Fifty years after surfacing, “Jaws” is still leaving other movies dead in the water. When it opened over Labor Day weekend, Steven Spielberg’s toothy monster flick grossed $8.2 million before dropping anchor as the second-biggest draw of the week. Not in 1975. In 2025. Repertory programming is having a moment, with cinemas across the country […]
MFF 2026: Retro Programming Recap Read More »
I’m thinking juuust a bit outside the box, so hear me out: Each movie at this year’s Milwaukee Film Festival should end with a post-credits stinger where Bob Uecker notices the remaining viewers and shouts, “Get up, get up, get outta here!” Mr. Baseball might be gone, but his hometown-boy-makes-good legacy continues to be enshrined
Introducing the 2026 Milwaukee Film Festival Read More »
“No talking, no texting,” Milwaukee Film Executive Director Susan Kerns said. “But you can dance if you want to.” Kerns was introducing a 40th-anniversary screening of Susan Seidelman’s “Desperately Seeking Susan,” a thrift-store screwball comedy starring Madonna that, for ’80s kids like me, threatens to someday, someway morph into a jukebox. (Marshall Crenshaw fans unite!)
MFF 2025: Festival Highlights Read More »
At the concession stand, be sure to order some popcorn, a soft drink and a box of tissues. Napkins may not cut it. Today the Milwaukee Film Festival is showing “How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies” (6:45 p.m., Oriental Theatre), a blockbuster last year in Southeast Asia that inspired a viral trend of filmgoers
MFF 2025: Week Two Picks Read More »
Pop quiz, hotshot. There’s a book signing with a Hollywood director. Once you go, you’ll miss the documentary about former Pizza Huts. If you pick that one, your schedule blows up. What do you do? What do you do? Howard Payne didn’t program the 17th annual Milwaukee Film Festival—after all, he lost his head in
MFF 2025: Week One Picks Read More »
The last time the Milwaukee Film Festival operated at only two venues, “Slumdog Millionaire” was the reigning Oscar champ. Contraction might be the subtext of MFF’s 17th annual edition, which launches with “Sally,” a documentary about the first American woman in space, at 6 p.m. April 24 inside the Oriental Theatre on North Farwell Avenue.
Introducing the 2025 Milwaukee Film Festival Read More »
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
MFF 2024: Week Two Picks Read More »
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 »
