Ravenous is a film-shaped UFO: It’s so delightfully weird that its very existence defies logic. Imagine a film that makes A Modest Proposal–style satire out of Dracula’s gothic horror tropes in the spaghetti western milieu of The Great Silence. It’s a pitch-black comedy about Manifest Destiny and cannibal frontiersmen. Set…
Recently, Star Wars fans, along with much of the planet’s pop-culture collective, nearly ruptured the Internet in their enthusiasm to share set-building photos from next year’s long-awaited new feature film. But these weren’t shots of just any set. They depicted the construction of the Millennium Falcon. You’ve never heard of…
Fortunately, Herb Gardening for Beginners at Desert Botanical Garden doesn’t consist of us telling stories about episodes like that time Herb Gardening took us to see Hal Holbrook as Mark Twain. Instead, it’s a class that includes mystical, medicinal, and culinary lore of these tiny, intensely aromatic veggies that enhance…
The Arizona Diamondbacks are having a tough year. Mark Trumbo, the team’s best offseason acquisition, was leading the National League in homers before going on the disabled list early in the season. Patrick Corbin, one of the few bright spots amongst a lackluster pitching squad, underwent ‘Tommy John’ surgery in…
The most radical thing about this eco-terrorism drama is its quiet patience and formal vigor. While most studio pictures slap together their images with all the care of a grocery-store deli clerk assembling the ham and carrots on a cheapo party platter, Kelly Reichardt, the director of Night Moves, favors…
Violette is a film consumed by hunger, as was its heroine, the French writer Violette Leduc: hunger for love, for companionship, for artistic validation. Portrayed with flickering levels of ferocity by the supple-faced Emmanuelle Devos, Leduc forcefully grasps at potential paramours and sucks down cigarettes with the intensity of a…
Romances are Hollywood’s most anxiety-inducing fantasy. Like superhero flicks or horror films, they exist in a phony world of big scenes and breathtaking climaxes. But while audiences know that geeks can’t meld with spiders and that the bogeyman isn’t real, they still hope to fall in love and, boy, it’d…
Everyone knows that Independence Day falls on the Fourth of July. But there’s a different kind of freedom that’s celebrated on June 19. Juneteenth is a commemoration of the spreading of the news of the abolition of slavery in 1865, specifically in the state of Texas and generally throughout the…
Fancy yourself a DIY-er or maybe just hardcore? Check out this hands-on metalworking class at downtown’s shop on the corner and community garden. Chris E. Reesing, a Tempe-based artist, is more or less GROWop’s go-to gal when it comes to all things metal — she’s taught at the boutique’s Third…
Buying tickets to watch a sports team is, essentially, gambling with your happiness. It pays off if the team you’re rooting for wins. If they lose, then you just paid money to watch something that left you disappointed and perhaps (depending on your level of fanaticism) depressed. If you’re looking…
To paraphrase that swingin’ dude, Friedrich Nietzche, stare long into the abyss and the abyss stares into you. An American expedition team tries to contain a mysterious life form before it harms them first in The Thing, on Saturday, June 21.John Carpenter’s 1982 sci-fi horror masterwork features Kurt Russell and…
Hate to break it to you, dancing queen, but you ain’t got nothing on the in-motion maniacs moving through Phoenix’s thriving dance scene. Truth hurts, we know. But you can move and shake vicariously through the many performers featured in beta, an evening of new choreography from some of the…
Of all the guys we know whose last name sounds like a Toyota model, Adam Carolla is definitely the most impressive. Just check out these bona fides: Loveline (very useful sex info). The Man Show (genius). Crank Yankers (hilarious, if you’re into that kind of thing). Catch a Contractor (like…
Ever since Apple introduced all of us to Siri, the once lucrative business of clairvoyance has been reeling. Not really. But for most of us it’s not much of a stretch. After all, why would we pay a psychic to tell us the meaning of love and life when our…
An ability to play an instrument doesn’t mean you can bowl. Still, a bevy of local musicians will be doing just that at the fourth “somewhat annual” Phoenix Independents Bowl bowling tournament hosted by Psyko Steve Presents’ Steve Chilton, who created the event upon discovering how few local artists actually…
“Yes, but beyond happiness what is there? The question has not yet been answered.” But perhaps it will be explored as Arizona’s first-ever poet laureate, Alberto Rios, speaks in Tempe this month. The award-winning author and poet who has written 10 books, three short-story collections, and a memoir, has made…
Maybe you know the difference between a bell sleeve and a batwing, but your fashion knowledge most definitely doesn’t stand up to that of Dennita Sewell — even in stilettos.Lucky for Louboutin lovers and aspiring walking encyclopedias, Sewell, who serves as Phoenix Art Museum’s fashion curator, will serve up samples…
Yup, time to talk about Neil Simon again. After decades of comedies rendered anathema by bad amateur productions, the playwright created a series of autobiographical shows that are funny, less-overexposed tours de force. One of the best, part of what’s known as the Eugene trilogy, continues through Sunday, August 10,…
Actors Theatre embraces the leisurely, peripatetic nature of Phoenix summer with two comedies in rep: faux-British, faux-roaring-’20s farce The Cottage, opening Friday, June 27, and Karen Zacarias’ The Book Club Play, alternating with it through Sunday, August 17. Not just another way to use that cheese platter prop, Zacarias’ contemporary…
It’s time to do a little digging. This summer the Arizona Science Center is unwrapping the mysteries of ancient Egyptian culture with the feature exhibition “Lost Egypt: Ancient Secrets, Modern Science.” This traveling exhibition, created by the Science Museum of Minnesota, lets attendees explore the history and practices of a…
We learned a lot from frequently viewing the Jim Carrey movie The Mask as children. But the main takeaway? We all wear masks, metaphorically speaking. That’s a direct, quasi-deep quote from the film, spoken by Carrey’s much-needed therapist. Of course, Carrey wore a very literal mask (with ancient magic powers)…
UPDATE: ASU Art Museum has named Garth Johnson as Peter Held’s successor. ASU Art Museum announced on Wednesday, June 18, that longtime ceramics curator Peter Held will retire. Held has been with the museum for 11 years and has curated more than 100 exhibitions through the Ceramics Research Center, which…
