Even if you dismiss the style and rhetorical techniques of documentarian Adam Curtis, his HyperNormalization does shed light on many issues of the day, and delivers several sublime, transcendent reveals.
Author Archives: James Kreul
Missed Madison: GRADUATION Coming Soon (?)
James Kreul discusses the latest film from Cristian Mungiu, Graduation, which like the filmmaker’s previous work (4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days) provides a uniquely Romanian look at the overlap between the personal and political.
Missed Madison Update: FIRE AT SEA Makes It to Barrymore Wed Apr 26, 7:00pm
James Kreul discusses the first documentary to win the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, Fire at Sea, a portrait of life on the island of Lampedusa, and the front lines of European migrant crisis.
Missed Madison: THE SEVENTH FIRE at Four Star, Amazon
WUD Film member Vincent Mollica looks at The Seventh Fire, a portrait of an Ojibwe community in Minnesota, and suggests ways in which director John P. Riccobono transforms his portrait of an aging gang leader in order to look beyond statistics.
Missed Madison: TOWER streaming at Amazon, iTunes
The conceptually ambitious and emotionally evocative documentary Tower uses animated recreations to pay tribute to the victims of Charles Whitman’s sniper attack on the University of Texas campus in 1966.
Missed Madison Update: TONI ERDMANN opens February 24 at Sundance
Update: Toni Erdmann opens Friday, February 24 at Sundance Madison. Last month we argued that it would be an interesting test case for AMC Theatre’s plans for Sundance Theaters.
2017 Missed Madison Film Festival: January 23-27
The 2017 Missed Madison Film Festival is a collaborative “virtual festival” from Four Star Video Cooperative, Madison Film Forum, and LakeFrontRow. Click here for daily updates and links to reviews and resources.
Review: OPERATION AVALANCHE at MRQE Jan 20-22
James Kreul suggests that Operation Avalanche does not live up to its festival circuit buzz, but it provides enough invention and moxie to remain entertaining and endearing.
Review: DEAR ZINDAGI at AMC Fitchburg thru Thu Dec 15
James Kreul argues that Dear Zindagi is the most broadly appealing Bollywood film to play Madison in 2016, despite its use of bland music montages instead of dance sequences. After a year of particularly shallow female characters, writer/director Gauri Shinde and star Alia Bhatt play with Bollywood conventions about romance, family, sexuality, and gender roles to deliver an intriguing character study of a young professional woman.
Review: DRIFTWOOD at Micro-Wave Cinema, Sun Nov 13, 7:00pm
James Kreul argues that Paul Taylor’s Driftwood, winner of the 2016 Slamdance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize, encapsulates all that is right and wrong with micro-budgeted independent features: intimate, thoughtful, well shot and acted, but also twee and predictable.