14 Feb 2016

Abercrummy & Glitch: "Zoolander 2," "45 Years," and "National Parks Adventure 3D"

By Mike Schulz

Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, and Kyle Mooney in Zoolander 2ZOOLANDER 2

Probably no film genre currently flashes a bigger “get out of jail free” card than the Hollywood comedy, if for no other reason than there being so many outstanding comedians that any movie employing even a half-dozen of them is guaranteed to feature a fistful of reasons to attend. Zoolander 2, however, has the comics and still isn’t worth seeing.

10 Feb 2016

This Land Is My Land, This Land Is Your Land: Iowa Poet Laureate Mary Swander Presents "Map of My Kingdom," February 24 at the Bettendorf Public Library

By Mike Schulz

Map of My Kingdom author Mary SwanderIn 2013, Iowa Poet Laureate Mary Swander was asked to meet with the Ames-based not-for-profit Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI), a situation she likens to “getting called into the principal’s office” for offenses unknown. Yet when it turned out she was actually being commissioned to write a play about farmland transitions, Swander says her immediate reaction was likely the same as those faced with the prospect of seeing a play about farmland transitions: “Hmm ... really?”

07 Feb 2016

Hail, Coens!: "Hail, Caesar!"

By Mike Schulz

Scarlett Johansson and Josh Brolin in Hail, Caesar!HAIL, CAESAR!

When the first official trailer for Joel and Ethan Coen’s Hail, Caesar! landed, it suggested that their latest movie – set in the glorious Technicolor Hollywood of the early 1950s – would be something increasingly rare for the siblings: the sort of unapologetically lighthearted goofball comedy they haven’t made since 2004’s The Ladykillers. Look! There’s George Clooney in heavy eyeliner and a toga! Scarlett Johansson with a mermaid tail! Channing Tatum tap-dancing in a sailor suit! By this point in their careers, however, the Coen brothers may be incapable of delivering anything lacking in subtext and social critique, and if we were paying attention, we were told as much in the second trailer for their deeply entertaining yet startlingly profound entertainment.

07 Feb 2016

Dogged Walker: "The Choice" and "Pride & Prejudice & Zombies"

By Mike Schulz

Teresa Palmer and Benjamin Walker in The ChoiceTHE CHOICE

Arriving just in time for women and gay men not entrenched in Super Bowl hoopla, this past weekend brought with it the debut of director Ross Katz’s The Choice, the 11th (!) adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks weepie to hit cineplexes since 1999. This one finds its rain-drenched North Carolina romantics portrayed by the Georgia-born Benjamin Walker, which is regionally close-enough, and Australian actress Teresa Palmer, which is regionally not-even-close. Oh, and British actor Tom Wilkinson plays Walker’s homily-spouting father. I’m fine with Walker’s casting. But have these things really become so noxious, and obnoxious, that we can no longer find Americans willing to play major roles in Sparks movies, forcing us to farm those assignments out to foreigners? Is Trump aware of this?!

02 Feb 2016

What's Happenin': Thursday, February 4, through Wednesday, February 17

By Mike Schulz

Pam Ohnemus' MiddayExhibits

Figge Art Museum

Thursday, February 4, through Sunday, June 5

 

Well, how about that? It’s the first week of February in the Quad Cities, and there are gorgeous, summery sights everywhere! Fields of wildflowers! Golden-hued sunsets! Irises! Poppies! A child playing guitar on the banks of a gently flowing stream!

You do realize, though, that you’ll have to visit the Figge Art Museum to see all this, right? Because until our weather improves, you can only see that collection of arresting images – along with dozens of equally beautiful pieces – in the Figge’s 39th Annual Rock Island Art Guild Fine Arts Exhibition, on display February 6 through May 15.

01 Feb 2016

Grin and Bear It: "Kung Fu Panda 3," "Anomalisa," "The Finest Hours," "Jane Got a Gun," and "Fifty Shades of Black"

By Mike Schulz

Jack Black and Bryan Cranston in Kung Fu Panda 3KUNG PU PANDA 3

Did the makers of Kung Fu Panda 3 not get the memo that second sequels in franchises are traditionally supposed to suck? Because this thing, to quote Jack Black’s hirsute and animated alter ego Po, is “Awesome!!!” with all three exclamation points.

28 Jan 2016

She's Got the World on Her Strings: Violinist Livia Sohn Performs with the Quad City Symphony Orchestra, February 6 and 7

By Mike Schulz

Livia SohnLivia Sohn, the featured soloist for the Quad City Symphony Orchestra’s forthcoming Masterworks: Song & Dance concerts, began playing the violin at age five. Maybe.

“That’s what they tell me,” says Sohn with a laugh. “I think it was earlier than that, because I have no memory of not playing, and I feel like you remember stuff that happened before you were five.”

27 Jan 2016

Taking the Bull by the Horns: Red Rodeo Provides a Haven for Country-Music Fans

By Mike Schulz

Outshyne, February 6Until very recently, Quad Citians wanting a rodeo experience had no choice but to wait for the i wireless Center’s annual World’s Toughest Rodeo tour. But for the last month, the District of Rock Island has been housing it’s very own, full-time Rodeo – and it’s got the bull to prove it.

“Right now, we rent one for Saturdays,” says booking manager Red Redahan of the mechanical bull at Red Rodeo – the new, Nashville-style nightclub he operates with wife and venue owner Cherie. “But we’re actually going to have our own mechanical bull soon, and he’ll be there every night. And people love it. You land on an air mattress and nobody’s been injured. People just sign their waivers and have a great time.” Red laughs. “And then we throw ’em off.”

24 Jan 2016

Spring Don’t-Break-a-Hip: "Dirty Grandpa" and "The 5th Wave"

By Mike Schulz

Zac Efron and Robert De Niro in Dirty GrandpaDIRTY GRANDPA

As traditional boundaries in R-rated slapsticks continue to be pushed and filmmakers continue to seek new ways to comically shock us, if you’re going to title a movie Dirty Grandpa, you’d better make sure that grandpa is really, really dirty. Consequently, the biggest compliment I can give director Dan Mazer and screenwriter John Phillips is that the Dirty doesn’t nearly do justice to this Grandpa – I truly can’t remember the last time I was this flabbergasted by screen vulgarity, or the last time I roared at screen vulgarity quite so hard.

24 Jan 2016

Dress for Excess: "The Danish Girl" and "The Boy"

By Mike Schulz

Eddie Redmayne in The Danish GirlTHE DANISH GIRL

Yes, I’m reviewing director Tom Hooper’s The Danish Girl again, even though my previously published review is really all the film merits. (For those who missed it, the critique ran in my movies-of-2015 article under the “10 Least Favorites” header, and consisted of 19 words: “Everything irritating about period movies, ‘prestige’ movies, issue movies, and Eddie Redmayne all rolled into one carefully tucked package.”) Yet due, no doubt, to the four Oscar nominations the drama received, one of which it actually deserved, Hooper’s latest has finally landed on area screens, so I suppose a few more words are in order – just enough of them to purge the loathing I’ve felt for Hooper’s latest these past four weeks.

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