28 Sep 2026

Peacock of the Walk: “Primetime,” “Heart of the Beast,” and “Forgotten Island”

By Mike Schulz

With Robert Pattinson supplying a demented stare, wicked grin, and one of his signature affected accents, this big-screen Chris Hansen is magisterially icky: sweaty, scary, pathetic, and wholly deserving of the downfall you know is coming.

21 Sep 2026

Take Me Down to the Raccoon City, Where the Blood Is Red and the Vibe Is Sh-tty: “Resident Evil,” “The Weight,” and “Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom”

By Mike Schulz

Among Zach Cregger's three features to date, Resident Evil is my favorite.

14 Sep 2026

Witchy Women: “Practical Magic 2,” “The Uprising,” “Runner,” and “Hope”

By Mike Schulz

I'm happy to report that director Susanne Bier's sequel is at least significantly stronger than its forebear, though it's a measure of just how drippy PM1 is that the new outing is still only not-bad, at best.

07 Sep 2026

Marky Mark and the Clunky Bunch: “By Any Means,” “Onslaught,” “Fall 2: Deadpoint,” and “Mother Mary”

By Mike Schulz

A few hours after this Deep South thriller mercifully ended, it finally dawned on me who co-star Mark Wahlberg resembled: Alley Oop. That incongruously bulky comic-strip caveman whose jokes are funny only to him.

02 Sep 2026

Live, Lawn, and Prosperous: Ballet Quad Cities Presents Six Dance Vignettes, and Joedy Cook Receives an Award, at Davenport's Outing Club on September 13

By Mike Schulz

Our area's professional dance company Ballet Quad Cities has a lot to celebrate at the start of its 30th anniversary, beginning with the September 13 performances of Ballet on the Lawn at Davenport's Outing Club.

31 Aug 2026

Cartoon Networking: “Coyote vs. Acme,” “It Ends,” “Buddy,” “The Dog Stars,” and “Teenage Sex & Death at Camp Miasma”

By Mike Schulz

I fell in love with Coyote vs. Acme roughly an hour into the picture, when a cartoon map showed a plane's trajectory headed toward the American northwest, after which it suddenly veered east, and the pilot apologized for making that wrong left turn. The plane took off in Albuquerque.

24 Aug 2026

Cooks and Crooks, Books and Hooks: “Insidious: Out of the Further,” “Tony,” “The Magic Faraway Tree,” “Mutiny,” and “Spa Weekend”

By Mike Schulz

Even if nothing entirely thrilled me, as least nothing this past weekend outright sucked – making this the perfect time for another quintet of 300-word reviews,

24 Aug 2026

Fin and Bear It: “The Mermaids,” at the Timber Lake Playhouse through August 30

By Mike Schulz

I can only imagine how honored Andy Bro would be to see his name attached to annual presentations of world premieres – shows boasting the exceptional talent, on- and off-stage, continually lured to his theatre in the woods. That being said, and having nothing but admiration and gratitude for Timber Lake's series, I think The Mermaids may have broken my brain.

17 Aug 2026

Suburbasaurus Wrecks: “The End of Oak Street,” “The Brink of War,” “Nimrods,” and “The Last House”

By Mike Schulz

Until viewing The End of Oak Street, I had no idea how much my soul needed the sight of a feral Anne Hathaway protecting her kids with a shotgun, and a block-long eel slithering through a two-story home, and a Tyrannosaurus rex slurping from an above-ground pool like an enormous golden retriever at its proportional water bowl.

10 Aug 2026

Traum-Com: “One Night Only,” “I Want Your Sex,” and “Ice Cream Man”

By Mike Schulz

There's nothing much wrong with director Will Gluck's romantic comedy One Night Only that couldn't have been fixed by ditching its leading man, leaning into its premise about 10 times harder, and turning it into a musical. Granted, we're talking about it being a different movie altogether. But I'd certainly have been on-board with those changes, because the movie we're stuck with largely sucks.

Pages

Subscribe & Listen to Reader Podcasts

On Stands Now

 

Tagged Content

    

Two Ways to Subscribe

1. Subscribe to free weekly e-mail content updates.

You'll get both the current official narrative challenge and What's Happenin' in the Quad Cities.
(Did you know we publish a new Real Astrology and RCR Crossword every week?) 

Subscribe!

* indicates required

2. Get 12 monthly issues mailed first class for $48

Get 12 issues mailed monthly for $48 per year.

Get the printed Reader edition mailed to you (or anyone you want) first-class for 12 months for $48.
$24 goes to postage and handling, $24 goes to keeping the doors open!

Click this link to Subscribe now.