Opening Dec. 19: ‘Mary Poppins Returns’
‘Wildlife’
“Wildlife” is a story of a family, and the people in it, in crisis.
Based on Richard Ford’s novel of the same name, the movie follows a 14-year-old boy (Ed Oxenbould) as he watches his family disintegrate. His father, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, is a golf pro who, after losing his job and identity, decides to join the crew fighting a nearby wildfire. That leaves the boy and his mother, played by Carey Mulligan, to fend for themselves in their small Montana town.
Actor Paul Dano made his directorial debut on “Wildlife,” which he co-wrote with actress Zoe Kazan. The movie is getting some of the season’s strong reviews.
“‘Wildlife’ isn’t just a great first film, it’s a great film,” Associated Press critic Lindsay Bahr wrote in her 4-star review.
“Wildlife” is rated PG-13 for thematic material, brief language and smoking. It runs for 104 minutes.
‘Mortal Engines’
It’s a long way from Middle-Earth to London — well, the post-apocalyptic London of “Mortal Engines,“anyway.
Produced and co-adapted from a young-adult novel by “Lord of the Rings” filmmaker Peter Jackson, “Mortal Engines” is set in a world where giant cities are on wheels, consuming everyone and everything in their path. The former English capital, apparently, is the biggest and baddest of them, but a young woman (Hera Hilmar) turns out to be the key to gumming up London’s works.
Big and sprawling, “Mortal Engines” is, according to many critics, a lemon. Hollywood Reporter critic Todd McCarthy wrote that the movie is “certainly lavish and expensive-looking, but never thoroughly locks in to capture the imagination or sweep you off to a new world where you particularly want to spend time.”
for 128 minutes.
“Mary Poppins Returns” indeed.
The 54-years-later sequel to the beloved Disney classic stars Emily Blunt as the title nanny, who lands back in the lives of the now-grown-up Banks children (Ben Whishaw, Emily Mortimer), and their children, in 1930s London, just as everyone’s at the end of their tether.
As the new chimney sweep, played by Tony winner Lin-Manuel Miranda says, “It’s a good thing you come along when you did, Mary Poppins.”
Just about everyone agrees. Why wouldn’t they, with a cast that includes Colin Firth, Meryl Streep, Angela Lansbury and Dick Van Dyke (yes, from the 1964 original — and he’s dancing!). It’s directed by the movies’ musicals go-to guy, Rob Marshall, with new songs by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman.
Natalie Portman plays a music star at a crossroads in “Vox Lux.”
The week’s 5 best off-the-grid picks
❚ “Salt of the Earth”: This 1954 movie, about a group of Mexican mine workers whose solidarity is bolstered by the women in their lives, has the distinction of being written, directed, produced and starring Hollywood pros who had been blacklisted. (It’s also a touching, and moving, drama.) It’s showing as part of the Jewish Museum Milwaukee’s special exhibit “Blacklist: The Hollywood Red Scare.” 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the museum, 1360 N. Prospect Ave. Free with museum admission: $7, $6 for seniors 60 and older, $4 for students, and free for members and children 6 and younger. Info: jewishmuseummilwaukee.org/black
list.
❚ “Phantom of the Paradise”: A decade before Andrew Lloyd Webber discovered there was gold in them thar “Phantom of the Opera,” Brian De Palma cranked out this rock-centric upgrade, with William Finley as a composer who, after having his pop dreams crushed, takes on the ruthless producer (Paul Williams) who crushed them. 9:30 p.m. Saturday at the Oriental Theatre, 2230 N. Farwell Ave. $11, $9 for Milwaukee Film members, $8 for seniors 60 and older, $6 for kids 12 and younger. Info:
❚ “Riverwest Film & Video”: If you missed Emir Cakaroz’s documentary profile of a Milwaukee treasure at this year’s Milwaukee Film Festival, here’s your chance to see it in its own neighborhood. 7 p.m. Friday at Woodland Pattern Book Center, 720 E. Locust St. Admission is pay-what-you-can. Info:
mkefilm.org. The week’s best Christmas movies woodlandpat
❚ “Little Women”: With one of the movies’ (and fiction’s) most beloved Christmas moments, Gillian Armstrong’s 1994 rendition of Louisa May Alcott’s novel is worth another look. Winona Ryder, Kirsten Dunst, Claire Danes and Susan Sarandon star. 4 p.m. Sunday at the Oriental Theatre. $11, $9 for Milwaukee Film members, $8 for seniors 60 and older, $6 for kids 12 and younger. Info:
❚ Student films at UWM: With the semester coming to a close, UWM film students get to show their stuff, with the Student Film and Video Festival, a juried showcase of the best short films and videos from the UWM Department of Film, Video, Animation, and New Genres at 7 p.m. Friday; and “Senior Screenings,” works by undergrads in the department, 7 p.m. Saturday, both at UWM Union Cinema, 2200 E. Kenwood Blvd. Free. Info:
❚ Rivoli Theater’s Holiday Film Festival: It’s the second week of the holly-jolly fest at the community movie house in downtown Cedarburg, W62-N567 Washington Ave.
Friday: 1 and 7 p.m., “White Christmas” (singalong version)
Saturday: 1 p.m., “Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer”; 3:30 p.m., “Beethoven’s Christmas Adventure”; 7 p.m., “Elf ”
Sunday: 1 p.m., “Arthur Christmas”; 3:30 p.m., “The Polar Express”; 7 p.m., “It’s a Wonderful Life” Monday: 7 p.m., “It Happened on Fifth Avenue” Tuesday: 7 p.m., “The Bishop’s Wife” Wednesday: 7 p.m., “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation”
Thursday: 7 p.m., “Last Holiday”
Tickets are $3.50. Info:
❚ Avalon Theater’s Kinda Sorta Christmas: The Avalon, 2473 S. Kinnickinnic Ave., takes Christmas movies in a different direction this week with a quartet of favorites that have some of the holiday in them. Friday: 7 p.m., “Gremlins”; 9:30 p.m., “Mean Girls” Saturday: 2 p.m., “Mean Girls”; 4:30 p.m., “Grumpy Old Men”; 7 p.m., “Batman Returns”; 10 p.m., “Gremlins”
Sunday: 1:45 p.m., “Batman Returns”; “Gremlins”; 7 p.m., “Grumpy Old Men”
Monday: 7 p.m., “Mean Girls”
Tuesday: 7 p.m., “Batman Returns” Wednesday: 7 p.m., “Grumpy Old Men” Thursday: 7 p.m., “Gremlins”
Tickets are $5. Info:
❚ “Scrooged”: This 1988 update of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” gets better with age, starring Bill Murray as a TV executive who gets the three-ghosts treatment. 9 p.m. Friday at the Times Cinema, 5906 W. Vliet St., with a DJ spin by WMSE-FM Christmas music maven Paul Host at 8 p.m. $5. Info:
4:30 p.m.,
❚ “Dial Code Santa Claus”: Stay with me on this one. On a quiet Christmas Eve, a boy and his grandfather have to take on a crazed Santa Claus who comes down the chimney all naughty and definitely not nice. Part “Home Alone,” part “Silent Night, Deadly Night” and part “Rambo” (the kid, not Santa), this 1989 cult gem — in French, yet, with English subtitles — is a must-see. 9:30 p.m. Saturday at the Times Cinema. $10. Info: