“The Trials of Muhammad Ali” screens at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Madison Public Library’s Central Branch, 201 W. Mifflin St. Not rated, 1:31, three and a half stars. FREE!
Director Bill Siegel will introduce the film and take part in a post-show panel discussion. Read my interview with Bill Siegel here.
How America loved Muhammad Ali. But how America hated him too.
The big news on Netflix Instant this week is that the second season of “House of Cards” will drop on Valentine’s Day, so Netflix may understandably not want to detract from the binge-watching with a lot of new movies. Still, here are five recent additions worth your streaming time.
Pick of the week: “A Fistful of Dollars“: I highlighted “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” last week, so it’s time to look at Clint Eastwood’s first collaboration with Sergio Leone, a visceral update on “Yojimbo” in which Clint plays two rival gangs off against each other. Now we just need Instant to add “For a Few Dollars More.”
It’s fitting that the ninth annual Beloit International Film Festival begins on Valentine’s Day, since the annual festival is such a love letter to film, made in Wisconsin and everywhere. While the Wisconsin Film Festival in Madison and the Milwaukee Film Festival may draw more attention, BIFF holds its own with 120 films screened over 10 days.
All week
“The Monuments Men” (Point, Eastgate, Star Cinema) — Despite a powerhouse cast and an intriguing true-life story (historians try to rescue priceless art stolen by the Nazis), early reviews for this George Clooney-directed drama have not been kind.
“The LEGO Movie” opens Friday at Point, Eastgate, Star Cinema and Cinema Cafe. PG, 1:41, three and a half stars out of four.
Unfortunately, “The LEGO Movie” does not have a cameo by that sad little footbridge that seemed to be the only thing I could build out of LEGOs without an instruction book. Aside from that, the animated film lovingly and cleverly captures the appeal those little plastic bricks have on kids, whether you played with them yesterday or during the Carter Administration.
“2014 Oscar Nominated Shorts — Live Action” opens Friday at Sundance Cinemas. Not rated, 1:35, two and a half stars out of four.
Where the animation shorts category at the Academy Awards seems to allow in sorts of candidates, the live-action shorts category always seemed like a bit of a racket. It seems like filmmakers have figured out that the Academy voters love self-serious melodramas, ideally about a child in peril or third-world strife (a third-world child in peril — cha-ching!) I know there are tons of interesting and innovative short films being made out there — I just wish I could see more of them in the Academy Final Five every year.
The “2014 Oscar Nominated Shorts — Animated” collection opens Friday at Sundance Cinemas. Not rated, 85 minutes, three and a half stars out of four.
Animated features in 2013 tend to look about the same — computer-animated, big stars, in 3D wherever possible. But flying below the radar, the animators of short films tend to have a little more leeway to try some different techniques — like drawing! — and the result in this year’s batch of Oscar-nominated animated shorts is a delightful collection that varies in style as much as theme.
I mentioned on Monday that the latest Sundance Screening Room calendar had been set for February and March. And now I have more good news — Sundance Cinemas and I have scheduled post-show chats after two of the more intriguing movies on the bill.
The start of a new month meant the release of a bunch of new titles on Netflix Instant, many of them classics. But our pick of the week is a recent animated hit that was one of the most pleasant surprises of 2013.
Pick of the week: “The Croods“ — This animated film about a cavemen family hunting for a new home looked terrible from the trailers, but it’s actually a very funny film that’s surprisingly insightful about the relationship between fathers and daughters. Beautiful animation, strong voice work from Nicolas Cage and Emma Stone and, best of all, an animated teenage girl who actually has the body type of an actual teenage girl.
Western of the week: “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” — Sergio Leone’s sprawling tale of three outlaws, ranging from an antihero to a cold-blooded villain, on the trail of a fortune in gold mixes iconic Leone action with an epic sweep and a surprisingly potent antiwar theme.
Comedy of the week: “Airplane!“ — The UW-Madison’s own Zucker, Zucker and Abraham crib shamelessly from “Zero Hour” to make the quintessential parody film, often imitated, never equaled, always quoted.
Thriller of the week: “Patriot Games” — With the wan Jack Ryan reboot “Patriot Games” in theaters, it’s a good time to revisit Harrison Ford’s first outing as the CIA analyst, fighting IRA terrorists threatening his family.
Drama of the week: “Broken” — A precocious girl watches the neighbors on her quiet cul-de-sac hurtle towards violent confrontation in this British drama starring Tim Roth and Cillian Murphy.
This isn’t one of those articles where I pretend that I had some personal connection or insight into Philip Seymour Hoffman, who died Sunday of a heroin overdose in a tragedy that has saddened and mystified so many. His death, alone in a bathroom with a needle in his arm, doesn’t seem to square with either the brilliant artist we know from movies and the stage, or the jovial-sounding father who could be seen biking his kids to public school in Greenwich Village.
Madison Movie 