25 Sep 2011

Contract Highs: "Moneyball," "Killer Elite," and "Abduction"

By Mike Schulz

Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill in MoneyballMONEYBALL

On paper, the casting of Brad Pitt as Oakland A's General Manager Billy Beane in Moneyball must have seemed inspired. On screen, it's so, so much better than that. Pitt has, of course, given many wonderful performances over the past two decades (and just as many blandly acceptable or downright dreary ones). But to my mind, his Billy Beane - driven, hopeful, cocky, incensed, funny, tender, and smart as hell - is the actor's first chance to employ all of his gifts in the service of an emotionally expansive, fully shaped character, and Pitt's beautiful and generous work here is truly a sight to behold. Director Bennett Miller's last feature film was his 2005 debut Capote, which netted Philip Seymour Hoffman a Best Actor Oscar. With Moneyball, Miller might find himself batting 2-for-2 for his stars in that category.

21 Sep 2011

Lady Gaga Goes to Hogwarts: Musical-Comedy Improvisation with Baby Wants Candy, October 1 at Augustana College

By Mike Schulz

cast members of Baby Wants CandyLike most professional performers, Chicagoan Nick Semar has a healthy number of musicals on his résumé.

Unlike most professional performers, Semar can boast acting credits in 26 original, hour-long musicals.

Staged over 27 nights.

All of which were made up on the spot.

18 Sep 2011

Near-Perfect Getaway: "Drive," "Straw Dogs," and "I Don't Know How She Does It"

By Mike Schulz

Ryan Gosling in DriveDRIVE

Drive is the first action thriller I've seen in ages in which the chases and threats and killings actually matter. Yet it's also the first movie I've seen in ages, in any genre, in which a kiss actually matters, which is a far greater surprise. Directed by Danish helmer Nicolas Winding Refn, whose work here earned him Best Director laurels at this past spring's Cannes Film Festival, the film is a sleek, exciting, and unexpectedly affecting tour de force of mood, like what you'd get if the Michael Mann of Manhunter and the David Lynch of Blue Velvet collaborated on a scrappy, grubby B-picture for drive-in audiences. I couldn't possibly mean that as a higher compliment.

14 Sep 2011

Personal Art Therapy: Works by Breast-Cancer Survivors Are Showcased in "Living Proof," September 30 through October 29 at Bucktown Center for the Arts

By Mike Schulz

Pamela Crouch

"It was awful," says area artist and performer Pamela Crouch. "The year and a half I went through the whole cancer thing was just awful. The worst thing ever. But I have an amazing husband, I have an amazing family, and I have the love and support of all these people who are available.

"And when they're not available? I have a paintbrush."

That, in a nutshell, is the concept behind Living Proof, the group exhibit - on display throughout the Bucktown Center for the Arts from September 30 through October 29 - that will showcase artistic works, in numerous media, by more than a dozen breast-cancer survivors residing between Chicago and Camanche, Iowa. Originally conceived by Crouch and Chicago-area artist Mary Ellen Cunningham, Living Proof will be enjoying its second Bucktown exhibition in as many years, and will feature roughly five-dozen never-before-displayed works created by both professional and amateur artists.

"A lot of times," says Moline resident Crouch of living with cancer, "you're so tired. You're so exhausted. You're overwhelmed and you feel very isolated. And that's what Living Proof is about: getting those feelings out in some kind of creative way."

13 Sep 2011

What's Happenin': Tuesday, September 13, through Wednesday, September 28

By Mike Schulz

Little Big TownMusic

Little Big Town

Adler Theatre

Saturday, September 17, 7:30 p.m.

 

Playing Davenport's Adler Theatre on September 17, the lauded country stars of Little Big Town - Karen Fairchild, Kimberly Schlapman, Phillip Sweet, and Jimi Westbrook - have been with the group since its 2002 CD debut, have publicly admitted to being dear friends, and are all currently married with children, with Fairchild and Westbrook married (with a child) to each other.

No musician turnover over the years? No incessant squabbling? Stable relationships? What the hell kind of abnormal band is this?!

12 Sep 2011

The Cough Heard 'round the World: "Contagion" and "Warrior"

By Mike Schulz

Jude Law in ContagionCONTAGION

I'm presuming, and hoping, that a bunch of you spent your weekend's cineplex allowances on Contagion, director Steven Soderbergh's bleak, elegant, deeply disturbing thriller about the planet's decimation by a new strain of flu-like virus. I'm also praying that none of you saw it while on a date, because I can barely imagine how awkward the drive home must've been. One cough or casual touch from your movie-going companion and you'd be frantically ransacking the car for hand sanitizer and a surgeon's mask.

07 Sep 2011

Release into the Play: A Chat with Actor Eddie Staver III

By Mike Schulz

 Eddie Staver III[Author's note: The following interview with Eddie Staver III was written for TheCurtainbox.com, the Web site for our area's Curtainbox Theatre Company. I'm proud to say that I'm an ensemble member with the theatrical organization, and along with Staver, am a cast member in the company's September 15 - 25 production of Time Stands Still.]

 

A company member since 2009, Eddie Staver III made his Curtainbox Theatre Company debut as the haunted title character in 2008's Danny & the Deep Blue Sea, and went on to appear as the amoral salesman Moss in 2009's Glengarry Glen Ross, the troubled son Eddie in 2010's Fool for Love, and, later that year, clinical oncology fellow Jason Posner in Wit. And when I mention to people that Staver is returning to the Curtainbox to play James in Time Stands Still - his first role for the company in over a year - the response I get is almost always the same: "Where has he been?"

04 Sep 2011

You Say You Want a Retribution: "The Debt," "Apollo 18," and "Shark Night 3D"

By Mike Schulz

Sam Worthington and Jessica Chastain in The DebtTHE DEBT

After her moving, memorable performances in The Tree of Life, The Help, and the current John Madden thriller The Debt, I'm beginning to think that Jessica Chastain can do almost anything. As evidenced by the actress' latest (though not last) 2011 release, however, one thing she cannot do is pass for a younger version of Helen Mirren, or at least Mirren as she appears here; beyond their ill-matching features, Chastain's empathetic soulfulness and emotional accessibility bear little relation to the detached calm and haunted inscrutability of her more seasoned counterpart.

Having said that, if one of your few complaints about a movie lies in the casting of Jessica Chastain and/or Helen Mirren, obviously you have very little to bitch about.

30 Aug 2011

What's Happenin': Fall 2011

By Mike Schulz

Gene WeenMusic

Gene Ween

Rock Island Brewing Company

Thursday, September 8, 8:30 p.m.

 

You know how there are particular bands and performers you listen to when you're happy, and others that you listen to when you're sad, and others that you listen to when you're stuck in road-construction traffic and people are honking their horns and refusing to merge correctly and you need to hear something soothing before you rip the freakin' steering wheel off with your bare hands?!? (Not that, you know, any of us in the Quad Cities has ever experienced that feeling.)

29 Aug 2011

Play-by-Play Account: Fall Theatre in the Quad Cities and Surrounding Areas

By Mike Schulz

The Adler Theatre's touring production of The New Mel Brooks Musical Young FrankensteinThere's a common misconception that, once the musical- and comedy-filled summer season is over, our area's theatrical output becomes a lot more demanding. But that's absolutely not true. For example, this autumn brings with it the Western charmer Make Me a Cowboy. And the showtune pastiche Give My Regards! And the fairy-tale spoof Honk! And ... .

Hmm. "Make Me"? "Give My"? "Honk"? That all sounds pretty demanding.

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