A man cannot live on popcorn alone. This is a truth I have learned over many a Milwaukee Film Festival, as I’ve tried to catch as many screenings as possible in between work, clubbing and feeding my pet possum. When the festival concludes, the toll on my stomach lining is always brutal – three weeks of salt and butter washed down with Red Bull, the occasional Sour Patch Kid thrown in for the nutrients.
But this is a price I am willing to pay for the cornucopia of films now upon us. No time will be wasted on healthy meals and exercise. My loved ones say that I should at least shower at the end of every day because, like, there’s really no reason not to do that. But what the hell do they know about the love of cinema? They haven’t even seen 8½. (Neither have I, honestly, but I know it’s supposed to be good!)
And now we approach the second week of the festival, the first full one after opening weekend. As the schedule of films ratchets up, my diet will inevitably begin its fall into a near-critical state of sodium and sugar. I look forward to it. If you spot a goblin-looking pale man stumbling down Farwell chugging Red Bull, please don’t say stop me to say hi – I’m probably late for a screening.
Here are some of flicks I’m most looking forward to this week, in chronological order:
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
1. Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror With Live Accompaniment by Anvil Orchestra
MONDAY, APRIL 28 AT 6:30 P.M. | ORIENTAL THEATRE
I still remember the first time I saw this seminal 1922 silent film, an originator of horror cinema. Fourteen years old, I sat at our kitchen table, watching on our family’s shared Dell laptop as Max Schreck emerged from the shadows, a crooked vampire with a giant, malformed skull, crooked fingers, disgusting teeth, skin as pale as a corpse, demonic eyes aglitter with evil. What struck many kids with terror, was to me a moment of incredible inspiration – someone who looked like me could really be a movie star!
I kid, I kid. I was scared as hell. Even nearly a century later after countless cinematic innovations and thousands of horror movies, the original Nosferatu is still incredibly frightening, its titular figure one of the most striking monstrosities to grace the silver screen. After watching (and loving) Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu remake last year, I’m incredibly pumped for the festival’s screening of the original classic with Anvil Orchestra playing live.
2. Waves
MONDAY, APRIL 28 AT 7:15 P.M. | DOWNER THEATRE
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30 AT 5:30 P.M. | DOWNER THEATRE
As you could probably guess from my job as an editor at this here publication, I’m a sucker for a journalism movie. Just show me one frame of a bunch of dudes with mustaches chain-smoking cigarettes and frantically typing copy, and you got me. This Czech-Slovak film looks like it will scratch that itch, following radio journalists during the Czech Spring as state security tries to shut down and censor broadcasts.
3. Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse
TUESDAY, APRIL 29 AT 3:30 P.M. | ORIENTAL THEATRE
WEDNESDAY, MAY 7 AT 12 P.M. | DOWNER THEATRE
The name Art Spiegelman may not jump out at you, but most people are aware of Maus, his graphic novel about his family’s experience during and after the Holocaust. It’s the first and only graphic novel to receive a Pulitzer Prize. This documentary explores the life and the career of the cartoonist, who is now in his late 70s.
4. The Dells
TUESDAY, APRIL 29 AT 6:30 P.M. | ORIENTAL THEATRE
TUESDAY, MAY 6 AT 3 P.M. | DOWNER THEATRE
Since “The White Lotus” premiered I have long been a proponent of the effort (some might call it a meme) to have a season of the luxury resort series set at the Wisconsin Dells. Can you imagine that wee-woo-wee-woo score over scenes of waterslide mayhem? God, it would be beautiful. Well, this documentary seems like it might scratch that itch (with a bit more seriousness and self-reflection). It follows students who come from around the world on visas to work at the Dells during the summer. According to the film’s description, “We see their hopes for a summer of American luck and prosperity rub up against their actual experiences, which are by turns disappointing, funny and transcendent.”
5. All That Glitters
TUESDAY, APRIL 29 AT 8:30 P.M. | DOWNER THEATRE
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30 AT 9:30 P.M. | ORIENTAL THEATRE
THURSDAY, MAY 1 AT 5:30 P.M. | ORIENTAL THEATRE
This one’s another Wisconsin highlight. Noah Meister is a Milwaukee filmmaker making his feature debut with this film, which follows a frustrated suburban high schooler who ends up with a bucketload of cocaine after a drug deal goes wrong. Sounds like the time me and my best buddy Vinny drove eighty-two pounds of pure organic possum feed to the connect in Nebraska, Big Bethany. If this movie is even half as wild as that experience, then boy oh boy. (We had to stop to use the bathroom four times!)
6. Super-Secret Members-Only Screening
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30 AT 4 P.M. | ORIENTAL THEATRE
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30 AT 7 P.M. | ORIENTAL THEATRE
Every year, Milwaukee Film hosts a secret members-only screening – and every year, I’m furious that I don’t know what it is. The tease, the mystery, the audacity and the panache – it both infuriates and invigorates me. What could it be? The Even Stevens Movie? John Travlota’s Gotti? Perhaps they got their hands on the early cut of my own project, The Space-Love Chronicles of Turbo-Astronaut Parker Arquette? I need to know, damn it! Whatever this movie is, they’re screening it twice on Wednesday. Since I have no idea, here’s a picture of a tub of noodles on my desk.
7. The Ugly Stepsister
THURSDAY, MAY 1 AT 8:45 P.M. | ORIENTAL THEATRE
FRIDAY, MAY 2 AT 8:45 P.M. | ORIENTAL THEATRE
SATURDAY, MAY 3 AT 11:15 | ORIENTAL THEATRE
I’m going to start this recommendation out with a caveat – I’m not going to this screening. Nope. Not happening. I know there are three of them. I know they’ll probably be a fun crowd. Don’t care. I’m sorry, but I’m a cowardly baby, and I can’t do it. Body horror on the big screen is a no for me. But as soon as I can watch this in the peace of my well-lit home during the daylight hours, you can bet this absolutely scaredy-cat little weakling boy will be watching The Ugly Stepsister. The movie is a funky, twisted take on Cinderella. It follows Elvira, the titular ugly stepsister, as she tries to compete with her beautiful stepsister in a desperate and bloody attempt to win over the Prince.
8. Brady Street: Portrait of a Neighborhood
FRIDAY, MAY 2 AT 3:30 P.M. | ORIENTAL THEATRE
SUNDAY, MAY 4 AT 12:30 P.M. | DOWNER THEATRE
WEDNESDAY, MAY 7 AT 8:30 P.M. | DOWNER THEATRE
Neighborhoods are like cheeseburgers. I like them. And this documentary promises to deep dive into the story of one of Milwaukee’s most lively. From its counterculture genesis in the 1960s and ’70s to its more recent revitalization, the movie tells a unique urban story that I’m looking forward to seeing on the big screen.
9. This Is a Film About the Black Keys
FRIDAY, MAY 2 AT 4 P.M. | ORIENTAL THEATRE
I’m going to be frank – I’m tired. So this blurb is going to be as straightforward as the movie’s title. This is a screening of a film about the Black Keys.
