film

Growing up Avoca, Wisc., Emily Kuester felt like an outsider in her small town community. As a transracial adoptee, she navigated life without feeling completely part of either white or black culture — something that was jarringly obvious once she moved to Milwaukee for college.

"I was just excited to be around people who looked like me and be around diversity and all of that," recalls Kuester. "I quickly realized that I didn't know anything about black culture."

It’s not too often that the fourth time is the charm. But actor and first time film director Bradley Cooper hopes his version of the classic movie, “A Star Is Born,” is indeed a charm in its fourth version.

"It’s the Hollywood tale that the business just won’t let die," says film contributor Ryan Jay. "It seems to reinvent itself and whenever there's a leading lady, or in this case an up-and-coming leading lady with Gaga, it's a showcase for that talent. It has chops for your acting and for your singing ability."

The 2018 Milwaukee Film Festival opens on Oct. 18. This year’s festival marks 10 years in its current incarnation, and the first in which will feature a renovated Oriental Theater as home to Milwaukee Film.

"[The Oriental is] something that a lot of filmmakers who come through the city comment on. A lot of cities don’t have theaters like the Oriental. Milwaukee does — it’s one of the festival’s main selling points," says Milwaukee Magazine Cultural Editor Lindsey Anderson.

The show "This is Us" has captured television audiences in vast numbers. Now in its third season, the show boosted producer Dan Fogelman to the big screen: Amazon Studios' film “Life Itself.”

Starring A-list actors (such as Antonio Banderas, Olivia Wilde and Annette Benning) the film follows a young couple’s journey and the twists of their life that impact generations and strangers from afar.

The Milwaukee Short Film Festival takes place this Friday, Sept. 7, and Saturday, Sept. 8, at the Fox Bay Cinema and Grill in Whitefish Bay. Fifty films will be screened over the two days, including the first film shown at the festival 20 years ago.

Ross Bigley, the festival's founder and director, recalls that the festival began as a simple gathering at a coffee shop with a projector. "When I was making these short films, there was really no place in Milwaukee to screen anything like that," he says.

This past week President Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to a multitude of charges, including falsifying submissions to a bank and campaign finance violations. Campaign finance regulations are considered by many to be among the most pressing issues affecting American democracy, but it can be hard for the average citizen to understand them.

Since releasing She's Gotta Have It in 1986, director Spike Lee has been a formidable name in the film landscape. His films challenge the status quo and highlight problems in America, and in black America, all while gripping audiences with heightened reality and strong casting to deliver his directorial voice.

Milwaukee's Francophiles can begin celebrating Bastille Days early this year at the Avalon Theater with a screening of Jean-Pierre Jeunet's 2001 film Amélie on Wednesday, July 11th. "France has nurtured one of the world's most significant movie industries," says film critic Dave Luhrssen. "The country can lay claim to having invented motion pictures. It was the sight of the first commercial screening of a movie."

It’s been 25 years since movie audiences first saw awe-inspiring dinosaurs come to life in Steven Spielberg’s classic film – Jurassic Park. Yet, five films (and possibly counting) later, studios are still making movies about the inevitable bad situations that will happen when large, once extinct dangerous creators are brought back to life.

If you grew up watching public television, the sound of a piano's ascending chords and the ding of a trolley bell may take you back to the land of "Make Believe" and into the television home of Fred Rogers. Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood began in 1968 and continuously aired first-run shows for more than 30 years.

You wouldn’t expect that a program with a soft-spoken and gentle man in a zip up cardigan playing with puppets would have touched so many people, but generations came to know Mr. Rogers as an essential part of their lives, early education, and childhood.

The Golden Age of Hollywood ran from 1929 - when the “talkies” were introduced - to the 1960s. Film stars were groomed and promoted by a studio system that could be both supportive and exploitive. When the studios began to break up in '60s, many of the stars they made famous were entering their old age. Some were still working by the late '70s, others were happily, or not, retired. But they were still accessible to fans in a way that modern celebrities aren’t.

Movie fans and film critics alike are perhaps feeling a little anxious for Solo: A Star Wars Story to be released on the big screen. During its rocky production, Solo saw a change of directors from Phil Lord and Christopher Miller to veteran filmmaker Ron Howard (which came with months of re-shoots).

With a title like Disobedience, you might expect a film full of intense conflict. And while there is certainly conflict, it's much more internal -  at times quietly reflected through the lives of the main characters.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard that the 19th installment in the Marvel universe is on screens around the world.  Avengers: Infinity War recently became the fastest movie to earn one billion dollars.

It is jampacked with everyone’s favorite superheroes -  Iron Man, Captain America, Black Panther...  But do those epic proportions work to the advantage or the detriment of the story at the heart of the film? 

In the summer of 2013, 19-year-old Jessie Blodgett was a music education student at UW-Milwaukee, intent on changing the world through music.  She was devoted to the cause of ending male violence against women.

But in July of 2013, Jessie Blodgett was raped and murdered in her own home. The story shook her hometown of Hartford devastating many, especially her father, Buck.

READ: 'I'm Just A Dad Who Wants to Do Something': How Tragedy Sparked A Mission