13 Oct 2026

Prynne and Proper: Courtney Lyon Stages Ballet Quad Cities' World-Premiere Take on “The Scarlet Letter,” October 23 and 24 at Moline's Spotlight Theatre

By Mike Schulz

Chatting with Ballet Quad Cities' artistic director Courtney Lyon about the professional dance company's The Scarlet Letter, a world-premiere adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's famed 1850 novel, I'm catching the choreographer early in the rehearsal process. How early? I wind up learning who'll be dancing the ballet's principal roles before the dancers do.

12 Oct 2026

Dual to the Death: “Other Mommy,” “The Social Reckoning,” and “Angel & the Badman”

By Mike Schulz

I may have been disappointed in Other Mommy, but it's hardly an ignoble failure, and it was kind of thrilling to see several genre norms smartly upturned before the picture was a half-hour old.

05 Oct 2026

Potboilerplate: “Verity” and “Digger”

By Mike Schulz

In director Michael Showalter's adaptation of Colleen Hoover's Verity, the title figure is a fabulously wealthy celebrity who appears willing to go to psychotic extremes to get a little peace and quiet. Having now appeared in five films over the past six months, and with a new baby on the way, it's no wonder Anne Hathaway is so good in the role. She must relate to Verity Crawford like crazy.

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,

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