Screening Report 7/9/2025

Summer in full swing, and new alternative screenings being added!

Jul 09, 2025

Hello, and welcome to this week’s screening report! Statewide filmmaker coalition Action! Wisconsin won a huge victory this past week as the state budget for ‘25 includes film production incentives and a state film audience. MMOCA has added another Rooftop Cinema screening playing the Academy Award nominated documentary Sugarcane - in a year where No Other Land dominated critics awards, Sugarcane collected a lot of runner-up awards. Atwood Music Hall is offering Silent Movie Nights with live music, presenting Metropolis, Phantom of the Opera, and Nosferatu.

This week’s new releases are dominated by James Gunn’s Superman, debuting DC’s new superhero cinematic universe with positive reviews. We have no reviews yet for influencer-oriented slasher Skill House, and Abraham’s Boys is a smaller horror film with a mixed response thus far. Maalik is a Hindi action film from director Pulkit, whose previous films integrate psychological thriller themes and social criticism - this gangster film is still awaiting reviews. A fair warning that films like 28 Years Later, Materialists, and Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning are decreasing in screenings pretty significantly to make room for Superman and we may be on our last week seeing them, despite the higher theater count.

In repertory, Cinematheque this week offers a couple of lesser seen films - Lelouch’s And Now My Love and W.C. Fields comedy It’s A Gift both have fewer than 10k viewers on Letterboxd. Fields is a comedy legend of the 30s, less celebrated these days than some prior silent auteurs who directed their own films but every bit as beloved in his prime. Next Wednesday has a real tough choice between Cinesthesia’s offering of Billy Wilder/Barbara Stanwyck classic noir Double Indemnity and Cinematheque’s programming of Gene Hackman/Al Pacino road drama Scarecrow, both playing at the same time on the 16th. I also want to highlight an addition to the Art Lit Lab’s program, Patient, at which director Lori Felker will offer an extended discussion with UW healthcare representatives - the Golden Badger winning short film is being expanded into a feature.

Next week’s new releases are a strange crop of films. There’s the reboots of I Know What You Did Last Summer and Smurfs, ostensibly the two largest releases as franchise representatives, but neither are especially relevant or beloved franchises in 2025. Readers of this newsletter are probably more likely to seek out Ari Aster’s Eddington, Aster’s new small town COVID western starring Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal among a star-studded cast. Eddington premiered at Cannes and has been quite a bit better received than Beau is Afraid, though every description of it makes it sound just as epic and chaotic in scope. There’s also Don’t Let’s Go To The Dogs Tonight, the directorial debut of actress Embeth Davidtz and an adaptation of the Rhodesian War memoir - the film premiered at Telluride last year to lukewarm reviews, mostly discussed for its politics rather than its filmmaking.

The repertory lineup includes three of my all-time favorite films in Do The Right Thing, Mulholland Dr., and My Neighbor Totoro - though Totoro plays fairly often through the Ghibli Fest and I’ve already lamented the lack of variety in Spike Lee programming, I’m really happy to have the opportunity to see these again. The AMC seniors program (thanks James for the info!) continues with Romance on the High Seas, intentionally offering a matinee to promote attendance among nursing home residents. I’m also very much looking forward to The Mystery of Chess Boxing, a well-loved Hong Kong martial arts classic and the namesake of both Wu-Tang Clan’s “Da Mystery of Chessboxin’” and Wu-Tang rapper Ghostface Killah. Looking ahead at the week of 7/25, we’ll have The Fantastic Four: First Steps as our big mainstream release, but we’ll also have two well liked Sundance premieres in the drama Sorry, Baby and the romantic comedy Oh, Hi!

PLUG ZONE

-James Kreul has a roundup of Madison movie news this week in Moving Image Madison, including a little more information on the Rooftop Cinema program for August!

-I wrote about Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life on my personal blog.

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 (7/10/25-7/16-25)

New Releases

-Skill House - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace
-Superman - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace, Flix Brewhouse
-Abraham’s Boys: A Dracula Story - AMC
-Maalik - AMC
-Jujutsu Kaisen: Hidden Inventory/Premature Death The Movie - 7/16-7/17 at AMC and Marcus Point

Repertory

-And Now My Love - 7p 7/10 at UW Cinematheque
-It’s A Gift - 7p 7/11 at UW Cinematheque
-Mad Max: Fury Road - 9p 7/14 at Memorial Union Terrace
-Midsommar - 6p 7/15 at Flix Brewhouse
-Patient (Lori Felker in Person) - 7p 7/15 at Art Lit Lab
-Deep Sea 3D - 10a 7/16 at AMC
-Double Indemnity - 6:30p 7/16 at Madison Central Librar
-Scarecrow - 7p 7/16 at UW Cinematheque
-Kung Fu Panda 4 - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace
-One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest - Marcus Point, Marcus Palace
-Sonic the Hedgehog - Flix Brewhouse

NEXT WEEK (7/17/25-7/23/25)

New Releases

-Don’t Let’s Go To The Dogs Tonight - AMC
-Eddington - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace
-I Know What You Did Last Summer - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace, Flix Brewhouse
-Smurfs - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace
-Eephus (with Deuce) - 5p 7/19 at Bartell Theater
-Together (Early Screening) - 7p 7/23 at Marcus Point

-Jurassic World: Rebirth - AMC
-Superman - AMC, Marcus Palace
-The Wild Robot - AMC

Repertory

-Happy New Year - 7p 7/17 at UW Cinematheque
-Romance on the High Seas - 1:30p 7/17 at AMC
-The Mystery of Chess Boxing - 7p 7/18 at UW Cinematheque
-Jumanji - 12p 7/20, 6p 7/21 at Flix Brewhouse
-Do The Right Thing - 9p 7/21 at Memorial Union Terrace
-Mulholland Dr. (Mary Sweeney in Person) - 7p 7/23 at UW Cinematheque
-Space Station 3D - 10a 7/23 at AMC
-The Boss Baby - Flix Brewhouse
-My Neighbor Totoro - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace
-Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse - Marcus Point, Marcus Palace

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