The Brutalist
Blue Grass Drive-in, Blue Grass IA
Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, Davenport IA
FilmScene, Iowa City IA
The Last Picture House, Davenport IA
Marcus Sycamore Cinema, Iowa City IA
Putnam Museum & Science Center, Davenport IA
VIP Cinemas, Moline IL
Voy 61 Drive In Theatre, Delmar IA
(Hyperlinked titles take you to Reader reviews; IMDb hyperlinks take you to the films’ Internet Movie Database pages or other sites with film information.)
***
Arctic: Our Frozen Planet (not rated; Putnam Museum & Science Center) - IMDb listing.
Babygirl (R; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas, FilmScene at the Chauncey, Marcus Sycamore Cinema) - This age-irrelevant dominant/submissive "romance" is as sordid and awkward and hot as could be. I had a blast. IMDb listing.
Back from the Brink: Saved from Extinction (not rated; Putnam Museum & Science Center) - This edu-doc would be recommended solely for the chance, for 40 minutes, to actually feel momentarily great about the state of the human race. IMDb listing.
Between Borders (not rated; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas, Marcus Sycamore Cinema: Sunday, January 26, through Tuesday, January 28) - IMDb listing.
Brave the Dark (PG-13; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas, Marcus Sycamore Cinema) - IMDb listing.
The Brutalist (R; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, The Last Picture House, FilmScene at the Chauncey) - IMDb listing.
The Colors Within (PG; FilmScene on the Ped Mall) - IMDb listing.
A Complete Unknown (R, Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas, Marcus Sycamore Cinema) - Although Timothée Chalamet plays the role with commendable skill, Bob Dylan remains frustratingly uninteresting as a screen protagonist – at least this particular screen protagonist. IMDb listing.
Cycling without Age (not rated; FilmScene at the Chauncey: Sunday, January 26, 4 p.m.) - ICFilmScene.org.
Dark Match (not rated; FilmScene at the Chauncey: Wednesday, January 29, 10 p.m.) - IMDb listing.
Den of Thieves 2: Pantera (R; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas, Marcus Sycamore Cinema) - IMDb listing.
Flight of the Butterflies (not rated; Putnam Museum & Science Center) - A bit pokey, but the slow, unspeakably beautiful explosion that is the butterflies' mass exodus is enough to make you believe in God - or, at the very least, in the gods of nature docs. IMDb listing.
Flight Risk (R; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas, Marcus Sycamore Cinema) - IMDb listing.
Gladiator II (R; Marcus Sycamore Cinema) - As easy as Rudley Scott's historical action epic is to sit through, it's only transfixing when Denzel Washington is onscreen … and he's never onscreen quite as much as you want. IMDb listing.
The Great Dictator (not rated; FilmScene at the Chauncey: Saturday, January 25, 3:30 p.m.) - IMDb listing.
Hard Truths (R; FilmScene on the Ped Mall: Sunday, January 26, 1 p.m.) - This sublime family tragicomedy is a prolonged invitation to laugh by writer/director Mike Leigh … if, as per usual, also a film whose laughs routinely die in your throat. IMDb listing.
Homestead (PG-13; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas) - IMDb listing.
Kung Pu Panda 4 (PG; Marcus Sycamore Cinema) -This animated action comedy is hardly a debacle, but it's definitely a series low point, and all but indistinguishable from a 90-minute yawn. IMDb listing.
The Last Showgirl (R; VIP Cinemas) - Although the narrative stakes in Gia Coppola's character drama may be low, Its emotional stakes feel sky-high, and that's due almost entirely to Pamela Anderson's fearless, transformative, occasionally harrowing portrayal. IMDb listing.
Laura (not rated; FilmScene at the Chauncey: Tuesday, January 28, and Thursday, January 30, 7 p.m.) - IMDb listing.
Little Women - 1994 (PG; Putnam Museum & Science Center: Thursday, January 30, 7 p.m.) - IMDb listing.
The Met Opera: Aida (not rated; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, Marcus Sycamore Cinema: Saturday, January 25, 11:30 a.m., and Wednesday, January 29, 1 & 6:30 p.m.) - MetOpera.org.
Moana 2 (PG; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas) - It's the exact same animated musical adventure audiences adored eight years ago, only with vaguer threat and weaker songs. IMDb listing.
Mufasa: The Lion King (PG; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas, Marcus Sycamore Cinema) - Disney never went broke running a good idea into the ground. But I'm really, really wishing it would. IMDb listing.
Museum Alive (not rated; Putnam Museum & Science Center) - Putnam.org.
Nickel Boys (PG-13; FilmScene at the Chauncey) - For two hours and 20 minutes, I was utterly enraptured by RaMell Ross' harrowing yet soul-lifting first-person drama, and can't wait to see what its filmmaker does next. IMDb listing.
Nosferatu (R; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas, Marcus Sycamore Cinema) - It took all my will not to inappropriately laugh at the pompous, dreary, art-horror solemnity of it all, and I might've actually done so if I wasn't so busy yawning. IMDb listing.
Oceans (G; Putnam Museum & Science Center) - The movie's 85 minutes occasionally crawl by as deliberately as its sea-floor denizens, but it's hard to be too disappointed by a film that provides so many extraordinary sights. IMDb listing.
One of Them Days (R; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas, Marcus Sycamore Cinema) - This ticking-clock slapstick is an inarguably slight, inconsequential thing, but it routinely delivers enormous pleasure, as well as continued evidence that Keke Palmer would be a massive big-screen star if Hollywood was still in the business of making funny, fast-paced, inherently meaningless comedies. IMDb listing.
Presence (R; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas, FilmScene on the Ped Mall, Marcus Sycamore Cinema) - IMDb listing.
The Room Next Door (PG-13; FilmScene at the Chauncey) - Pedro Almodovar's first feature in English would be a more noteworthy accomplishment if his latest script didn't suggest a really bad American play: overabundant in declarative sentences and labored exposition; miserly in terms of subtlety and subtext. IMDb listing.
Sky Force (not rated; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX) - IMDb listing.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (PG; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas, Marcus Sycamore Cinema) - It sure looks like Jim Carrey is having a blast in director Jeff Fowler's followup. At the very least, he's providing one. IMDb listing.
Space: The New Frontier (not rated; Putnam Museum & Science Center) - IMDb listing.
Superpower Dogs (not rated; Putnam Museum & Science Center) - Daniel Ferguson's edu-doc provides enough globe-trotting action for a James Bond flick, treating us to first-rate training footage and re-created missions in locales ranging from the Canadian Rockies to the Italian coast to a debris-strewn site near New York's Ground Zero. IMDb listing.
T. REX (not rated; Putnam Museum & Science Center) - IMDb listing.
Wicked (PG; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas, Marcus Sycamore Cinema) - Jon M. Chu's musical is truly alive – imaginative and surprising and a little bit nuts, and the tears you shed are suffused with the kind of delirious joy sometimes felt during live theatre. IMDb listing.
Wild at Heart (R; FilmScene at the Chauncey: Saturday, January 25, 10 p.m.) - IMDb listing.
Wolf Man (R; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas, The Last Picture House, Marcus Sycamore Cinema) - Director/co-writer Leigh Whannell's newest Blumhouse reboot is the scariest movie of the year … for about seven minutes. IMDb listing.
