For most people, the words “role-playing game” conjure images of sweaty Dungeons & Dragons-obsessed weirdos, wearing cloaks and screaming “Lightning bolt!” at each other. But even non-RPG players gave the genre a try when Final Fantasy VII debuted back in 1997. The beautiful graphics and heart-tugging story made it an…
Veronica Mars: The Complete Second Season (Warner Bros.) Any concept along the lines of “high school hottie solves crimes” is bound to make for watchable TV, but who would have expected this? Equal parts 90210 teen soap, murder mystery, and comedy, Veronica Mars pulls you in with its sharp writing,…
The Hispanick Zone: This comedy, written and directed by Teatro Bravo founder Guillermo Reyes, launches the company’s new season. Set in Arizona in 2006 and told in sketch comedy format, it depicts the world (and the Legislature) as ruled by humorless people. Reyes spoofs assimilation, deportation, and the hotties of…
Irresistible music and community-building art unite when StraightNoChaser Presents: “one,” a hip-happening evening of danceable grooves and visual art. Two rooms — the main downstairs area with internationally renowned DJs Joe DiPadova and Santos spinning organic dub, gritty soul, and booty-shakin’ Afro-beat; and the intimate upstairs showcasing downtempo, underground disco,…
Humanity’s not looking so good these days. With war overseas, terrorism pushing our borders and serial killers in our midst, maintaining much faith in my fellow human beings proves to be a constant struggle. What does it mean to be human? What separates us from beast? If you need some…
The grainy images are both utterly mundane and deeply disturbing. They flicker past silently; the soundtrack to this short movie is long lost. Yet there’s a soundless wail of horror behind these simple scenes — of a group of men erecting a low, tarpaper-covered building; a woman hanging laundry; a…
Jason Lethcoe’s book Amazing Adventures From Zoom’s Academy doesn’t particularly wow the reader with its prose, but the concept is solid — basically, Harry Potter with superheroes rather than wizards. The heroine, Summer Jones, is an awkward 13-year-old tomboy with a goofy father named Jasper who likes to tinker with…
After nearly three decades at the Arizona Commission on the Arts, Shelley Cohn departed for civilian life last year. During her stay — most of which was spent as the agency’s executive director — she presided over the commission’s arts programs, protecting us from a future with no ongoing arts…
Like a real war, Chromehounds involves long stretches of tedium, occasionally broken up by a few moments of sheer terror. After what feels like weeks of ponderous marching from point A to point B in your titular “Hound” — a walking tank — combat erupts. The fighting is fast and…
Apocalypse Now: The Complete Dossier (Paramount) It’s all here, more or less: the 1979 theatrical cut of Francis Ford Coppola’s harrowing and still-hypnotic Joseph Conrad-in-Vietnam adaptation, the 49-minutes-longer-but-feels-24-minutes-shorter 2001 Redux edition, Marlon Brando’s entire 17-minute “The Hollow Men” monologue, even more “lost” and deleted scenes (including a spooky-shocking one, in…
“The Big Lebowski Tribute Show” at Wet Paint Gallery: The thing about a cult classic is that you either love it or you hate it. The same can be said for this funky, eclectic group exhibition paying homage to the Coen brothers’ film. Devoted Lebowski fans may go gaga for…
Benito (Lions Gate) Cape of Good Hope (New Yorker) Clark Gable Collection, Volume 1 (Fox) Don’t Tell (Lions Gate) The Hard Corps (Sony) Hong Kong Phooey: The Complete Series (Turner) Hoot (New Line) James Stewart: The Signature Collection (Warner Bros.) Land of the Blind (Bauer) Lemming (Strand) L’Enfant (Sony) Machined…
You thought high school theater teachers spent their summers far from the madding crowd, but you were wrong. Jennifer E. Ruddle, who instructs budding thespians at Glendale’s Sandra Day O’Connor High School, is proof that theater profs stick to the stage, even in their off-hours; she spent her summer directing…
World Trade Center is about just that — the attacks on, and the collapse of, the twin towers on September 11, 2001. But 45 minutes in, a viewer might easily forget the movie is set during that nightmarish day. There is little talk of terrorism and scant suggestion that a…
Like the shambling VW van its hapless characters steer from Albuquerque to Redondo Beach, Little Miss Sunshine is a rickety vehicle that travels mostly downhill. How this antic extended sitcom from first-time feature makers Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris left Sundance with an eight-figure deal and reams of enthralled press…
Snort a few lines of Fame, screen Save the Last Dance a couple of times, and channel what you’ve learned through the bad-ass pose of a second-rate Eminem and you get Step Up, a dance romance with the originality of a paint-by-numbers set. First-time director Anne “Mama” Fletcher, the choreographer…
Countless are the creative souls who struggled with mental illness, as are the novels and films dedicated to them. Again and again, we’ve encountered artists both inspired and undermined by their madness, whose torment and tumult produce works of beauty and depth. So can a documentary about a singer-songwriter and…
I Do! I Do! is a musical with a beard a mile long, which is almost certainly why it’s part of Theater Works’ summer stock season. This 20-year-old troupe caters mostly to the blue-hairs of Sun City, where “risky” means any show in which someone turns up in a peignoir…
In 2004, Jason Hall, the head of Warner Bros.’ new videogame division, did something remarkable: He promised to end bad movie tie-ins. By then, gamers had become well acquainted with the suckiness of movie-based games. Ever since Atari’s E.T. — a game so bad, tons of unsold copies were buried…
Brick (Universal) Rian Johnson’s feature debut as writer-director will wind up as one of the year’s best films. A film noir set in a modern-day high school, it’s Sam Spade roaming Ridgemont High; kids get doped up and knocked up and even rubbed out while speaking pulp-novel slang, but the…
Proof: Fountain Hills Community Theatre leapt to the fore and rescued Is What It Is Theatre’s doomed swan song after its own theater space was sold out from under the troupe. The result is a short, single-weekend run of David Auburn’s family drama, which takes its name from a mathematical…
Adam and Steve (TLA) Back Woods (Terror Vision) Beautiful People: The Complete Series (Sony) Clone (Image) Damon Wayans’ Last Stand (Fox) Frat Boy Collection (Fox) Gilles’ Wife (Koch Lorber) Ghost in a Teeny Bikini (Image) Grounded for Life: Season 3 (Anchor Bay) The Hidden Blade (Tartan) Inside Man (Universal) Jayne…
