An Evening with Raoul Peck
Director Raoul Peck built the Oscar-nominated documentary I Am Not Your Negro around the notes James Baldwin assembled in 1979 for a book he never completed on the lives (and deaths) of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., along with another slain civil rights leader, Medgar Evers. Peck visually links Baldwin’s pessimism on American race relations with recent images from Ferguson, Mo., and elsewhere. “I don’t think there is much hope,” Baldwin told talk show host Dick Cavett in a 1968 discussion at the film’s opening.
The director is the star of “An Evening with Raoul Peck,” taking place at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 26, in the UW-Milwaukee Student Union’s Wisconsin Room. It’s a ticketed event that is free to students (the latter can pick up tickets at the Student Union Information Desk). Peck will also speak in conversation with former French Justice Minister Christiane Taubira at UWM’s Curtin Hall 175 at 4 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 27. (David Luhrssen)
All I See Is You R
Writer-director Marc Forster asks how a blind woman’s identity would change were her sight restored. The question arises for Gina (Blake Lively), whose seemingly devoted husband, James (Jason Clarke), has described her world as he wishes her to imagine it. When a groundbreaking surgery restores Gina’s vision, she’s first excited and then shocked to find how much was misrepresented by James. In the realm between blindness and sight, we see what Gina sees, but Forster withholds facts in an attempt to increase tension. That fails, but he certainly triples our confusion. (Lisa Miller)
Jigsaw R
When Saw 3D was released in 2010, the producers promised it would be the last in a long line of torture-porn flicks. However, Lionsgate, the studio making upwards of $100 million from each $10 million production, surely had its paws crossed. In this eighth installment, someone calling himself Jigsaw (the supposedly dead perpetrator of ingenious killing-torture schemes), forces unfortunate souls to mutilate themselves trying to escape his traps, or die horrifically. It’s one way to celebrate Halloween (Saw’s traditional release season), or to learn which of your friends can keep down their popcorn, come what may. (L.M.)
Suburbicon R
Written by the Coen brothers 30 years ago, director George Clooney and collaborator Grant Heslov updated the script, which now suffers from competing agendas. During the 1950s, buttoned-down corporate accountant Gardner Lodge (Matt Damon) resides in idyllic suburbia. Robbers (Glenn Flesher and Alex Hassell) attack his home, causing the death of Lodge’s wife (Julianne Moore). Fortunately, her sister (also played by Moore) moves in to care for Gardner’s young son, Nicky (Noah Jupe). Gardner guards secrets of his own when a local cop (Oscar Isaac) shows up to investigate the break in. Meanwhile, the community’s first black family seems like nice folks but is mightily resented by locals subscribing to separatism. Clooney appears intent on making a point, but he gives us no one to root for and nothing to believe in. (L.M.)
Thank You for Your Service R
Adapted from the nonfiction book by David Finkel, Thank You for Your Service opens by depicting the Iraq war as experienced by a group of American soldiers. At the end of their tours, the soldiers return to the States, haunted by disturbing memories that impede reconnecting with spouses, family, friends and civilian life. This territory, successfully covered in American Sniper, remains at once fascinating and devastating. In a side note, one can try to imagine what role comedienne Amy Schumer will play in a biographical war drama film. (L.M.)
