Tuesday, Nov. 11: Flood Tide
7 p.m. @ UWM Union Theatre (FREE!)
UWM’s Experimental Tuesdays brings us this elegiac story of a group of artists who build boats out of everyday garbage and set out on an extraordinary journey in tribute to a fallen friend (who accompanies them in ghostly form and narrates a story parallel to their trip). Filmmaker Todd Chandler is scheduled to be in attendance in support of what looks to be a very interesting movie.
Wednesday, Nov. 12: Sex Tape
4:30 p.m. @ UWM Union Theatre (FREE!)
I did not like this movie. But maybe you will?
Wednesday, Nov. 12: Smilin’ Through
7:30 p.m. @ Charles Allis Art Museum ($7/Adults, $5/Seniors & Students, Free/museum members)
The Charles Allis World War I cinema tribute continues with this, the only film that Jeanette MacDonald and her husband Gene Raymond appeared in together. Frank Borzage’s tear-jerker (a remake of the 1932 movie, which was a remake of the 1922 movie, which was an adaptation of the stage play, but by all means let’s talk about how Hollywood has only recently suffered a dearth of originality) is widely considered to be one of MacDonald’s finest performances as an English girl who falls in love with an American soldier, only to have their union forbade by her uncle. They don’t make weepies quite like they used to, so go to Charles Allis and cry it out.
Thursday, Nov. 13 & Saturday, Nov. 15: Planet of the Apes
6:30 p.m. @ The Milwaukee Public Museum’s Daniel M. Soref Dome Theater and Planetarium (Purchase tickets here!)
For the sake of clarity, let’s ensure everyone they won’t be subjected to the Tim Burton-directed, Mark Wahlberg-led recent remake and that instead you’ll be treated to the spectacular original. Filled with fascinating characters and strong ideas with a perfectly calibrated performance from Charlton Heston (his smug self-satisfaction slowly being burned away), astonishing makeup effects and one of the all-time great endings, Planet of the Apes is right alongside 2001 as one of the great science fiction films of all time. Go check it out in one of Milwaukee’s most unique cinematic locales.
Friday, Nov. 14: Rosewater, Beyond the Lights, Dumb and Dumber To & Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas all open locally
Check local listings for showtimes and pricing.
We’re getting a slight reprieve from the onslaught of Oscar hopefuls this week as only one of these movies would aspire to such accolades, but it’s a diverse group of choices to be sure.
It’s been 20 years since the first Dumb and Dumber made its way into theaters (and our hearts), so hopefully enough time has passed that this comedy sequel doesn’t feel the need to one-up its predecessor (the number one killer of comedy sequels is the need they feel to rehash the most beloved bits from the first installment, as if we paid money to be reminded of things we liked previously). It appears this installment introduces a child into the mix. You have to be fairly smart to pull off dumb comedy, and hopefully the opportunity to indulge in such hijinx will bring out the best in the Farrelly Brothers.
Love & Basketball is underrated, can we all agree on that? Then, by proxy (but really, just by her talent), Gina Prince-Blythwood is also underrated. In a film industry in desperate need of more female voices, hers is one that we unfortunately don’t hear enough from in the cinema. All that said, it’s exciting to have a new film from her hitting theaters in Beyond the Lights. It’s the story of Noni Jean (Gugu Mbatha-Raw, from this year’s Belle), a young musical artist on the rise who is deeply conflicted about her positioning as an object of male desire in order to succeed. Contemplating suicide, she is literally talked off the ledge by an off-duty police officer (Nate Parker) and from there a romantic drama on par with the film that provided Prince-Blythwood’s breakthrough is enacted.
Based on a story influenced in no small part by the main character’s appearance on his very own Daily Show, Rosewater, is the directorial debut from John Stewart. Powered by a great lead performance from Gael Garcia Bernal (always great, I know), we track the story of Maziar Bahari, a journalist imprisoned in Iran following the controversial 2009 elections that took place in that country. With his interview on Stewart’s bastion of political satire being used as evidence of his attempts to subvert the status quo as a spy, Bahari is held captive for 118 days with a near-constant barrage of emotional, psychological and physical hardships being heaped upon him in an attempt to force him to admit imagined wrongdoings. Stewart is definitely a first-time director here, over-explaining and indulging in a few moments that are a bit too stylistically busy, but he lets the actors take the wheel when it counts, and the movie is all the better for it.
It might not be an act on par with Bahari’s 118 days in solitary confinement when I go to see Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas in theaters, but it will be an emotional and psychological battlefield nonetheless. A movie based on the premise that a war is being waged over Christmas (there isn’t) with Cameron as the hero who rekindles the spirit of Christ in a man disillusioned with the commercialist bacchanalia this holiday has become (it is!) couldn’t be further situated from my wheelhouse, but we’ll wait and see.
Friday, Nov. 14: Little Red
7 p.m. @ UWM Union Theatre (FREE!)
Local filmmaker Tate Bunker (former artist-in-residence of the Milwaukee Film Festival) brings his modern spin on the Little Red Riding Hood to the UWM Union, the story of a young runaway traveling to her grandmother’s house while being stalked by a dark and beastly presence (another Milwaukee’s own in Mark Metcalf) along the way.
Saturday, Nov. 15 & Sunday, Nov. 16: The Documentary Works of Gloria Rolando: A Sankofa-Retrospective
Saturday, 7 p.m. & Sunday, 5 p.m. @ UWM Union Theatre (FREE!)
I’m not familiar with the works of Gloria Rolando, so I’ll defer to the UWM Union’s description of this special two-day screening (with the filmmaker in attendance!) to help explain why this is such an exciting event: “Gloria Rolando is a pioneering Afro-Cuban filmmaker, whose career spans over 35 years at ICAIC, the Cuban National Film Institute. Gloria’s extensive filmography, though not described as ethnographic, integrates themes of cultural memory, history, identity, mythology and storytelling within the context of African Diasporan cultures in the Americas. Her preoccupation with these themes make known the persistence of Africa in the cultural memory of Cuba, the Caribbean, and across the diaspora. These stories connect people across many boundaries.”
