03 Aug 2026

Peter, Principled: “Spider-Man: Brand New Day”

By Mike Schulz

There are essentially three plotlines fighting for space in director Destin Daniel Cretton's Spider-Man: Brand New Day – even though, given its generous 145-minute running length, you wouldn't think any in-fighting was necessary.

27 Jul 2026

He Unsaid, She Unsaid: “Motor City,” “Hadestown: The Musical,” and “Her Private Hell”

By Mike Schulz

It's not that the characters can't talk. They just don't, or do without our being able to hear them, and that makes many of the goings-on here silly to the point of absurdity.

20 Jul 2026

Greece Lightning: “The Odyssey”

By Mike Schulz

Christopher Nolan appears seriously invested in our enjoyment, and there are many, many sequences in this grandly scaled adventure as thrilling, juicy, and ticklish as any that 2026 has thus-far produced. Those demanding fidelity to Homer are likely gonna hate it.

13 Jul 2026

Hawk and Piña and Joe and Angie: “The Invite,” “Evil Dead Burn,” “Gail Daughtry & the Celebrity Sex Pass,” and “Moana”

By Mike Schulz

Watching romantic relationships crack and crumble can be enormous, if nerve-racking, fun – just so long as those breakdowns are viewed from the perspective of an auditorium, and not a mirror.

06 Jul 2026

They're Ready for Their Closeups, Mr. DeMinion: “Minions & Monsters” and “Young Washington”

By Mike Schulz

It's hard to think of a more ticklish recent ode to cinema than Minions & Monsters, which would've been just about perfect if its monsters were ditched entirely.

29 Jun 2026

Kara Package: “Supergirl” and “Jackass: Best & Last”

By Mike Schulz

Given how bored I've been at so many cinematic superhero origin stories over the decades, I feel silly for actually feeling and writing this. But I really wish director Craig Gillespie's Supergirl had merely been a superhero origin story.

22 Jun 2026

Device and Conquer: “Toy Story 5,” “The Death of Robin Hood,” and “Leviticus”

By Mike Schulz

Thirty-one years after the franchise's debut, Disney/Pixar's latest animated comedy adventure is unusual in at least one regard: It's the first Toy Story that might be more fun to think about, and argue about, than actually watch.

15 Jun 2026

Closer Encounters: “Disclosure Day,” “Tuner,” and “Stop! That! Train!”

By Mike Schulz

Steven Spielberg's Disclosure Day is many things:but most of all, it's an excellent self-test determining just how jaded you've become.

15 Jun 2026

Stand Up, They're Rockin' the 'Boat: “Guys & Dolls,” at the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre through June 21

By Mike Schulz

This past Thursday, after a full week of unseasonably hot, muggy weather, we were finally treated to an evening that was cool and breezy. I'm prone to credit the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre's Guys & Dolls for the atmospheric shift, because as season-opening presentations go, this one was as cool and breezy as they come.

15 Jun 2026

A Loaf of Bread, Some Jugs of Wine, and Wow: “Les Misérables,” at the Timber Lake Playhouse through June 28

By Mike Schulz

There's no point in burying the lede on this: The Timber Lake Playhouse's Les Misérables is the most visually powerful, thunderously well-performed area production I've seen since my first published stage review debuted in 2005, and even since I first arrived in the Quad Cities for college in 1986.

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.