The most effective scene in James Vanderbilt’s brisk, outraged Truth is one that will be familiar to anyone who has ever sat in a room where editors and reporters are breaking down an investigative story. The reporters — here, 60 Minutes researchers played by Dennis Quaid, Elisabeth Moss, and Topher…
Lenny Abrahamson’s shattering drama Room borrows its fictional plot from the tabloids and strips it of sensationalism. Seven years ago, a man (Sean Bridgers) snatched 17-year-old Joy (Brie Larson) and stashed her in his backyard shed. Two years later, she bore their son. The door stayed locked. Now 5, Jack…
David M. Roche has been appointed director and chief executive officer of Heard Museum, the arts organization announced in a Wednesday, October 21, news release. Roche will begin his directorship at the Native American arts museum on January 1, 2016. His predecessor, James Pepper Henry, stepped down from the position…
Every once in a while, local government spits out something amazing – like a map of all the bike routes in the Valley of the Sun. The Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) has all kinds of resources for prospective riders, most of them detailed on their Facebook page. You can…
SPECIAL EVENTS Alwun House 1204 E. Roosevelt St. www.alwunhouse.org Thrills and chills await at Alwun House’s annual Monsters Ball, which will be occupied by creepy creatures and nightcrawlers aplenty. Performers on tap for this year’s event include Romantasy Cabaret, Opendance, Lady Purple, and others. Hors d’oeuvres, dancing, and other freaky…
The inside of the Jimmy Eat World frontman’s home is just as creative and quirky as you’d expect.
St. Gregory is a bearded man with hazel eyes, and he raises a finger to his temple, as if lost in thought. He looks like a typical pope, with his gold miter and elaborate robes. The portrait is standard Vatican fare — except for the eyeball floating in the corner…
The word “invention” ignites thoughts of Leo da Vinci pouring over a flying machine sketch, Edison pacing the floor of his New Jersey workshop, and maybe that one Simpsons episode. But probably not Arizona. Having just passed the 100-year mark in 2012, Arizona’s baby-soft history doesn’t exactly pop with spikes…
You might not know J.B. Smoove by name, but you’ve almost definitely seen him on your television. He’s Leon Black in Curb Your Enthusiasm, a regular in sketches on Conan, and he’s been featured on enough TV (and reality TV) shows to fill an entire network schedule. When he’s not…
Looking for the best free things to do in Phoenix this week? There are workshops, beatboxing competitions, zines, bike rides and a festival dedicated to one of the coolest holidays of the year. (Hint: It’s not Halloween). So go forth this week and learn something, or create something. What You…
As Arizona Opera opened its three-day Phoenix run for an operetta titled Arizona Lady at Symphony Hall on Friday night, the audience was clearly excited by the prospect of hearing a story set in the Southwest. Simply the sight of the set, complete with cactus and a distant mesa, was enough to…
Tales of Halloween If you’re like us, you avoid scary movies most of the time — we’ve got enough nightmares already, thank you very much. But in October, when Halloween approaches, we embrace the terror. That’s why you’ll find us at FilmBar this month, screaming in fright as the theater…
Where there’s smoke, there’s fire – unless you’re talking about vaping, which produces no smoke, no flame, and only a subtle aroma. The industry for electronic cigarettes is so new, it’s hard to believe that vendors are already hosting an expo. But here it is: Vaping experts from across the country…
Twenty-year-old Josh’s (Josh Thomas) world explodes twice in the Please Like Me pilot: first when he realizes he’s gay and again when his bipolar mother, Rose (Debra Lawrance), attempts suicide. Josh takes both revelations in stride, though he dreads having to inform his mom, whom he’ll be living with and…
A documentary about a magazine is doomed never to capture the thing it’s documenting. The best that can be said for Douglas Tirola’s Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead is that it captures, at times, the heady disbelief of paging through its subject, the National Lampoon, the headwaters of much of American…
At this point, it might seem like everyone’s got a Halloween costume going. Your co-workers are going as the staff of Camp Firewood from Wet Hot American Summer, including Mitch and his beloved can of vegetables. That geek kid you know is building a screen-accurate rendition of Kylo Ren. The…
Where is my hoverboard already? It’s a question Mesa resident Mark Burchard and other Back to the Future enthusiasts have been asking for nearly 30 years since the fictional floating skateboard first appeared in the classic movie sequel. “I’ve wanted a hoverboard since 1989,” says Burchard, a Back to the Future…
This one might give you gersberms. It’s the story of a pigtailed girl in a vest show giddily fans out Goosebumps paperbacks in the famed “ermagherd” meme. Her name? Maggie Goldenberger. She’s all grown up and the subject of a new Vanity Fair article that delves into how that unflattering Polaroid became a…
“Engangled” The candles from Standard Wax don’t just smell good; they look good, too. Samantha Thompson and Andrew King’s creations are meant to be art — a decision certainly influenced by King’s outside work as a contemporary painter and pastel artist. A collection of his recent pieces, “Entangled,” debuts this…
Arizona Opera’s falls season opens with a collaboration that sets a high bar. Arizona Poet Laureate Alberto Ríos recently collaborated with Arizona Opera for its production of Arizona Lady, an operetta set in Tucson in 1925. Think gold rush, rodeos, and horse thieves. It’s opera on the lighter side, with plenty…
If you’re keen on catching works by a diverse assortment of artists with just a single outing, October’s Third Friday looks like the way to go. If you bounce into each of the shows noted below, you’ll see works by more than 50 local artists — from emerging artists still…
Mia Wasikowska is proof of reincarnation. The Australian actress must be possessed by the spirit of Lillian Gish. At 22 — the same age that Gish starred in Birth of a Nation — Wasikowska became a bankable name playing the lead in Tim Burton’s garish Alice in Wonderland. In the…
