The setup: Jon Klein wrote “picaresque” antihero-buddy-comedy T Bone N Weasel more than 20 years ago. It became a made-for-TNT film starring Gregory Hines and Christopher Lloyd in 1992 and continues to be a popular show at offbeat regional and community theaters. Currently, iTheatre Collaborative is presenting the rarely-seen-in-Arizona play…
Simply put, there were two types of people who came to Phoenix Comicon this past weekend: those who wore a costume and those who didn’t. The attendees who got into the spirit of the event and donned apparel were inspired by any number of comic books, cartoons, TV shows, video…
You know your life is in the toilet when Courtney Love is giving you advice. The notorious party girl took to Twitter this week to tell Amanda Bynes to “pull it together dude.” This was following Bynes’ most recent arrest by New York police for possession of marijuana and throwing…
You’re either with Brit Marling or you’re against her. The 29-year-old filmmaker (who describes herself on Twitter as a tree climber/actor/writer/producer) catapulted out of obscurity in 2011 with two obfuscatory indies — Sound of My Voice and the mournful sci-fi drama Another Earth. Marling specializes in films about faith, loyalty,…
For the fans left bereft by his 2012 death, it’s impossible to imagine a more exquisite, honest, and beautifully detailed documentary about the life of Levon Helm than Jacob Hatley’s Ain’t in It for My Health. This film seems as much man as it does movie, capturing the many sides…
There are times during the affecting tumult of What Maisie Knew when you may think, “At last, a first-rate American movie about what being a kid actually feels like!” And then there are times when, despite the scrupulousness of co-directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel’s adherence to the perspective of…
Turns out, Ricky Jay is one of those guys who has to sit in the restaurant with his back to the wall. That’s not just because the sleight-of-hand master and historian of magic is — as interviewees in this new doc attest — a cantankerous sort who is thick with…
“Least you got to see a motherfucker crucify himself,” Richard Pryor spits in the most surprising footage director Marina Zenovich has unearthed for her new documentary Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic. The scene is of Pryor’s last great cock-up just before his last, great comeback. Pacing restlessly before a Hollywood…
Wait, you didn’t know that After Earth, the Will Smith–Jaden Smith sci-fi adventure hitting theaters this weekend, is the latest from Shyamalan, he of The Sixth Sense fame and Lady in the Water infamy? Columbia Pictures has done everything in its power, in both trailers and print and TV advertisements,…
Wanna know Tania Katan’s solution to consistently selling out Lit Lounge, her monthly storytelling sesh? Simple: Make it bigger. That’s why May’s installment of the series, dubbed “The Most of” Lit Lounge, will feature more writers and performers than ever before and, instead of packing th 100-person SMoCA Lounge, will…
“Luster Kaboom’s FunHouse” summer installation at Scottsdale Civic Center Library is an eye-popping, interactive environment inspired by the excess of carnivals. (It also makes tangible the rapturous anticipation we felt about library visits when we were young nerds.) Former Valley resident Kaboom, who has cartooned for New Times’ Jackalope Ranch…
The Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art’s 2013 Summer Opening highlights three new exhibitions: “Learning to See,” “Stocked: Contemporary Art from the Grocery Aisles,” and “American Landscape and the Apocalyptic Sublime.”Featured exhibit “Learning to See” explores artist Josef Albers’ argument that colors influence other colors and can be truly understood only…
You know that thing you’ve seen in cruise ship commercials that looks like a polyurethane ramp with water shooting up to simulate the feel of riding a wave? It’s called a FlowRider, and since its invention in the early 1990s an entire sport — flowboarding, an alchemy of snowboarding, skateboarding…
Jamming out to “Single Ladies” up in the club can be fun — but just because he put a ring on it doesn’t mean that it’s time to go into hiding. The 2013 Mrs. Arizona America Pageant brings all the hitched ladies out to put their hands up Friday, May…
Fifteen years ago VHI ranked Rickie Lee Jones number 30 on its top 100 female rockers list. It’s kind of funny really, because rock is a small fraction of Jones’ musical world these days. Starting out singing around Los Angeles, Jones’ big breakthrough was the mellow, jazz-infused “Chuck E’s in…
Trying to find a worthwhile outdoors event in Phoenix this time of year is like trying to offer constructive criticism to Amy’s Baking Company — downright impossible. While many venues simply batten down the hatches, send their event planners on vacay, and write off the scorch fest as a loss,…
Phoenix may be better known for its urban sprawl than its sprawling green spaces,, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t cool spots for city kids to get a little taste of life on the farm. In the middle of our concrete jungle, you’ll find family-owned and -operated Tolmachoff Farms, where…
What do you get when you combine five teenagers from five different walks of life in one room for eight hours 28 years ago? Only the most notable and quintessential high school movie of its time. What do you get when you play that movie at an artfully decorated downtown…
We are suckers for drama — housewives drama, runway drama, and anything with hair-pulling and/or name-calling — and you can bet your ass-like behavior that our eyes will be glued.But our absolute favorite source of drama? The government, of course.In James Graham’s acclaimed play, This House, we follow the manipulative…
Veteran stand-up comic Bobby Slayton is an equal opportunity offender. Throughout his 26 years behind the mic, the self-described “Pitbull of Comedy” has put women, men, gays, straights, Jews, African-Americans, and Hispanics on blast with an unending stream of vitriolic and often-profane invectives delivered in his signature gravelly growl.Slayton, also…
There’s no denying that society has a fascination with the unusual. From the original red-and-white-striped tents to the circus that is now reality television, people can’t pass up the opportunity to watch little people operating a tractors, hillbillies competing in beauty pageants, and conjoined twins tackling the day-to-day ups and…
Downtown Phoenix on weekdays is inconvenient for you, and you’ve never experienced the Herberger’s Lunch Time Theater program. The end of your torture’s in sight: Most Lunch Time shows present an evening preview.D’Amore Productions’ Wonderful, Wicked, Wacky Women stars Dolores D’Amore Goldsmith, who’s delighted audiences with productions like Why Is…
