gmtoday_small.gif

 


Milwaukee Film Festival 
has gone regional

By STEVEN SNYDER - TimeOut Film Critic

September 22, 2011

 
WAUKESHA - The Milwaukee Film Festival may be named after a city, but it has truly become a regional affair. The event now spirals outward from Milwaukee’s east side, spreading north to Mequon and then west to Waukesha County - to New Berlin’s Ridge Cinema.

The festivities kick off Friday evening, with "Make Believe"

(7 p.m), a documentary about six teenage illusionists all vying to reach the World Magic Seminar in Las Vegas. Some young magicians are scheduled to perform tricks in the theater lobby.

Last week in these pages, we detailed a handful of other Ridge highlights from the festival’s opening weekend, including the Venezuelan soccer-poverty drama "Hermano" (4:45 p.m. Saturday) and the adoption documentary "Somewhere Between" (5 p.m Sunday). But the festival continues through Oct. 2, and many of the festival’s top titles are still yet to arrive to Waukesha County movie screens. Here are five highlights from next week’s schedule at the Ridge Cinema:

"The White Meadows"

7:30 p.m. Sunday

Accomplished Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof weaves this metaphorical tale of an elderly seaman sailing the coast, hearing the plight of the next generation of villagers struggling to endure.

"El Bulli: Cooking

In Progress"

7 p.m. Monday

A few months ago, the world’s greatest restaurant, Spain’s El Bulli, shut its doors. Prior to its final meal, director Gereon Wetzel took his cameras into the kitchen, to catch the unrivaled creativity of chef Ferran Adriˆ in motion. A true story of art, passion, and groundbreaking achievement.

"Robot"

7:45 p.m. Tuesday

Prepare to bask in the giddiness of Bollywood. Featuring the largest budget in the history of Indian cinema (and a soundtrack by A.R. Rahman, the music maestro behind "Slumdog Millionaire"), "Robot" tells the story of Chitti, a humanoid robot who is more intelligent and more suave than you. Perfect in every way, the story goes haywire when a scientist gives this emotionless creation the ability to feel joy and sorrow. The result is a sprawling, hysterical celebration of life’s ups and downs. With plenty of Bollywood dance routines.

 

"Strongman"

4:30 p.m. Wednesday

Zachary Levy’s documentary is haunting in its depiction of a muscle man who can lift 10,000-pound dump truck with his legs and bend a penny with his fingers, but who can’t quite figure out how to convert his minor fame into a paycheck - or stable personal relationships. Stanley "Stanless Steel" Pleskun is one of the world’s toughest creatures, but also one of its most flawed.

"The Last Mountain"

5 p.m. Wednesday

A harrowing environmental documentary about mountaintop mining - in which mining companies use dynamite to obliterate mountains - "The Last Mountain" chronicles the medical fallout of this questionable process. Brain tumor rates in Appalachia are soaring, just as reservoirs of toxic byproduct are being built nearby elementary schools. Traveling out to the front lines of the protests, director Bill Haney captures the growing divide between the companies exploiting the Earth and those trying to live in the same region.

Email: snyderreviews@hotmail.com