Screening Report 2/11/26

Wuthering Heights, Good Luck Have Fun Don't Die, and a lot playing past the surface!

Feb 11, 2026

Hello, everyone, and welcome to this week’s screening report! I don’t really have any news to go over this week, so let’s get right into the report.

While those of us attending recent screenings have seen trailers for Gore Verbinski’s return to the big screen Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die and Emerald Fennel’s bodice-ripper take on “Wuthering Heights,” and they’re getting solid (if somewhat mixed) reviews. I’d like to highlight a few of the films only playing in more limited runs. First, Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie got a surprising commercial release - the Cinematheque screening was the most fun comedy film I’ve attended in years. Second, while the film got somewhat mixed reviews, Mamoru Hosoda (Wolf Children, Belle) has released his anime film Scarlet, a sci-fi spin on Hamlet. The trailer for A Useful Ghost got big laughs at the screening of Resurrection last week, landing an absurdist and sweet tone. And lastly, two new films from Chinese masters are releasing with only two screenings each: Blades of the Guardians has a deep cast directed by Drunken Master and Iron Monkey director Yuen Woo-Ping, and Scare Out is a new thriller from Hero/House of Flying Daggers director Zhang Yimou starring Resurrection’s Jackson Yee. Obviously, Woo-Ping has slowed down quite a bit in his later years and Yimou has had his own documented issues with distribution, but I’d have liked to see these films get proper releases.

In rep this week, love is in the air with WUD Film’s extended romance program, Cinematheque’s screening of Mark of the Renegade, AMC’s program of Love & Basketball and The Best Man, and Side Room Cinematheque’s Crazy Love trilogy. Having attended rep screenings recently for In the Mood for Love and Love & Basketball in Madison, those films are still fantastic - I’m also a fan of Bunuel’s L’age D’or, a surreal and shocking expansion of ideas from Bunuel’s previous film Un Chien Andalou. Cinesthesia and La Cineteca Italiana offer an exciting alternative in Judas and the Black Messiah and Federico Fellini’s Amarcord, and I wish it was possible to attend both films.

The next week, the only new releases I’m especially interested in are Cinematheque’s premiere A Poet and Sang-il Lee’s Kokuho. The former follows a washed-up academic making a bond with a youth, and was Columbia’s submission for the International Film Oscar. The latter follows young men becoming modern kabuki actors - the film is supposed to be a little more style than substance, reflected in the film’s nomination for the Best Makeup and Hairstyling Oscar. While there’s a strong advertising push for How to Make a Killing, Glen Powell and Margaret Qualley remaking Kind Hearts and Coronets with Emily the Criminal director John Patton Ford, I kind of don’t see the appeal of that story without the original’s central gimmick of Alec Guinness playing all the evil rich folks between the protagonist and his inheritance.

It’s a stronger week for rep screenings. Cinematheque is pulling no punches between seminal psychological horror film Jacob’s Ladder, all-time samurai drama Harakiri, and Steven Spielberg’s classic adaptation of The Color Purple. WUD Film decided to go farther afield, with Hirokazu Kore-eda’s wonderful Monster (which played Cinematheque in February of 2024,) the British indie drama Rye Lane, and somewhat deep cut 90s dramedy The Wood from director Rick Famuyiwa. Don’t miss out on Side Room Cinematheque’s conclusion of their Godard program or the return of Duck Soup Cinema with the (quite good!) silent classic version of Peter Pan. Looking ahead to the weekend of February 27th, we’ll see the release of Scream 7, K-Pops!, and the Owen Kline programmed marathon at UW Cinematheque.

PLUG ZONE

-Rob Thomas has reviews of Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die (excerpted below,) Crime 101, and Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie.

-James Kreul’s Moving Image Madison this week includes extended context for the silent Peter Pan, Duck Soup Cinema’s film for February 21, and WFF Audience Award winner A Road At Night.

-Looking for the Ocean: A Pixar Journey drops in with an episode on Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical, and It Happened One Podcast covers Boyz n the Hood and the original Anaconda.

-Tone Madison’s David Boffa shares his essay on Bi Gan’s Resurrection, which played last week at UW Cinematheque (and immediately became my favorite film of the year.)

Want to see your film writing or short film here in The Horizon Line? Send a link to your work to horizonlinemadison@gmail.com.

