For show schedule information, visit:

Great Escape Theatre, Moline

Nova 6 Cinemas, Moline

Putnam Museum, Davenport

Rave Motion Pictures Davenport 53, Davenport

The Adventures of Tintin. Not in local release. Nominated for Best Original Score.

Albert Nobbs. Not in local release. Nominated for Best Actress (Glenn Close), Best Supporting Actress (Janet McTeer), Best Makeup.

Anonymous. Available February 7 on DVD & Blu-ray. Nominated for Best Costume Design.

The Arist. Rave Motion Pictures Davenport 53. Nominated for Best Picture, Best Director (Michel Hazanavicius), Best Actor (Jean Dujardin), Best Supporting Actress (Bérénice Bejo), Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Original Score.

THE GREY

Whenever I watch a movie such as Alive or The Thing or director Joe Carnahan’s The Grey – especially in January – I ask myself the same question: Is it worth it? I know about cinematic sleight-of-hand, of course, and that the performers and crew aren’t enduring anywhere near the nightmarish conditions suffered by the characters on-screen. I also presume that a fat Hollywood paycheck instantly makes any location shooting, including The Grey’s outdoor shoot in wintry British Columbia, a lot more bearable. But still, all that ice and wind and trudging through thigh-deep snow ... . Is any movie experience worth spending three months in fear of losing your digits to frostbite?

Well, I have to hand it to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences: For all of the widespread grousing about its changing the rules regarding the Oscars’ Best Picture race for the second time in three years, they did manage to make this morning’s announcement of the 2012 Best Picture contenders exciting. And surprising. Very surprising.

THE ARTIST

In the spirit of Michel Hazanavicius’ extraordinary silent-film celebration The Artist, I considered offering a review that, likewise, didn’t offer much in the way of verbal language – just a smiley-face emoticon in the biggest font possible. And after two viewings (so far) of this intimate yet grandly ambitious comedy, I’m still not sure that a review filled with actual words will offer a more thorough expression of the rapturous pleasure it fills me with; upon leaving Hazanavicius’ exhilarating experiment in black and white, both times, I haven’t felt the urge to talk about it so much as sit back and reflect on it with a huge grin plastered to my face.