Grant Phipps

Wisconsin

Film Editor at Tone Madison

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Articles

Worlds hidden in (captions)

3 weeks ago | tonemadison.com | Grant Phipps

This is our newsletter-first column, Microtones. It runs on the site on Fridays, but you can get it in your inbox on Thursdays by signing up for our email newsletter. Despite being the film editor of this publication, I have the deepest fascination with sound and music, driven by a compulsion to ascertain all that I can through recorded audio.
Video: Talking 2025 Wisconsin Film Festival with Josiah Wampfler

1 month ago | tonemadison.com | Grant Phipps |Sara Batkie

The comedown after the Wisconsin Film Festival can hit hard. Some of us may need to take a few days off from the movie binge to collect their thoughts and jot down some rousing notes or experiential rankings. Then again, others may want to continue chasing that marathon-viewing high the annual event in April fosters and head right back to the theaters. One thing is universal, though: a desire for discussion.
The garish glamor of "Honky Tonk Angels"

1 month ago | tonemadison.com | Grant Phipps

Oversized fluorescent lights of a vanity mirror strobe over potted cacti and a preserved arachnid. Vertical streaks of opaque, multi-colored glass shimmer like a spectral curtain before dissipating into an obscured glimpse at lower bodies in leather boots shuffling across a dive-bar floor.
Tone Madison is announcing some leadership changes

1 month ago | tonemadison.com | Scott Gordon |Christina Lieffring |Grant Phipps |Steven Spoerl

Tone Madison will be making some major changes this year. But we’re not going away, nor is our commitment to fiercely independent coverage of culture and politics in Madison. Co-founder Scott Gordon will step down from his role as Publisher and Editor-in-Chief on May 1. After taking some time off, Gordon will continue to contribute to the publication as a writer and reporter.
Mortal and moral inquiries at the 2025 Wisconsin Film Festival

2 months ago | tonemadison.com | Maxwell Courtright |David Boffa |Grant Phipps |Lewis Peterson

Documentaries aren’t necessarily Tone Madison‘s eminent go-to for film coverage. Scan our most recent archives, and you’re bound to come across numerous pieces on classic genre films of several shades as well as historically important art-house fare, and even some modern experimental shorts or influentially transgressive pieces. Over the past year, we’ve tried to emphasize brand-new narratives that have popped up in commercial theaters.
"The Year" presents a prosaic alleyway as a poetic gateway

2 months ago | tonemadison.com | Grant Phipps |LakeFront Row

Often, the most striking aspect of an experimental short film exists beyond the creative depth of the work itself. For viewers, it can be a reflexive thrill to regard the disparity between a written synopsis and the radical techniques an artist uses to visually and aurally convey their emotional state(s) or subvert our collective, conditioned concept of narrative.
The sights and shape(s) of the 2025 Wisconsin Film Festival

Mar 9, 2025 | tonemadison.com | Grant Phipps |Lewis Peterson |Jason Fuhrman |Edwanike Harbour

It’s that time of year again, when we try to find phrases that aren’t cliché to express the giddiness in expectantly turning the pages of the annual Wisconsin Film Festival (WFF) guide.
Cultural assimilation and reciprocity in Nathan Deming's "February"

Feb 19, 2025 | tonemadison.com | Grant Phipps |LakeFront Row

Listen to writer-director Nathan Deming speak about his work for just a minute, and you’ll grasp how he humbly wants his characters to find commonalities even in the trickiest of situations. He has positioned them in a formidable cinematic micro-universe, an undertaking partly inspired by Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Dekalog miniseries (1989).
Tone Madison's favorite songs of 2024, pt. II

Jan 27, 2025 | tonemadison.com | Steven Spoerl |Dan Fitch |Grant Phipps |LakeFront Row

All throughout 2024, Madison musicians’ resilience and artistry were on display. In a city where the deck seems to be constantly stacked against meaningful support for its local musicians, that’s no small feat. Even when a new setback appears, our music community retains its clear and irrepressible appetite for creation. Defiance is, by extension, inherent to so much of the excellent music that Madison musicians release every year, giving listeners art to rally around, uplift, and celebrate.
The Horizon Line Madison assembles the big-screen picture, from top to bottom

Jan 23, 2025 | tonemadison.com | Grant Phipps |LakeFront Row

Since the first edition of The Horizon Line Madison, a new newsletter tracking local film screenings, went out on December 26, 2024, its namesake has accrued additional significance as a tribute to the last memorable lines delivered on screen by David Lynch.