An elegy for Michael Jackson in This Is It Strange film is a fitting farewell Marjorie Baumgarten on Friday 10/30/2009, (1) Recommendation Ever see a dream moonwalking? Well, I did. Michael Jackson's posthumously released film about the preparations for his 50-concert comeback extravaganza is a strange creature indeed. >MoreSoul Power: Spotlight on James Brown Kenneth Burns on Friday 10/30/2009, (1) Recommendation There are a lot of mind-blowing moments in Soul Power, the documentary about a 1974 music festival that brought James Brown, B.B. King and other greats to Zaire. >More
A Serious Man retells the Job story The Coen brothers grow up Marjorie Baumgarten on Friday 10/23/2009 Embrace paradox; accept life's mysteries. These are some of the things that serious men learn. God owes us bupkis in the way of answers. With A Serious Man, the Coen brothers have made one of their best and most personal movies. It is rich with ideas and packed with the sort of existential jokes that tickle the Coen boys so. >MoreWhere the Wild Things Are not The movie adaptation lacks the book's mythic power Kenneth Burns on Friday 10/16/2009 Like any good myth, Where the Wild Things Are has lessons to teach, but also ambiguities. To his credit, director Spike Jonze retains ambiguities in his film version, which he wrote with Gen-X literary icon Dave Eggers. But given the book's austerity, the film has quite a few gaps to fill, even at a brief hour and 34 minutes. >More
Whip It: Skating party Ellen Page's star shines in spirited Drew Barrymore film Marjorie Baumgarten on Friday 10/02/2009 Drew Barrymore's directing debut, Whip It, based on a screenplay about women's roller derby by Shauna Cross, teems with girl-power spirit and exudes an all-encompassing benevolence. >MoreThe Informant!: Exclamation point Marjorie Baumgarten on Friday 09/18/2009 Although The Informant!'s screenplay is based on Kurt Eichenwald's book of the same name, the movie's addition of an exclamation point to its title is revealing. >More
Public Enemies extras from Madison finally see their movie Amelia Cook on Wednesday 07/08/2009 3:00 pm, (6) Recommendations On July 1, I saw Public Enemies at the Columbus Downtown Development Corporation's premiere, held at Eastgate Cinemas in Madison. The auditorium was filled with busloads of people who'd made the trip from Columbus to see their neighbors, their main street, and -- just maybe -- themselves on the silver screen. >MoreCrime wave and heat wave collide: Madison in the era of Public Enemies A look back at life in the city during the summer of 1934 David Medaris on Thursday 07/02/2009 10:00 am, (9) Recommendations In 1934, as the feds were closing in on John Dillinger and other gangsters, Madison was a small capital city in the grip of a spring drought and a summer heat wave. >More
Wilmington on DVD: North by Northwest, Food, Inc., noir classics, The Taking of Pelham 123 Mike Wilmington on Wednesday 11/04/2009 10:00 am North by Northwest is Alfred Hitchcock's great romantic/comedy/thriller -- with Cary Grant at his witty, seductive, impeccable best as "wrong man" Roger Thornhill, an overly smug Madison Avenue adman who gets mistaken for an elusive spy. >MoreWilmington on DVD: Il Divo, Z, Sam Fuller, Ice Age 3, Whatever Works, Orphan Mike Wilmington on Wednesday 10/28/2009 10:00 am, (1) Recommendation Veteran Italian actor Toni Servillo's craggy wise-hood face -- as impassive and immobile as a dentist staring into your mouth or a panther regarding its prey -- is at the center of a jaw-dropping whirlpool of bloody events and political crime, portrayed or exposed in Il Divo, subtitled The Extraordinary Life of Giulio Andreotti. >MoreTales from Planet Earth 2009 film fest returns with broad community ambitions David Medaris on Tuesday 10/27/2009 2:23 pm, (6) Recommendations This year's expanded edition of Tales from Planet Earth represents a significant leap in ambition. Driven by the strong attendance of two years ago, plans for the 2009 festival have grown to set almost double the number of films on a cornerstone theme of "Justice." Tales 2 also engages in close partnerships with nine community organizations. >MoreWilmington on DVD: Monsoon Wedding, Dusan Makavejev, Transformers 2, Cheri Mike Wilmington on Wednesday 10/21/2009 10:00 am Monsoon Wedding, Mira Nair's joyous movie about a wedding in Delhi -- constantly disrupted by family squabbles, sudden crises, covert romantic interludes, cultural clashes among the guests, dark buried secrets erupting to the surface and finally, a full-blown monsoon rainfall, not to mention a musical climax that outdoes Bollywood -- is both her most popular film and her best. >MoreWilmington on DVD: Natural Born Killers, Drag Me to Hell, Gaumont, The Proposal Mike Wilmington on Wednesday 10/14/2009 10:00 am Natural Born Killers, Oliver Stone's mad-dog-violent "love on the run" neo-noir, one of the most controversial movies of the '90s, may get better and better every time you see it in a new release. But that doesn't mean it still couldn't use some improvement. >MoreWilmington on DVD: Chinatown, Anvil!, A Hard Day's Night, My Life in Ruins Mike Wilmington on Wednesday 10/07/2009 10:00 am No matter what you think of Roman Polanski and his current arrest and extradition problems, the director's 1974 private eye classic Chinatown is still a masterpiece of film neo-noir. >More
'The War at Home,' Part 2 After years as an Emmy-winning TV producer, former Madison filmmaker David Medaris on Friday 10/23/2009, (1) Recommendation Almost three decades after leaving Madison to chase his ambitions, Glenn Silber returns this week for a 30th anniversary screening of The War at Home and the world premiere of his new documentary, Labor Day. The film represents a return to the progressive roots Silber put down in Madison as a UW student and to his independence as a filmmaker. >MoreMeet me in the Cinematheque: A Fall 2009 preview Kenneth Burns on Friday 09/04/2009 I'm sad summer is ending, but crisp weather also portends the fall's entertainment options. Among them is the new calendar of free films at UW's Cinematheque. It starts Friday and offers weekend screenings at Vilas Hall through December. Did I mention it's free? >More
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