Perhaps there are too many movies. When I started writing professionally about cinema 24 years ago, seeing all the key films that received North American distribution—blockbusters, indies, foreign releases—was a feasible proposition, but now that technology has democratized the medium and swelled access to motion pictures of all stripes, it’s impossible to stay ahead of […]
2015 Milwaukee Film Festival: Eric Beltmann’s Top Five Read More »
It’s a sorry festivalgoer that doesn’t make at least one deep cut discovery. Much of the ink spilled about the Milwaukee Film Festival, given its rising cultural cachet, is devoted to the Competition and Spotlight programming. (If you haven’t heard, Saturday’s centerpiece is the nonfiction “The Great Alone,” about four-time Iditarod champion Lance Mackey frosting
2015 Milwaukee Film Festival: Week One Picks Read More »
After six years of launching with undercooked comedies, pint-sized documentaries, and one scorching drama made by relative unknowns, the Milwaukee Film Festival will for the first time kick off with a movie directed by a major international figure. Paolo Sorrentino’s “Youth,” which stars Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel as entertainment legends trading jokes and wisdom
Introducing the 2015 Milwaukee Film Festival Read More »
Joshua Oppenheimer’s “The Act of Killing” may be the most shocking documentary I’ve ever seen, in the way that it asks the viewer to confront evil head-on. For two hours, the film retains a near-singular focus on its subject, Anwar Congo, an unrepentant executioner of over 1,000 people in the Indonesian genocide of 1965-’66. Congo
Review: “The Act of Killing” Read More »
