Ant-Man, Ant-Man everywhere
The biggest thing at the movies this week is an ant. Well, an ant-man.
Oh, and the big-screen introduction of Marvel’s next supervillain.
Here’s what’s new in Milwaukeearea theaters starting Friday, as well as some of the new movies available on streaming and on demand this week.
(Reminder: Go to jsonline.com/entertainment/tv-movies to find out where you can see this year’s Oscar-nominated movies, in theaters and via on-demand and streaming services.)
‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’
Short version: Marvel’s smallest, and biggest, Avenger is back, this time diving back into the Quantum Realm to rescue his daughter and the rest of his extended family — and clash with a multiverse menace named Kang. Most of the cast from the second “Ant-Man” movie is back, including Paul Rudd as Ant-Man, Evangeline Lilly as Hope/The Wasp, Michelle Pfeiffer and Michael Douglas as Janet Van Dyne and Hank Pym, respectively, and Kathryn Newton as Cassie Lang. Also in the mix: Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror, the world-threatening, Thanos-level supervillain; and, for reasons I’m sure we’ll all find out, Bill Murray.
Where you can see it: AMC Mayfair Mall; Avalon Theater; Landmark Downer Theatre; Marcus Theatres’ Bistroplex Southridge, Hillside, Majestic, Menomonee Falls, Movie Tavern Brookfield Square, North Shore, Ridge, Saukville, Showtime, Southgate, South Shore cinemas; Silverspot Cinema.
‘Close’
Short version: Two boys’ intense friendship is tested by rumors about their closeness, and tragedy results. Belgian filmmaker Lukas Dhont’s second feature film is one of this year’s nominees for the Oscar for best international feature film.
Where you can see it: Landmark
Downer Theatre.
‘Of an Age’
Short version: In this period romance, a dancer and Ph.D. student in 1999 Australia who’s about to leave the country falls into an intense romance with his friend’s older brother.
Where you can see it: AMC Mayfair Mall; Marcus Theatres’ Majestic Cinema.
2023 Oscar-Nominated Shorts
With the Academy Awards less than a month away, it’s time for the three programs of nominated short films to get to Milwaukee theaters. Starting Feb. 17, the Oriental Theatre and Silverspot Cinema are showing all three: live-action short films, animated shorts and documentary short subjects, in separately scheduled programs. Meanwhile, AMC Mayfair Mall is showing the liveaction and animated shorts programs. (Select Marcus Theatres will be showing the live-action and animated shorts programs in March.) Info: amctheatres.com, silverspot.net and mkefilm.org/oriental-theatre.
UWM’s Festival of Films in French
The Festival of Films in French returns for its 26th year to the UWM Union Cinema, 2200 E. Kenwood Blvd., with 10 days of movies starting Feb. 17 that celebrate the diversity of Frenchlanguage culture around the world. Many of the titles, showing in French with English subtitles, are either Midwest or U.S. premieres; admission to all is free. Info (including a full schedule): uwm.edu/french-film-festival.
Highlights of the festival’s first week: Feb. 17: 7 p.m., “L’événement” (“Happening”), the acclaimed 2022 drama about a 1960s woman wrestling with an unexpected pregnancy.
Feb. 19: 2:30 p.m., “Les Secrets de Mon Père” (“My Father’s Secrets”), an animated drama about two young Jewish brothers in 1960s Belgium trying to learn about their father’s experience in the Holocaust.
Feb. 20: 7 p.m., “Fighting for Respect: African American Soldiers in WWI,” a documentary about Black soldiers fighting for freedom and against racism in France during World War I; 8 p.m., “La Permission” (“The Story of a Three Day Pass”), filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles’ 1967 feature-film debut about a Black American soldier stationed in France during World War II and his weekend-long romance with a white French shop clerk.
Feb. 21: 7 p.m., “La Mort du Soleil” (“The Death of the Sun”), a 1921 silent drama about a woman whose passion for her work upsets her husband.
‘Harold and Maude’ at Times
Bud Cort and Ruth Gordon star in Hal Ashby’s terrific May-to-way-past-December romantic comedy from 1971, showing at the Times Cinema at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 17. Tickets are $11. Info: timescinema.com.
‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ with Michelle Yeoh
Michelle Yeoh’s Oscar-nominated (and possibly winning) performance in “Everything Everywhere All at Once” is as good a reason as any to check out the 4K restoration/rerelease of Ang Lee’s gorgeous 2000 fantasy/action epic, with Yeoh and fellow legend Chow YunFat as warriors whose romantic longing for each other is complicated by their efforts to retrieve a treasured sword. It’s showing daily starting Feb. 17 at Marcus Theatres’ Majestic, Menomonee Falls, Ridge and South Shore cinemas. Info: marcustheatres.com.
‘The Lion King’ at Oriental Theatre
Milwaukee Film begins a series of kid-friendly movies with a screening of
“The Lion King” at noon Feb. 19. Tickets are $12, $6 for kids younger than 12. Info: mkefilm.org/oriental-theatre.
Black History Month movies
Milwaukee Film’s Black History Month programming continues with the documentaries “Juneteenth:
Faith & Freedom,” at noon Feb. 18; and “Fire Music,” at 7 p.m. Feb. 23. Tickets are $12. Info: mkefilm.org/ oriental-theatre.
Valentine-ish movies at Times Cinema
If you forgot to give someone a Valentine, the Times Cinema has two romances from 1990: “Ghost,” at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 18 and 22 and 3:30 p.m. Feb. 19; and “Pretty Woman,” at 3:30 p.m. Feb. 18 and 6:30 p.m. Feb. 19 and 23. Tickets are $11. Info: timescinema.com.