Every week, Kristopher Pollard from Milwaukee Film and Radio Milwaukee’s Dori Zori talk about movies — because that’s what you do when you’re Cinebuds.
See that? Way off in the distance? It’s spring. Sure, it’s just a speck on the horizon, but it’s there. Now we just need to get through the part of the calendar where it seems like that speck is within reach, only to have it retreat back into its groundhog hole or wherever.
Speaking of which, that phony furry meteorologist scored a spot on a little something Dori and Kpolly cooked up to get you through this final leg of cold weather: a winter movie watchlist that will have those of us in frigid climates feeling downright toasty.
Sure, it’s cold in Wisconsin. But it beats the heck out of being Jack Torrance at the end of The Shining. Or Luke Skywalker getting an immersive tauntaun anatomy lesson. Or Liam Neeson using his particular set of skills on a pack of wolves.
Our cinematic duo offers their thoughts on these chilly films, plus they dig into the “obscure movie trivia” parts of their brain to share some cool (ha) stuff about how they were made. Check out the list below while you listen to the full episode, then start building your watchlist while we power through the final stretch of winter.
Winter movie watchlist
A Simple Plan
Directed by Sam Raimi
1998
Two brothers and a friend, all blue-collar workers, come across millions of dollars in lost cash and make a plan to keep their find from the authorities, but it isn't long before complications and mistrust weave their way into the plan.
Fargo
Directed by Joel & Ethan Coen
1996
Minnesota car salesman Jerry Lundegaard's inept crime falls apart due to his and his henchmen's bungling and the persistent police work of the quite pregnant Marge Gunderson.
Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter
Directed by David Zellner
2014
A jaded Japanese woman discovers a hidden copy of Fargo (1996) on VHS, believing it to be a treasure map indicating the location of a large case of money.
The Empire Strikes Back
Directed by Irvin Kershner
1980
After the Empire overpowers the Rebel Alliance, Luke Skywalker begins training with Jedi Master Yoda, while Darth Vader and bounty hunter Boba Fett pursue his friends across the galaxy.
The Grey
Directed by Joe Carnahan
2011
After their plane crashes in Alaska, six oil workers are led by a skilled huntsman to survival, but a pack of merciless wolves haunts their every step.
The Holiday
Directed by Nancy Meyers
2006
Amanda lives in L.A. and is a movie trailer editor. Iris lives in Surrey and is a journalist. The two decide to swap houses for two weeks at Christmas, both trying to forget their troubled love lives — until love finds them anyways.
The Shining
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
1980
A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter, where a sinister presence influences the father into violence. At the same time, his psychic son sees horrifying forebodings from both the past and the future.
The Thing
Directed by John Carpenter
1982
A research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims.
Werewolves Within
Directed by Josh Ruben
2021
A new awkward park ranger arrives in a small town, and murder and havoc soon follows. The paranoid townsfolk soon suspect each other, but a devious, shapeshifting werewolf becomes their prime suspect. But who is it?
Honorable mentions
Better Off Dead
Directed by Savage Steve Holland
1985
After his girlfriend dumps him for a boorish ski jock, a depressed high-school student begins to ineptly attempt suicide, which brings him nothing but embarrassment. A French exchange student starts to change his outlook on life.
Doctor Zhivago
Directed by David Lean
1965
The life of a Russian physician and poet who, although married to another, falls in love with a political activist's wife and experiences hardship during World War I and then the October Revolution.
Groundhog Day
Directed by Harold Ramis
1993
A narcissistic, self-centered weatherman finds himself in a time loop on Groundhog Day.
Ski School
Directed by Damian Lee
1991
Rival groups in a skiing school do battle on and off the piste. One gang is rich and serious, the other group is party animals.
The Day After Tomorrow
Directed by Roland Emmerich
2004
Jack Hall, paleoclimatologist, must make a daring trek from Washington, D.C. to New York City to reach his son, trapped in the cross-hairs of a sudden international storm which plunges the planet into a new Ice Age.
The Gold Rush
Directed by Charlie Chaplin
1925
A prospector goes to the Klondike during the 1890s gold rush in hopes of making his fortune, and is smitten with a girl he sees in a dance hall.
The Revenant
Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu
2015
A frontiersman on a fur trading expedition in the 1820s fights for survival after being mauled by a bear and left for dead by members of his own hunting team.
