Screening Report 8/20/25

Highest hopes brought low (but not lowest!)

Aug 20, 2025

Hello, and welcome to this week’s screening report! I’ve been away for work, so this may be a somewhat abbreviated introduction. FYI, tonight’s Cinesthesia screening of The Cell has been postponed to September 3rd due to technical difficulties.

This week’s headline new releases are Ron Howard’s better-than-average sexy survival thriller Eden, Ethan Coen’s lesbian crime comedy Honey Don’t!, sing-along screenings of Netflix sensation K-Pop Demon Hunters, and the final film in the Hell House LLC franchise, Lineage. Meanwhile, one big addition to our rep schedule this week is AMC presenting Clue for its 40th anniversary with the original theatrical “different endings every night.” Marcus theaters get the film next weekend, but with only two screenings, I’m unsure if they’re planning to play one of the film’s original three endings or the compilation ending you typically see on home video.

Getting the dump treatment is Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest, which is playing exactly one 8:40p screening Thursday and one 6:50p screening Friday, and otherwise exclusively after 9pm or before 4pm during the next work week. If you’re frustrated by that fact, you may want to call theater management and encourage them to “Do The Right Thing” for our guys Denzel and Spike - but I suspect Apple Films gave the theaters a bad deal, as Point is the only theater playing the film at all. Still, I feel like we maybe could have handed over one of the five Saturday screenings of Superman or The Naked Gun (which have dropped out of the box office top 5) to a movie with a major movie star and auteur director that they’ve been advertising for months. Especially given it’s a black filmmaker being given the short end of the stick next to Ron Howard (coming off Thirteen Lives and Hillbilly Elegy, hardly setting the world on fire) and Ethan Coen (whose Drive Away Dolls I enjoyed, but am in the minority for liking at all) it feels pretty bad!

Next week, we get two new and exciting films in Darren Aronofsky’s Caught Stealing and Macon Blair’s The Toxic Avenger. Enough people have seen and praised both that I feel comfortable giving them a recommendation. I’m admittedly less excited for The Roses, which has previously been adapted quite well by Danny Devito. Maybe more exciting is the return of UW Cinematheque, and I’m very excited for both their opening weekend films. I’m also excited for the rescheduled screening of Tarsem’s The Cell, and I’m interested in seeing the IMAX presentation of Prince’s Sign O’ The Times concert film, widely considered one of the best in the genre. Looking ahead to the weekend of 9/5, we’re headlined by the “final” Warren exorcism film The Conjuring: Last Rites.

PLUG ZONE

-Rob Thomas has a highly positive review of the new Riz Ahmed thriller Relay and a piece on old comedies filling theaters instead of new ones.

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 (8/21/25-8/27/25)

New Releases

-Eden - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace
-Hell House LLC: Lineage - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace
-Honey Don’t! - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace, Flix Brewhouse
-Relay - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace
-Primitive War - Marcus Point, Marcus Palace
-Highest 2 Lowest - Marcus Point
-The Shadow’s Edge - AMC
-Trust - AMC, Marcus Palace
-Milwaukee Experimental Films - 8:30p 8/21 at MMOCA
-Caught Stealing (Early Access Screening) - 7p 8/23 at Marcus Point, 7:15p 8/24 at Marcus Palace
-K-Pop Demon Hunters (Sing-Along Event) - 8/23-8/24 at Marcus Point, Marcus Palace, Flix Brewhouse
-The Roses (Early Access Screening) -8/27 at AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace

-Black Swan - 6p 8/21 at AMC, 4p 8/24 at AMC
-The Women - 1:30p 8/21 at AMC
-Ferris Bueller’s Day Off - 6:30p 8/23 at Flix Brewhouse
-Mean Girls - 11a 8/24 at Flix Brewhouse
-Pitch Perfect - 9p 8/25 at Memorial Union Terrace
-Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - 5p, 6:30p 8/26 at Flix Brewhouse
-Deep Sea 3D - 10a 8/27 at AMC
-The 40 Year-Old Virgin - AMC, Marcus Point
-Clue (A Different Ending Every Night!) - AMC
-Dirty Dancing - Marcus Point, Marcus Palace
-Ponyo - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace
-Shin Godzilla - AMC, Marcus Point
-Trainwreck - AMC, Marcus Point

NEXT WEEK (8/28/25-9/3/25)

New Releases

-Caught Stealing - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace, Flix Brewhouse
-The Roses -AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace
-The Toxic Avenger - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace

Repertory

-Night of the Juggler - 7p 8/29 at UW Cinematheque
-The Lovers on the Bridge - 7p 8/30 at UW Cinematheque
-The Cell - 6:30p 9/3 at Madison Central Library
-Clue - Marcus Point, Marcus Palace
-Jaws - AMC, Marcus Point, Marcus Palace, Flix Brewhouse
-Sign O’ The Times - AMC

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