Recap Wis-Kino Spring Kabaret

Let it never be said that no deals exist at the overly well-appointed Sundance Cinemas Madison. Upon arriving for Wis-Kino's Spring Kabaret screening on Sunday night, Decider discovered the Sundance snack counter (on a press tour before the cinema opened, an architect actually raved about the "gorgeous wood" used to make this counter) offers a good 3/4 pound or so of "Italian veggie" pasta salad for about four bucks. Which was a perfect fit, as Wis-Kino had chosen "bailout" as the "secret ingredient" that entries in last weekend's 48-hour filmmaking competition must include one way or another. Naturally, the best short films were the ones that at first didn't seem to have much to do with bailout money. Especially the ones that raised the question, "Wait, how the hell could you connect this to bailouts at all?" (Note: This review skips a few, including one that resorted to an actual bale of hay.)

Untitled
The screening began with one such short—an untitled entry from Shahin Izadi (well, on Vimeo it's titled "Her Place"). It starts out with a pretty routine situation: A guy and a woman at the end of a date, hovering nervously outside her door, then going in. Izadi and his little cast capture the sweetness and awkwardness of the moment, much more genuinely than you'd expect from a crew trying to turn a whole project around in two days. Then the dude takes a bathroom break—but what's that in the bathtub?

"Channel 28 News Update"
This spoof on local news is a good example of how the "secret ingredient" can sometimes turn into the whole film. In it, a series of anchors just riff on "bail out": Christian Bale is out as Batman (more about him later); folks in Green Bay are suffering from a disorder known only as Green Bay Lout.

"Bailout Boogie"
John Feith's "Bailout Boogie" (from the guy who brought you "Hovercraftin") has more success with running the theme into the ground. A couple of people stand in the shallow part of a lake, throwing water around with buckets, under a silly, grooving dance tune in which the singers offer up some confusing story about how they have to bail out some snakes. It's the kind of silly chuckle that's fun because you don't really get what's going on, and there's something to be said for embracing absurdity with such a lighthearted touch.

"Ethology"
Wis-Kino co-director Josh Klessig always tries a little something interesting, but he really succeeds with "Ethology," which is probably Decider's favorite of the night. It opens with Greg Johnson—a tough-looking, bald-headed dude you might have seen in some Broom Street Theater plays—walking down State Street attempting to hug strangers. Some accept with awkward dread. It turns out this do-gooding soul is taking his instructions from the cutesy messages inside some chocolate wrappers, and basically turning it into his religion with a little candlelit altar and all. The candies tell him to "quit your job," "learn macrame," "give all your money to the poor," and finally, "take down a drug kingpin." (Sorry, it's not on YouTube yet. (UPDATE: Wait, here it is.))

"Essential Planning"
Now time for some mild confusion: In "Essential Planning," three women plan for some kind of rowboat trip for no apparent reason. One is a Bible-thumper who frequently exclaims that she has to pee. That's about all that's clear here.

"Bailout"
The next short imagines "Bailout," a game show in which contestants must try to scare each other into bailing out of a moving car. And try they do, by letting the dog drive and cutting the brake cable. It looks pretty funny written down, but the film doesn't even try to create the illusion that the car's actually moving—it actually appears to be parked against a curb. Come on! Perhaps they could've borrowed footage from the little spacers in between the films, which usually consist of roads shot from a moving car. (Also, one or two of them say "Wis-Kino Sring Kabaret," and at one point an audience member can't resist squeaking out "Sring!")

"Monsieur Maintenance"
This short takes the bailout theme head-on, but director Dustin Weis and crew really take the time to build a story around it. At the offices of "the No. 2 in-flight magazine," a shy, speechless fellow has been assigned to allocate some federal bailout funds the company received (in the form of a large posterboard check, no less). After the heads of various departments try to butter him up for money, they catch him holding a conference in the broom closet with his trusty shovel and mop friends.

"Bale Out"
Christian Bale is out once again in Sam Lawson's "Bale Out," made at 5 p.m. on Sunday. Lawson phones up someone to get in on his film project, only to be met with an irrational scream of "YOU'RE A NICE GUY!" Of course, it turns out that he's conversing with snippets of Bale's now infamous on-set tantrum.

"Extremed"
Finally, it comes time to conclude with regular Kino ass-kicker Rob Matsushita's cocky heave-ho of drugs and violence, "Extremed." Once again, Matsushita and Emily Mills (who stars as a drug dealer named Chapel) have a snappy way with words and realistic gun violence. A rival dealer shows up to a house where MIlls is trying to unload her wares on a trio of freaks, and it turns out she needs a gunshot wound to help her back up an alibi. The whole situation quickly devolves into a mutilation-by-error, if you will. And that's what the results were like at this Kabaret: Sometimes the bullet goes straight to your brain like this tightly written short, and sometimes it ricochets and causes further injury.