Critic Speak https://criticspeak.com/ Movie Reviews & Film Criticism Fri, 08 May 2026 05:36:07 +0000 en hourly 1 https://criticspeak.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/cropped-427777_318320161566862_1083543693_n-32x32.jpg Critic Speak https://criticspeak.com/ 32 32 MFF 2026: Festival Highlights https://criticspeak.com/mff-2026-festival-highlights/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mff-2026-festival-highlights https://criticspeak.com/mff-2026-festival-highlights/#respond Fri, 08 May 2026 05:35:21 +0000 https://criticspeak.com/?p=8926 Sometimes that guy talking too much during a movie deserves a salute rather than a dirty look. That’s why Milwaukee Record’s Matt Wild published an unironically grateful piece on April 18 called “11 things the guy behind me yelled at last night’s midnight screening of ‘A Bay of Blood.’” His rundown is hilarious, but naturally raises […]

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]]> https://criticspeak.com/mff-2026-festival-highlights/feed/ 0 MFF 2026: Week Two Picks https://criticspeak.com/mff-2026-week-two-picks/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mff-2026-week-two-picks https://criticspeak.com/mff-2026-week-two-picks/#respond Thu, 23 Apr 2026 07:01:46 +0000 https://criticspeak.com/?p=8918 Looking for a surefire way to blow the minds of your friends? Shelve the cookbook. Drop the name-dropping. Forget that party trick (seriously, just no). All you really need is this year’s Milwaukee Film Festival program book, which is brimming with proven strategies like How to Impress Your Friends by Seeing Movies Before Anyone Else. […]

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]]> https://criticspeak.com/mff-2026-week-two-picks/feed/ 0 MFF 2026: Retro Programming Recap https://criticspeak.com/mff-2026-retro-programming-recap/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mff-2026-retro-programming-recap https://criticspeak.com/mff-2026-retro-programming-recap/#respond Thu, 16 Apr 2026 07:01:54 +0000 https://criticspeak.com/?p=8910 Fifty years after surfacing, “Jaws” is still leaving other movies dead in the water. When it opened over Labor Day weekend, Steven Spielberg’s toothy monster flick grossed $8.2 million before dropping anchor as the second-biggest draw of the week. Not in 1975. In 2025. Repertory programming is having a moment, with cinemas across the country […]

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]]> https://criticspeak.com/mff-2026-retro-programming-recap/feed/ 0 Introducing the 2026 Milwaukee Film Festival https://criticspeak.com/introducing-the-2026-milwaukee-film-festival/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=introducing-the-2026-milwaukee-film-festival https://criticspeak.com/introducing-the-2026-milwaukee-film-festival/#respond Thu, 09 Apr 2026 06:21:07 +0000 https://criticspeak.com/?p=8903 I’m thinking juuust a bit outside the box, so hear me out: Each movie at this year’s Milwaukee Film Festival should end with a post-credits stinger where Bob Uecker notices the remaining viewers and shouts, “Get up, get up, get outta here!” Mr. Baseball might be gone, but his hometown-boy-makes-good legacy continues to be enshrined […]

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]]> https://criticspeak.com/introducing-the-2026-milwaukee-film-festival/feed/ 0 MFF 2025: Festival Highlights https://criticspeak.com/mff-2025-festival-highlights/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mff-2025-festival-highlights https://criticspeak.com/mff-2025-festival-highlights/#respond Thu, 15 May 2025 13:00:19 +0000 https://criticspeak.com/?p=8889 “No talking, no texting,” Milwaukee Film Executive Director Susan Kerns said. “But you can dance if you want to.” Kerns was introducing a 40th-anniversary screening of Susan Seidelman’s “Desperately Seeking Susan,” a thrift-store screwball comedy starring Madonna that, for ’80s kids like me, threatens to someday, someway morph into a jukebox. (Marshall Crenshaw fans unite!) […]

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]]> https://criticspeak.com/mff-2025-festival-highlights/feed/ 0 MFF 2025: Week Two Picks https://criticspeak.com/mff-2025-week-two-picks/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mff-2025-week-two-picks https://criticspeak.com/mff-2025-week-two-picks/#respond Thu, 01 May 2025 12:00:47 +0000 https://criticspeak.com/?p=8879 At the concession stand, be sure to order some popcorn, a soft drink and a box of tissues. Napkins may not cut it. Today the Milwaukee Film Festival is showing “How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies” (6:45 p.m., Oriental Theatre), a blockbuster last year in Southeast Asia that inspired a viral trend of filmgoers […]

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]]> https://criticspeak.com/mff-2025-week-two-picks/feed/ 0 MFF 2025: Week One Picks https://criticspeak.com/mff-2025-week-one-picks/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mff-2025-week-one-picks https://criticspeak.com/mff-2025-week-one-picks/#respond Thu, 24 Apr 2025 12:00:59 +0000 https://criticspeak.com/?p=8866 Pop quiz, hotshot. There’s a book signing with a Hollywood director. Once you go, you’ll miss the documentary about former Pizza Huts. If you pick that one, your schedule blows up. What do you do? What do you do? Howard Payne didn’t program the 17th annual Milwaukee Film Festival—after all, he lost his head in […]

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]]> https://criticspeak.com/mff-2025-week-one-picks/feed/ 0 Introducing the 2025 Milwaukee Film Festival https://criticspeak.com/introducing-the-2025-milwaukee-film-festival/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=introducing-the-2025-milwaukee-film-festival https://criticspeak.com/introducing-the-2025-milwaukee-film-festival/#respond Thu, 17 Apr 2025 04:58:01 +0000 https://criticspeak.com/?p=8859 The last time the Milwaukee Film Festival operated at only two venues, “Slumdog Millionaire” was the reigning Oscar champ. Contraction might be the subtext of MFF’s 17th annual edition, which launches with “Sally,” a documentary about the first American woman in space, at 6 p.m. April 24 inside the Oriental Theatre on North Farwell Avenue. […]

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]]> https://criticspeak.com/introducing-the-2025-milwaukee-film-festival/feed/ 0 Conversation: Critics Eric Beltmann and Shelly Sampon React to the 2024 Milwaukee Film Festival https://criticspeak.com/2024-milwaukee-film-festival-conversation/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=2024-milwaukee-film-festival-conversation https://criticspeak.com/2024-milwaukee-film-festival-conversation/#respond Sat, 04 May 2024 17:50:40 +0000 https://criticspeak.com/?p=8845 The 16th annual Milwaukee Film Festival, which closed April 25, brought more than 300 films to audiences in southeastern Wisconsin. Critic Speak contributors Eric Beltmann and Shelly Sampon discuss their shared love for Gene Wilder, how the Downer Theatre returned to the festival and why virtual options should return, too. Eric Beltmann: Before we dive […]

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]]> https://criticspeak.com/2024-milwaukee-film-festival-conversation/feed/ 0 MFF 2024: Festival Highlights https://criticspeak.com/mff-2024-festival-highlights/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mff-2024-festival-highlights https://criticspeak.com/mff-2024-festival-highlights/#respond Thu, 02 May 2024 17:08:10 +0000 https://criticspeak.com/?p=8837 After setting the over/under at 15 minutes, I lost the wager in my mind: It didn’t take that long for the first person to walk out. The Milwaukee Film Festival’s annual Super Secret Members-Only Screening is always a gamble. Without knowing which movie would show, hundreds of dues-paying members of Milwaukee Film, the nonprofit organization […]

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