01 Dec 2025

Pulpit Fiction: “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery,” “Sentimental Value,” “Eternity,” and “Zootopia 2”

By Mike Schulz

While Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is fun, it's mildly underwhelming fun – like that three-minute roller-coaster ride you realize wasn't worth the half-hour you waited in line for it.

22 Nov 2025

Grande Dame: “Wicked: For Good,” “Rental Family,” and “Train Dreams”

By Mike Schulz

The only real reason to see this musical continuation is Ariana Grande, who deepens her portrayal of Glinda (née Galinda) to such a degree that both the character and the performer feel remarkably fresh, almost as though we're meeting them for the first time.

17 Nov 2025

Dispatch Me If You Can: “The Running Man,” “Now You See Me: Now You Don't,” “Keeper,” “Nouvelle Vague,” “Being Eddie,” and “The Perfect Neighbor”

By Mike Schulz

This opinion may seem counterintuitive, or even downright crazy. But I found director/co-writer Edgar Wright's The Running Man, a violent, profanity-laden dystopian thriller based on a Stephen King novel … kind of adorable.

10 Nov 2025

What Doesn't Eat You Makes You Stronger: “Predator: Badlands,” “Frankenstein,” “Nuremberg,” “Die My Love,” “Christy,” and “It Was Just an Accident”

By Mike Schulz

I had an utterly spectacular time at director Dan Trachtenberg's sci-fi thriller that's also, brace yourselves, a thoroughly winning buddy comedy.

03 Nov 2025

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Pharma?: “Bugonia,” “If I Had Legs I'd Kick You,” “Hedda,” “Ballad of a Small Player,” and “KPop Demon Hunters”

By Mike Schulz

Eventually, the bubble will no doubt burst, as one does quite memorably toward the end of his latest film. But barring the unrelieved misery wallow that is 2017's The Killing of a Sacred Deer, no one's movies over the past 10 years have tickled and astonished me quite like Yorgos Lanthimos', with the director's new, wickedly entertaining oddity Bugonia much like his others, and also not at all.

27 Oct 2025

Jersey Growl: “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere,” “A House of Dynamite,” “Regretting You,” “Shelby Oaks,” and “Blue Moon”

By Mike Schulz

It's hard to be dismissive toward any movie that inspires you to pick up a book, and having seen Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, I'm now eager to read Warren Zanes' 2023 nonfiction that inspired the release, and maybe the Boss' 2016 memoir Born to Run, too. But I'd argue that your desire to check out those titles has little to do with the quality of writer/director Scott Cooper's bio-musical drama.

19 Oct 2025

Grabber? He Hardly Knows Her!: “Black Phone 2,” “Good Fortune,” and “After the Hunt”

By Mike Schulz

Because the presentation is so confident and the film's look so distinctive, it might take a while to realize just how bad Black Phone 2 actually is.

12 Oct 2025

Code of Arms: “Tron: Ares,” “Roofman,” “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” and “John Candy: I Like Me”

By Mike Schulz

A sci-fi excursion that's neither as scientific as you may need nor as fictional as you may want, Tron: Ares finds the fate of humanity resting in the hands of either a global-weaponry mogul or a video-game mastermind. So, you know, we're pretty much effed any way you slice it.

07 Oct 2025

Mo' Poe: Ballet Quad Cities Reunites with Edgar Allan in “More Twisted Tales of Poe,” October 17 and 18 at the Spotlight Theatre

By Mike Schulz

Even in the world of dance, it's not surprising when a successful original inspires a sequel, and on October 17 and 18, a Halloween-themed one comes to Moline's Spotlight Theatre in the form of Ballet Quad Cities' More Twisted Tales of Poe.

04 Oct 2025

Lord of the Ring: “The Smashing Machine,” “Anemone,” and “Good Boy”

By Mike Schulz

In recent years, it was starting to look as though Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was no longer capable of genuine screen rapport with anyone. Turns out he very much is. Maybe he just needed a true kindred spirit to share some with.

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