Tuesday, Sept. 16: A Spell to Ward off the Darkness
7 p.m. @ UWM Union Theatre (FREE!)
Described as “participatory ethnography in the best possible sense,” A Spell to Ward off the Darkness takes us from pagan re-enactors to Arctic hermits and black metal festivals in an effort to place us in a trance. The trailer is really hypnotic, and while this might look like art house navel-gazing to some, it looks as though it’s right in my wheelhouse.
Wednesday, Sept. 17 and Saturday, Sept. 20: Edge of Tomorrow
9/17 @ 4:15 p.m., 9/20 @ 9 p.m. @ UWM Union Theatre (FREE!)
Or should I say Live Die Repeat: Edge of Tomorrow? One of the summer’s very best films comes to UWM as part of its Hollywood series this week in the wake of a rebranding campaign that tries to help us forget the original title they came up with, which shouldn’t be hard on account of how forgettable of a title it was. I really loved this movie and a repeat viewing only deepened my appreciation of what Doug Liman, Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt all managed to pull off here. It’s far more entertaining than its title or trailers had suggested, and you won’t be disappointed (everyone I’ve managed to persuade to check it out have unanimously supported it).
***CRITIC’S CHOICE***
Wednesday, Sept. 17: Rich Hill
7 p.m. @ UWM Union Theatre (FREE!)
Chronicling the lives of three young boys in an impoverished Midwestern town, Rich Hill has been lauded by many as one of the best documentaries to see release this year. Like an early David Gordon Green film come to life, this portrait of poverty through the prism of coming-of-age looks like a potentially transcendent experience.
Wednesday, Sept. 17: The Rains of Ranchipur
7:30 p.m. @ Charles Allis Art Museum ($7/$5/free for adults/seniors and students/museum members)
The Charles Allis summer program of originals and remakes comes to a conclusion this week with yet another Lana Turner-led refashioning of a previously successful picture (just like the previous remake in the series, The Merry Widow). The basic skeleton of the story remains the same, with Richard Burton playing the Hindu doctor who falls in love with Turner’s titled English lady. Much like its predecessor, Ranchipur was nominated for a Special Effects Oscar, in some cases having duplicated shots from the previous film.
Thursday, Sept. 18 and Saturday/Sunday Sept. 20/21: The Retrieval
9/18 @ 7 p.m., 9/20 @ 5 p.m., 9/21 @ 7 p.m. @ UWM Union Theatre (FREE!)
A young boy is sent out to retrieve a wanted man at the height of the Civil War, but an unlikely partnership is struck despite the young boy’s employer insisting he will kill him if he doesn’t bring this man back to him. Gripping and ably performed, this indie period piece was made with limited resources but is stunning nonetheless.
Friday, Sept. 19: DAREDEVILS
7 p.m. @ UWM Union Theatre (FREE!)
UWM’s Experimental Tuesdays programming becomes so experimental it moves to Friday with this film surrounding a conversation between an artist and interviewer that winds up reverberating through the interviewer’s entire day. Filmmaker Stephanie Barber will be in attendance to discuss what looks like an interesting film experience.
Friday, Sept. 19 through Sunday, Sept. 21: Siddharth
9/19 @ 9 p.m., 9/20 @ 7 p.m. and 9/21 @ 5 p.m. @ UWM Union Theatre ($6 public /$5 faculty, staff and alums /$4 UWM students)
A father who sent away his child into the labor force finds that his son has now disappeared, sending him on an increasingly desperate journey across India in his efforts to get him back in this critically-acclaimed drama. Providing both a stunning ground level portrait of India as well as a sobering portrayal of one man unraveling in the face of a potentially grim situation, Siddharth captures social unrest with dramatic flair.
Friday, Sept. 19: Tusk, The Maze Runner, A Walk Among the Tombstones and This is Where I Leave You all open locally
Check local listings for showtimes/pricing
A bevy of major releases also drop this week, and it’s an eclectic bunch. We’ll start with Kevin Smith’s horror-comedy Tusk, mostly because I’d be very happy to see Smith make a movie worth watching again. It’s been eight years since Clerks II, the last thing he made which I’d qualify as watchable (Cop Out and Red State were a particularly pungent one-two punch), and this tale of Justin Long’s podcaster being given the Human Centipede treatment as he’s transformed by Michael Parks into a walrus looks like it could be worthwhile. Not exactly a return to form, as Smith has never really had a visual form to speak of, but an exciting development in a career I thought stagnant.
Also hitting this week is another YA dystopian adaptation in The Maze Runner, if you haven’t tired of seeing teens rage against the machine. Early word has been kind toward this picture, about kids who wake up with no memory of their past whose only chance of escape from their imprisonment is to make their way through a maze at the outskirts of their community. It looks like it has much more of a pulse than the other dystopias we’ve been placed in so far this year, and while I lament that we don’t have a strong female lead on display here, the volatile personalities of young men cramped together is dramatically fertile ground that hasn’t been explored by this recent spate of adaptations.
Even grimmer than dystopia is the new Liam Neeson flick A Walk Among the Tombstones, a story of Neeson’s PI being hired by a drug dealer to find his kidnapped wife. This is Scott Frank’s second directing gig, after 2007’s underrated The Lookout, and it looks to be a grim and gritty adaptation of the Lawrence Block novel it’s based on. Neeson’s career renaissance as a hulking beacon of justice has been spotty (I liked Non-Stop though, so what do I know), but this looks less like a popcorn thriller and more like something of genuine value.
Wrapping up the wide releases is This is Where I Leave You, a star-studded dramedy adaptation of Jonathan Tropper’s novel of the same name. Any film that combines Jason Bateman, Tina Fey and Adam Driver immediately has my attention, and while it’s certainly the case that we’ve had enough movies about the bittersweet existence of quirky white families, hopefully the cast and source material can help elevate this about the status quo.
Friday, Sept. 19: Ghostbusters
Dusk-ish @ 500 N. Harbor Drive, just outside Discovery World (FREE!)
The Fish Fry and a Flick series wraps up this year with a screening of the immaculate Ghostbusters. Its star might have been dulled by so many movies trying to replicate its chills-to-chuckles ratio since in its wake, but the movie still holds up! Spend an evening with friends ignoring the rumors of a sequel (and the fact that it already has a sequel) and enjoy what is one of the best blockbusters ever made.
Friday, Sept. 19: Pippi Longstocking and A League of Their Own
7 p.m. & 8:45 p.m. @ Tire Swing Park – South end of the Holton St. Viaduct across from Trocadero, 1758 N. Water St., (FREE!)
If Ghostbusters isn’t up your alley as an outdoor screening, perhaps this female-led double feature as part of the Milwaukee Bike-In Series will capture your fancy. I can’t speak toward Pippi as I haven’t seen it, but A League of Their Own is a great bit of entertainment filled with a cacophony of strong performances. Double features are the bread and butter of outdoor screenings, and there ain’t a damn thing wrong with celebrating strong female leads in an environment where Hollywood is still struggling to figure out that this is something that will make them money.
***ANOTHER CRITIC’S CHOICE***
Saturday, Sept. 20: The Last Unicorn
1 p.m. & 4 p.m. @ The Times Cinema ($11) Buy Tickets Here!
Finally this week, author/screenwriter Peter S. Beagle will be attending two matinee screenings of the fan-favorite animated film The Last Unicorn to talk about his experience with the film and answer any questions. The story of a unicorn seeking the truth as to where the rest of her kind have disappeared to, this Rankin/Bass-directed picture is warmly remembered by all who have seen it and is the perfect cherry on such a busy filmgoing week!
