Screening Report 5/7/2025
Summer schedules arrive as familiar pleasures play through May.
Hello, and welcome to this week’s screening report! We’ve got a flurry of dates for upcoming Madison programming announced. WUD Film has announced their summer Memorial Union Terrace program, which begins June 2nd with the full lineup announced! I’m especially excited for But I’m A Cheerleader, Do The Right Thing, and Creed, and I’ll be saddest to be out of town for The Birdcage. The UW Cinematheque front page states the lineup will be unveiled May 23rd, with programming beginning June 25th. Their preview still is from David Lynch’s The Elephant Man, and before the Wisconsin Film Festival screening of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me UW Cinematheque programmer Mike King shared that Lynch will be more than present in their upcoming programming. Lastly, Duck Soup Cinema’s posted Save The Dates for their 2025-26 program: Saturday, November 22, and for 2026 February 21 and June 13.
This week’s new releases are, as I stated last week, something of a grab bag. The two highlights appear to be Fight or Flight, the Josh Hartnett-starring action debut for director James Madigan, and Clown in a Cornfield, the Eli Craig adaptation of Adam Cesare’s 2020 horror novel. Both seem to occupy the same range of critical reception, two films that don’t reinvent their genres but execute on them in fun and satisfying ways. We’re still waiting on a review embargo for Shadow Force and Juliet & Romeo, and I have to warn you that our three Indian new releases are uncommonly low-profile this week, with no reviews, no real buzz, and no major previous films to gauge interest against.
The repertory lineup this week is largely familiar choices aimed at family audiences, many of the options specifically highlighted as Mother’s Day programming. Of the films playing, I’ll point out that Mamoru Hosoda’s Wolf Children is considered right alongside The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, and Belle as one of Hosoda’s great films, a story of werewolf romance and raising a family that fits both the Mother’s Day theme and stands out against a pack of American romantic comedies. In addition, a film I never thought I’d see playing commercial repertory screens is Ridley Scott’s Director’s Cut of Kingdom of Heaven, his epic film about the Crusades that was heavily simplified in its initial theatrical run.
Next week, our commercial screens are holding their plans close to the chest - Flix has still announced zero new release programming, and the other theaters have announced nothing except screenings of franchise revival Final Destination: Bloodlines and The Weeknd album event film Hurry Up Tomorrow. The Final Destination series has never been particularly lore-heavy, so if you’re interested in seeing Tom & Jerry-esque Rube Goldberg machines murdering hapless teenagers, Bloodlines will probably be up your alley. Hurry Up Tomorrow seems to be aiming at a more narrative approach than visual albums like Beyonce’s Lemonade, with The Weeknd playing himself and costarring Jenna Ortega as something between a crazed fan and guardian angel.
In terms of repertory screenings, next week offers some all-time favorites of mine. Cinesthesia will be screening Terence Malick’s masterpiece The Tree of Life, one of the most beautiful and meditative films I’ve ever seen. Art Lit Lab has a shorts program scheduled for that night if experimental animation is more your speed. If you want to get a jump ahead of WUD’s Mad Max: Fury Road screening this summer, it’s playing at Marcus theaters for its tenth anniversary. Flix is playing two 80s favorites of mine, Blade Runner and Top Gun, and the Ghiblifest has Miyazaki’s girlhood classic Kiki’s Delivery Service. Following up on this week’s screenings of The Wizard of Oz, there’s event screenings for Sidney Lumet’s 1978 film adaptation of The Wiz, presumably building toward Wicked: For Good later this year. Lastly, next weekend of May 23rd, we have Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning, the Lilo & Stitch remake, and The Last Rodeo.
PLUG ZONE:
-James Kreul has an extended review of Raj Kumar Gupta’s Raid 2 in this week’s Moving Image Madison, only available through tonight in theaters, including his sense of alienation from the film’s political implications.
-Rob Thomas reviews Josh Hartnett action thriller Fight or Flight, declaring once and for all that Josh Hartnett is back and in his prime [excerpted below.]
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THIS WEEK (5/8/25-5/14/25)
New Releases
-Fight or Flight - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace, Flix Brewhouse
”[Hartnett] toyed with his affable demeanor by convincingly playing both a devoted dad and a serial killer in “Trap,” and now shows he can breeze through a silly, ultraviolent action movie with “Fight or Flight.” - Rob Thomas
-Clown in a Cornfield - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace, Flix Brewhouse
-Shadow Force - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace, Flix Brewhouse
-Juliet & Romeo - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace
-Bhool Chuk Maaf - AMC
-#Single - AMC
-Subham - AMC, Marcus Point
-Hurry Up Tomorrow [Fan Event Preview] - 6p 5/14 at AMC and Marcus Point, 7p 5/14 at Marcus Palace
-A Minecraft Movie - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace, Flix Brewhouse
-The Accountant 2 - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace, Flix Brewhouse
-The Amateur - Marcus Point, Marcus Palace, Flix Brewhouse
-Disney’s Snow White - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace
-Sinners - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace, Flix Brewhouse
-Thunderbolts* - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace, Flix Brewhouse
-Until Dawn - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace
-Becoming Led Zeppelin - AMC
-The Surfer - AMC, Marcus Point
-Warfare - AMC
Repertory
-Footloose - 7p 5/9 at Flix Brewhouse
-Crazy Rich Asians - 7p 5/10 at Flix Brewhouse
-The Hunger Games Marathon - 12p 5/10 at Marcus Point and Marcus Palace
-The Karate Kid (1984) - 3p 5/10 at Marcus Palace
-The Karate Kid (2010) - 6p 5/10 at Marcus Palace
-Pretty in Pink - 11:30a 5/11 at Flix Brewhouse
-The Fast & The Furious - 6:45p 5/13 at Flix Brewhouse
-Hung Up on a Dream: The Zombies Documentary - 6:30p 5/13 at AMC
-Kingdom of Heaven: Director’s Cut - 6p 5/14 at Marcus Palace
-Ma - 5/14 at AMC and Marcus Palace
-Demon Slayer: Mugen Train - 6p subbed, 9p dubbed 5/14 at Marcus Point
-Pride & Prejudice - Flix Brewhouse
-The Wizard of Oz - Marcus Point, Marcus Palace
-Wolf Children - Marcus Point
NEXT WEEK (5/15/25-5/21/25)
New Releases
-Final Destination: Bloodlines - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace
-Hurry Up Tomorrow - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace
-Thunderbolts* - AMC
Repertory
-Blade Runner - 7p 5/17 at Flix Brewhouse
-Mad Max: Fury Road - Marcus Point, Marcus Palace
-Top Gun - 6:45p 5/20 at Flix Brewhouse
-The Tree of Life - 6p 5/21 at Madison Central Library
-Twinning: Animated Inspirations (Curated by Jamie Griffiths) - 7p 5/21 at Art Lit Lab
-Kiki’s Delivery Service - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace
-The Wiz - Marcus Point, Marcus Palace, Flix Brewhouse
-Demon Slayer: Mugen Train - Marcus Point
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