Perhaps the first great indie apocalypse potluck comedy, Todd Berger’s It’s a Disaster aces many of the fundamentals bobbled by too many of the films with which it shares DNA. Like dopey ol’ Cloverfield, this opens with get-to-know-the-cast party scenes (in this case, a sharply observed and performed couples’ brunch)…
Steve Jobs will be directed by Aaron Sorkin. Jobs stars Ashton Kutcher. But this year’s third Steve Jobs biopic, Funny or Die’s iSteve, has its own advantage: It’s first. As of April 15, audiences were able to watch the hour-plus feature on Funny or Die’s website, while Sorkin continues to…
Picking up a mere seven years after the previous installment, Scary Movie V features no original cast members, no Wayans brothers producing (they bailed after No. 3) and a new director (first-timer Malcolm D. Lee). It’s still terrible. Why, you may ask, does one even bother to review Scary Movie…
Last week, America received two embarrassing reminders of its doting but asexual love for the Nonthreatening Black Man (NTBM). First, professional cowboy-hat-wearer Brad Paisley and Kangol connoisseur LL Cool J unintentionally trolled the entire Internet with “Accidental Racist,” a country song that argues that access to necklaces today totally makes…
A big winner at last year’s SXSW, Gimme the Loot is a pocket-size Bronx indie with the wispiest of narrative ideas: A couple of teen graffiti bombers decide to gain fame by tagging the Mets’ Home Run Apple. Malcolm (Ty Hickson) and Sofia (Tashiana Washington) are mates only in spraying,…
The good news: Here’s a lavish, serious science-fiction picture, one that on occasion transcends big-budget hit-making convention to glance against grandeur. Joseph Kosinski’s Oblivion, based on his own graphic novel, is one of those futuristic puzzlers whose dramatic energies are most invested not in the characters or their fates, exactly,…
After working a packed auditorium into a frenzy at last September’s première of Lords of Salem at the Toronto International Film Festival, Rob Zombie anxiously took his seat and watched his audience watch his film, his first independently financed feature. It’s also the first film he’s made following a messy…
One of the many perks of living in a desert wasteland is that you’re never more than a short drive away from critter-infested quietude beneath a breathtaking canopy of stars. For city folk who would prefer to scratch their celestial itch without venturing into the wild, Arizona State University’s New…
Though she recently left Phoenix for Portland, Blooming Rock Development founder Taz Loomans hasn’t written off this Valley entirely. Case in point: Loomans leads the Modern Phoenix Superlite Block Plant Tour on Friday, April 19.Loomans will discuss the types of blocks Superlite manufactured (and continues to make), as well as…
To paraphrase some musty, old Klingon proverb we’ve heard once or twice, revenge is a dish best served cold. And in the 1973 Swedish sexploitation schlockfest Hooker’s Revenge, it’s served up with a breakfast of buckshot via the one-eyed, shotgun-wielding female protagonist known as Frigga.Kidnapped, raped, mutilated, and forced into…
For thousands of years humankind has embraced the art of combining yeast and the finest grapes to create the nectar of the gods. This concoction has traveled the world — from the upper tiers of society all the way down to Strawberry Hill. Even Arizona has a stake in vino,…
What you see ain’t necessarily what you get. That proves doubly true with downtown Phoenix performance artist Ryan Avery’s annual musical freakfest known as The Real Coachella.Like the more famous mega-concert and hipster haven out in Indio that it parodies, the local event boasts some famous names on its promotional…
Romance may be the key to a woman’s heart, but a hunk of meat is all a gal needs to make a man squirm. The fourth annual Arizona Barbeque Festival will easily meet those requirements with tons of meaty goodness. We can’t guarantee that love will be in the smoky…
Just how far along are you in your spring-cleaning endeavors — on a scale of filth to Martha? Mm-hm, thought so. Instead of jamming everything on the floor into the unseeable back of the closet, grab some garb and bring it to CO-OPhx’s Spring Swap on Sunday, April 21.Wrangle up…
Last June, after more than two decades of bringing quality comedy to Tempe and amid some very un-funny drama, the Tempe Improv shuttered. But the laughter wasn’t silenced forever. Under new ownership, the venerable comedy club is set to reopen.As with any event of this magnitude, some celebrity appearances are…
We admit it. The phrase “Bingo Players at the Beach” conjures a whole lot of unsavory images of old men in Speedos slappin’ down some sick bingo daubers while tanning their already-leathery skin. You can fess up to thinking it too. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, you know…
We all wear masks, to a certain degree. We hide some aspects of our life, intentionally or unintentionally, with some secrets far more sinister than others. But what happens when that mask isn’t just hiding a little of what’s underneath but instead hides an entirely different identity? At some point…
Four weeks ago, the Phoenix Coyotes’ playoff hopes were all but dead. After a seven-game losing streak and an apparent trading-deadline fire sale, the Coyotes were, mathematically and subjectively, closer to the bottom of the Western Conference than they were to the playoffs. The Coyotes were able to right the…
Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti was something of an enigma in Nigeria in the 1970s. Born to an aristocratic family and schooled in London, Kuti eschewed privileged life to reside with people suffering and combating a government indifferent to their needs. Mixing soul, jazz, funk, and indigenous rhythms, his music became…
Sure, some of us treat every human soul with equal respect and regard. But when it comes to floating the romantic boat, all bets are off — the, shall we say, “heart” wants what it wants. And should one exploit that knowledge to spark attraction?Maybe your integrity balks at posing…
That the daily 4:20 p.m. toke sessions of the San Rafael, California, teens in the 1970s eventually sparked an international movement would have terrified the church group that bankrolled the 1936 anti-pot flick Reefer Madness. The musical of the same name hits the Valley on the high holy day for…
For the past five years, Casebeer has been taking notes. The Phoenix artist (who goes by her last name only) went to school for creative writing and says she started painting and collaging when she had a bad case of writer’s block. But for the past few years, the words…
