“The movie that Hollywood didn't want you to see!” is an awfully enticing marketing ploy. It might also have been an obnoxious one if Alejandro Monteverde's film weren't so unexpectedly good.

Not a half-hour after the end credits rolled on Wes Anderson's Asteroid City, I met friends for dinner, and immediately raved about the delightful, clever, moving entertainment I had just seen. They asked whether I was feeling antsy to write about the experience, and I didn't have to think about my answer before blurting it out: “No. Not at all.” Where, I figured, would I even begin in amassing – let alone publishing – thoughts on a work that's about nothing less than the meaning of existence, to say nothing of a film whose most gut-bustingly riotous sequence is also one that made me weep like a baby?

The first Pakistani film ever to be selected for screening at Cannes Film Festival, where it was nominated for four major awards and won two, writer/director Saim Sadiq's Joyland enjoys a June 25 screening at Davenport's Figge Art Museum, this 2022 critical smash the last of four award-winning independent films to be shown throughout June in recognition and celebration of Gay Pride Month.

Launched by the Azubuike African American Council for the Arts and taking place in various area locales June 16 through 19, the inaugural Pulling Focus Film Festival has been designed as a celebration of local film and culture that focuses on enriching the lives of Quad Cities residents by presenting unique film-watching experiences framed through the lens of African American and Black Diasporic voices.