Neil LaBute established his reputation as a director and writer with gritty, unrelenting scenarios about human nastiness-male division. Let's call him the David Mamet of post-boomer suburbia for short.But if In the Company of Men and Your Friends & Neighbors were almost vile in their depiction of vile behavior, Lake Terrace represents LaBute at his most polished.

Director Yung Chang quietly explores potent themes of consumerism in his personable, critically acclaimed documentary, Up The Yangtze. The film, which for free screens tonight and tomorrow night at 7 p.m. in the UWM Union Theater, follows the impact that building the Three Gorges dam has on two young Chinese people who work on one of the Yangtze river’s ships.

Director Yung Chang quietly explores potent themes of consumerism in his personable, critically acclaimed documentary, Up The Yangtze. The film, which for free screens tonight and through Thursday at 7 p.m. in the UWM Union Theater, follows the impact that building the Three Gorges dam has on two young Chinese...

Ryan Gosling delivered a career performance in the 2006 independent drama Half Nelson as Dan Dunne, a charming young high-school teacher and basketball coach whose burgeoning friendship with one of his students, played by Shareeka Epps, is complicated by his not-so-hidden drug addiction. Though she has family troubles of her own, the student becomes a nurturing, almost parental figure for hear teacher. Tonight’s...

As part of the Community Media Project’s weekend-long African Beyond film fest in the UWM Union Theatre, African American directors Charles Burnett, Kevin Everson and Iverson White will be screening and speaking about their latest films, but Saturday’s panel discussion in the UWM Union, “The Verité Impulse in the Films of Burnett, Everson and White,” is the only time all three filmmakers will appear together...

Though it takes the unusual step of acknowledging the infamous writer’s less than productive final years, like just about every study of its subject, Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, is guilty of over-romanticizing Thompson’s quirks. Still, the documentary is one of the most comprehensive looks at Thompson’s legacy, focusing not only on his drug-addled writings but also his curious forays into politics. Assisting...

Few stars hearkening back to Hollywood's Golden Age elicit the unequivocal reverence and regard afforded Bette Davis. She remains a unique figurehead of a bygone era in which the creation of larger-than-life screen personas defined cinematic art under the fabled studio system. Her steely ferocity remains a source of inspiration for younger actresses, along with a classic demeanor-or hauteur, if you will-reminiscent of the great stage performers of the past, as so elegantly demonstrated in roles like The Little Foxes and The Letter. Davis' work feels modern, timeless, urgent, unfettered by self-consciousness but flavored...

Documentaries don’t get much more awkward than 2007’s Operation Filmmaker. Armed with the best intentions, actor Live Schreiber conceives an MTV special about Muthana Mohmed, a young Iraqi who had big, improbable dreams of becoming a filmmaker. Mohmed is given a chance to come to America and be an assistant on a film production...

One of Jean-Luc Godard’s most infamous commercial films, 1963’s Contempt follows a conflicted screenwriter as he attempts to perfect a script for a film version of The Odyssey—his job is made much more difficult by the meddling of just about everyone in his life, including his beautiful wife, played by Brigitte Bardot...

Though it takes the unusual step of acknowledging the infamous writer’s less than productive final years, like just about every study of its subject, Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, is guilty of over-romanticizing Thompson’s quirks. Still, the documentary is one of the most comprehensive looks at Thompson’s...