Is it possible that, regarding his previous Hercule Poirot mysteries, Kenneth Branagh not only read critiques of those films, but actively took their criticisms to heart?

A premier autumnal event for fans of all things horror, the 2023 Midwest Monster Film Fest takes over Davenport's Village Theatre on September 23 and 24, this terror- and fun-filled weekend filled with special guests, vendors, live music, a panel discussion, an awards presentation, and scream-ings of more than two dozen features and shorts, among them a full-length creep-out starring famed critic and cult-film aficionado Joe Bob Briggs.

A charming family entertainment nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 82nd Academy Awards, the Irish-French-Belgian co-production The Secret of Kells serves as the second screening in the Bettendorf Public Library's Global Gathering Ireland film series, its September 27 presentation sure to demonstrate why Film Comment applauded its "decidedly pleasing-to-the-eye, retro-cartoon vibe," and why the Daily Telegraph deemed the movie "simply ravishing."

Honestly, it sometimes feels like the only thing getting me though the extended Conjuring Universe, which is now nine films old and counting, is Wikipedia.

With September 16 officially Batman Day, the annually celebrated recognition of DC's hallmark superhero, Davenport's Putnam Museum & Science Center will host two screenings of writer/director Christopher Nolan's landmark Batman film The Dark Knight, the two-time Academy Award-winner that – until the recent advent of Barbie – held a 15-year record as the highest-grossing domestic release in Warner Bros. history.

One of the most significant events in the history of American travel will, on September 19, be explored at the Rock Island Public Library's Watts-Midtown Branch when the venue hosts a special free screening of the documentary East Meets West: The First Railroad Bridge to Cross the Mississippi, an event in the library's Rock Island History series exploring the construction and legacy of the first bridge to connect the city with Davenport, Iowa in 1856.

By this point in his career, it goes without saying that Denzel Washington has nothing left to prove as an actor – and wow but I've been enjoying his recent nothing-to-prove performances.

Lauded by Baltimore magazine as "the very essence of a simple story beautifully told," the three-time Academy Award nominee Brooklyn, on September 13, serves as the first screening in the Bettendorf Public Library's Global Gathering Ireland film series, this charming romance starring Saoirse Ronan praised by NPR's Claudia Puig as "one of the best films ever made about leaving one's homeland in search of a better life."

In an early episode of The West Wing, White House Press Secretary CJ Cregg references a visiting Middle Eastern royal with 38 wives: “Imagine being the girl he dated that he didn't marry.” That quote came to me following my screening of Liam Neeson's new revenge thriller Retribution, because good Lord – if these are the projects the star keeps accepting, can you imagine how bad the ones he turns down must be?

A 2013 Cannes Film Festival prize winner also nominated for Best Film Not in the English Language at the 2015 British Academy Film Awards, writer/director Ritesh Batra's Hindi-language drama The Lunchbox enjoys a September 7 screening at Davenport's Figge Art Museum, with The Telegraph lauding the movie for being "as much a moving and muted love story as it is an evocative portrayal of loneliness."

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