Wednesday, Sept. 24 and Saturday, Sept. 27: 22 Jump Street
9/24 @ 4:15 p.m., 9/27 @ 9 p.m. @ UWM Union Theatre (FREE!)
The Union Theatre continues its Hollywood Film Series with the delightfully daffy 22 Jump Street. If you thought Lord and Miller could do no wrong after the hot streak of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, 21 Jump Street and The LEGO Movie, they one-up themselves by making a comedy sequel that doesn’t pale in comparison to the original. By leaning into the fact that sequels are, generally speaking, creatively bankrupt, they’re able to breathe life into their continuation of the story while also allowing for Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum to flex slightly different comedic muscles then they did in the first going. As my review upon its release stated, this is good stuff!
Wednesday, Sept. 24: Citizen Koch
7 p.m. @ UWM Union Theatre (FREE!)
For those who missed the chance to catch it at last year’s MFF, On Demand or its recent DVD release, Citizen Koch is hitting the big screen again for one night only, a free screening as part of UWM’s Documentary Frontiers series. Especially relevant to our local interests, this look at the Tea Party’s funding and the result of unlimited spending on election cycles via corporations is a necessary look into one of our most damaged institutions, a portrait both terrifying and funny.
***CRITIC’S CHOICE, OBVIOUSLY***
Thursday, Sept. 25: The Milwaukee Film Festival begins!
I’ll spare you the details (there will be an inordinate amount of coverage leading up to and during the festival), but needless to say it’s Christmas for us movie lovers as the 2014 edition of the MFF kicks off this week. A chance to catch films that would otherwise pass us by entirely awaits you and keep your eyes peeled for a handful of articles prepping you for what screenings to look out for this upcoming week!
Friday, Sept. 26: The Boxtrolls, The Equalizer and The Skeleton Twins open locally
Check local listings for showtimes/pricing
If you haven’t planned out your weekend exclusively around the Milwaukee Film Festival there’s a bevy of releases well worth your time. After the one-two punch of Coraline and ParaNorman, I’m willing to follow the stop-motion animation wizards at Laika wherever they go next and it makes it that much easier when the end result appears to be as charming as The Boxtrolls. Following the efforts of a young boy raised by an underground society of trolls to help protect those he loves, it looks like as finely crafted a work as any Laika has put out to this point, filled with gorgeous stop-motion told in conjunction with a genuinely moving story.
If that option doesn’t feature enough middle-aged man beating the garbage out of low-life criminal scum, then let me point you in the direction of The Equalizer. Reteaming Denzel Washington with the director who netted him his Best Actor Oscar for Training Day in Antoine Fuqua, this adaptation of the popular 1980’s TV drama finds Washington helping the helpless one whooping at a time. The previews suggest a good bit of pulpy fun, and Washington getting in touch with his inner-Liam Neeson could be a good time for all involved. If the film doesn’t take itself too seriously, this will be a blast to take in.
And much like last week, we round out the options with a bit of family dramedy, as SNL castmates Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig reunite in the The Skeleton Twins. Playing a brother-sister duo who are each on the emotional brink (Wiig is prevented from attempting suicide only by receiving a call that informs her Hader had just attempted it himself), this could be your standard cloying attempt at you craugh (copyright Tom Fuchs) but early reviews suggest Hader and Wiig knock the material out of the park. Both have proven themselves eminently capable actors outside of the confines of SNL, and I’m pretty excited to see them work together here.
Friday, Sept. 26 through Sunday, Sept. 28: Brazil and The Zero Theorem
Brazil = 9 p.m. 9/26, 4:30 p.m. 9/27 & 7 p.m. 9/28 (FREE!), Zero = 7 p.m. 9/26-9/27 & 5 p.m. 9/28 ($6 gen public /$5 faculty, staff, and alums /$4 UWM students)
UWM brings out the big guns this weekend to compete with the MFF, serving up a Terry Gilliam double feature that is hard to beat that combines his latest work with what many consider to be his greatest. Little needs to be said about Brazil, other than it’s a dystopian masterpiece coming on the heels of a summer where there were far more pretenders to the throne than contenders (Snowpiercer notwithstanding). The chance to see one of the best movies ever made on the big screen should be taken, no questions asked. That it’s paired with his latest movie that teams him up with the never-less-than-fascinating Christoph Waltz is the cherry on top. As with later period Gilliam, word is slightly mixed on The Zero Theorem, but it looks like a return to fruitful territory after a handful of films that left him out in the wilderness. Try and pry a little sliver of daylight in your first weekend’s MFF schedule to treat yourself to a Gilliam double feature.
