Presented as the third of four Pride Month events in the Figge Art Museum's Free Film at the Figge series, writer/director Daniel Ribeiro's 2014 coming-of-age romance The Way He Looks enjoys a June 23 screening in the Davenport venue's John Deere Auditorium, the Brazilian release currently enjoying a 93-percent appropval rating on Rotten Tomaoes, where the critical consensus reads: "Compassionate, emotionally detailed, and populated with resonant characters, The Way He Looks leaves a warmth that lingers."

While I long ago stopped being surprised by Richard Linklater's ability to pull off the wildly improbable, if not seemingly impossible, it wasn't until his new-to-Netflix Hit Man that I imagined Linklater capable of a first-rate blend of Double Indemnity, Crimes & Misdemeanors, and Tootsie. I didn't think anyone was capable of that.

Presented as the second of four Pride Month events in the Figge Art Museum's Free Film at the Figge series, the award-winning 2020 romantic drama Ammonite enjoys a June 16 screening in the Davenport venue's John Deere Auditorium, writer/director Francis Lee's film hailed by Rotten Tomatoes' critical consensus for the "chemistry between Saoirse Ronan and a never-better Kate Winslet."

In the familial road-trip dramedy Ezra, Bobby Cannavale plays the leading role of struggling standup comic Max Brandel, and he's mad at everybody. Everybody.

If you see George Miller's prequel Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and find yourself off-put by more than a few shaky visual effects (a motif that'll continue throughout the film's two-and-a-half hours), a number of colorless performances, a rather pushy degree of myth-building, and one of the most fraudulent fake noses of the past few decades, you'll likely find your early irritation largely forgotten by the finale.

Launched last year by the Azubuike African American Council for the Arts and taking place in various area locales June 6 through 9, the second-annual Pulling Focus African American Film Festival has been designed as a celebration of local film and culture that focuses on enriching the lives of Quad Cities residents, presenting unique film-watching experiences framed through the lens of African American and Black Diasporic voices.

Presented as the first of four events in the Figge Art Museum's Free Film at the Figge series, the award-winning 2022 documentary Jimmy in Saigon enjoys a June 6 screening in the Davenport venue's John Deere Auditorium, the work lauded by Film Carnage as "a loving, engaging, and sympathetic story," and by the Chicago Tribune as a documentary that "has the feel of a detective story. It will grab you."

Written, produced, and directed by co-star John Krasinski, the comedy fantasy IF concerns a bunch of imaginary friends (hence the acronym) eager to feel needed again, and when I first scanned the list of those voicing these beings, I practically needed an overnight bag and a canteen to get through it.

Considering that nearly all of its performances are motion-capture ones, I didn't expect to spend so much time at Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes marveling at the nuances of naturalistic human acting.

The leads are attractive and charming. The action is swift and loud. The jokes are unmissable. And if you spend more than five seconds thinking about The Fall Guy, the whole thing crumbles like a particularly flimsy house of cards.

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