05 Dec 2022

Slay Ride: “Violent Night,” “RRR,” “Sr.,” “Stutz,” “Causeway,” and “All Quiet on the Western Front”

By Mike Schulz

Before discussing the very, very Bad Santa at the heart of director Tommy Wirkola's Violent Night, I want to address this grisly action comedy's other heroic perpetrator of bloody mayhem. Because despite the commitment that David Harbour lends to his portrayal of a jolly old elf by way of The Northman, seven-year-old Trudy Lightstone (endearingly enacted by Leah Brady) is easily the film's more interesting figure, largely for being the only movie character I can think of to truly call out the insidious irresponsibility in that holiday “classic” Home Alone.

28 Nov 2022

Carte Blanc: “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” “Devotion,” “Bones & All,” “Good Night Oppy,” and “Strange World”

By Mike Schulz

As you may recall from 2019's comedic whodunit Knives Out, the soon-to-be-deceased Harlan Thrombey and his soon-to-be-accused caregiver Marta Cabrera ended every evening with a friendly round of the board game Go. I mention this because, after seeing Rian Johnson's continuation Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, I've realized that reviews of this burgeoning franchise for Daniel Craig's Southern-dandy detective Benoit Blanc have been completely superfluous. The only critical analysis these films really require is a simple directive: “Go.”

26 Nov 2022

Spielberger: “The Fabelmans”

By Mike Schulz

I remember co-star Seth Roben recently saying that Spielberg was in tears for nearly the entirety of his shoot with him. I'm sure he was. That doesn't mean the rest of us were crying – except, possibly, at the sadly wasted opportunity of it all.

21 Nov 2022

Amuse-Bouchement Park: “The Menu,” “She Said,” “The Wonder,” and “Spirited”

By Mike Schulz

Ingenious, unsettling, and oftentimes riotously funny, director Mark Mylod's The Menu has been prepared exactly the way I most enjoy my satire: blackened to a crisp. While its thematic and presentational inspirations are unhidden and encompass everything from Hell's Kitchen to Midsommar to Fantasy Island, what this savage comedy chiefly reminded me of was Don't Look Up, last year's end-of-days spoof that ended on the bleakest of all possible notes.

14 Nov 2022

Major Loss, Zero Gain: “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” “Aftersun,” and “The Good Nurse”

By Mike Schulz

All throughout writer/director Ryan Coogler's superhero sequel, there are lovely grace notes, particularly in the actors' readings, that both suggest and demonstrate the haunting loss of original Black Panther T'Challa and, by extension, his unmatchable portrayer Chadwick Boseman. Nearly everything directly concerning the character's and the star's absence is moving. It's nearly everything else, unfortunately, that goes wrong.

09 Nov 2022

ComedySportz Quad Cities Opening Weekend, November 11 and 12

By Mike Schulz

For fans of family-friendly improv comedy, our long local nightmare is about to be over. Because as of November 11 and 12, after a three-year hiatus, ComedySportz Quad Cities finally returns to the area with opening-weekend shows at the organization's new home base: the newly refurbished Spotlight Studio located on the lower level of Moline venue the Spotlight Theatre.

07 Nov 2022

Giving a Friend the Finger(s): “The Banshees of Inisherin,” “Armageddon Time,” and “Decision to Leave”

By Mike Schulz

As familiar as I am with the oeuvre of Martin McDonagh, I couldn't necessarily teach a course on the playwright/filmmaker's darkly comedic stage and screen works. But if I could, I would likely start with The Banshees of Inisherin, an absolutely delightful (if slightly grim) reunion for In Bruges co-stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, and one that seems to boil its creator's signature style down to its absolute essence – yet in unexpectedly tender fashion.

04 Nov 2022

Haus of Ruckus' “Spooky Pete,” November 11 through 20

By Mike Schulz

Running at Davenport venue the Mockingbird on Main November 11 through 20, Spooky Pete is the latest blast of ingenuity, hilarity, puppetry, and sure-to-be-glorious WTF-ery by the Haus of Ruckus team of T. Green and Calvin Vo. It's the pair's first Mockingbird show not to feature, at their center, Vo's and Green's comedic alter egos Johnny and Fungus. It's also a haunted-house story, and is consequently landing, as stated on the production company's Facebook page, “Just in time to be late for Halloween.”

31 Oct 2022

Code of Conductor: “TÁR,” “Till,” “Call Jane,” and “Prey for the Devil”

By Mike Schulz

No two-hour-and-40-minute movie about inappropriate transactional relationships, cancel culture, the #MeToo movement, and the challenges of conducting Mahler's 5th Symphony should be this much freaking fun.

24 Oct 2022

Lightning and Blunder: “Black Adam,” “Ticket to Paradise,” and “Triangle of Sadness”

By Mike Schulz

No matter its other pluses and minuses, and they're mostly minuses, director Jaume Collet-Sera's Black Adam is certainly one of the oddest comic-book blockbusters I've yet seen, in that it somehow feels like both a superhero/villain origin story, which it is, and the final installment in a three-part series, which it isn't. Then again, maybe I was just hoping it was a trilogy-ender, because after only two hours in the film's company, I think I've already had enough.

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