Five Summertime Fixes for Phoenix Movie Buffs

The movie theater is a great place to kill a few summer afternoon hours while catching up on some cinematic pop culture. But if you’re looking for a well-rounded experience to accompany your viewing, these five spots will have you fixed in no time. 1. The Dive-In: Swim up and…

SUPER 8: J.J. Abrams Takes it Old School

Besides doing fun relationship stuff like arguing about how to discipline their dog, New Times blogger Tyler Hughes and his girlfriend, Jackie Cronin, go to the movies. Jackie: I very rarely say this about movies but… I really, really liked Super 8. It was a throwback to all of those…

Super 8: J.J. Abrams Deploys Humor and Destruction In His Catastrophe Flick

A big-bang demolition derby, J.J. Abrams’ much-anticipated, greatly enjoyable Super 8 seems bound for box-office glory. Opening three weeks before July 4, this Steven Spielberg-produced, kid-centric 21st-century disaster flick could well hang in at theaters till the 10th anniversary of 9/11 — an event that haunts Abrams’ surefire blockbuster nearly…

Everything Must Go: Will Ferrell Sobers Up in Arcadia

When New Times blogger Michelle Martinez and her partner, musician E.J. Rodriguez, are not watching movies, they’re talking about them.They’ve even been known to stop a movie to discuss it. E.J.: For the longest time I thought of Will Ferrell as an overexposed actor who stretched his SNL skits out…

Movie Stars and Eggs in this Week’s Dinner and a Movie

Nothing goes better with a movie than dinner (and perhaps vise versa), which Chow Bella has all figured out. Dinner and a Movie pairs all sorts of films with themed recipes each week.Today features Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere starring Stephen Dorff, Elle Fanning, and Chris Pontius, who examine their own lives…

The Hangover Part II: The Wolfpack Wins in Bangkok

Besides doing fun relationship stuff like arguing about how to discipline their dog, New Times blogger Tyler Hughes and his girlfriend, Jackie Cronin, go to the movies. Tyler: The Wolfpack is back and this time they’re trading a weekend in Vegas for one night in Bangkok. I thought it was…

Midnight in Paris: Investigating the Problem of Time

A nebbishy screenwriter who longs to publish a novel, Gil (Owen Wilson) is tentatively working on a book set in a nostalgia shop — much to the open frustration of Inez (Rachel McAdams), his all-too-modern, rich-girl fiancée, who has a tendency to talk about him in catty, judgey tones as…

The Hangover Part II: Didn’t We Already See This Movie?

Most sequels are born of good box office rather than good ideas — if you build it and they come, you simply must build another one — but it’s hard to imagine a more calculating, creatively bankrupt piece of real estate than The Hangover Part II. Trade out Las Vegas…

Meek’s Cutoff Displays Fractured Trust in 19th-Century Oregon

Tenacious indie Kelly Reichardt has specialized in quirky, minimalist quasi-road movies in which loners come unmoored in some great American space. Meek’s Cutoff is that and more — one great leap into the 19th-century unknown. The members of a small wagon train crossing the Oregon Trail in 1845 follow their…

Cannes Outdoes Itself: Our Picks from the Strongest Festival in Years

CANNES, FRANCE — The last-day screening of Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s ruminative, challenging Once Upon a Time in Anatolia strengthened an exceptionally ambitious and coherent competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival — although Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life won the Palme d’Or, Ceylan’s late entry shared the second place…

13 Assassins: A Bloody Love Letter

When New Times blogger Michelle Martinez and her partner, musician E.J. Rodriguez, are not watching movies, they’re talking about them.They’ve even been known to stop a movie to discuss it. Michelle: At times, 13 Assassins was so violent, I had to close my eyes. There are just some things you…

The Upsetter: The Life and Music of Lee “Scratch” Perry

The Upsetter: The Life and Music of Lee “Scratch” Perry, which opens at Filmbar this week, is part chronicle Perry’s life, and part history of Reggae and Dub music (both pioneered by Scratch). Though Perry’s words are thickly slurred, often-subtitled, and clouded in a thick, low cloud of “smoke,” his…

Mel Gibson Goes Crazy for The Beaver

An earnest, intermittently droll dramedy about a manic-depressive toy manufacturer and his bewildered family, The Beaver is a parable that’s not easily parsed. While director Jodie Foster fails to maintain a consistent tone — could there be such a thing as inspirational satire? — the movie’s lopsided wobble is undeniably…

Cannes 2011 Has Issues

CANNES, FRANCE — Midway through the Cannes Film Festival, the competition has been all about family — more specifically all about parents (and parent surrogates) and their troubled children, many of both types pretty much from hell. Brad Pitt seems a good bet for red-carpet glory as the domineering autocrat…

Secret Museums at FilmBar

Erotic art has a history of being hushed, censored, or flat out destroyed.Secret Museums, playing at FilmBar for the rest of the week, is taking a more public approach. The subtitled documentary travels through the excavated streets of Pompeii, and the carefully guarded shelves of private collectors (and the hidden…

Napoleon Dynamite Gets Cartooned on FOX in 2012

FOX announced last night that Napoleon Dynamite will attempt a (hopefully doomed) animated comeback mid-season of next year. This just in: the nerdy, annoying, nasal-voiced cartoon character may also accelerate the apocalypse countdown. Buckle up…

Film Noir and Kettle Corn in This Week’s Dinner and a Movie

Nothing goes better with a movie than dinner (and perhaps vise versa), which Chow Bella has all figured out. Dinner and a Movie pairs all sorts of films with themed recipes each week.Today features The Third Man starring Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles, who find themselves in the middle of…

Bridesmaids: SNL Scribes Shine on the Silver Screen

Besides doing fun relationship stuff like arguing about how to discipline their dog, New Times blogger Tyler Hughes and his girlfriend, Jackie Cronin, go to the movies. Tyler: Going in to Bridesmaids, I was sure that you’d like this movie more than I would. I’m a big fan of SNL scribes…