25 Mar 2012

Assassin Nation: "The Hunger Games"

By Mike Schulz

Elizabeth Banks and Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger GamesAs you're probably aware, director Gary Ross' The Hunger Games is the movie version of the first in a trio of wildly popular young-adult novels by author Suzanne Collins. And perhaps the highest compliment I can pay the film, among the many compliments it deserves, is that unlike with the Harry Potter and Twilight screen adaptations, at no point are viewers such as myself punished for being too blasé or lazy to have read the book.

20 Mar 2012

Getting High School: "21 Jump Street" and "Casa de Mi Padre"

By Mike Schulz

Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum in 21 Jump Street21 JUMP STREET

As an undercover police officer who, in 21 Jump Street, can say to his platonic partner "I cherish you, man" in a way that's both hysterical and intensely touching, Jonah Hill possesses a rare gift for completely unembarrassed sincerity. By now, it should go without saying that Hill is a sensational verbal comedian and a fearless physical one. But as in his bro-mantic scenes opposite Michael Cera in Superbad, the actor brings to this action comedy something few others would think to: absolute honesty and emotional transparency. Hill is funny as hell here, but his character is never a joke.

13 Mar 2012

What's Happenin': Thursday, March 15, through Wednesday, March 28

By Mike Schulz

Jessica Denney and Pat Flaherty rehearse Mr. MarmaladeTheatre

Mr. Marmalade

Village Theatre

Thursday, March 22, through Sunday, April 1

 

Mr. Marmalade, which Davenport's New Ground Theatre will stage from March 22 through April 1, is a comedy about a four-year-old girl named Lucy and her imaginary playmate of the show's title. A businessman with bipolar disorder, a porn addiction, and a considerable cocaine problem, Mr. Marmalade tends to ignore Lucy as much as her one-night-stand-seeking single mother does, frequently leaving Lucy alone to contend with her suicidal five-year-old friend and ... .

A-a-a-and I've just lost at least half of you, haven't I?

11 Mar 2012

One-Shot Wonder: "Silent House," "John Carter," and "A Thousand Words"

By Mike Schulz

Elizabeth Olsen in Silent HouseSILENT HOUSE

It's entirely possible that you'll need to have seen an awful lot of horror movies - particularly an awful lot of awful horror movies - to be jazzed by Silent House, considering that it's basically just 90 minutes of a young woman being terrorized by barely glimpsed figures and startling noises in her family's lakeside summer home. (Contrary to the title, this house is anything but silent.) Yet if you can get past the paper-thin storyline and a climax that's less "Aa-a-a!!!" than "Hu-u-uh?!?", the movie proves to be a terrifically nerve-racking and utterly fascinating scare flick, because from first shot to last, the action not only takes place in real time, but seems to have been filmed in one continuous take.

08 Mar 2012

"Spring" Time: The Center for Living Arts Produces the Controversial Musical "Spring Awakening," March 23 through April 7

By Mike Schulz

Benjie Lewis, Aaron Lord, Max Moline, and Andrew Bruning in Spring AwakeningDino Hayz is the creative director and co-owner of the Center for Living Arts, the Rock Island-based venue that, since 2006, has offered music and theatre (and musical theatre) classes for ages 18 and under, and has produced such stage presentations as Schoolhouse Rock Live! and Disney's High School Musical.

Consequently, Hayz says that he and his performers have a pretty fair idea of how patrons might react to the Center's latest theatrical offering.

"When we're in rehearsal," says Hayz, "at the end of Act I, we always say, 'A-a-and ... blackout. Actors off, lights up, a good third of the audience walks out the door ... ."

04 Mar 2012

Demographic Party: "Project X," "Dr. Seuss' The Lorax," and "Flying Monsters 3D"

By Mike Schulz

Jonathan Daniel Brown, Oliver Cooper, and Thomas Mann in Project XPROJECT X

In director Nima Nourizadeh's teen comedy Project X, three nerdy high-school pals in North Pasadena decide to make names for themselves by throwing a wild party, and then throw the party.

Now that we've dispensed with the plot, let me try to explain why, through almost its entire running length, this movie made me want to repeatedly plunge an ice pick through my skull.

28 Feb 2012

What's Happenin': Spring 2012

By Mike Schulz

VOCES8Music

VOCES8

Galvin Fine Arts Center

Saturday, March 3, 7:30 p.m.

 

For the final performers in its 2011-12 Visiting Artists Series, Quad City Arts has booked an area residency with the renowned a cappella singers of VOCES8, and a glance at the group's three most recent CDs shows its tracks to include "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square," "Kyrie from the Mass for Four Voices," "Shenandoah," "Me & My Shadow," "Wir glauben an ainen Gott," and "Jailhouse Rock." Because apparently, it would've killed Quad City Arts to find performers with range.

27 Feb 2012

Everything New Is Old Again: Notes on the 2012 Academy Awards Telecast

By Mike Schulz

Best Actress Meryl StreepThe first trophy handed out at the 2012 Academy Awards ceremony was for Best Cinematography, a prize that I predicted would go to The Tree of Life but that instead went to Hugo. (Seriously, after his undeserved losses for 2006's Children of Men and now the Terrence Malick film, exactly whom does Emmanuel Lubezki have to do to win an Oscar?) But that was actually my second incorrect assumption of the evening, because as soon as host Billy Crystal stepped on stage, I said to the others at my viewing party, "Here comes the standing ovation," and the audience - despite giving the man a warm reception - remained seated. Did the crowd have a collective premonition of just how spectacularly Crystal would bomb last night?

27 Feb 2012

The Bard, the Bee, and a Couple of Woodys: Spring Theatre in the Quad Cities and Surrounding Areas

By Mike Schulz

the touring production of Damn Yankees, coming to the Adler TheatreAfter compiling the list of stage presentations coming to area venues this spring, three things became immediately clear.

(1) Audiences are getting a rather intimidating number of options, with (at last count) no fewer than 57 plays or musicals scheduled to open between March 1 and May 31.

(2) Audiences are getting a rather incredible variety of options - everything from a comedy by Woody Allen to a musical by Woody Guthrie.

(3) Absolutely none of these numerous and diverse theatrical productions features me.

While drying your eyes, though, do your best to get excited about this spring's lineup anyway ... which, I hasten to add, shouldn't be very difficult.

26 Feb 2012

Woodstock Options: "Wanderlust," "Act of Valor," "Tyler Perry's Good Deeds," and "Gone"

By Mike Schulz

Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston in WanderlustWANDERLUST

If I could pick one show-biz personality with whom I could be best buds, I'm pretty certain I'd choose David Wain, the director of Wet Hot American Summer, The Ten, and the new fish-out-of-water comedy Wanderlust. Can you imagine how awesome a Wain-hosted party must be? Even if there were awkward moments, and draggy moments, and things weren't quite as wild as you hoped, he'd still invite the likes of Paul Rudd, Justin Theroux, Ken Marino, Michaela Watkins, Malin Akerman, Kathryn Hahn, and Joe Lo Truglio. Whatever your qualms, wouldn't the hilarity they provided make the experience totally worth it?

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