Bryce Richter / UW-Madison
Lakeside Cinema
Summer movies are spectacular in the sense that they go overboard on spectacle. It is the season for space battles, dinosaurs, superheroes and any number of other things best witnessed on the big screen. The sad paradox is that to see summer movies, you have to leave the summer for a windowless, heavily air conditioned theater. It is a waste of warm weather and late sunsets.
There is hope, though. A number of local venues are showing movies on the big screen beneath the big sky.
The best combination of nature and movies can be found at the Memorial Union Terrace, where the Lakeside Cinema series takes place every Monday night through the end of August. It’s an ideal setting to enjoy a drink, a movie and the dying light of day.
Starting May 25, Lakeside Cinema will be showing classic movies based around the theme “Planes, Trains and Moving Pictures.” All forms of transportation will be featured, though, not just trains (Snowpiercer) and planes (Airplane!, Top Gun, Con Air). There are also movies about automobiles (Cars, Thelma & Louise, Mad Max, The Fast and the Furious), spaceships (Wall-E), buses (Speed), boats (Pirates of the Caribbean), bicycles (Pee-wee’s Big Adventure) and balloon-propelled Victorian houses (Up). There are also a few movies with a combo transportation platter (North by Northwest and, of course, Planes, Trains and Automobiles).
These films play Monday nights at 9 through the end of August. Admission is free, and the food is cheap. During the movies, the brat stand offers $1 hot dogs, chips and sodas. In case of rain, the movies are still shown, but inside the Memorial Union’s Rathskeller. For a complete calendar, see wudfilm.com/now-playing.
Rooftop Cinema
If you prefer artier films, head to MMoCA, where the Rooftop Cinema series will screen avant-garde short films to the upper regions of Madison. This annual tradition has always felt like one of the more cosmopolitan events in town: a rooftop party with freaky images flickering in the background. In honor of the series’ 10th anniversary, organizers are showing a retrospective of audience favorites from the past decade — some profound, others hysterical, all mesmerizing.
Every Friday night in June will have a different theme: “Word Games,” “Light and Space” (which will include Powers of Ten, possibly the coolest movie ever made about math), “Cause and Effect,” and “Slow Movement.”
August 21 brings a night of animated films, including the 1952 Canadian stop-motion masterpiece Neighbours, which plays like a precursor to the darker “Kids in the Hall” sketches.
Screenings start at 9:30 p.m., except during August, when the show starts at 8:30 p.m. Admission is $7. Blankets and camp chairs are allowed.
Head for Warner Park for Movie Nights at the Duck Pond.
For movie goers who love ball parks, but don’t necessarily like baseball, there’s Movie Nights at the Duck Pond. Don’t be misled by the name. The movies are showing in the daylight on the Madison Mallards’ digital video board at Warner Park, and the seating is in the outfield.
The offerings here are family fare. Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1 plays June 13 at 7 p.m., Frozen on July 25 at 5 p.m., and How to Train Your Dragon 2 on August 9 at 3 p.m. Admission is free, and the concession stands will be open.
Artistic shorts, beloved classics and last year’s hits are all great to revisit, but what about those summer Hollywood extravaganzas? You can see those under the starry sky, too, but you’ll need a car to get to any of the drive-in theaters of southern Wisconsin.
Sharon Vanorny
Take a drive to Monroe for movies at the Sky-Vu.
Don’t let a bit of a drive hold you back from this quintessentially American experience. No one thinks twice about driving to Green Bay to see a football game or Spring Green to see a play. Why not head out to distant fields to see the giant dinosaurs of Jurassic World or the tiny hero of Ant-Man on the big screen? You can find them in any direction if you drive far enough. To the north we have the Big Sky Twin, N9199 Winnebago Rd. in Wisconsin Dells (approximately 51 miles from downtown Madison); to the east is Hi-Way 18 Outdoor Theater, on Hwy. 18 in Jefferson (30 miles); to the west, there’s the Starlite 14 on Hwy. 14 in Richland Center (58 miles); and to the south, the Sky-Vu on Hwy. 69 in Monroe (47 miles).
For information on what is playing at the drive-ins, please check their individual websites: bigskydrivein.com, highway18.com, richlandmovies.com and goetzskyvu.com.
