After slowly teasing its complete lineup for the past several weeks, the 2014 Milwaukee Film Festival finally revealed the entire cinematic buffet it's assembled for film fans – both hardcore and casual – this morning. And my friends, it looks absolutely delicious (and not just because of the newly added Film Feast program).
In addition to the features and shorts previously announced, the festival's complete list includes a movie daringly filmed right here off the coast of Lake Michigan, Oscar-winning screenwriter John Ridley's much anticipated follow-up to "12 Years a Slave," a historical documentary all too relevant to today's surveillance-concerned times and the latest buzzy movie starring the improbably named Benedict Cumberbatch.
And those are just a few of the many highlights. Here's the entire lineup:
Opening Night Film
- "1971," a documentary about The Citizens' Commission and their theft of incriminating FBI documents at the Vietnam War's apex.
Festival Centerpiece
- "Jimi: All Is By My Side," writer-director John Ridley's biopic about Jimi Hendrix.
Closing Night Film
- "The Surface," a locally filmed thriller about two men abandoned and lost on the unpredictable waters of Lake Michigan.
Spotlight Presentations
- "Alive Inside," a documentary about the musical treatment of dementia and Alzheimer's.
- "Dear MKE," a short film compilation dedicated to the Cream City.
- "Family United," a Spanish comedy about a family coming together for a wedding – and the World Cup.
- "The Imitation Game," a buzzy drama – starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Mark Strong and Matthew Goode – about Alan Turing's mission to decrypt Nazi codes during World War II.
- "Life Partners," a comedy starring Gillian Jacobs from "Community" about two best friends – one straight, one lesbian – whose lives just jostled after the introduction of a long-term boyfriend.
- "Man with a Movie Camera," the classic documentary – often named the greatest of all time – comes to Milwaukee with live accompaniment from the Alloy Orchestra in tow.
- "Revival," a Czech comedy about a hippie rock band – known as the Czech Beatles" – reuniting after 40 years.
- "Secundaria," a documentary about young teenagers in Cuba taking on ballet.
- "Code Unknown: Incomplete Tales of Several Journeys"
- "Point and Shoot"
- "Stray Dog"
- "Street Fight"
- "Top Secret!"
- "Winter's Bone"
Competition
- "Bad Hair," a drama about a young boy who dreams of becoming a singer; he just has to straighten his hair first.
- "Cairo Drive," a look into the unwieldy traffic of Egypt and the political and social dramas surrounding it.
- "Don't Leave Me," a deadpan documentary about two old alcoholic friends meeting up in the woods.
- "Of Horses and Men," an absurd series of outrageous, comedic vignettes from Iceland.
- "Still Life," about an intensely efficient council worker who puts all of his efforts into curating a funeral for a loner.
- "The Tribe," a drama about life in a Ukrainian school for the deaf, told only through unsubtitled Ukrainian sign language.
- "The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga," a half-travelogue/half-folktale telling of Baba Yaga and the destructive power of man and its creations.
- "Zero Motivation," a comedy about a group of female Israeli soldiers biding their time in isolation.
- "The Amazing Catfish"
- "Club Sandwich"
- "Heli"
- "Last Call"
- "Purgatorio: A Journey Into the Heart of the Border"
- "Que Caramba es la Vida"
- "We Are the Nobles"
- "Workers"
- "AninA"
- "Ernest & Celestine"
- "Felix"
- "Mary Poppins" (sing-a-long)
- "Windstorm"
- "Kids Shorts: Size Small"
- "Kids Shorts: Size Medium"
- "Kids Shorts: Size Large"
- "25 to Life"
- "CRU"
- "Evolution of a Criminal"
- "Freedom Summer"
- "Hollywood Shuffle"
- "Things Never Said"
- "Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People"
- "'Til Infinity: Celebrating 20 Years of the Souls of Mischief"
- "Hamlet A.D.D."
- "The Milwaukee Show I"
- "The Milwaukee Show II"
- "The Milwaukee Youth Show"
- "The Other One"
- "Pester"
- "Psychopath"
- "Serial Daters Anonymous"
- "20,000 Days on Earth"
- "The Ballad of Shovels and Rope"
- "Finding Fela"
- "My Prairie Home"
- "Revenge of The Mekons"
- "Stop Making Sense"
- "Take Me to the River"
- "This May Be the Last Time"
- "Advanced Style"
- "Art and Craft"
- "Born to Fly"
- "Crumb"
- "Hairy Who & The Chicago Imagists"
- "Living Stars"
- "Nan Goldin: I Remember Your Face"
- "Sol LeWitt"
- "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb"
- "Mood Indigo"
- "Patema Inverted"
- "The Raid 2"
- "This is Spinal Tap"
- "Time Lapse"
- "Wetlands"
- "Witching and Bitching"
Shorter Is Better
- "Shorts: The Best Damn F*#@ing Midnight Show Period. Sh*t."