THIS WEEK (2/12/26-2/18/26)

New Releases

-Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace, Flix Brewhouse
“The sci-fi satire has a lot of style, gusto, and a firm “AI will destroy humanity” perspective I can get behind…but it’s just not as funny or fast-moving as it needs to be…” - Rob Thomas

-Crime 101 - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace, Flix Brewhouse
-Goat - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace, Flix Brewhouse
-”Wuthering Heights” - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace, Flix Brewhouse
-Cold Storage - AMC, Marcus Point
-A Road at Night - Marcus Point
-The Mortuary Assistant - AMC
-My Lord - AMC
-Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie - AMC, Marcus Point
-O’ Romeo - AMC
-The Observance - AMC
-The Rose: Come Back to Me - AMC, Marcus Point
-Scarlet - AMC
-A Useful Ghost - 7p 2/12/26 at UW Cinematheque
-Mr. Nobody Against Putin - 6:30p 2/12 at The Marquee Union South
-I Can Only Imagine 2 (Early Access Event) - 5p 2/14 at AMC/Marcus Point/Marcus Palace
-Blades of the Guardians - 7:50p 2/17, 4:50p 2/18 at AMC
-Scare Out - 8p 2/17, 7:20p 2/18 at AMC
-EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert (Early Access) - 7p 2/18 at AMC

Repertory

-AMOUR FOU/CRAZY LOVE (First Love, L’Age D’Or, A Life Less Ordinary, Fool For Love) - 8p 2/12 at Aftershock Classic Arcade
-Confessions of a Congressman - 7p 2/13 at UW Cinematheque
-In the Mood for Love - 6:30p 2/13 at The Marquee Union South
-Pride & Prejudice - 9p 2/13 at The Marquee Union South
-Blue Angels 3D - 1p 2/14 at AMC
-Mark of the Renegade - 7p 2/14 at UW Cinematheque
-Romeo + Juliet - 9p 2/14 at The Marquee Union South
-Bad Boys - 6:45p 2/16 at Flix Brewhouse
-Fruits Basket -prelude- - 7p 2/16 at Marcus Point
-Amarcord - 7p 2/17 at La Cineteca Italiana
-Judas and the Black Messiah - 6:30p 2/17 at Madison Central Library
-Misery - 6:30p 2/17 at Flix Brewhouse
-The Best Man - AMC
-Love & Basketball - AMC
-The Apocalypse of St. John - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace
-Pretty in Pink - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace, Flix Brewhouse

NEXT WEEK (2/19/26-2/25/26)

New Releases

-How to Make a Killing - AMC, Marcus Point, Flix Brewhouse
-I Can Only Imagine 2 - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace, Flix Brewhouse
-Psycho Killer - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace
-EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert - AMC
-Kokuho - AMC, Marcus Point
-Midwinter Break - AMC
-This Is Not A Test - AMC
-A Poet - 7p 2/19 at UW Cinematheque
-The Librarians - 6:30p 2/19 at The Marquee Union South
-Paul McCartney: Man on the Run - 7:15p 2/19 at Marcus Point
-Homecoming: The Tokyo Series - 7p 2/23 at Marcus Point, 7:30p 2/23 at Marcus Palace

-Crime 101 - AMC
-Goat - AMC, Flix Brewhouse
-”Wuthering Heights” - AMC
-Pets on a Train - Marcus Point, Marcus Palace
-Sinners - AMC
-Bugonia - 9p 2/20 at The Marquee Union South

Repertory

-Game Night - 6:45p 2/19 at Flix Brewhouse
-Jacob’s Ladder - 7p 2/20 at UW Cinematheque
-Monster - 6:30p 2/20 at The Marquee Union South
-American Psycho - 6:45p 2/21 at Flix Brewhouse
-Deep Sky - 11a 2/21 at AMC
-Harakiri - 7p 2/21 at UW Cinematheque
-Peter Pan - 2p, 7p 2/21 at Capitol Theater
-Rye Lane - 9p 2/21 at The Marquee Union South
-The Wood - 6:30p 2/21 at The Marquee Union South
-The Color Purple - 2p 2/22 at Chazen Museum of Art
-Final Words of Jean-Luc Godard, Pt. 2 (LILA, Trailer of a Film That Will Never Exist: “Phony Wars,” Expose du Film Annonce de Film “Scenario,” Scenario) - 8p 2/23 at Aftershock Classic Arcade
-Twilight - 6:45p 2/23-2/24 at Flix Brewhouse
-Miele - 7p 2/24 at La Cineteca Italiana
-Fruitvale Station - AMC

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