http://www.thedailypage.com/movies Movie content from ISTHMUS | The Daily Page webmaster@isthmus.com (Webmaster) Sat, 21 Nov 2009 02:43:27 CST Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:00:00 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27426 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27426 Despite a title change from <i>The Boat That Rocked to Pirate Radio</i>, this British import exudes about as much outlaw swagger as Tom DeLay in a dance competition. Forget about historical veracity. The film's offshore radio broadcasting ship Radio Rock is a fictional stand-in for the actual operation Radio Caroline, which was shut down by the British government in 1967. Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:00:00 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27427 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27427 Life is simple in Roland Emmerich's films. Confronted with unprecedented perils on a scale never before seen, the characters in his disaster epics manage to reaffirm their broken loves, make amends for slipshod parenting and, most impressively, outrun fireballs and certain death with their hides and wits intact. Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:00:00 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27369 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27369 <i>The Men Who Stare at Goats</i> is one odd duck. A title card reads "More of this is true than you would believe," but it's impossible to tell what's factual in this fictionalized take on Jon Ronson's book about Army experiments in the paranormal because it all sounds so deeply ludicrous. Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:00:00 -0500 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27300 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27300 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. Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:00:00 -0500 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27183 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27183 Like any good myth, <i>Where the Wild Things Are</i> 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. Fri, 18 Sep 2009 09:00:00 -0500 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=26936 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=26936 Although <i>The Informant!</i>'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. Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:00:00 -0500 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=27155 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=27155 <i>Natural Born Killers</i>, 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. Wed, 07 Oct 2009 10:00:00 -0500 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=27086 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=27086 No matter what you think of Roman Polanski and his current arrest and extradition problems, the director's 1974 private eye classic <i>Chinatown</i> is still a masterpiece of film neo-noir. Wed, 08 Jul 2009 15:00:00 -0500 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=26340 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=26340 On July 1, I saw <i>Public Enemies</i> 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 -- <i>themselves</i> on the silver screen. Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:00:00 -0500 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=26308 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=26308 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. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:00:00 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=27462 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=27462 Like the flawed but spectacular Margaret Mitchell novel from which it derives, the movie <i>Gone With the Wind</i> has never lost its power to enthrall and bewitch. Producer David O. Selznick's phenomenal film, can still, like Mitchell's saucy and unconquerable heroine, Scarlett O'Hara, seduce or bulldoze almost all before it. Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:00:00 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=27401 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=27401 <i>Up</i> flies us right up into those magical realms of sky, flight and fantasy that Judy garland's Dorothy traveled, in her Kansas twister ride to Oz, and that little Pascal Lamorisse was whisked off to by his air force of Parisian balloons at the end of <i>The Red Balloon</i>. Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:00:00 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=27330 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=27330 <i>North by Northwest</i> 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. Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:00:00 -0500 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=27266 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=27266 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 <i>Il Divo</i>, subtitled <i>The Extraordinary Life of Giulio Andreotti</i>. Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:00:00 -0500 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27224 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27224 Almost three decades after leaving Madison to chase his ambitions, Glenn Silber returns this week for a 30th anniversary screening of <i>The War at Home</i> and the world premiere of his new documentary, <i>Labor Day</i>. 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. Fri, 04 Sep 2009 09:00:00 -0500 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=26821 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=26821 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?