Danny Baldwin’s 2017 Oscar Picks and Predictions
If I had two wishes for tonight’s Academy Awards ceremony–you don’t get three, contrary to popular belief, as the Ravioli Genie informs the protagonist of Le génie de la boîte de raviolis, a charming...
View ArticlePreview: 2017 TCM Classic Film Festival
As I struggle to find the words to begin this introduction to my coverage of the 2017 TCM Classic Film Festival—now in its eighth annual addition—I am, of course, reminded of the master of the...
View ArticleTCM Classic Film Festival 2017: Even As Nitrate Packs ‘Em In, The Audience...
“It eliminates the middle men,” Academy Film Archive director Michael Pogorzelski said of the experience of watching a nitrate print before a sold-out crowd about to take in Powell and Pressburger’s...
View ArticleReview: “Baby Driver”
"Baby Driver" is bubblegum crime, a pop-infused whirlwind of electric thrills and fizzy romance. It's a heckuva lot of fun while it lasts, and more than a little catchy, but don't expect to be moved by...
View ArticleIntroducing the 2017 Milwaukee Film Festival
When the Milwaukee Film Festival named “The Blood is at the Doorstep” as this year’s Centerpiece Film, it was akin to drawing a line in the sand. Erik Ljung’s debut feature is a hot-button political...
View Article2017 Milwaukee Film Festival: Competition
I suppose it’s easier to sell a throwback Western starring Peter Fonda than a nonfiction look at Baltimore’s rat infestation. No wonder, then, that the Milwaukee Film Festival, which opened Thursday,...
View Article2017 Milwaukee Film Festival: Cream City Cinema
Where should we pin the good citizenship ribbon? While some film festivals function as annual interlopers—destination events that cater to out-of-towners while largely excluding the locals—the...
View Article2017 Milwaukee Film Festival: Top Five
Choosing “Faces Places” as the best movie in this year’s Milwaukee Film Festival might be a bit of a cheat. The latest work by Agnès Varda, a collaboration with the shades-wearing artist JR, wasn’t...
View ArticleConversation: Critics Eric Beltmann and Shelly Sampon React to the 2017...
The ninth annual Milwaukee Film Festival, which closed Oct. 12, hosted a record-breaking 84,000 attendees, 101 sold-out screenings, and nearly 200 filmmakers and guests participating in talkbacks. The...
View ArticleReview: “Justice League”
“Justice League” is a milestone in American cinema: the flop with a $94 million opening weekend. That’s a lot of money for a flop to earn over a few days, but “Justice League” came with a high price...
View ArticleReview: “The Disaster Artist”
“The Disaster Artist” is a missed opportunity. It takes the most bizarre, fascinating true story of cult cinema and reduces it down to an oddball, feel-good joke. There’s a story worth telling here,...
View ArticleDanny Baldwin’s Top 10 Films of 2017
This is the sixteenth year I’ve written an annual Top 10 list, which means I’ve been compiling them for over half my life. While the exercise in some way feels more arbitrary than ever, in that I’m now...
View ArticleReview: “Bright”
“Bright” is ostensibly a police thriller set in a world where magic exists, but it comes with a clever thought under its high-concept premise: what does racism mean in a world where sentient creatures...
View ArticleReview: “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” (New to Own on Digital HD)
Say what you will about J.J. Abrams’ vision of the “Star Wars” universe, it was nothing if not lovingly nostalgic. Even if that nostalgia meant the story was somewhat recycled, this was done with care,...
View ArticleReview: “Marjorie Prime”
In a beautiful beachfront home, an elderly woman talks with her forty-something husband. In his soothing, crisp baritone voice, he tells her the story of the time he proposed to her. She likes this...
View ArticleReview: “Avengers: Infinity War”
“Avengers: Infinity War” is more a piece of connective tissue than a movie. Featuring an expansive collection of cinematic superheroes united in opposition to an intergalactic, genocidal...
View ArticleReview: “Tag”
“Tag” is a comedy with a lot on its mind. That is to say, the movie tries to cram in so many subplots and themes that it bursts at the seams, left with only affable performances and some slick...
View ArticleReview: “Chappaquiddick”
The first time we really see Ted Kennedy in John Curran’s “Chappaquiddick” is during a party at one of his family’s Martha’s Vineyard properties. Face ruddy with Scotch, he convenes his carefully...
View Article15 Great Movies from the Milwaukee Film Festival’s History
It’s a new era for Milwaukee Film, the parent organization for the Milwaukee Film Festival. By taking over the daily operation of the three-screen Oriental Theatre in July, the nonprofit has fortified...
View ArticleReview: “Gotti”
After a decade in the making, John Travolta’s passion project, a biopic of my lifetime’s most infamous gangster, hits screens with a splat. Already infamous for its 0% Rotten Tomatoes score, “Gotti”...
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