Long before Pitt, Clooney and DiCaprio, Tom Mix, Gene Autry, and Roy Rogers were the stars of the “B” Western movie era. These low-budget movies were tacked on to high-profile films that were extremely popular between 1903 and the mid-1950s. To take a trip down memory lane, The Tempe History Museum…
As stripped down and propulsive as its robotic title, Drive is the most “American” movie yet by Danish genre director Nicolas Winding Refn. The film, for which Refn was named best director last May in Cannes, is a sleek, tense piece of work that, as a vehicle for Ryan Gosling,…
When Albert Brooks greets me in the reception area of his Beverly Hills office, I immediately recognize his shirt. The baggy, faded, red short-sleeve button-down imprinted with dull green palm trees belongs to the inimitably tacky wardrobe of Bernie Rose, the mobster and sometime B-movie producer Brooks plays in Nicolas…
What I don’t know: why these movies keep getting made. I Don’t Know How She Does It is based on Allison Pearson’s 2002 diaristic, comic bestseller and directed by Douglas McGrath. But its real auteur is screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna, scripter of wan workplace romantic comedies such as the limp…
Casey Moore’s had a special visitor last night, as Comedy Central’s Daniel Tosh was filming a segment for his hit TV show at Tempe neighborhood bar. In case you hadn’t heard already, the comedian and host of Tosh.0 is taping a live episode tomorrow night at Gammage Auditorium and has…
When they’re not doing awesome relationship stuff like watching endless loops of 30 Rock episodes on Netflix and figuring out what a vegan and omnivore should make for dinner, New Times writers Becky Bartkowski and Jason Woodbury go to the movies.Last night they watched the new Sarah Jessica Parker dramedy I Don’t…
Attention short film enthusiasts: there’s a new film festival coming to town dedicated to showcasing local filmmakers. The Long Shadow Film Festival is currently seeking submissions of short films and videos of all genres (narratives, documentary, experimental), and is especially interested in the work of Arizona artists. Check out submission details after…
Besides doing fun relationship stuff like arguing about how to discipline our dog, New Times blogger Tyler Hughes and his girlfriend, Jackie Cronin, go to the movies. Tyler: So, how many times did you wash your hands after seeing Contagion?Jackie: Twice — before leaving the theater. I’ve never been so…
When they’re not doing awesome relationship stuff like watching endless loops of 30 Rock episodes on Netflix and figuring out what a vegan and omnivore should make for dinner, New Times writers Becky Bartkowski and Jason Woodbury go to the movies.Last night they went to see Drive, a neo-noir action flick starring Ryan…
Currently the fifth-to-last film on Steven Soderbergh’s ever-expanding pre-retirement slate, Contagion opens on day two of a global viral epidemic. Gwyneth Paltrow plays Beth Emhoff, an American employee for an ominously unspecific multinational corporation who returns from a business trip in Hong Kong to her wintry Midwestern home feeling like…
At one point in Higher Ground, Vera Farmiga’s decade-spanning directorial debut, the actress, playing Corinne, a woman still soaked with lake water after her baptism into an evangelical sect, resembles no less a touchstone than Ronee Blakley in Robert Altman’s Nashville: slightly high hair; starchy, sexless, long tunic dress; swaying…
The subject of Magic Trip is the LSD-powered, cross-country road movie orchestrated by novelist Ken Kesey in the summer of ’64. More than a footnote but less than a chapter in American cultural history, the voyage taken by a psychedelic Day-Glo painted school bus filled with Kesey’s Merry Prankster pals…
Lionsgate released the latest trailer for Hunger Games, based on the popular trilogy by Suzanne Cullins. With about five sentences, three explosions, and a one minute peek into the anticipated film, the trailer may temporarily soothe the anxiety and crazed twitches of YA literature fans after the end (?!) of Harry…
A group of 30-somethings trapped in the amber of their high school years attempt to bone their way into adulthood in A Good Old Fashioned Orgy, an ensemble sex comedy written and directed by Larry Sanders Show writers Alex Gregory and Peter Huyck. Technically, the orgy of the title is…
Phoenix-based author James Sallis has been through the Hollywood wringer discussing his novella Drive. Sallis’ 200-page book was picked up by Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn. Next week, the book goes to the silver screen in a neo-noir flick, directed by Refn and starring Ryan Gosling.Between Hollywood screenings and everyday life –…
Stop by FilmBar tonight and you’ll likely get an eyeful of work by the late and great pop artist, Keith Haring. The Downtown theater will present a one-night showing of “The Universe of Keith Haring”, a portrait of the artist that includes archival footage and interviews with fellow artists including Fab…
There’s a bit of construction dust on the ground and a few sheets of plastic covering the fixtures, but the new AMC Dine-In Theatres in Central Phoenix looks just about ready for its grand opening next week. The upscale cineplex on the second level of The Esplanade will open its…
It didn’t take long for indie film programmer Steve Weiss to find his next gig. The cineaste and organizer of No Festival Required, who left the programming position at FilmBar earlier this month, recently announced he will begin booking films and documentaries at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Arts starting this…
In Jesse Peretz’s Our Idiot Brother, Paul Rudd plays Ned, a kind of Upstate New York version of “The Dude” Lebowski — a man out of time, blinkered enough to be living the hippie dream. In the film’s first scene, Ned is “entrapped” into selling pot at a farmers market…
In Bellflower — the dystopian micro-indie that galvanized Sundance last January — a run-of-the-mill romantic disaster is swiftly followed by a crippling accident. His heart broken, his brain damaged, and his neck brace soaked with blood, Woodrow (played by Bellflower’s writer/director, Evan Glodell) sets out to make Milly (Jessie Wiseman),…
Note: this post has been edited. Beadle Architecture will screen next Tuesday, August 30. Modernist architect Alfred Newman Beadle was notorious for adhering to an unwavering vision. But when it came to design, compromise wasn’t in his vocabulary. The man behind Phoenix’s Executive Towers and Mountain Bell building worked in absolutes…
If you’ve been sitting on a great idea for a movie script, now’s a good time to start typing. From now through November 23, the Independent Feature Project Phoenix is looking for short film scripts to produce for their “Script to Screen Challenge.”IFP Phoenix hosts a variety of film challenges throughout…
