They've taken us to a purportedly haunted house, the interior of a video-game, labyrinths out of Greek mythology, and even, at one point, Colorado. But with the debut of Haus of Ruckus' latest comedy Punk Rock Lobster – running at Moline's Black Box Theatre January 19 through 28 – company founders and figureheads T. Green and Calvin Vo will be bringing audiences somewhere entirely new: under the sea.

Either 2023 was a particularly outstanding year for movies or my standards are getting lower – though I suppose both could be true.

I didn't “attend” the first film in my three-day sextuple feature so much as “plop my ass on the couch and watch” it. And for the first hour-or-so of director/writer/producer/star Bradley Cooper's Maestro, which started streaming on Netflix this past Wednesday, I couldn't imagine wanting to be anywhere else.

Its setting may be wintry New England in the early '60s, and its story may conclude on Christmas Day, but don't even think about mistaking director William Oldroyd's Eileen for feel-good seasonal fare: It's a cup of eggnog deliciously laced with strychnine.