Pick of the week: “Listen Up Philip” (all week, Sundance) — I’m a bit self-serving here, as I’m hosting a post-show Q&A on Tuesday, Oct. 28 after the 7:05 p.m. showing. But I still think Alex Ross Perry’s scathing comedy-drama, starring Jason Schwartzman as a misanhtropic writer in the Philip Roth mold, should be a good one.
“Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case” has its Madison premiere on Thursday at 9:30 p.m. at the Union South Marquee, 1208 W. Regent St., and plays again Saturday at 6 p.m. Not rated, 1:26, three stars out of four. FREE!
I highly enjoyed Alison Klayman’s 2012 documentary “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry,” which followed the combative Chinese dissident artist as he traveled the world, thumbing his nose at the authorities and making art that exposed the government’s cruelty. But the film seemed to have one big gap — after daring the Chinese police to arrest him, they finally acquiesce, and Weiwei goes missing for months. When we see him again, now under house arrest, he looks chastened. “I can’t say anything,” says the man who seemingly will say everything.
“Jealousy” plays at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, 227 State St. Not rated, 1:16, three stars out of four. Tickets are FREE for museum members, $7 for all others.
Philippe Garrel’s “Jealousy” shows the moments between the moments in a relationship. People break up, people cheat on each other, people go to bed alone, but we rarely see those moments as they happen. Instead, we see the offhand moments, the build-up and the aftermath, and piece together the rest.
Pick of the week: “Liberal Arts“ — My full review is here. Josh Radnor wrote, directed and starred in this soulful comedy about a disenchanted college admissions officer who goes back to his alma mater and connects with a bright student (Elizabeth Olsen). Radnor deftly avoids the skeevier aspects of the May-December relationship, and with fine supporting turns by Richard Jenkins and Allison Janney, the film is a lovely ode to keeping that college curiosity about the world going well after graduation.
1. “Fury” (all week, Point, Eastgate, Star Cinema, Sundance) — David Ayer is known for bruising L.A. cop movies like “End of Watch” and “Training Day,” but turns his attention to World War II with this “‘Saving Private Ryan’ in a tank” drama about a group of soldiers mopping up Germany at the end of the war. It looks great and is supposed to be brutally realistic — the question is whether Ayer can avoid the cliches in his screenplay.
“The Best of Me” opens Friday at Point, Eastgate and Star Cinemas. PG-13, 1:59, one star out of four.
I never thought a movie would make me long for the gritty realism of “The Notebook,” but “The Best of Me” certainly achieves that. It’s yet another adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel, which holds steady to a level of sugary mediocrity before taking a nosedive into the laughably bad in the final half hour.
“Rudderless” opens Friday at Sundance Cinemas. R, 1:45, three stars out of four.
As an actor, William H. Macy has never had much time for sentimentality on screen. In his first film as a director, “Rudderless,” he expresses a similar reticence to get mawkish, even when handling material that has such potential to get maudlin. Instead, “Rudderless” is a well-acted, sensitive, and surprisingly funny at times debut.
Last Friday, two well-reviewed movies, the horror-action movie “The Guest” and the fact-based thriller “Kill the Messenger,” opened at Point Cinemas. This Friday, the “Guest” will be gone, and “Messenger” will be down to two shows a day.
“Venus in Fur” screens Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, 227 State St. as part of the Spotlight Cinema series. FREE to members, $7 to all others. R, 1:29, two stars out of four.
Some critics (not me) complained that Roman Polanski’s last film “Carnage,” an adaptation of the play “God of Carnage,” was too stagey. Polanski has responded by adapting another play, “Venus in Fur,” this with only one location and two characters instead of four. And not only that, but a play set in a theater. So there.
Pick of the week: “Team America: World Police” — Trey Stone and Matt Parker’s hilarious satire of action movies and American politics (which have a lot of overlap with each other) was probably a pain to film, what with all those marionettes jiggling around. But it holds up very well a decade later — and that theme song is still catchy.
Madison Movie 