If Brecht had ever written a kiddy movie, it might have come out something like Chris Noonan’s Babe. Co-adapted by its producer, George Miller, from a book by Dick King-Smith, the 1995 Australian film about a runty but purehearted little pig who takes it into his head to work herding…
Is there anyone, save the amateur rappers over his show’s end credits, willing to admit that they like Jerry Springer? Somebody somewhere must, considering the enormous success of his syndicated TV talk show. But whether his devoted audience is likely to head down to the multiplex for a feature-length dose…
If you’re among those whose most frequent use of this publication is as a blanket, then a home-cooked feast or a chow-down at a fancy restaurant may not be in the cards for you this Turkey Day. If you’re wondering how you’re going to fill your belly or the bellies…
thursday november 26 It’s Thanksgiving, for heaven’s sake. Stay in, stuff your face, and lapse into a tryptophan-induced stupor in front of the tube. If, after showing your gratitude to the Powers That Be by gorging yourself on Earth’s bounty, you recover any energy later in the day, eat pie,…
thursday november 19 The 10th annual cultural shindig celebrating Phoenix’s relationship with its sister city of Grenoble, France, French Week ’98, continues Thursday, November 19; Friday, November 20; Saturday, November 21; and Sunday, November 22, at various locations. This week’s highlights include the dinner-theater event An Evening With Nostradamus, at…
There’s art in them thar hills. For the second year in a row, Sonoran Art League sponsors “Hidden in the Hills,” a studio tour and sale showcasing some of the northeast Valley’s best painters and sculptors. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, November 21; and the same hours Sunday,…
thursday november 12 Phoenix College’s theater-arts department continues its season with The Imaginary Invalid (Le Malade imaginaire), the last comic masterpiece of the great French dramatist Moliere, freely adapted by its director, Larry Soller. It’s the story of Argan, who is sure that he’s gravely ill, and who is encouraged…
The marquee is lighted and the front door is open, but the lobby of the Valley Art Theatre is empty. Outside, Mill Avenue is alive with the modest bustle of a Thursday evening in downtown Tempe. College kids, yuppies, panhandlers and cops are about their business. But with the possible…
thursday november 5 In Mixed Company kicks off its fifth season with the Southwest premiere of Someone’s Knocking, “an odd little comedy that takes an absurdist look at an agoraphobic American housewife . . . whose marriage and life change radically when Opportunity literally knocks on the door.” The company’s…
Trey Parker’s Cannibal! The Musical is, I think, the best live-action American movie musical of the ’90s. But such praise may actually be too faint–the film is better than most of the animated ones, too. I couldn’t remember three notes of any of the songs from Hercules or Mulan, but…
thursday october 29 Regarded as a “comic’s comic,” standup man Dave Attell, who’s been seen on Letterman and Conan, is also a veteran comedy writer whose credits include Saturday Night Live, The Jon Stewart Show and Everybody Loves Raymond. Attell takes the stage at 8 p.m. Thursday, October 29; 8…
A young couple arrives at a rural cemetery to decorate their father’s grave. Both thin and blond, they look like siblings. But they’re not–just amateur actors in a low-budget movie. Minutes into the visit, the brother, Johnny, begins to carp about having to visit the grave–he no longer even recalls…
In 1994’s The Monster (Il mostro), his last film to gain wide American release, the Italian writer/director/star Roberto Benigni put himself at the center of a mistaken-identity farce about a serial killer. In Life Is Beautiful (La vita e# bella), Benigni plays a wacky, high-spirited man who convinces his young…
When Montoya, one of the fearless vampire killers in John Carpenter’s Vampires, tells another character that nobody believes in the title creatures because nobody wants to, there’s no mistaking the ancestry of the line. It comes down, through two generations of horror films, from the moment in the original Dracula…
Know how to give CPR to a lizard? According to one of the illustrated handouts in the Arizona Red Cross Pet First Aid course, there are four steps. The first two are my personal favorites: 1. “Scoop lizard from pool”; and 2. “Shake out lizard.” Clear so far? From there…
thursday october 22 Coming at a time of growing curiosity and concern about the nature of the Valley’s own emerging urban sprawl, ASU’s Western Humanities conference will present a spectrum of bright talk about the cultures of cities, “Cities on the Edge,” which will view city culture through the varied…
It comes as no surprise to learn that Paul Devlin, the producer, director and editor of SlamNation, is an Emmy winner for his work on TV sports shows like NBC and CBS Olympic coverage and Extreme Games 101 on ESPN2. SlamNation is a documentary chronicle of the 1996 National Poetry…
thursday october 15 Arizona Opera opens its season with Lucia Di Lammermoor, Donizetti’s unforgettable, baleful 1835 tragedy of madness, murder and forced marriage–in reverse order–based on Sir Walter Scott’s 1819 novel The Bride of Lammermoor. Performances, in Italian with English surtitles, are at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, October 15; 7:30 p.m…
The hero of The Mighty–the title character, in fact–is an eighth-grader known by the nickname “Freak” (Kieran Culkin). His might isn’t physical–he’s a small, frail boy who suffers from a degenerative birth defect. His spine curves painfully, and he’s able to walk only with crutches and leg braces. But he…
thursday october 8 Wild ‘n’ crazy guy turned sophisticated humorist Steve Martin’s dramatization of an apocryphal 1904 meeting between Einstein and Picasso, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, opens the season for the state’s official professional theatrical entity, Arizona Theatre Company, in Center Stage at Herberger Theater Center, 222 East Monroe…
Even a good laugh needs an administrator. Chicago native Daniel Mer came to the Valley about four years ago to manage the then-ailing Tempe Improv. “It had been losing money for about two years, and they asked me to come out and help them turn things around,” says Mer, who…
Recently a woman I know in her early 20s–about the same age as Sarah Jacobson, the writer/director of Mary Jane’s Not a Virgin Anymore–told me that, though she was well-versed in films ranging from The In-Laws to Pretty in Pink to Tommy Boy, she had been chided by a friend…
