You thought high school theater teachers spent their summers far from the madding crowd, but you were wrong. Jennifer E. Ruddle, who instructs budding thespians at Glendale’s Sandra Day O’Connor High School, is proof that theater profs stick to the stage, even in their off-hours; she spent her summer directing…
World Trade Center is about just that — the attacks on, and the collapse of, the twin towers on September 11, 2001. But 45 minutes in, a viewer might easily forget the movie is set during that nightmarish day. There is little talk of terrorism and scant suggestion that a…
Like the shambling VW van its hapless characters steer from Albuquerque to Redondo Beach, Little Miss Sunshine is a rickety vehicle that travels mostly downhill. How this antic extended sitcom from first-time feature makers Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris left Sundance with an eight-figure deal and reams of enthralled press…
Snort a few lines of Fame, screen Save the Last Dance a couple of times, and channel what you’ve learned through the bad-ass pose of a second-rate Eminem and you get Step Up, a dance romance with the originality of a paint-by-numbers set. First-time director Anne “Mama” Fletcher, the choreographer…
Countless are the creative souls who struggled with mental illness, as are the novels and films dedicated to them. Again and again, we’ve encountered artists both inspired and undermined by their madness, whose torment and tumult produce works of beauty and depth. So can a documentary about a singer-songwriter and…
I Do! I Do! is a musical with a beard a mile long, which is almost certainly why it’s part of Theater Works’ summer stock season. This 20-year-old troupe caters mostly to the blue-hairs of Sun City, where “risky” means any show in which someone turns up in a peignoir…
In 2004, Jason Hall, the head of Warner Bros.’ new videogame division, did something remarkable: He promised to end bad movie tie-ins. By then, gamers had become well acquainted with the suckiness of movie-based games. Ever since Atari’s E.T. — a game so bad, tons of unsold copies were buried…
Brick (Universal) Rian Johnson’s feature debut as writer-director will wind up as one of the year’s best films. A film noir set in a modern-day high school, it’s Sam Spade roaming Ridgemont High; kids get doped up and knocked up and even rubbed out while speaking pulp-novel slang, but the…
Proof: Fountain Hills Community Theatre leapt to the fore and rescued Is What It Is Theatre’s doomed swan song after its own theater space was sold out from under the troupe. The result is a short, single-weekend run of David Auburn’s family drama, which takes its name from a mathematical…
Adam and Steve (TLA) Back Woods (Terror Vision) Beautiful People: The Complete Series (Sony) Clone (Image) Damon Wayans’ Last Stand (Fox) Frat Boy Collection (Fox) Gilles’ Wife (Koch Lorber) Ghost in a Teeny Bikini (Image) Grounded for Life: Season 3 (Anchor Bay) The Hidden Blade (Tartan) Inside Man (Universal) Jayne…
Lascivious ladies, get your ya-yas — and dead presidents — out for Girls Night Out featuring America’s Most Wanted Male Revue, in which the AMW hunks flex their pecs and shake their moneymakers for your pleasure. Fridays, 7:30-10 p.m.; Saturdays, 7-9 p.m., 2006…
Skin events are hot during the Valley summer. Hell, skin events are hot all the damned time. That’s why Pat O’s Bunkhouse Saloon invites all promiscuous persons to Underwear Night. Strip down or just show up in your undies and shake it all out to DJ Doom’s house beats. Thursdays,…
Third Annual “Mail Art Show” at the Trunk Space: Exhibiting donated art sent via postal mail can be a risky proposition, but the Trunk Space has managed to solicit an interesting, eclectic selection. Highlights include decoupage matchbooks, a Medusa tee shirt and a postcard from a child inscribed with a…
There is no modern-day antecedent to the movies Will Ferrell makes with writer-director Adam McKay, with whom Ferrell collaborated during their tenure at Saturday Night Live only a few years ago. To compare their offerings, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and the new Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky…
What’s the difference between a good liar and a good storyteller? The answer, or the lack of an answer, is a mystery at the heart of The Night Listener, a muted psychological thriller adapted from the Armistead Maupin novel. A writer’s elaborate what-if scenario extrapolated from an anecdote, it’s presented…
Monster’s Ball producer Lee Daniels makes his directorial debut with Shadowboxer, and it couldn’t be clearer that he’s trying to follow his previous formula for success. Oscar-caliber actors? Check. Interracial sex? Plenty. A violent demise or two, all in the service of character development? Oh yes. But Daniels maybe could…
It seldom fails. Every year, we’ll get a movie that doesn’t necessarily have a remarkable plot or director, but does feature an aging master (or mistress) thespian from the U.K., whom one might assume is an automatic shoo-in for an award nomination, ensuring eternal recognition for the movie at hand…
It’s no secret that documentaries have finally gained some currency in the American media. With the help of Michael Moore, Morgan Spurlock, and a very cold bunch of penguins, docs have increased their audiences by railing against injustices, exposing political and corporate malfeasance, and inviting us into hidden worlds. Naked…
The old Lucas/Spielberg stunt of turning B-movie peekaboos into E-ticket thrill rides remains the industry standard — to the virtual exclusion of other multiplex fare, particularly when school’s out. But as not every kid who remade Raiders in Super 8 either gave up the dream or morphed into Michael Bay,…
Deb Baker swears it’s a coincidence that her newest murder mystery, Dolled Up for Murder — her second for Berkley Books — is set in Phoenix. From her home in Wisconsin, the author says she didn’t even know there were serial killers here, and insists there’s nothing so odd about…
Christy Puetz, 36, is as colorful a character as the beaded dolls she creates. Her downtown Phoenix apartment, which doubles as a studio, is crammed with large-scale paintings and prints she has bartered her own artwork for. She sits, cross-legged and calm, in the inner sanctum of her bedroom, wearing…
Native American heroes are a rare commodity in videogames. Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, released a decade ago, is the most prominent example. Now Turok finally has company. The best way to describe Prey is “Doom meets Cherokee mysticism.” And while most critics are fawning over this first-person action/horror title, don’t believe…
