“Take it off the tripod,” says a reasonable facsimile of Brad Pitt to a reasonable facsimile of Edward Norton in last year’s execrable Fight Club. “How much do you know about yourself, you’ve never gone hand-held?”If these lines make you smirk, you’re probably a struggling independent filmmaker, or wish you…
When a show is billed so grandly as to be called a “revolutionary reincarnation” of a classic musical, it’s wise to be skeptical. After all, Phoenix is the sort of theater town that every now and then plays host to bus and truck companies of huge Broadway shows like Titanic,…
People like to blame the pretensions of the art mob for the churchlike quiet of museums. But the more subtle truth is that great art has a way of silencing the crowd. Having already spoken the language it was meant to speak, it leaves nothing to translate or add, nothing…
No more dancing around the issue: Kinga Nijinsky Gaspers wants to set the record straight about her grandmother, Romola Flavia Ludowika Polyxena DePulzky-Nijinsky. Better known as the wife of world-renowned dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, Romola is mostly remembered as the reason Nijinsky was institutionalized at the height of his career. Gaspers…
“I’m not the celebrity type,” says Vincent D’Onofrio, and he does not lie. His is a household name in very few neighborhoods; it appears in film credits buried just beneath those of actors more famous, or just luckier. Rare is the filmgoer who utters the words, “Dude, let’s go check…
Radar, one-third of the Valley’s most acclaimed turntable crew, the Bombshelter DJs (hailed by Spin magazine as the ninth best in the world), has been studying music formally since the age of 9, and he’s helping lead the charge of turntablists into the well-guarded strata of classical composers. At Scratchcon…
When John Waters is at his best, as he is in his latest, Cecil B. Demented, he can drive you in in a way few filmmakers have ever managed to do. But recognizing that fact can sometimes be difficult in today’s market-driven context. In fact, for the first half-hour or…
In a perfect world, any documentary about televangelists narrated by RuPaul and a couple of sock puppets would be hailed as the unquestionable conceptual masterpiece of the year. Alas, those stodgy Academy voters just don’t understand cross-dressers, religious broadcasting or foot-warmers made to look like dogs. And so the best…
Despite its late summer release date — usually a sign of studio jitters — The Art of War is a mostly well-constructed action flick with a number of flashy, well-choreographed fight and chase scenes. Wesley Snipes stars as Neil Shaw, a supersecret operative of a supersecret “dirty tricks” agency, whose…
Make no mistake: The Cell is easily the most unforgettable film of a pedestrian, forgettable summer. You walk out of the theater grateful for the light and the heat; it is, in places, a rather chilling and claustrophobic film. In places, The Cell is also a rather dazzling film. There…
If growing up the fat Jewish kid in an otherwise Catholic Long Island neighborhood wasn’t enough to make Eddie Sarfaty anxious, recognizing that he was gay must surely have done the trick. Sarfaty has grown up to make all of the above work for him, however, as grist for the…
Now pushing two months old, the latest breeding success at Wildlife World Zoo has sturdy limbs, big, clunky paws, white fur, black stripes, and wide blue eyes set in a face that would make even William F. Buckley gush. But there’s one thing the young Panthera tigris tigris, a.k.a. white…
I have never read The Odyssey, A Tale of Two Cities, Pride and Prejudice, or, for that matter, the Bible. But I have read, from cover to cover, Occupation: Skateboarder, the just-published autobiography from Tony Hawk. I have never seen most of the films of Yasujiro Ozu, Robert Bresson, or…
The hottest thing about In Heat is the theater in which it’s playing. Sweatbox conditions prevail at Planet Earth, a fusty warehouse with no central cooling. I left the theater lightheaded, but not with glee over the program I’d just seen.A musical revue about love and sex, In Heat means…
As any Klump family member can tell you, this has been a hot summer for black comedians. Movies starring Martin Lawrence, the Wayans brothers and Eddie Murphy have already pulled down more than $300 million at the box office, and by the time Chris Rock’s remake of Heaven Can Wait…
Irish charm and British eccentricity are hot properties on this side of the pond — especially among U.S. moviegoers. Witness the phenomenal success here of The Secret of Roan Inish, in which a 10-year-old Irish girl finds her lost brother living among seals off her country’s rugged western coast, or…
Despite a subtly scintillating cast of characters played with pitch-perfect verve, London — in this case, working-class, unpretentious South London — is the main character of Michael Winterbottom’s gritty yet kindly Wonderland. Navigating the labyrinthine streets and suburbs charted in Laurence Coriat’s debut screenplay (which evolved under the title Snarl…
Can you hear me, Major Tom?We all know that Major Tom didn’t need years of intensive training and a doctorate in astrophysics to float around on a tin can far above the world. If it’s true that the song is some sort of drug-use metaphor, he didn’t even have to…
It’s one of those great movie moments: Andy Hardy (Mickey Rooney) turns to Betsy Booth (Judy Garland) and says, “I know, let’s put on a show.” They use old Mr. Smith’s barn for their elaborate musical revue. The show is such a hit that the kids raise all the money…
How did a nice, quiet girl from a small town in upstate New York find herself learning to speak fluent Mandarin Chinese, traipsing all over China and other parts of Asia like Indiana Jones and eventually landing in Phoenix, Arizona?Janet Baker, new curator of Asian art at Phoenix Art Museum,…
John Sankovich hasn’t once raised his voice, yet it booms above the clank and roar of the crowded restaurant where he’s dining. He’s discussing the 30-plus years he’s spent pacing local stages and — after a long hiatus — his return as the lead for In Mixed Company’s controversial Quills.Above…
There’s no explicable reason for the existence of The Replacements, which is to the football-film genre what Major League was to the baseball movie: sports rendered as sitcom (or Police Academy sequel). The Replacements, which takes as its cue the 1987 National Football League players’ strike, is stocked with every…
