Not terribly long ago in an uninhabitable galaxy called Burbank, a generally astute movie studio founded by four Polish siblings alienated a young hotshot filmmaker. The studio was Warner Bros. and the project was a cold, disturbing, highly stylized vision of a mechanized future called THX-1138. Not wholly original, but…
‘Tis the season and all that jive; beneath the tree this first week of November you will find two films set during the final week of December, when sugarplums and candy canes go on sale at the concessions stand for all the good little girls and boys’ parents to buy…
Pieces of April, made by playwright turned novelist turned screenwriter turned director Peter Hedges, could be confused for a compendium reel of someone’s home movies. Shot on digital video using existing light, it looks like something assembled by a film student for a final and lost soon after, left behind…
With its soundtrack stockpiled with songs of romance and Christmas and a screenplay by the man who wrote Bridget Jones’s Diary, Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill, it’s appropriate that Love Actually feels less like a brand-new movie than a greatest-hits compendium. It offers nothing new and instead…
There’s no business like slide-show business. And, certainly, there’s no stage act like the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players. “We are a conceptual art-rock-pop-music-multimedia spectacular unlike anything the city of Phoenix has ever seen before,” says Jason Trachtenburg, singer/songwriter/keyboardist/guitarist. “I’m not just saying that.” Saying what, exactly? “Here’s the concept: The…
The Furious Styles Crew, Arizona’s preeminent break-dancing crew, knows how to throw a birthday party. This year is the 10th anniversary of the crew’s inception — and the seventh year it has celebrated with an anniversary party. “For the 10th year, we wanted to really make it as involved as…
11/8-11/9 Of all the ironies to emerge from our current “country at war” mindset, perhaps the greatest involves the startling number of would-be patriots who have emerged from the woodwork to embrace all things military. Safe to say that, once CNN tunes out from the latest conflict to end all…
11/8-11/9 It’s fitting that the Honeywell rodeo team (yes, the Honeywell rodeo team) honors aerospace cowboy Cliff Garrett each year in a memorial event for charity. Garrett tamed the young, rip-snorting field of aviation with inventions such as pressurized cabins and auxiliary power. This year, the Cliff Garrett Memorial Rodeo…
11/6-12/7 On the video screen and in the toy stores, technological advances have created a sea change in what passes for children’s entertainment. In the midst of it all, the Great Arizona Puppet Theater has remained true to a 20-year-old aesthetic, proving that, when it comes to delivering the goods,…
Sat 11/8 At last, a car show that’s so not Scottsdale. This Saturday, November 8, cruise to Fast Eddie’s Diner, 3422 West Glendale Avenue in Phoenix, after 11 a.m. for “Bad Guys III,” a car show featuring “pre-1968 hot rods, customs and motorcycles.” Presented by the Invaders Car Club, the…
11/8-11/23 In the shadow of the Cold War, a round of redbaiting in 1950s Hollywood produced a “blacklist” of film professionals banned from the industry. When the Arizona Jewish Theatre Company’s production of The Value of Names begins, the scene is set in 1981, and blacklisted comic Benny Silverman has…
Thursday, November 6 Laughter and, well, gaiety are guaranteed at Hamburger Mary’s, 5111 North Seventh Street, when Toronto-based comedian David MacLean takes the stage for a one-night standup stint. While MacLean admits that his comedy — rooted in his experiences as a gay guy — hasn’t always been openly embraced…
Remember that silly little-girl version of Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally . . . , snuffling “I’m difficult!” through a charming tantrum? Well, make it a point to greet Ryan’s new incarnation in the psychosexual thriller In the Cut. Post-Crystal, post-Hanks and even post-husband Dennis Quaid (toward whom…
The riddles of identity that drive and disturb Philip Roth’s impressive body of fiction usually focus on contemporary Jewish characters whose conflicts between self-absorption and self-hate remain poignantly (and often hilariously) unresolved. But in The Human Stain, the first Roth novel to be adapted as a film in three decades,…
Some movies approach perfection. Alien: The Director’s Cut basically enhances a 99.9 percent perfect movie from 1979 with some digital polishing, small additions (including the revelatory “nest” scene) and minor nips and tucks. If for some weird reason you haven’t seen this brilliant creature feature, boycott the typically tell-all new…
Call it “the Valley of the Sundance.” Hardly known as a hotbed of indie or international film, the Valley — thanks to the Scottsdale International Film Festival — is finally making some cinematic strides. According to festival director and founder Amy Ettinger, the big shots at the Toronto International Film…
Thursday, October 30 For their home opener, the Phoenix Suns take on the Cleveland Cavaliers, who lost to the Suns twice last season, but now, bedecked in new team colors and a new logo, boast the number-one draft pick, LeBron James. Tip-off time is 8:30 p.m. Thursday, October 30, at…
For the uninitiated, a trip into the land of NASCAR can be quite the eye-opening experience. Within this world, drivers, pit crews and fans pay homage to the God-given right to test the limits of both man and machine, and do so with a passion that borders on — and…
10/30-11/2 They call it “the 14th Annual Arizona Classic Jazz Festival,” and by “classic,” they primarily mean Dixieland, ragtime and swing: the three faces of pre-World War II jazz that rocked your grandparents’ world.As Dick Knutson — a featured musician and husband of fest director Jeanne Knutson — puts it,…
Sat 11/1 Bursting with civic pride? Take a civic ride. This Saturday, November 1, the Central City Bike Expedition takes to the streets of downtown for an exercise in urban awareness.Sponsored by the City of Phoenix, the excursion — seven miles, four hours — departs Encanto Park at 8 a.m…
Fri 10/31 This Halloween, the Arizona Science Center puts the “ick” in trick-or-treat, inviting little demons to indulge in groovy gross-out activities — designing spider webs, making slime and dissecting a pig’s heart. Halloweenies need not apply.From 5 to 9 p.m. Friday, October 31, Hallopalooza Family Night transforms the center,…
Fri 10/31 The closing reception for Phoenix’s creepiest gallery show also happens to be one of the most eclectic Halloween parties around. On Friday, October 31, Alwun House hosts Monsters’ Ball, a night of revelry to send the “Monsters’ Menagerie” art exhibition back to the grave.Mixed-media works by the dozen…
