Pick of the week: “The Double“ — My full review is here. Jesse Eisenberg — and Jesse Eisenberg! — star in this delightfully dark and twisty tale of a downtrodden man who finds that an exact duplicate of himself is slowly taking over his life. Director Richard Ayoade revels in visual touches that recall Terry Gilliam, but it’s really Eisenberg’s double performance that shines.
“We Are The Best!” has its Madison premiere Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, 227 State St. Tickets are free for museum members and $7 for all others. Not rated, 1:42, three and a half stars out of four.
It would be wonderful if the fictional musicians in Lukas Moodyson’s “We Are The Best!” could go on tour and play some live shows, like the duo from “Once” did. One drawback might be that the bandmates are probably too young to do a world tour. Another hiccup is that they only seem to know one song — and barely that.
If you want to recreate the experience of watching a movie on HBO at 12:50 a.m. in 1991, Jim Mickle’s “Cold in July” is your movie. It’s not just that the movie, out on DVD this week, is set in 1989 and revels in its Bush Senior-era kitschiness, from star Michael J. Hall’s majestic mullet to co-star Don Johnson’s shoebox-sized car phone to, well, Don Johnson. It’s more the texture of the thriller, modest in scope, seedy and bloody and focused. They don’t make them like they used to anymore.
“Stray Dog” screens on Sunday at 7 p.m. at 4070 Vilas Hall, 821 University Ave. as part of the UW-Cinematheque series. Director Debra Granik and subject Ronnie “Stray Dog” Hall will both be in attendance to talk about the film. FREE!
I would not mess with Ronnie “Stray Dog” Hall. The Vietnam veteran and Missouri biker is a fearsome-looking man, the sort who looks like he’s led a hard life, but can make yours a lot harder. No wonder director Debra Granik asked him to appear in her movie “Winter’s Bone” as a terrifying backwoods drug dealer. (My interview with Granik is here.) In one deleted scene on the DVD, you can watch Hall absolutely let loose on John Hawkes with an improvised rant that includes the threat “I’ll nail your dick to the wall.” It clearly comes from someplace real.
This wasn’t really planned, but I ended up talking a world tour at the first full day of the Milwaukee Film Festival on Friday, taking in films from Italy, Iran and Mexico. The festival’s foreign film slate has always been strong, and this year has beefed up its Latino programming with a special “Passport: Mexico” series.
“Pay 2 Play” opens Friday at Sundance Cinemas. Not rated, 1:29, two and a half stars out of four. Cap Times and Nation columnist John Nichols (who is in the film) and myself will host a post-show chat after the 7 p.m. show on Tuesday, Sept. 30 at Sundance.
“Monopoly” is kind of a weird game. It has no finish line. The winner is determined not because they reach any particular goal, but because all the other players have gone bankrupt. It’s not enough to win; every other player has to lose, too.
You certainly can’t criticize the documentary “GMO OMG” by complaining that it bombards the viewer with facts and figures. The presence of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) is a complicated and controversial subject, so how does filmmaker Jeremy Seifert tackle it? By showing us lots of footage of his kids.
“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.
“Ida” opens Friday at Sundance Cinemas. PG-13, 1:20, three and a half stars out of four.
At first, Ida is barely there. Pawel Pawilkowski shoots the opening scenes of “Ida” with the characters at the bottom of the frame, a lot of empty space above them. Which is fitting, because they are nuns in a Polish convent; having renounced the earthly world, they are focused heavenward, on the world that awaits ththe eem.
Except that, for some of us, the earthly world is not so easy to forget.
“Fed Up” is now playing at Point Cinemas. PG, 1:36, three stars out of four.
It’s a common saying that parents want to give their children more than they had. Usually it refers to material goods or opportunities. As parents, we never thought we’d have to work to give our children longer lives than we had.
Madison Movie 