There are so many reasons Desert Stages Theatre’s production of A Man of No Importance shouldn’t work: the cramped quarters of the company’s Actor’s Café space, into which this odd musical has been squeezed; the mostly amateur cast; an unusual, time-bending script; the curse that blights most all stage musicals…
It happened almost with the first step off the airplane at the Toronto airport last month. Someone, a friend or merely a concerned stranger, would stop to warn you of impending peril. They would plead with you to avoid the danger ahead in Elizabethtown, the Cameron Crowe film that screened…
Good Night, and Good Luck, a riveting movie that’s as entertaining as it is socially and politically important, could not have come at a more propitious time. But more than just the right film at the right moment, George Clooney’s sophomore directorial effort is dynamic filmmaking: brilliantly conceived, visually arresting,…
Her name is Domino Harvey, and she is a bounty hunter. If you’ve seen even one TV spot or theatrical trailer for Domino, you’ve heard that message ground into your brain like an annoying jingle. What you may not know is that Domino Harvey was a real person, daughter of…
Cineastes swooned over Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai’s 2000 film In the Mood for Love, a slow-as-molasses melodrama about two tediously formal people whose spouses are having an affair with one another. Thrown together by circumstances, they find themselves falling in love but, determined not to emulate their cheating…
Elijah Wood is not a believable tough guy. Probably this comes as no great revelation to you. There’s a reason that the Lord of the Rings video games tend to focus on Aragorn, Legolas and Gandalf — Wood’s Frodo is a wuss, and everybody knows it. So any movie that’s…
It’s the cover-up, stupid! It doomed Nixon during Watergate, got Clinton impeached, inspired outrage against the Catholic Church, and apparently it’s just part of the day-to-day operations at places like Enron and Tyco. The initial crime is bad enough, but the conspiracy to hide it always ends up hurting more…
“I recently got a tattoo that says ‘bleep’ on my forehead,” says William Arntz, one of the filmmakers behind the blockbuster docu-movie What the #$*! Do We Know!? Arntz is joking, but given the immense fan base behind the film, which explores, through quantum physics, the idea that the mind…
The Arizona State Fair is known for rodeos, midway rides, music, and . . . spreadable art? Yep, you heard it right. This year’s fair features “The Lost Cow” butter sculpture by California artist Sarah Nep. Nep’s specialty is cheese sculpture, and she made her first foray into fromage after…
SUN 10/16″Poetry readings are boring. This is a rock show compared to poetry readings,” says Mary “Bone Mama” McCann, who will perform her high-octane sound poems at the Noisy by Nature book-release party on Sunday, October 16, at Modified Arts, 407 East Roosevelt Street. This definitely ain’t your ordinary “I…
SAT 10/15f you’re tooling around in Tempe on Saturday, October 15, and see a screaming horde running around and tearing its collective hair out, don’t fret; it’s not Godzilla rising from the abyssal depths of Town Lake, but a high-concept affair called High Trek Adventure. The homage to TV’s Amazing…
SAT 10/15There you are, surrounded by models from Maxim, FHM, and Playboy, all wearing butt-floss bikini bottoms. The smell of burning rubber permeates the air and, out of a fog of custom-car exhaust, Maxim “Top 10 Hottie” Martina Andrews materializes. She leans over your table with her firm, perfectly symmetrical…
SAT 10/15You don’t need testosterone to make hardcore music hard. Though it’s always been implied that the ol’ punk-rock “oi” be sung by a boy, the sixth annual GoGirlsMusicFest 2005 tour dishes up acts that chuck tradition into a pile of discarded Britney Spears CDs. The music fest offers a…
THU 13Many stogies will be smoked, cocktails consumed and hors d’oeuvres devoured at Doggy Style — a guys-night-out affair scheduled for 7 to 10 p.m. Thursday, October 13, at Phoenix Greyhound Park, 3801 East Washington Street. Though the event targets the high-testosterone crowd, it’s open to bash-crashers of all genders…
Alicia Keys: Unplugged (J) Audioslave: Live in Cuba (Sony Music) The Best of the Chris Rock Show: Volumes 1 and 2 (Warner Bros.) Bomb the System (UMVD) The Bridge of San Luis Rey (Warner Bros.) The Dresden Dolls: Paradise (Fontana) 11:14 (Warner Bros.) The Ellen DeGeneres Collection: The Beginning/Here &…
1. Start out as a more-than-slightly neurotic child, perhaps with a nervous tic or a speech impediment — or at least as a kid whose parents are divorcing. Having an emotionally distant father and/or alcoholic mother is helpful, too. Homosexuality is a definite plus. Start small: Reenact toothpaste commercials in…
Director Curtis Hanson, a journeyman only recently bestowed the title of Great Director, has already made his horror movie (1973’s The Arousers), his kiddy action comedy (1980’s The Little Dragons), his teen sex romp (1983’s Losin’ It), his handful of Hitchcock riffs (1987’s The Bedroom Window, 1990’s Bad Influence, and…
All the publicity for Waiting . . . has focused on the scene in which an annoying customer at the fictional chain restaurant ShenaniganZ sends her food back to the kitchen, where it meets with all sorts of nasty modifications, courtesy of some dandruff, pubic hair, and mucus. The teaser…
Ah, Wallace and Gromit. Who doesn’t get a little lift at the sound of those names? Who doesn’t feel the edges of her mouth begin to tickle toward a smile, her heart grow warmer with images of the love between a (plasticine) man and his (plasticine) dog? Perhaps you’re not…
Crónicas’ biggest claim to fame ought to be that it was Ecuador’s submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, but what most people tend to notice is that it stars John Leguizamo. Mixed messages ensue: “Oscar submission” makes one think of quality, while John Leguizamo’s name inspires visions of…
Tania Katan has no boobs, but don’t cry for her. The ASU grad turned Renaissance woman has overcome dual mastectomies, transforming herself from a “nerdy 21-year-old” lesbian just trying to get laid into an author, performance artist, topless 5K runner, topless dancer wanna-be, and raconteur deluxe. She lost her first…
Showcase nudity or violence at an art exhibit and you’ll pack a large gallery, but mention “contemporary art” and you’re relegated to a tiny, one-room studio in the basement. But contemporary art has climbed out of the aesthetic cellar in recent years, thanks in part to the PBS documentary series…
