When the MPAA handed Derek Cianfrance’s Blue Valentine an NC-17 rating this fall, cynics suggested that the so-called “kiss of death” was better publicity for the gently experimental marriage drama than anything famously crafty distributor Harvey Weinstein could buy. When the rating was reversed — downgraded to an R without…
Another Year, the 10th feature-length British soap written and directed by Mike Leigh, concerns a year in the life of Tom (Jim Broadbent) and Gerri (Ruth Sheen), the happiest post-middle-aged married couple in the whole of the London suburbs. Heading into their fifth decade together, Tom and Gerri are healthy…
A little more than two weeks should give you plenty of time to submit a short film for the 15th Annual Arizona State University Art Museum Short Film and Video Festival … given, you have a film to submit. The museum’s festival, held this year on April 23, features a…
Dissolute action-movie star Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff), first seen doing laps in his black Ferrari, has no destination in Somewhere, Sofia Coppola’s mood ring of celebrity lassitude. Coppola’s fourth feature, winner of the Golden Lion at Venice this year, is, at times, similarly aimless and empty. But those who groan…
Sofia Coppola had her 21st birthday party at the Chateau Marmont — a fact she had forgotten until Phil Pavel, the manager of the hotel, reminded her while she was there shooting her new film, Somewhere. It’s the first feature to be granted clearance to shoot extensively inside the rooms…
This week’s New Times print issue, The Year in Music & Film is a look back at Up on the Sun’s Nothing Not New project and the best in local music, as well as a survey of the best films to hit the silver screen in 2010. But what you…
Since we’re a heartbeat away from being sick to death of this month’s crop of Oscar-seeking masterpieces, we’ve decided to cast a quick glance forward to the 2011 films we’re excited to see. We’ve seen some of those below and make no promises for the others, but, as ever, we’re…
Many of my favorite films of the year are still awaiting wider release, so although this top 10 list wraps up my 2010, it can also serve as a guide to your 2011. My number one film, in fact, sneaks into New York just three days before the year ends:…
Every four years, the American people act en masse to send a message to the nation’s power brokers, and every four years, this vote is interpreted as a sign of the decline in taste, intelligence, and moral rectitude of the populace. Every four years, a Jackass movie opens at number…
Midnite Movie Mamacita is a household name around these parts, and she’s hoping her award-winning work translates into overflow crowds when she opens her very own cinema house. “Finally, after five years of programming [and] doing events at other people’s locations, I’m finally making the step to create my own…
Jason McClure and his father, Ron, own and operate Desert Valley Auto Parts, one of the largest auto salvage companies in the Southwest. Their lots in Casa Grande and North Phoenix are one acre (combined) and are home to more than 10,000 vehicles in a variety of conditions.Blame the numbers…
Just in time for the whole family to file into the multiplex on a silent Christmas night when there’s nowhere else to go: a return to the magnified dysfunction of the Focker household and the cozy glow of some paychecking celebrities. This began a decade ago in Meet the Parents,…
Boldly reanimating the comic Western that secured John Wayne his Oscar 41 years ago, the Coen brothers’ True Grit is well-wrought if overly talkative and seriously ambitious. Opening with a strategically abbreviated Old Testament proverb (“The wicked flee when none pursueth”), the film returns the Coens to the all-American sagebrush…
Local painter Jason Rudolph Peña liked Conan O’Brien so much he decided to paint him when Conan’s show was on hiatus early this year. He writes on his blog:I was always on [Conan’s] side during the late night wars and I hate to see his show get destroyed by NBC…
This week in reality-television meltdowns: Camille Grammer invited Allison DuBois to her dinner party for the latest episode of Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, aptly titled “Dinner Party From Hell.” DuBois, a Phoenix-based psychic/medium New Times profiled in 2008, achieved quasi-celebrity fame after the debut of Medium, a…
As we bid farewell to the year and look ahead to 2011, Jackalope Ranch contributors will bring you some greatest hits from 2010. We’ll start with a few favorite flicks, and who better to ask for a few pointers than the local lady of film, The Midnite Movie Mamacita (aka…
Besides doing fun relationship stuff like arguing about how to discipline our dog, New Times blogger Tyler Hughes and his girlfriend, Jackie Cronin, go to the movies.Tyler: So that was pretty good.Jackie: It was good, but it wasn’t as good as I had expected it to be. The trailers made…
Discovery Channel announced its lineup for the Fall 2011 season on its blog yesterday, including a new reality show based in Arizona called Desert Car Kings. The show features the McClure family that searches for and restores classic vehicles. The family owns Desert Valley Auto Parts in Phoenix, which is…
Jeff Bridges is God and, as image-captured from the original 1982 Tron, he’s also the devil in Disney’s mega-million-dollar reboot, Tron: Legacy. The notion of a tragically split persona might have been scripted to give the new movie a measure of emotional gravitas, but why bother with writing when Tron:…
A picnic for Anglophiles, The King’s Speech is a well-wrought, enjoyably amusing inspirational drama that successfully humanizes, even as it pokes fun at, the House of Windsor. The story — shy young prince is helped by irascible wizard to break an evil spell and lead his nation to glorious victory…
The Fighter is based on the true story of Lowell, Massachusetts light welterweight champ “Irish” Micky Ward, but, starring Boston working-class hero Mark Wahlberg, it plays as a Rocky-fied fairy tale for our time: Consigned to Palookaville, a sweet, unassuming boxer with more heart than brains steps up — all…
An odd duck of a romantic comedy from James L. Brooks, How Do You Know strays as far from a barrel of laughs as a writer-director formed by network television can get without losing his grip altogether. The movie’s rhythms are loose, disjointed, and peppered with strategic silences or half-finished…
