28 Sep 2020

Minimum Rage: “The Last Shift” and “Shortcut”

By Mike Schulz

Although Andrew Cohn's indie dramedy takes a more intriguing turn than you may initially expect, his film is almost pure formula, and formula you're likely familiar with: it's Chico & the Man; it's Superior Donuts; it's every entertainment in which a cranky (white) senior and a sassy upstart (of color) bicker and banter their way to mutual acceptance. But it stars Richard Jenkins, and that alone makes it more worthwhile than this well-meaning diversion might've otherwise been.

21 Sep 2020

Pandemmys: Notes on the 2020 Emmy Awards Telecast

By Mike Schulz

The 72nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards were presented last night in a relatively lively, primarily virtual ceremony featuring riotous highs (you are a national treasure, Mr. Letterman), only a few dismal lows (poor Anthony Anderson), some great surprises (thank you Jennifer, Courtney, and Lisa for the half-reunion of Friends), and, in a wonderful change of pace, loads of truly deserving victors. (My favorite comedy series, drama series, and limited series all won! Who woulda thunk it?!)

20 Sep 2020

Saints and Sinners: “Infidel” and “The Devil All the Time”

By Mike Schulz

No matter how many Thin Red Lines or Person of Interests Jim Caviezel makes, he's always going to be identified as He Who Was Jesus in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ – which makes his casting in this political thriller so on-the-nose it may as well be a nostril.

18 Sep 2020

Living Local's At the Movies: “The Broken Hearts Gallery” & “I’m Thinking of Ending Things”

By Reader Staff

Movie Mike chats with Zane Satre about the predictable but fun The Broken Hearts Gallery and the insane yet fasinating I'm Thinking of Ending Things, and the pair also preview the thriller Infidel and Netflix drama The Devil All the Time.

 

16 Sep 2020

“Schitt's” or Get Off the Pot: 2020 Emmy Predictions

By Mike Schulz

I should preface by saying that I'm terrible at predicting Emmy Award winners. Seriously: I'm terrible.

15 Sep 2020

“Anthropocene: The Human Epoch,” September 27

By Reader Staff

Screening as the final presentation in River Action's 2020 QC Environmental Film Series, the award-winning 2018 documentary Anthropocene: The Human Epoch plays at the Blue Grass Drive-in on September 27, an acclaimed work that Rotten Tomatoes' Critics Consensus described as “a sobering – and visually ravishing – look at the horrific ecological damage wrought by modern human civilization.”

14 Sep 2020

Love on the Rocks, Love on the Walls: “The Broken Hearts Gallery” and “I'm Thinking of Ending Things”

By Mike Schulz

As contemporary romantic comedies go, The Broken Hearts Gallery is like something you'd create from a kit. The instructions are easy to follow, every expected piece is dutifully included, and there's no veering from the manual – what you wind up getting looks remarkably similar to what's pictured on the box. (Or, in this case, the poster.) But a pandemic-era lack of cineplex options can make you inordinately grateful for simple, much-appreciated qualities such as charm and wit and personality, all of which writer/director Natalie Krinsky's debut feature has in abundance.

08 Sep 2020

“Honeyland,” September 20

By Reader Staff

Making history this past winter as the first movie to ever receive Academy Award nominations for both Best International Feature Film and Best Documentary Feature, directors Tama Kotevska's and Ljubomir Stefanov's critically acclaimed Honeyland, from North Macedonia, enjoys a September 20 screening at the Blue Grass Drive-in as a fall presentation in River Action's 2020 QC Environmental Film Series.

08 Sep 2020

“The Gene: An Intimate History,” September 17

By Administrator

Presented as part of the Quad City Engineering and Science Council's “Teacher's Night Out Series,” the first episode of Ken Burns' new documentary series The Gene: An Intimate History will be screened at the Blue Grass Drive-in on September 17 – a free event co-hosted by the Quad Cities' PBS station WQPT-TV, and the introduction to an acclaimed four-hour work that the U.K.'s The Telegraph awarded four stars and called “serious-minded, informative, and knowledgeable.”

06 Sep 2020

Palindrama: “Tenet”

By Mike Schulz

Given its epically convoluted particulars, cagey metaphysics, and dialogue that's frequently (and most likely intentionally) indecipherable, Christopher Nolan's long-awaited action thriller Tenet boasts a narrative that I couldn't spoil even if I wanted to. And I kind of really want to, if only to explain why, after two-and-a-half hours, my brain was practically bleeding from the strain of trying to figure this thing out.

Pages

more

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.

 
 

Movies Calendar

Submit your event listings to calendar@rcreader.com