- "Shorts: Date Night"
- "Shorts: Let's Get Animated"
- "Shorts: Modern Families"
- "Shorts: Out of This World"
- "Shorts: Sports Shorts. Shorts about Sports."
- "Shorts: Stories We Tell"
- "Shorts: Stranger Than Fiction"
- "Cesar's Grill"
- "Paulette"
- "Slow Food Story"
- "Soul Food Stories"
- "Soul of a Banquet"
- "The Starfish Throwers"
- "A Year in Burgundy"
- "Zone Pro Site: A Moveable Feast"
Documentary Festival Favorites
- "Big Men," about an oil company attempting to tap into a oil-rich region off Ghana.
- "The Case Against 8," about the lawsuit brought against California's Prop 8.
- "Dancing in Jaffa," about an attempt to bring dance to Israeli and Palestinian children.
- "The Expedition to the End of the World," a Herzog-esque doc about a journey to venture into one the world's most remote locations.
- "The Green Prince," about the 17-year-old son of the founder of Hamas turning into an informant.
- "Happiness," a study of the spread of electricity, Internet and television in Bhutan.
- "An Honest Liar," about renowned magician and escape artist The Amazing Randi and his quest to debunk fakes.
- "The Immortalists," about two men hunting down a cure for aging.
- "Kids for Cash," a revealing doc about a harsh judge who profited from his disproportionate sentences.
- "Meet the Patels," about an Indian mother trying to match her son up with an Indian woman with the same last name.
- "The Missing Picture," an Oscar-nominated doc about a childhood spent under the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot's dictatorship.
- "The Overnighters," about a small town in North Dakota dealing with growing into a boomtown.
- "Particle Fever," a look into the discovery of the Higgs boson particle.
- "She's Beautiful When She's Angry," about the start of the modern women's liberation movement.
- "Vessel," about a group of people doing their best to provide abortion services to those desperately in need in a country with restrictive laws.
- "Watchers of the Sky," a doc about the man who coined the term "genocide" and those who followed in his crusading path.
Worldviews
- "1,000 Times Good Night," a drama starring Juliette Binoche as a war photographer.
- "Charlie's Country," a film about an Aboriginal man attempting to hold onto his struggling culture.
- "The Forgotten Kingdom," a drama about a young boy returning his father's body to their homeland of Lesotho and the natural beauty he encounters along the way.
- "Horses of God," about life in a Casablanca slum that can create and develop suicide bombers.
- "Human Capital," an Italian drama about several families smashed together by class and a car accident.
- "In Bloom," a coming-of-age film about two young teens living in 1990s Georgia.
- "The Liberator," a Spanish historical epic about Simon Bolivar starring Edgar Ramirez.
- "Life Feels Good," a drama about a young man with cerebral palsy attempting to transcend his physical barriers.
- "Life's a Breeze," a comedy about a family trying to get ahold of a money-stuffed mattress they tossed out.
- "Like Father, Like Son," a Japanese drama about families who received the wrong children at birth.
- "Living Is Easy With Eyes Closed," a Spanish coming-of-age story about a young man traveling to see his idol John Lennon.
- "Manuscripts Don't Burn," yet another Iranian film about creative minds reined in and put in danger by the country's oppressive laws.
- "May in the Summer," a story of coming home to one's family in Amman and the drama and comedy that comes with.
- "Monsoon Shootout," an Indian action thriller in which rainy chase sequences rule the day.
- "Mystery Road," a slow burning thriller about an all white police force colliding with the locals and a rookie Aboriginal detective.
- "The Nightingale," a movie about a granddaughter and grandfather bonding over a trip to the remote mountain villages of his childhood.
- "The Priest's Children," an irreverent comedy about a priest hoping to grow his community's birth rate with desperate measures.
- "Those Happy Years," an Italian romantic comedy about a woman breaking free of her narcissist artist husband.
- "We Are the Best!", a Swedish movie about three kids wanting to form a rock band.
- "Young & Beautiful," about a 17-year-old girl who decides to become a call girl.
The full schedule and official booklets come out tomorrow – Sept. 6 – at Cathedral Square at the WMSE Backyard BBQ, but for the time being, revel in all of the options and warn all your friends that for about the last week in September and the first week of October, you're going to be busy.
As much as it is a gigantic cliché to say that one has always had a passion for film, Matt Mueller has always had a passion for film. Whether it was bringing in the latest movie reviews for his first grade show-and-tell or writing film reviews for the St. Norbert College Times as a high school student, Matt is way too obsessed with movies for his own good.
When he's not writing about the latest blockbuster or talking much too glowingly about "Piranha 3D," Matt can probably be found watching literally any sport (minus cricket) or working at - get this - a local movie theater. Or watching a movie. Yeah, he's probably watching a movie.