Clint Eastwood isn't necessarily bad here; at times, he's even enjoyable. But while I don't wish to be indelicate, there's no getting around the fact that, at the time of filming last year, Clint was 90, and he looks 90, and sounds 90, and moves 90 … and somehow, maddeningly, not one character in the film seems to notice.

A legendary cult comedy that wound up grossing more than 100 times its reported $400,000 budget and ranks as number 14 on Bravo's list of history's 100 funniest movies, 2004's deliriously deadpan riot Napoleon Dynamite enjoys its long-awaited screening at Davenport's Adler Theatre on September 25, the evening highlighted by a special in-person conversation with three of the film's stars: Jon Heder, Efren Ramirez, and Jon Cries.

Paul Schrader's hypnotic, sometimes thrillingly intense exploration of some of his favorite artistic themes – obsession, addiction, guilt, redemption – is such a singularly arresting achievement that it's easy to sail past its structural and performance flaws.

Lauded by TV Guide as “passionate” and by Awards Daily as “groundbreaking,” the documentary hit Kiss the Ground serves as the latest presentation in River Action's annual QC Environmental Film Series, the movie's September 12 screening at Davenport's Figge Art Museum sure to demonstrate why the New York Times raved that the work “inspires a rare feeling of hope.”

An introduction to the martial-arts master and eventual world-saver who debuted, in comic-book form, in the 1970s, Destin Daniel Cretton's MCU outing is prototypical origin-story world-building to its teeth, but not entirely unenjoyable.

Candyman is only director Nia DaCosta's second full-length feature, and it may not be entirely coincidental that the last sophomore effort I enjoyed in so similar a way was Jordan Peele's Us.

Winner of two prestigious awards at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival – the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury and the International Federation of Film Critics citation for best in-competition movie – the Rainer Werner Fassbinder classic Ali: Fear Eats the Soul enjoys a September 3 screening at Rozz-Tox as the final presentation in the 2021 Kinogarten series of acclaimed, German-themed works hosted by the Rock Island venue and Davenport's German American Heritage Center,

I wish I could say that writer/director Lisa Joy's futuristic noir gave Hugh Jackman opportunities to access the performer's lighthearted, effortlessly winning side that we rarely get to see outside of him playing The Greatest Showman on-screen or at awards shows. Alas, it doesn't. But at least this intricately plotted, visually arresting crime thriller gives its audiences a few legitimate reasons to grin.

An annual presentation of entertaining education sponsored by River Action, Nahant Marsh, and the Tony Singh Family Foundation, the QC Environmental Film Series kicks off its 2021 season with filmmakers Pete McBride's and Kevin Fedarko's Into the Canyon, a magnificently photographed journey through the Grand Canyon that will be screened at Davenport's Figge Art Museum on August 29.

Throughout most of director Shawn Levy's action comedy Free Guy, Ryan Reynolds walks and runs and drives around with an expression of awed, smiling wonder. That was pretty much my expression throughout the film, too.

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