Screening Report 2/19/26
Japanese films new and old, Jacob's Ladder, Duck Soup Cinema, and more!
Hello, and welcome to this week’s screening report! At some point, I’ll have to generate a calendar for all the weeks I’ve had to delay to Thursday because of a 3-day weekend leading to the commercial theaters posting their schedule updates a day late. I appreciate the patience of my audience - I try to get my schedule updates out on Wednesday so that the Cinematheque weekend is captured in full, but it does give me slightly more wiggle room on weeks like this one.
This week’s new releases include wider releases of How to Make a Killing and I Can Only Imagine 2 debuting to pretty tepid reviews. Better received are A Poet, UW Cinematheque’s premiere this week, and Kokuho, Japan’s submission for the International Feature Film Oscar, nominated ultimately in Best Makeup and Hairstyling. Both follow artists at different stages in their careers: A Poet, unsurprisingly, features a washed-up middle-aged poet finding a teenage mentee. Kokuho starts from the adolescence of its two kabuki performer leads becoming controversial stars of the classic art. I also will point out Baz Lurhmann’s Elvis Presley in Concert film, a mixture of archival and concert documentary extending past Lurhmann’s biopic into the final years of the Vegas residency, which is getting quiet positive reviews.
The bench for repertory films is quite thick - I’m committed to seeing psychological horror classic Jacob’s Ladder and all-timer samurai drama Harakiri at Cinematheque, but I’m equally impressed by WUD’s selection this weekend of Hirokazu Kore-eda’s wonderful film Monster (my #4 of 2023), British indie Rye Lane, and Omar Epps/Taye Diggs marriage dramedy The Wood. The silent Peter Pan is a great choice for Duck Soup Cinema, having just seen it in December - its gender play might make a fun companion with the kabuki at the heart of Kokuho. And Side Room Cinematheque concludes its Late Godard program on Monday - I’ll be seeing Nine Inch Nails that night in Milwaukee, though.
Next week’s program is, thus far, much less dense. Scream 7 and K-Pops! look, apologies, somewhat dismal. If I weren’t going to be out of town, I’d be prioritizing the Owen Kline Presents marathon at UW Cinematheque, a sort of mini-film festival of 9 films and a compilation screening from the director of Funny Pages (also playing Friday night.) When I’m back, I’m going to do my best to see A Better Tomorrow and Get on the Bus, classic films from John Woo and Spike Lee. Coming the weekend of March 6th, we’ll see the premieres of Pixar’s Hoppers, Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Frankenstein riff The Bride!, and the unveiling of the WFF schedule!
PLUG ZONE
-While they announced more screenings for Blades of the Guardians and Scare Out, James Kreul shares in-depth context for these great filmmakers in this week’s Moving Image Madison and thoughts on some of our limited screenings here in Madison. (Unfortunately, I went and saw Scare Out on Tuesday and would warn folks to steer clear.)
-Rob Thomas reviews UW Cinematheque premiere A Poet - it sounds great!
-Grant Phipps in Tone shares context and analysis for 150 Artists x 150 Years, a video installation currently at the Madison Central Library featuring local Madison filmmakers.
-The Snub Club covers Michael Mann’s classic 1999 film The Insider, a personal favorite film.
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THIS WEEK (2/19/26-2/25/26)
New Releases
-How to Make a Killing - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace, Flix Brewhouse
-I Can Only Imagine 2 - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace, Flix Brewhouse
-Midwinter Break - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace
-Psycho Killer - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace
-Bendito Corazon - Marcus Point
-Do Deewane Seher Mein - AMC
-EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert - AMC
-Kokuho - AMC, Marcus Point
-Redux Redux - 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 Sout
-Paul McCartney: Man on the Run - 7:15p 2/19 at Marcus Point
-Homecoming: The Tokyo Series - 2/23-2/24 at AMC, 2/23 at Marcus Point/Marcus Palace
-Crime 101 - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace, Flix Brewhouse
-Goat - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace, Flix Brewhouse
-Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace, Flix Brewhouse
-Iron Lung - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace, Flix Brewhouse
-Send Help - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace, Flix Brewhouse
-Solo Mio - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace, Flix Brewhouse
-”Wuthering Heights” - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace, Flix Brewhouse
-A Road at Night - Marcus Point
-Avatar: Fire & Ash - AMC, Marcus Palace
-Blades of the Guardians - AMC
-Dracula - AMC, Marcus Palace
-Hamnet - Flix Brewhouse
-The Housemaid - Marcus Point
-Marty Supreme - Flix Brewhouse
-Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie - AMC, Marcus Point
-Scare Out - AMC
-Zootopia 2 - AMC
-Pets on a Train - Marcus Point, Marcus Palace
-Sinners - AMC
-Bugonia - 9p 2/20 at The Marquee Union South
-Shelter - 10:30p 2/21 at AMC
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
NEXT WEEK (2/26/26-3/4/26)
New Releases
-Scream 7 - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace, Flix Brewhouse
-K-Pops! - AMC
-Fiume o Morte! - 7p 2/26 at UW Cinematheque
-Ghost Elephants (w/ Q&A) - 5:55p 2/26 at Marcus Point
-Hoppers (Early Access Screening) - 1p 2/28 at AMC/Marcus Point, 2:30p at Marcus Palace
-Billy Idol Should Be Dead! - 4p 3/1 at Marcus Point
-Dolly (Early Access Screening) - 8p 3/3 at AMC
-Wisconsin Film Festival First Look - 7p 3/4 at Flix Brewhouse
-EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace
-The Bad Guys 2 - Marcus Point, Marcus Palace
-One Battle After Another - 3:45p 3/4 at Marcus Point, 4:05p 3/4 at Marcus Palace
-2026 Oscar Nominated Shorts: Animation - 7:30p 3/4 at Marcus Point, 7:15p 3/4 at Marcus Palace
Repertory
-Farming the Revolution - 6:30p 2/26 at The Marquee Union South
-Desert Hearts - 6:30p 2/27 at The Marquee Union South
-Funny Pages (Owen Kline in Person!) - 7p 2/27 at UW Cinematheque
-Howl’s Moving Castle - 9p 2/27, 6p 2/28 at The Marquee Union South
-Owen Kline’s Mystery Reel - 5p 2/27 at UW Cinematheque
-Born to Be Wild 3D - 11a 2/28 at AMC
-The Fool Killer - 12p 2/28 at UW Cinematheque
-The Seven Little Foys - 2:30p 2/28 at UW Cinematheque
-Who Killed Teddy Bear? - 4:45p 2/28 at UW Cinematheque
-Withnail & I - 7p 2/28 at UW Cinematheque
-Pride & Prejudice - 11a 2/28-3/1 at Flix Brewhouse
-Thelma & Louise - 9p 2/28 at The Marquee Union South
-Fists in the Pocket - 12p 3/1 at UW Cinematheque
-Lonely Are the Brave - 2:30p 3/1 at UW Cinematheque
-Love and Death on Long Island - 5p 3/1 at UW Cinematheque
-Madam Satan - 7p 3/1 at UW Cinematheque
-Umberto D - 7p 3/3 at La Cineteca Italiana
-A Better Tomorrow - AMC, Marcus Point
-Get On The Bus - AMC
-The Woman King - AMC
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