Thinking about contemporary war movies, it’s hard to bring to mind one that doesn’t offend some group or another. If it’s a “war is hell” movie like Platoon, there’ll invariably be those who decry it as unpatriotic. If it’s oversentimentalized, like We Were Soldiers, someone will complain that it glorifies…
Someone’s got to say it, so let’s start here: We’ve underestimated Will Ferrell. Honestly, it wasn’t that hard to do. His Saturday Night Live stint was never hugely impressive, as he’d often fall back on the same shtick of yelling his lines with detailed enunciation in a passive-aggressive tone that…
Death, O Death spared me over for another year now I can attend the ninth annual Buckeye Bluegrass Festival. The popular three-day event at Pat and Dale Parker’s Eagle Mountain Ranch will feature a revue of 20 bands, headlined by rising bluegrass stars. The members of Goldwing Express from Branson,…
Thursday, 27Like a belated but welcome valentine, Arizona Opera brings Gaetano Donizetti’s opera The Elixir of Love to Symphony Hall starting Thursday, February 27. The romantic comedy portrays a young villager’s pursuit of a wealthy beauty, and the mishaps that occur when he procures a mysterious love potion. Set in…
Culte du Feu’s latest offering is part performance art, part circus freak show, part magic show, and part rampant (yet responsible) pyromania. In other words, you can’t miss it. But Ars Arma Publica (Latin for “Art Arms the People”) isn’t just vaudeville on fire. It’s a statement, an offering a…
THU 2/27 The word “masterpiece” comes up frequently in reference to The Decalogue, written and directed by the acclaimed Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowski. Unfortunately for North American audiences, screenings of the 10-part film cycle, loosely based on the Ten Commandments, have been as elusive as the Holy Grail.Now, The Decalogue…
2/27 – 3/5 Teams: 12. Venues: 9. Days: 31. Excuses to ditch an afternoon of work: incalculable. Spring training in Arizona is most definitely a numbers game. All games start at 1:05 p.m., unless noted; “ss” denotes a split squad. Check out www.phoenixnewtimes.com for a complete Cactus League schedule. Thursday,…
McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park is a Valley favorite with the under-four-foot crowd. In addition to the train and carousel rides normally offered, this Saturday’s Exclusively Little event hosts dozens of activities geared to children 6 and younger. Game booths, a petting zoo, arts and crafts, and face painting will be available…
SAT 3/1 Weren’t you just saying how you’d like to incorporate more chamber music into your life? And wasn’t that you musing about how cool it would sound within the confines of a downtown art space? If so, the Downtown Chamber Series is all about you. Stop by MonOrchid the…
THU 2/27 Nine years after the Zapatistas’ armed uprising made international headlines, Chiapas, Mexico’s southernmost state, is still a politically charged place. But now, the revolution will not be televised. Instead, a Mayan women’s theater collective is exploring many of the same sociopolitical issues on stage, through female eyes. La…
Tony Grisoni can always tell when his old friend Terry Gilliam, the visionary who sees too far for his own good, is in pain: He laughs. The worse the pain, the harder the laughter. If that is the case, then the Terry Gilliam seen throughout Lost in La Mancha, Keith…
The Yellow Boat is the true story of a young boy who’s dying, and about how love and art can transform tragedy. It’s a much-produced children’s play that succeeds on several levels: as an educational tool, as a morality tale, and as entertainment for kids and grown-ups. Mostly, though, The…
During the week, he’s Chuck Feuquay, builder of jails for Sheriff Joke. On weekends, he’s Charlie FitzRoi, builder of spoons at Renaissance festivals. Feuquay is politely referred to as a reenactor, and as Charlie FitzRoi, he’s one of those folks who gets garbed in 18th-century duds and wanders around a…
It’s been nearly three years since Pedro Almodóvar’s All About My Mother won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Perhaps it’s in the spirit of spreading things around that Spain has not nominated Almodóvar’s latest, Talk to Her, as its entry this year. Certainly it’s hard to imagine any…
Dark Blue, according to its credits, is based upon a story by Los Angeles-born author James Ellroy, who pens grisly and guilt-ridden pulp-noir haiku that spread across hundreds of pages. Its screenplay was penned by copper caper fetishist David Ayer, a native Angelino with an affinity for Hollywood-dark stories that…
Right-wing pundits will be coming out of the woodwork to holler about this one. Bad enough, they’ll say, that The Life of David Gale attacks the death penalty; it also features a caricature governor of Texas with big ears and a familiar, scripture-quoting smirk. Another character notes that 73 percent…
What does speeding down a drag strip from zero to 300 mph in four and a half seconds feel like? Unlike most people on the planet, Don “The Snake” Prudhomme is utterly familiar with the feeling. “It’s not the same thing as going to the moon, but it’s close,” he…
Thursday, February 20Arizona Dance Arts Alliance brings several of the Valley’s top modern dance companies to Scottsdale Center for the Arts on Thursday, February 20, to launch the 9th Annual Arizona Contemporary Dance Festival. Performances by A Ludwig Dance Theatre, Center Dance Ensemble, Desert Dance Theatre, Instinct Dancecorps and Scorpius…
Has Homer Simpson abandoned his post in Sector 7G for life on the stage? Has the crayon been permanently dislodged from Homer’s brain, rendering him intellectually inspired, a man more artsy than fartsy? So it seems. America’s favorite nuclear family man is taking on Shakespeare in MacHomer: “The Simpsons” Do…
It was supposed to be make-believe, a disturbing but ultimately uplifting work of science-fiction from a celebrated author of grim futurama and glorious fantasy. The subject matter of Orbiter, a hardback graphic novel about a spaceship that disappears for years and returns sheathed in skin after visits to faraway places…
My father disliked comic books, even smart, deep ones, like Art Spiegelman’s Maus. He just couldn’t get past the words-and-pictures-in-boxes thing. To him, the comic book was a crude, impoverished vehicle, and its content became less significant by virtue of its form. This frustrated me. After all, he liked art,…
It’s been weeks since the last clump of mistletoe was yanked from Gilbert’s doorways, but the town is still ringing with Christmas jeers. That’s because, like a hunk of holiday fruitcake, the memory of Gilbert Mayor Steve Berman’s Christmas card lingers with townsfolk, who are still grumbling about his cheeky…
