Americano (MTI) Before he is due to take a high-powered corporate job, college graduate Chris (Joshua Jackson) heads off with two friends (Timm Sharp and Ruthanna Hopper) to Europe, where they end up in Pamplona for the running of the bulls. There, he encounters one of those saucy Latinas (Blade…
“Game Face: What Does a Female Athlete Look Like?” at Burton Barr Central Library: From start to finish, this inspirational exhibition defies convention. The collection of 182 color and black-and-white photographs depicts sportswomen of all ages, races and walks of life — from corseted, Victorian-era tennis players, to household names…
James Angel at Modified Arts: Artist James Angel is living proof that you can go home again. Faded, dusty road signs against a tea-stained neutral background evoke memories of family vacations in his Cosmopolitan, and the magically delicious breakfast cereal becomes a surface for “tagging” in Lucky G. But it’s…
There’s no question that Americans have a disturbing fascination with death. Why do we die? Is there an afterlife? These are some of the great mysteries of life. The quandary is that we cannot fully understand death until we experience it firsthand. For artist Petah Coyne, that isn’t a barrier…
In Nicole Holofcener’s first feature, 1996’s Walking and Talking, the writer/director warmly portrayed an adult female friendship, nudging at emotional issues without resorting to shtick or melodrama. Five years later, Holofcener’s Lovely & Amazing attempted to do the same for a family of women, but with wildly different results: Virtually…
The brain is a beguiling thing. One evening, you’re talking to a friend on the phone. Sometime later, you find yourself in a subway car, passing through an urban landscape. You don’t recognize the buildings, the neighborhood, or the city. Don’t know why you’re on the train. Don’t even know…
Believe it or not, The Benchwarmers is so lame that it can’t even lay claim to being the best Adam Sandler-produced movie not screened for critics in 2006; that dubious honor would go to Grandma’s Boy, which was by no means good but at least featured a kung-fu chimp and…
Their slogan “We make crack seem boring” may be only half true, but Male Pattern Radness certainly isn’t your average pop-rock duo. Billing themselves as an “acoustic fuck rock band,” former Applebee’s Grill & Bar waiters Ryan Lossing and Brandon Huigens have acquired a cult following in local clubs, where…
With scrappy warblers like Kellie Pickler and Bucky Covington trying to out-twang each other on American Idol, country music is hotter than a corn dog at a county fair. One reason is that almost anybody can sing it. Even mopes who argue that NASCAR isn’t a real sport have been…
Ellie Parker (Strand) This extremely raw portrait of an actress trying — and failing — to make it in Hollywood showcases Naomi Watts in a wrenching and sympathetic performance. Writer-director Scott Coffey shot the movie over nearly six years, beginning in 1999, before Watts was a household name. Though they…
Caved In: Prehistoric Terror (Lions Gate) The Dark (Sony) Death Cab for Cutie: Directions (Atlantic) Deep Blue (Miramax) Dora the Explorer: Dora’s First Trip (Paramount) 18 Fingers of Death (MCA) The Greatest Game Ever Played (Disney) Laugh or I’ll Shoot Collection: The Naked Gun, Airplane!, and Top Secret! (Paramount) The…
There’s a certain exuberance, a “you go, girl” spirit of defiance and self-reliance to the new Mo’Nique vehicle Phat Girlz that’s undeniably appealing — and likely to be especially so for its target audience of overweight women. (This is assuming they see it, which the box-office numbers so far seem…
Laura Durant is a triple threat of a different kind: a film and stage actor who also markets and photographs local theater productions. When she isn’t onstage (as she was last month as Rosie the Riveter in Sentimental 1940s Journey at the Herberger) or appearing in films (most recently opposite…
It’s difficult to tell from the image on the poster for Take the Lead, but that’s not star Antonio Banderas dancing in blue silhouette. In fact, the movie isn’t even about Banderas dancing — it’s about Banderas teaching teenagers to dance. You’d think that might be a dream come true…
You may not yet have lost your ardor and respect for the pressure-point hammer blow Quentin Tarantino executed on American movies, but it’s difficult at this late date not to view him as an imperative inoculation with unfortunate side effects: gas, bloating, dizziness, delusions of cleverness. Imitators flock when coolness…
There’s imported-film minimalism, and then there’s this: Fernando Eimbcke’s feature debut Duck Season, a daringly banal comedy of ennui set almost entirely in a middle-class Mexico City flat. Knocking them dead at festivals and at the Mexican Ariel Awards, where it enjoyed a Ben-Hur-like sweep, Eimbcke’s movie could become the…
There might be something that David Ira Goldstein loves more than theater: Perhaps his wife; possibly his cats; maybe a good game of golf. But you’d never know it watching Arizona Theatre Company’s world première of Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure, which ATC artistic director Goldstein has helmed. This sublime…
On paper, Black sounds like a sure hit: Criterion Studios (the developer behind the spectacular Burnout games) designs a first-person shooter that does away with all that boring sneaking and instead focuses on the pure pyrotechnic appeal of a Hollywood-style gun battle. The game promised sub-woofer-rattling explosions, frantic gunfire in…
The Mel Brooks Collection(Fox) Talk about taking the good with the bad; how else to describe a boxed set containing Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein (Brooks’ silly masterpieces), and Robin Hood: Men in Tights and History of the World, Part 1 (both overrated, even by people who can’t stand them)…
Jesus Christ Superstar: Who in the world does He think He is? He’ll tell you — in song! — if you’ll get yourself down to Desert Stages Theatre. Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s famed musical is here again, resurrected just in time for Easter. And Passover! Lloyd Webber’s tuneful…
Bee Season (Fox) Best of 3rd Rock From the Sun (Anchor Bay) The Big Question (THINKFilm) Bustin’ Bonaparte (Freestyle) Dawson’s Creek: The Complete Sixth Season (Sony) Dirty (Sony) The Fallen (Anthem) Far Side of the Moon (TLA) Gorillaz: Demon Days Live (Virgin) Judges (Anthem) Little Manhattan (Fox/Regency) Liza With a…
The Andy Milonakis Show: The Complete First Season (MTV) Another Public Enemy (Tartan) A Boy Named Charlie Brown (Paramount) Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King (Sony) Doctor Who: The Beginning Collection (BBC Warner) Don’t Deliver Us From Evil (Mondo Macabre) Godzilla: The Series (Sony) Hot Wheels (Warner Bros.) I Love Your…
