The 16th annual Milwaukee Film Festival, which closed April 25, brought more than 300 films to audiences in southeastern Wisconsin. Critic Speak contributors Eric Beltmann and Shelly Sampon discuss their shared love for Gene Wilder, how the Downer Theatre returned to the festival and why virtual options should return, too. Eric Beltmann: Before we dive […]
After setting the over/under at 15 minutes, I lost the wager in my mind: It didn’t take that long for the first person to walk out. The Milwaukee Film Festival’s annual Super Secret Members-Only Screening is always a gamble. Without knowing which movie would show, hundreds of dues-paying members of Milwaukee Film, the nonprofit organization
MFF 2024: Festival Highlights Read More »
Trân Anh Hùng’s “The Taste of Things” is no popcorn movie. Concession stands are downright vulgar compared to the farmhouse kitchen at the center of Hùng’s tranquil story about food, art and passion. Set in fin-de-siècle rural France, the movie opens with a nearly wordless sequence in which the camera spends half an hour delicately
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While most teenagers premiere their videos in front of family squeezed onto the living room couch, Zach Church will debut his latest movie on the big screen in front of hundreds of filmgoers. Church’s “Making ‘The Chair’” is one of 16 short films invited by the Milwaukee Film Festival to participate in this year’s Milwaukee
MFF 2024: Cream City Cinema selection spotlights local filmmakers Read More »
If you wear the right shoes, it takes only 12 minutes to walk between the Oriental and Downer Theatres on Milwaukee’s East Side. That’s enough time to tell the story of how Milwaukee Film, which revitalized the Oriental after taking over operations in 2017, has now resurrected the historic Downer Theatre. Built as a silent
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