See You at the Movies!

// By Anna Krutzik //

So, it is a nondescript Friday in February and once again you're looking to go out and enjoy a movie in your local cinema because frankly there isn't much else to do in February in Wisconsin (*which I know is a false statement. There is a lot to do in Milwaukee on the weekends, but this is a film blog so we pretend that all that other stuff doesn't exist. It's a little biased but it makes for a more consice blog).

There is always the UWM Union Theatre which is showing Beeswax (directed by Andrew Bujalski) and Loren Cass (directed by Chris Fuller) this weekend, both of which are Milwaukee premieres. So you could go to that. The Union Theatre is always fun and cheap and rarely overcrowded (I mean it merely as an observation and a potential selling point, because some people don't like crowded movie theaters).

Or you could go see Shutter Island, Martin Scorsese's newest film set in 1954 about a U.S. Marshall investigating the mysterious dissapearance of a patient from the creepy mental institution on Shutter Island. Ooooh, sounds scary and mysterious and thrilling! The film is adapted from Dennis Lehane's book of the same name (Lehane is also the writer of Gone Baby Gone and Mystic River). And I must say, Shutter Island is the first film to be released in theaters in a long, long, long time that I am actually excited about seeing. And I have a couple of reasons for that. Let me share them with you:

1) It's Martin Scorsese. I think everyone can agree that the man makes damn good films. Classy and beautiful and very entertaining films. And on a personal side note, I once saw him give a moderated commentary on his life and career during the Ivy Film Festival at Brown University and it was wonderful and I now can't help but feel that we are best friends.

2) Leonardo DiCaprio. Leo, if you will. Yes, I was 12 years old when Titanic hit theaters and callously plucked the heart strings and hard-earned allowance money of countless little girls. The damage is done. Although, in all seriousness, he is a mighty fine actor. Mighty fine. Ahem.

3) Mark Ruffalo, Michelle Williams, Ben Kingsley, Emily Mortimer, Max Von Sydow, Patricia Clarkson, Ted Levine, and Jackie Earle Haley round out the cast. All talented actors. All in this movie.

These are more than enough reasons to get excited about this film.

Okay, so maybe some critics aren't giving this film the best of reviews but they aren't giving it bad reviews necesarily. And I think it is safe to say that I can sit through anything made by Scorsese because nothing he makes can be that bad. Shutter Island looks like an intriguing thriller that takes its audience along for a ride in the same vein as many Alfred Hitchcock films. And I think everyone can use a little Hitchcock now and again, especially when it's packaged as a Scorsese.