Ink still wet on his MIT degree, Matt Franklin (Topher Grace) is back in hometown Los Angeles, waiting for his future to clarify itself while he loiters behind the counter at Suncoast Video, hawking VHS copies of Harry and the Hendersons because it’s, like, totally 1988. Inspiration comes when Matt…
There’s a lot of things you can easily do in two days’ time: do your laundry, get the yard work done, or maybe even read that book you’ve been putting off for the past three years. Making a short film in that time however, is pretty challenging if not downright…
Right as Alaina is about to burst into tears, a torrential rainstorm begins outside. It sounds like something out of a movie … and it was on Sunday morning on the set of Paranoia. Paranoia’s a locally filmed and produced feature-length movie about a woman named Alaina who’s undergoing experimental…
In preparation for the 83rd Annual Academy Awards (this Sunday, Feb. 27) and the booze-filled parties, we’ve come up with a few pairings of our own. Yesterday we tackled five film/cocktail duos and today we bring you five more. One cocktail for each best picture — some known, some completely…
Besides going thrift store shopping and drinking excessive amounts of iced coffee, New Times blogger Megan Dobransky and her ninja city employee friend, Martha Falbo, go to the movies. (Actually, this is the first time they’ve ever gone to a movie together.) Megan: So, should we talk about the movie…
Don’t be fooled when you sit down for Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo. You’re not in for a Godzilla-type, ass-kicking, beetle taking over Japan’s famous mega-city; You’re actually in for something much better.Writer-director-producer Jessica Oreck’s debut film opens with a Japanese boy in an insect shop begging his dad fork over…
The Farrellys dutifully fulfill their raunch and goo quotients. Rick and Fred (Owen Wilson and Jason Sudeikis) are two domesticated husbands whose long marriages (to Jenna Fischer and Christina Applegate, respectively) have achieved somnolent routine in suburban Providence, Rhode Island. Yet the wives worry. Rick is a girl watcher; Fred…
Paramount, distributor of David O. Russell’s The Fighter, celebrated the helmer’s Best Director Oscar nomination by placing a “For Your Consideration” ad on the cover of Variety, touting him as “the comeback of the year.” It was an odd choice of phrasing, considering that The Fighter, Russell’s first feature to…
In preparation for the 83rd Annual Academy Awards (this Sunday, Feb. 27) and the booze-filled parties, we’ve come up with a few pairings of our own. One cocktail for each best picture — some known, some completely invented (the cocktails, that is). So sit down and grab some popcorn, or…
Nothing goes better with a movie than dinner (and perhaps vise versa). That’s why we’re so excited about a new series by our foodie sister blog, Chow Bella. Dinner and a Movie pairs all sorts of films with themed recipes each week. And today, they picked A Soldier’s Story, starring…
To age brutishly is Liam Neeson’s apparent career goal — with Taken, Clash of the Titans, The A-Team, and now Unknown, the actor continues to follow the Nicolas Cage path from respected thespian to big-budget ass-kicker. In this tepid thriller from Jaume Collet-Serra (Orphan), Neeson is Dr. Martin Harris, who,…
Fresh from Sundance, Miguel Arteta’s amiable Cedar Rapids is a mild comedy of embarrassment, set in the dark heart of Middle America and starring sitcom secondario Ed Helms (The Office’s obnoxious angry salesman Andy Bernard) as Tim Lippe, a prematurely middle-aged man-child. Taking an airplane for the first time in…
It took William Storey 15 years to tell his wife, Lee, that as a young adult, he was a member of Up With People. And when he sat her down to tell her, he was met with a blank stare. Lee Storey had no idea what he was talking about…
The Eagle, directed by Kevin Macdonald and adapted from Rosemary Sutcliff’s 1954 historical novel, The Eagle of the Ninth, a bestselling tale of second-century Roman legions and youthful derring-do on the far side of Hadrian’s Wall, is a thunderous boys’ adventure of the old-school type — there’s not a female…
In past years, the theatrical release of the Oscar-nominated live-action and animated shorts has provided a fun peek into intriguing bite-size cinema from across the globe. But for the 2011 edition, the series is at last making room for the five nominated documentary shorts as well. Unfortunately, this year’s nonfiction…
The Super Bowl XLV’s over and we’re just happy our team in yellow pants made it through the halftime show. If you need to catch up on a recap, check out this back and forth on Valley Fever. The game was intense — unexpected touchdowns, a few pathetic incomplete passes…
If you’ve ever watched TLC’s horror-inducing show, My Strange Addiction, or seen the previews and thought about watching it, you might be a little messed up. Not that we can judge — it’s hard to look away from one of television’s largest and most fascinating train wrecks that only supports…
It’s that time of year again: Football fans are flocking to electronic stores around the Valley to pick up the largest HDTV for the Big Game. But if you want to save yourself a few bucks, dishes and lonely victory dances this Sunday, check out a few of these local…
In Mike Cahill’s Another Earth — a multiple prize-winner at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and one of two titles movies OR titles (to avoid rep of “film”) co-written by and starring the festival’s biggest breakout, Brit Marling — both hope and anxiety follow the discovery of Earth 2, a…
Being Human’s a funny little show that premiered January of last year on BBC and is now on its third season in the United Kingdom. While the original series is still running has 15 episodes under its belt, U.S.-based SyFy pounced on the idea and decided to run a remake…
Tyler: Alright, well, I’m not sure where to start with The Rite …Jackie: How about we start with the best part, Anthony Hopkins who plays Father Lucas Trevant.Tyler: Alright, I can agree with that. Hopkins’ performance was really the best part. He is the only reason that I wanted to…
Capes, top hats, goggles, and plasma cannons may seem like extravagant outerwear for a Sunday morning, but was in fact the standard at the downtown Phoenix filming of the steampunk miniseries Mantecoza. Mantecoza is a steampunk/fantasy miniseries in which an ordinary office worker named Sebastian King comes upon a magic…
