Where we come from defines us more than we even realize: That’s the idea implicit in Andrey Zvyagintsev’s somber, sturdily elegant drama Leviathan, in which a mechanic who has lived on the same parcel of land all his life — as his father and grandfather did before him — resists…
There are few hard-and-fast rules in screenwriting, but here’s one I think we can agree on: Something’s gone wrong if your crowd-pleasing family drama asks audiences to hope a child’s father proves to be a crackhead. That’s one baffling turn in Mike Binder’s Black or White, a movie about race…
You resolved to travel more in 2015, but that doesn’t mean you should give in to wanderlust right away. You can take the small step of living vicariously through traveling poet, Steve Roggenbuck, whose words have had him criss-cross the globe and who’ll swing by the Valley on Friday, January…
Rejoice, dog lovers. It’s the one time of the year when the Desert Botanical Garden welcomes our four-legged companions. Yet, this event is more than just a walk in the park, er, garden. A plethora of activities are planned to keep Fido feeling energized. Downward dog anyone? Start the day…
Between his on-point comedy specials, his well-documented Twitter rants, and his ability to infiltrate all of our favorite television shows, including his epic Star Wars filibuster on Parks and Recreation, Patton Oswalt is basically a comedy God — give or take the Adonis physique and the fact that he doesn’t…
The start of the year is always something of a wasteland for sports. The Cardinals are out of the playoffs, Spring Training is months away, and the Coyotes are struggling. That leaves the Suns, the”Big Game” and not much else for valley sports fans. Such times force you to be…
Young-adult literature sometimes gets a bad rap, but the judgment is not always a fair one (we’re looking at you, millions of adults who read The Fault in Our Stars and Twilight). At YAllapalooza, an annual event at Changing Hands Bookstore, 6428 South McClintock Drive in Tempe, teens and tweens…
The smartphone games that keep you entertained while in line at the grocery store, whether Angry Birds, Trivia Crack, or Candy Crush, took countless hours to cook up. You can do more than just peek behind the scenes of game creation — even if you have no experience, you can…
Home to 17 percent of the world’s population and the intersection between first-world technology and gods and traditions of old, India is an exercise in modern life — or, as this play proclaims, “a modern contradiction.” Presented by New Zealand-based Indian Ink Theatre Company, The Elephant Wrestler is a two-person…
For over a decade, Americans have been entertained by the seemingly insurmountable number of individuals who, often erroneously, think they can sing. With its immense popularity, American Idol ushered in an era of singing shows which were promptly followed by dance competition shows. Fortunately, most of us know we can’t…
Before Jim and Pam, before Ross and Rachel, even earlier than Lucy and Ricky, there were the famous fictional loves of William Shakespeare. With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, Arizona Actor’s Academy has decided to put romance in the air with a one-hour composite of the legendary playwright’s most…
We’re kind of surprised it took this long for someone to make a movie about Greg Louganis. You know, the Olympic diver who publicly came out as gay 25 years ago and openly talked about being HIV positive. Even by today’s standards, that’s an impressive feat for a professional athlete…
Bill Frisell’s vivid explorations and syntheses of jazz, country, blues, rock, pop, and folk are distinguished both by his love for the roots material and the helixian contortions he uses to open them up for fresh examination. For his latest project, Guitar in the Space Age, Frisell enlists frequent collaborators…
The Super Bowl may have cornered the beer market, but for one weeknight before the big game Phoenicians will have a chance to crown a champion of a darker variety. The Great Whisk(e)y Bowl Debate is a quest for superiority of the spirit. First-come, first-served attendees will sample brown barrel…
The mental undoings of Lady Macbeth and Ophelia, one power-hungry and the other pushed around, have inspired performances and interpretations far and wide. But what makes these characters so intriguing? In the lecture “Lady Macbeth and Ophelia: Beyond Drowning and Sleep-walking,” Shakespeare expert Cris Busato Smith investigates the women and…
Peter Hutton might be the best filmmaker that even your movie buff friends haven’t heard of. The lauded film artist holds court at Phoenix Art Museum for a screening of his 2007 film At Sea and for a conversation and Q&A on Wednesday, January 28.The enormous container ship that Hutton…
We firmly hesitate to call any Valley event “Winterfest” unless it includes an artificially frozen puddle surrounded by trucked-in snowbanks. Nevertheless, it is technically hibernal outside, and Southwest Shakepeare’s Winterfest repertory programming at Mesa Arts Center, One East Main Street, goes heavy on the fest, so everything comes out even.This…
Any play about the nuclear family enables plenty of inherent conflicts, but popular local playwright Richard Warren stacked the deck by setting Shifting Gears in 1961, when any two people anywhere, related or not, could find at least one world-class reason to disagree. From the sexual revolution to generational differences,…
One must wait, on humid days, for the file boxes at the Arizona State Archives to come to room temperature before handling their contents. The boxes are stored at 55 degrees to slow the aging of the fragile paper they contain. It’s worth the wait, if what one is doing…
Every tattoo artist has that moment when they realize that inking people for a living is what they want to do with their lives. For some, it starts at an early age from an infatuation with tattoos, others find it when they realize they’re doing more doodling than homework in…
Let’s be real, the Super Bowl isn’t just about football. It’s about over-the-top halftime shows, multi-million dollar television ads, and of course, scantily clad supermodels hosting high-priced parties. A 12-year tradition, the Leather and Laces weekend party is coming to Phoenix in celebration of Super Bowl XLIX happening Sunday, February…
What started with a petition to save one building is poised to morph into a full-blown movement protesting developments that significantly would change the urban landscape of Roosevelt Row. Though some are preparing pop-up art experiences for Super Bowl fans who visit Roosevelt Row, arguably the best-known arts district in…
