In hindsight, the 1984 hit Footloose — starring Kevin Bacon and directed by Herbert Ross — along with its contemporary Flashdance, can be seen as the link between the old Hollywood model of a let’s-put-on-a-show musical, based on original songs brought to life in elaborate choreographed numbers, and the later…
Recent research suggests that swearing — as in cursing, cussing, or unleashing any stream of invective that newspaper comics would render as furious punctuation — is something more than a reflex response to life’s agonies. It might actively help to relieve those agonies. If that’s the case, then maybe it’s…
Getting into a car accident was probably the best thing that ever happened to George Lindell. After the 46-year-old local house painter was involved a nasty wreck in North Phoenix last month, he provided a extremely over-the-top interview to FOX 10 that’s been described as the “best crazy car accident description”…
A procedural on the political manipulation of medium and message, George Clooney’s fourth directorial effort is bookended with scenes of media-op prepping. In the first, Stephen Myers (Ryan Gosling), a 30-year-old campaign adviser to Democratic presidential candidate Mike Morris (Clooney), fills in for his boss at the sound check for…
Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman) is a two-bit trainer traveling the state fair circuit in a not-too-distant future. His line is robot fighting, a sport that has absorbed the audience for boxing, MMA, and, apparently, demolition derby. After a tough match leaves Charlie ‘bot-less, he gets news that his ex-girlfriend, with…
John Sayles’ Amigo aspires more to educate than entertain, but it’s no less engrossing for that. Torn from the pages of history, if not those of Sayles’ recently published, epic turn-of-the-20th-century novel A Moment in the Sun, the movie harks back to America’s first real imperial adventure — the bloody…
Buckle up, Lucille, Arrested Development is back from the dead. Creator of the short-lived but much loved series Mitch Hurwitz announced the good news at the New Yorker Festival last night: The cult comedy will return to the silver screen for a single season. The better news: after the season concludes, the highly dysfunctional…
You might not have gathered from the first three minutes of Paris’ YouTube video detailing his history of homelessness and passion for ping pong that he’s more than just what meets the eye. But no need to sit through the soft-lensed four minutes for him to spell it out for…
As any pop culture nut or film buff will tell you, movie posters are cool things to collect. Just ask local graphic designer Victor Moreno, whose residence is filled with framed one-sheets for cinematic classics and cult films.”A classic movie poster has a way of drawing you into the film’s…
A church may seem like an odd spot for a screening of a documentary about American mall culture, but this Tuesday, Steve Weiss will pull down the screen, set up the projector, and open the doors to Downtown’s Trinity Cathedral for a special viewing of MALLS R US. Weiss, who…
One single scene captures the tricky tonal balance of Jonathan Levine’s cancer comedy 50/50. Adam, the straight-edge radio producer played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, has just finished his first round of chemotherapy. It was tough, but the kindly gents IV’d next to him (Philip Baker Hall and Matt Frewer) made it…
Yes, I really do think Real Steel looks like a Hollywood adaptation of the 1964 toy Rock’em Sock’em Robots. Halfway through the trailer, I half expected to see Hugh Jackman’s mechanical counterpart uppercut his opponent’s block right off his shoulders with a white, clanking spine piece still protruding from the body. A…
Cashing in on the (ever younger) nostalgia market is proving to be seriously lucrative. There’s a Footloose reboot, a ’90s music revival (note: not sugary pop, but moody grunge), and dressing like Seinfeld’s Elaine Benes is all the rage. It’s easy to ignore or honestly be unaware of the majority…
This Wednesday, Bennett Miller, director of the films Capote and Moneyball, will chat with film students and fans about his time behind the big screen via Skype technology and another big screen set up this Wednesday at ASU. Miller will be participating in a Q&A after a screening of Capote…
There was something oddly noncommittal about the first trailer for Moneyball: It couldn’t hide the fact that it was at its core a sports film, but it seemed to reach out to any and all potential audiences, inviting them to find whatever they wanted within its many facets — even…
There’s no shortage of major studio movies coming out this fall. This weekend, Moneyball (starring Brad Pitt) comes out, and October will see the release of Paranormal Activity 3 and remakes of The Thing and Footloose.But if you’re not interested in seeing yet another remake of an old blockbuster, or…
Daniel Zana’s documentary The Vinyl Frontier is one helluva toy story. The neophyte filmmaker spent almost two years creating this epic documentary, which screens at FilmBar on Monday evening and is devoted to the madness and mania behind the designer toy craze…
When they’re not doing awesome relationship stuff like watching endless loops of 30 Rock episodes on Netflix and figuring out what a vegan and omnivore should make for dinner, New Times writers Becky Bartkowski and Jason Woodbury go to the movies.Last night they went to see Footloose. Yup, a remake of the…
At the time of this writing, the Oakland Athletics sit at a distant third in the American League West, 18 games behind the Texas Rangers managed by Ron Washington, once the first-base coach under A’s wonderboy Billy Beane. The A’s have not had a winning season since making the playoffs…
Sometimes it’s easier for life to imitate art than vice versa — witness French cartoonist Joann Sfar’s first feature, an ambitious attempt to cage the career of legendary French singer-songwriter-scamp Serge Gainsbourg (1928-91), né Lucien Ginsburg, within the confines of a commercial showbiz biopic. Sfar’s Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life is…
Comedian Daniel Tosh apparently had a wild and memorable time during his visit to Tempe and Arizona State University last week. The ASU-centric episode of Tosh.0 aired last night on Comedy Central documenting his recent “Campus Invasion Tour” and was filled with some pretty funny bits. Over the course of…
Businesses may close, but nostalgia never dies.The Scottsdale 6 drive-in closed last week after more than 34 years, but that doesn’t mean there’s nowhere to go in the Valley for a slice of drive-in Americana. For starters, there’s William LeGoullon’s exhibition of drive-in theater photographs, “Intermission,” opening at Bokeh Gallery…
