As your friendly and informed film companion, The Badger Herald offers you a glimpse at the highlights of this year’s Wisconsin Film Festival. All together, we’ve offered up nearly 13 hours of film, so start clearing your schedule ‘cuz The Herald knows where it’s at. Here are ten to bank on:
1. “Y Tu Mama Tambien” (And Your Mother Too)
Starring: Maribel Verdú, Gael García Bernal, Diego Luna
Director Alfonso Cuaron (“Little Princess,” which also plays the festival, and “Great Expectations”) returns to his Mexican roots for this raunchy sex comedy/class commentary/coming-of-age story with the aid of a very “Amelie”-ish narrator (commenting on every little “what if” and “by the way”). Two horny Mexican slackers — from polar ends of the social class spectrum — enjoy the last summer of their dwindling innocence (oh boy, do they lose their innocence) by debating what community college classes to take, fighting for the family station wagon and messing around with the wealthy one’s married and extremely sexy cousin-in-law. The outcome is depressing but brutally honest — something you don’t always get in American cinema these days. “Y Tu Mama” earned a 2001 Golden Globe nominee in a very strong year for foreign pics.
Why Bother? “And your mother too” — what? Definitely worth watching to find out.
Runs: April 6, 11 p.m. at The Majestic Theatre
2. “Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter”
Starring: Phil Caracas, Murielle Varhely, Marcia Moulton, Josh Grace, Tim Devries, Tracy Lance
Yes, this Canadian film is everything the title suggests and more. Part musical, part karate flick, 100% tasteless fantasy, “Vampire Hunter” presents a world where vampires (okay, it’s a horror movie) hunt lesbians (a comedy?) for their skins so they can go out in the daytime (sci-fi?). Naturally, a shao-lin Jesus Christ (religious picture?) and his sidekick wrestler enter the fray and get all Wu-Tang on their bloodsucking asses (karate flick!). Paced with punk rock tunes and interspersed with musical numbers (JC sings, “I was born in a manger / Doomed to live in danger”), “Vampire Hunter” seems destined to illuminate the screens of cult pic theatres in college towns like ? well, Madison.
Why bother? At the very least, the film’s depiction of God as a cherry sundae is worth the price of admission and might elicit second thoughts next time you visit Baskin Robbins.
Runs: April 6, 11 p.m. at The Fredric March Play Circle
3. “The Beaver Trilogy”
Starring: Groovin’ Gary, Sean Penn, Crispin Glover
What’s more awkward than a young dragster in Beaver, Utah (not known to be as liberal as, say, Madison) performing as Olivia Newton John in a local yocal talent show? How about the same idea reinterpreted and re-enacted by Jeff Spicoli and George McFly ? err, Sean Penn and Crispin Glover. Underground director Trent Harris ran with the idea back in 1979, remade it in 1981 with Penn (before Spicoli made checkered Vans slip-ons and gangly surfer bodies cool) and then again in 1985 with Crispin Glover (right at the peak of his “Back To The Future” fame). “Trilogy” combines the three shorts into one 85-minute feature — just long enough to spur comparisons to Christopher Guest’s similar outsider-in-Smallville mockumentary “Waiting for Guffman.”
Why Bother? With “Trilogy,” we’ll have fulfilled our quota of Crispin Glover movies for another fifteen years.
Runs: April 6, 11 p.m. at Cinematheque
4. “High Fidelity”
Starring: John Cusack, Iben Hjejle, Todd Louiso, Jack Black, Lisa Bonet, Joan Cusack, Catherine Zeta-Jones
Essentially a metaphor for sticky relationships using the complicated art (and it is an art) of compilation-making, Cusack falls back on his familiar “you-can’t-help-but-feel-bad-for-me” persona, begging the question: Isn’t this movie the pinnacle of his collective film base to date? Really, there’s no way we’d feel anything for a semi-mulleted, black denim-wearing, classic rock fan who runs a failing record store if not for the fact that this is the John Cusack we’ve been suffering alongside for nearly 20 years. Somehow he manages to simultaneously bed Catherine Zeta-Jones and Lisa Bonet and we believe it!? That’s role stereotyping for you. Still, a pre-overexposure Jack Black and a stuffy Todd Louiso as record store clerks perfectly compliment Cusack in what survives on being a better version of “Empire Records.”
Why Bother? Lisa Bonet’s not enough? A true diggin’-in-the-crates-of-classic-rock soundtrack bolsters this already-sound romantic/office comedy.
