As a slasher flick with comedic leanings, director/co-writer Kevin Williamson's Scream 7 is pretty weak. As a half-dozenth sequel so steeped in callbacks and meta-commentary that nostalgia is practically its plot, it's exhausting. And as a statement on big-studio moviegoing practices and habits with a quarter of the 21st century behind us, it's depressing as hell.

In this dark comedy thriller, and in a change of pace for the performer, Margaret Qualley turns out not to be an on-screen firecracker. She's more like a countdown clock, the type that requires action heroes to cut either the blue or red wire before everything gets blown to bits

Documenting the urgent efforts to combat coral decline in local fishing communities from Hawaii, Kenya, Australia and Indonesia, director Stephen Shearman's Reef Builders serves as a final presentation in River Action's QC Environmental Film Series for 2026, this fascinating exploration of the hexagonal structure known as a Reef Star screening in St. Ambrose University's Galvin Fine Arts Center on March 1.

Winner of the 2022 Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature Film, and currently enjoying a 96-percent "freshness" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio enjoys a March 5 screening as part of the "Free Film at the Figge" series at Davenport's Figge Art Museum, Rotten Tomatoes' critical consensus calling the film "a visually stunning adaptation that embraces its source material's darkness."

With Entertainment Weekly calling the 2001 Christopher Nolan classic "one of those jigsaw puzzles whose pieces snap together more tightly with each viewing," the iconic thriller Memento enjoys a March 5 screening as part of the community series Filmosofia, this evening at Rock Island's Rozz-Tox also featuring a reading discussion on the movie's philosophical themes hosted by Augustana College's Dr. Deke Gould.

With the series' first episode widely regarded as one of the greatest two-hour works in television history, the international pilot for David Lynch's iconic Twin Peaks enjoys a screening at Roxk Island venue Rozz-Tox on February 28, the spoiler-filled overseas version featuring 20 additional minutes not broadcast in the states until it was eventually released on VHS and laser disc.

Because the experience felt so unusual, I actually checked my archives to make sure, and it was true: This past Thursday-through-Saturday marked the first time since pre-COVID that I viewed six new big-screen releases over the course of three days.

Presented in celebration of Black History Month, director Bill Duke's acclaimed 2003 drama Deacons for Defense enjoys a special February 18 screening in the Community Room of the Rock Island Public Library's downtown branch, the film's stars including Oscar winner Forest Whitaker and legendary actor and Civil Rights activist Ossie Davis.

Adapted from the iconic book the New York Times deemed an "extraordinary work" and a "document of horrifying reality [that] possesses literary quality," the 1973 television-movie version of Go Ask Alice enjoys a special February 23 screening at the Rock Island Public Library's downtown branch, the film detailing the life of a teenage girl who develops a drug addiction at age 15 and runs away from home on a journey of self-destructive escapism.

I had so much fun at Luc Besson's garish vampire yarn that I can easily imagine watching it again, this time with more than the one friend who joined me, and with all of us preferably looped out of our minds. That way, we'd at least come close to approximating Besson's vibe.

Pages