching more and more and more . . .”
That was from the woman sitting next to me at the Pabst Theatre in Milwaukee for “Cinematic Titanic,” which features five of the creators/performers of the series, including the trio that begun it back in its Minneapolis public-access days — Joel Hodgson, Trace Beaulieu, and J. Elvis Weinstein, along with Frank Conniff and Mary Jo Pehl. (The trio who ended the series on Syfy in 1999 — Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett — went on to start the equally worthy Rifftrax.)
Rifftrax has focused on doing new commentaries for famous and recent films that can be synced up to your DVD, as well as live nationwide broadcasts. Cinematic Titanic has kept its focus on old movies, mixing DVD releases with live shows like the Pabst Theatre two-night stand.
Point Cinemas is gunning for Sundance.
I mean, it’s not quite that personal. But it seems pretty clear that Marcus Theatres, which owns both Point and Eastgate Cinemas in Madison, is looking at the success that Sundance and other arthouses have had in other markets, and are looking to replicate that success in their theaters. Which is an interesting move for the nation’s sixth-largest movie chain — can they bring that boutique feel to a building that has 16 screens?
Sundance and other theaters (particularly in the Landmark chain) have upped the ante for the moviegoing experience with more inviting exteriors, including lounges and alcoholic drinks that you can bring into the theater. So Point responded with the swanky new Take Five lounge, which looks nothing like a snack bar and everything like a hotel lounge, with a full bar.
Now Marcus (and Point) seems to be going after Sundance’s kind of programming with its Theatre Entertainment Network. Marcus has had such success with non-traditional types of programming (live theater, Rifftrax broadcasts, one-night-only screenings) that they’ve dedicated one screen at Point and Eastgate to this kind of fare, at least on weekdays. That also means limited runs of independent movies — the French-Canadian comedy “Starbuck” is playing once a day at Point and Eastgate through Thursday. And it means classic films — “Animal House” is also screening there through Thursday. They also have a series of comic short films, the “LOL Short Film Festival,” playing through Thursday.
Next week brings the indie drama “Between Us” and Richard Linklater’s “Dazed and Confused” for limited runs, while the horizon shows the Mads Mikkelsen drama “The Hunt” and John Carpenter’s “The Thing.” It’s kind of a grab bag (there’s also a Kirk Cameron special and a Paul McCartney & Wings concert in there somewhere), but Marcus can afford to experiment. In the days of 35mm film, it would have been unwieldy to have one-time-only showings of films, since it takes so long to change reels. In the age of digital, it’s just a matter of playing this file instead of that file. And with most of the movies costing $5 (special events are invariably more), it’s a good deal for audiences as well.
Whether audiences will respond is another matter — it seems strange that movies show at different times on different days, making it perhaps harder for viewers to plan to see one of the films. Sundance has had success at building a loyal following of older, pickier customers who will only see movies at Sundance — can Point do the same thing and also appeal to the masses? In any event, it’s a good thing that good movies will get a chance at theatrical distribution, and if Marcus thinks showing independent and classic movies is a sound business strategy, that’s great — one less screen showing “Getaway.” This is an interesting move worth watching.
I feel a little guilty saying this, given the subject matter of the film, but the post-show chat I hosted after a screening of “Act of Killing” at Sundance Cinemas a couple of weeks ago was a lot of fun.
The movie itself, which delves into the psyche of government-sanctioned Indonesian mass murderers, is no fun. But it is brilliant and thought-provoking, and it made me so happy to see by far the largest turnout for a Sundance chat come out — we filled the Overflow Bar, and it was a great conversation, as people shared their reactions to the film, including a few people who lived in Indonesia.
But the next movie I’m doing a post-show discussion for, “Stories We Tell,” deals with somewhat lighter subject matter. The chat will take place after the 6:55 p.m. screening on Tuesday, Sept. 10 in the Overflow Bar, located on the first floor of the theater, right across from the box office. Everybody’s welcome.
Actress and filmmaker Sarah Polley (“Away From Her,” “Take This Waltz”) turns the camera back on her own family in “Stories We Tell,” interviewing family members and friends to discover the story of her late mother, a story that brings with it some truly surprising revelations. It’s a film about the fractured state of a family’s history, how everyone holds their own perspective on past events, knitting fact, rumor and opinion together into a narrative that suits them best. I think it’s one of the best films of the year.
It’s a film that will give us lots to talk about. I hope you can join me!
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