Runs: April 6, 7:30 p.m. at The Orpheum’s main theatre
5. “Kandahar”
Starring: Nelofer Pazira, Hassan Tantaí, Sadou Teymouri, Hayatalah Hakimi
Winner of the 2001 Cannes Film Festival’s Ecumenical Jury Prize (which essentially means it was the best religious film, edging out films along the lines of “Stolen Summer”), “Kandahar” originates from that bubbling, sandy cauldron of foreign film that is Iran — home to Abbas Kiarostami. Here, director Mohsen Makhmalbaf presents a documentary/staged drama hybrid that follows the emotional journey of Nafas, a Canadian journalist, years after she fled her home country of Afghanistan. Left behind in the immigration was her land mine-inflicted sister, and Nafas’ journey to retrieve her allows us to accompany her through a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan — needless to say, that’s unfriendly territory for independent women.
Why bother? Sure, you could stay home and watch the latest Taliban tell-all on 60 Minutes or Nightline, but Kandahar (2001) lacks the 9/11 influence that manifests itself in the American viewpoint these days. Also, keep an eye open for Hassan Tantai (a.k.a. David Belfield), who, after appearing in “Kandahar,” was declared the prime suspect in the assassination of a critic of Ayatollah Khomeini in the United States.
Runs: April 4, 9:15 p.m. at The Majestic Theatre
6. “The Mullet”
With Billy Ray Cyrus’ return to the limelight in “Mulholland Drive,” the resurgence of denim and that wacky mullet guy in “Snatch,” white trash is all the rage again. Well, not really, but mullets are and forever will be the most inexplicable trend amongst modern man — even if they existed outside of the poor-white-man culture for little more than a few fleeting moments in the ’80s. This Madison original playfully examines the faddish ‘do from its humble beginnings to its current status as the unofficial hairdo for the upper Midwest’s backwoods.
Why bother? Clocking in at 13 minutes, why not?
Runs: Part of the Student Shorts Program II: Midwestern Life — April 6, 11 a.m. at The Fredric March Play Circle
7. “101 Reykjavik”
Starring: Hilmir Snér Gunason, Victoria Abril, Hanna María Karlsdóttir, Baltasar Kormákur, "lafur Darri "lafsson
The synopsis provided by the WI Film Festival alludes to the “slacker-ish antics of ? an unemployed hipster.” With Jason Schwartzman having single-handedly worn out the hipster ideals, you have to dig a little deeper for something attractive (sorry guys).
Why Bother? The reggae version of the Kink’s staple “Lola” is enough to draw me. Hipsters? At the Orpheum? Who’d a thunk it?
Runs: April 4, 9:30 p.m. at The Orpheum’s main theatre
8. “Thirteen Conversations About One Thing”
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, John Turturro, Clea DuVall, Amy Irving, Alan Arkin
UW graduate and Hollywood sophomore Jill Sprecher presents this follow-up to her overlooked office comedy “Clockwatchers” (somehow “Office Space” stole claim to defining the genre, despite coming nearly two years later). This more serious effort takes the multi-angled (i.e. “Pulp Fiction”) approach to answering the age-old question: “What is happiness?” Suddenly the title makes a little sense.
Why bother? Shelved for nearly a year now, there has to be a reason this movie was drawing attention last year — doesn’t there? “Thirteen Conversations” packs about as much star power as you’re going to find in a Madison film fest, so file this one under “You’ll eat what you’re given and you’ll like it.”
Runs: April 4, 7 p.m. at The Orpheum’s main theatre
9. “E-Day!”
Starring: Chevy Chase, Jay Rath, Pete Barker, Scott Dikkers
Granted, the man’s fallen upon hard times, but with the coming of “National Lampoon’s Van Wilder” there’s clearly a movement to resurrect Chevy Chase. You had better jump on board lest you be left behind. The premise here is pretty absurd — a U.S. president addresses his public as Eskimos mount a military invasion — but who cares? Besides, former Onion editor-in-chief Scott Dikkers wrote and directed.
Why bother? Shall we do this alphabetically, working our way from “Caddyshack” through “Vacation?” At a whopping three minutes, you can give the man his due respects without forfeiting an entire afternoon.
Runs: Before “Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter,” April 6, 11 p.m. at The Fredric March Play Circle and before “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” April 5, 11 p.m. at the Fredric March Play Circle
10. “Big Bad Love”
Starring: Arliss Howard, Debra Winger, Paul Le Mat, Rosanna Arquette, Angie Dickinson, Michael Parks
A struggling and unrecognized author; a man obsessed with the ex-wife he can’t have back; an afflicted Vietnam vet; a parent torn from his children; a suffering alcoholic — sounds like five cliché Oscar pics, but here it’s one tortured man. The long-overlooked Arliss Howard directs and leads in this adaptation of Mississippi writer Larry Brown’s short stories.
Why bother? Much like most of writer Bret Easton Ellis’ work, “Big Bad Love” serves best as a companion piece to the literature, so skip a night of boozin’ and read the book first. Your liver will thank you.
Runs: April 5, 7 p.m. at The Orpheum’s Stage Door Theatre
