Those possessing a vampire’s keen senses may see through the Goth grunge of Queen of the Damned to a deeper ideological conflict lurking beneath. On one side there’s novelist Anne Rice, sweepingly sensuous and profoundly humorless, who welcomed the cannibalization of her second and third bloodsucker books to create this…
The combatants in Patrick Stettner’s compelling first feature, The Business of Strangers, are a middle-aged software executive (Stockard Channing) wearing a steel-blue suit and an air of professional hauteur; the executive’s mysterious new assistant (Julia Stiles), fresh out of Dartmouth and full of self-righteous aggression; and a cocky “headhunter” (Frederick…
If you hear the booming thunder of Japanese taiko drums in the next couple of days, follow the catchy rhythms to Heritage and Science Park, where Matsuri, A Festival of Japan, will kick off a weekend of events — including the expertly choreographed drumming provided by the Japanese American Citizens…
Valley fans of major league baseball are doubly blessed for 2002, and not just for the obvious reason — the Diamondbacks’ highly anticipated follow-up to last year’s stunning World Series victory. No, another baseball bonus happens early and yearly, with much less fanfare but plenty of action: Cactus League Spring…
Maybe this won’t seem like such a big deal to you, since you don’t watch The Education of Max Bickford–which is on CBS Sunday nights. Or maybe you’re one of the 9 million who do, in which case, well, sorry about that. But stay tuned nonetheless, because this small tale…
Part comedy, part tragedy and all bite, No Man’s Land damns and mocks in equal measure, painting a picture of war’s absurdity that should make peaceniks of us all but, likely, won’t. Although set in the former Yugoslavia during the Bosnian-Serbian war, the movie transcends its geographic borders: Bosnian-born writer-director…
Following his dazzling change-of-pace performance in Training Day, Denzel Washington returns to more familiar turf in another of his trademark roles as One of the Best Human Beings in the World in John Q. The opening scenes establish quickly (and a bit heavy-handedly) that John Q. Archibald is the finest…
Do people over 40 listen to the radio? Dominated by teens and twentysomethings, pop music subjects its older — if hardly gray — audiences to the continual angst of young love. If you’re looking for a more mature take on life’s relationships, consider local singer and songwriter Annie Moscow. While…
Behind the Out Far! Phoenix International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, “there’s a core group of people who love and adore film — gay, straight, men and women,” says festival director Amy Ettinger. And at the heart of that core group is Ettinger herself, who has coordinated the annual event…
The barrio boys of Culture Clash’s The Mission wanna give it up for Latino culture. If only someone will let them. The ersatz Culture Clash now appearing at Scottsdale’s Metro Theatre is actually the cast of Teatro Bravo’s retread of the famous group’s breakout play, but it’s selling the same…
When Joe Quesada, writer and illustrator of comic books, went to work as a freelance contractor for Marvel Comics three years ago, he found the so-called House of Ideas in ruin. The comic-book industry was, as Quesada recalls, “going down the toilet”: Every month, 10 to 15 percent of readers…
Where the Big Apple is concerned, Laurie Anderson’s work has often had an eerie prescience about it. In an Encyclopedia Britannica essay on New York City she authored last summer, Anderson speculated about how far the World Trade Center towers would fall if they collapsed. (The encyclopedia’s editors opted to…
To call a movie the most accessible Dogme 95 film ever made is not merely damning with faint praise. It also threatens to alienate the two segments of the population that might consider going to see such a film in the first place: fans of the back-to-basics, no-frills-of-any-kind Danish filmmaking…
You may be under the impression that it’s 2002, but make plans to usher in Year 4700. Don’t toss your calendar — mark it for Phoenix Chinese Week, a celebration of the Chinese New Year and more than a chance to reconstruct already-broken resolutions. The local celebration began 12 years…
Nineteen years ago, Alwun House director Kim Moody got a suggestion so good that it spawned a wildly popular, one-of-a kind tradition in the Phoenix art community. One of the board members of the restored house turned gallery and performance space, Arizona State University professor of art Rudy Turk, recommended…
Actors Theatre of Phoenix has taken another artistic risk that pays off in spite of itself. The company’s production of actor/author John Leguizamo’s Spic-O-Rama succeeds mostly as a showcase for the talents of local actor Richard Trujillo, whose superb performance as six different members of one familia loca busts past…
You’ve got to hand it to any romantic comedy that makes The Mexican and the Sweet November remake seem like enduring classics, which appears to be the chief objective of Birthday Girl. This slipshod sophomore effort from Jez Butterworth (Mojo) has been sitting on the shelf since its original release…
It’s astonishing just how open Screen Gems has been about showing Slackers to the reviewing press well in advance of deadlines. Dim, youth-oriented sex comedies like this often slip into theaters under cover of darkness. Not that critical appraisal really matters to such films; if it did, Freddie Prinze Jr…
As someone who’s been dancing his entire life, Rennie Harris conveys a notion of dance that is based in day-to-day reality. “Your whole day is improvisational,” he says. “You deal with what comes to you in that moment.” With Rome & Jewels, his “hip-hop ballet” that’s been touring sold-out theaters…
As that wounded ballerina — our nation’s struggling economy — continues to flail across the stage, and President Bush maintains his relentless pursuit of Osama bin Laden, and just when you thought it was safe to open your mail again, Lance Gharavi wants to remind us of the horrific tragedy…
There is nothing terribly wrong with Kevin Reynolds’ The Count of Monte Cristo, which the Internet Movie Database lists as the 18th remake of Alexandre Dumas’ tale of innocence betrayed and avenged. It is neither a drag nor a gas; it neither betrays its source material nor adheres too slavishly…
