17 Mar 2025

Six Degrees of Altercation: “Black Bag,” “Novocaine,” “The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie,” “Opus,” “Omni Loop,” and “The Electric State”

By Mike Schulz

“You know which reviews of yours I really like?” asked a friend not long ago. “The short ones.” Taking that as a compliment for my more succinct pieces and not as the insult it almost certainly was, here are 300-word takes on the half-dozen movies I saw between Thursday and Sunday. They're presented in order of viewing, and preceded by five-word synopses that might, in effect, provide greater impetus to see or ignore said films than the subsequent wordage ever could.

11 Mar 2025

“In the Mood for Love,” March 27

By Reader Staff

An iconic title from Hong Kong's legendary writer/director Wong Kar-wai enjoys a special screening in the Figge Art Museum's springtime Free Film at the Figge series, with In the Mood for Love, on March 27, treating audiences to a work the New York Times called "breathtakingly gorgeous," and one that was included on Sight & Sound's esteemed list of the greatest motion pictures of all time.

10 Mar 2025

Oh, Robert, You're So Fine. You're So Fine You Blow My Mind.: “Mickey 17,” “In the Lost Lands,” and “The Rule of Jenny Pen”

By Mike Schulz

Bong's latest may not be Parasite, but the writer/director's adaptation of Edward Ashton's 2022 novel Mickey7 is still an almost overwhelming amount of fun.

03 Mar 2025

The Slipper Fit: Notes on the 2025 Academy Awards Telecast

By Mike Schulz

So. Who won Best Actress?

I'm kidding … although the answer to that question did come later than I would've preferred.

28 Feb 2025

Deep-Sea Diversion: "Last Breath" and "Riff Raff"

By Mike Schulz

I may not have understood all the machinations involved in bringing our aquatic hero back safely, but I believed that Last Breath's helmer and cast knew what they were doing, and in the end, that was far more important.

25 Feb 2025

Pope-ular: Predicting the 2025 Academy Award Winners

By Mike Schulz

This is an insane year for the Oscars.

24 Feb 2025

Dumb and Drummer: “The Monkey” and “The Unbreakable Boy”

By Mike Schulz

No one could possibly argue that we need more horror movies these days. But I'd suggest that we could always stand to have more in which characters, at the moment of their passing, go splat.

18 Feb 2025

“Giants Rising,” March 2

By Reader Staff

Winner of the Best Environmental Documentary prize at the 2024 Arizona Film Festival and the Audience Award at the 2024 Maui Film Festival, Giants Rising serves as the sixth and final presentation in this year's QC Environmental Film Series hosted by River Action. Its March 2 screening in the Galvin Fine Arts Center of Davenport's St. Ambrose University invites audiences to journey into the heart of America's most iconic forests, the film revealing the secrets and the saga of the coast redwoods: the tallest and among the oldest living beings on Earth.

17 Feb 2025

Agent of Shield: “Captain America: Brave New World,” “Paddington in Peru,” and the 2025 Oscar-Nominated Short Films – Animated and Live Action

By Mike Schulz

I don't necessarily mind that, more often than not, new Marvel Studios movies require me to do homework. What bothers me is how often they make me do homework twice.

11 Feb 2025

“The Hunt for Planet B,” February 23

By Reader Staff

Hailed by RogerEbert.com's Nick Allen as "an impassioned and unabashedly intellectual documentary" that "helps us stand back and remember just how essential science is to progress," The Hunt for Planet B serves as the fifth presentation in this year's QC Environmental Film Series hosted by River Action. Its February 23 presentation at Davenport's Figge Art Museum will treat viewers to what Science magazine called "a behind-the-scenes view of the technical complexities, personalities, and politics that go into building a multi-decade space mission."

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