It’s hard to escape the potent magic of pop music. Some consumers never do, hovering forever in thrall to three-minute sermons of neurotic idiocy blasting from the commercially conjoined pulpits of R&B, rock and country. (To keep this point sharp, let’s credit “alternative” music with expanding the illusion of choice,…
Not so long ago, The Skulls would have starred Tom Cruise — but in which role? He could have been either lead; the one he didn’t choose could have landed in the lap of James Spader or Rob Lowe. One can easily imagine Cruise as Luke McNamara, the beefy, rough-and-tumble…
From its opening moments, The Road to El Dorado looks and sounds oddly out of time, as though it were removed only yesterday from a time capsule sealed and buried in 1972. With its Peter Max visuals and Elton John vocals, it’s a decidedly unhip piece of work — Starlight…
Having cleaned out their home or office, somebody recently set some books out in the editorial bullpen here at New Times about a week ago, in case anybody else might want to take them home. Among them were textbooks: one titled Tensile Structures, another Real Estate Law, Second Edition by…
After decades of civil war and epidemic-level AIDS, Uganda has found itself abundant in something other than coffee, tea, peanuts, tobacco and copper. The little landlocked country in central Africa, best known here for its miseries during the eight-year reign of Idi Amin Dada, has also become far too great…
Artist Roger Shimomura’s earliest childhood memories are etched into his psyche. He is 3 years old and living in a U.S. government internment camp in a forlorn corner of Idaho — a camp set up to detain Japanese-Americans during World War II. Shimomura has drawn on those vivid, often poignant…
The idea that we are each separated by no more than six acquaintances has become more commonplace than the play, Six Degrees of Separation, which popularized the notion. John Guare’s oft-produced one-act (which is, amazingly, making its local debut with this Phoenix Theatre production) is a masterwork of dark comedy…
In the opening scenes of Price of Glory, set in the late ’70s, a young prizefighter named Arturo Ortega (Jimmy Smits) loses a career-making bout. He earns a few grand, but he’s plainly washed up in the ring, and we’re meant to see that it’s his greedy manager’s fault –…
Classical grand opera is no laughing matter. With its labyrinthine story lines, massive productions and pampered performers, it’s no wonder that opera scares away many a potential audience member. But B.J. Ward sees through the traditions and focuses on the fun and absurdity hiding just beneath the surface. Since 1990,…
“If you mention Robbie Knievel,” snarls motorcyclist Gary Wells, “you’re just wastin’ your ink!” This, of course, virtually ensures that I will mention Knievel fils, and in the first sentence, no less. “I’m the World Champion,” continues Valley resident Wells. “I jumped over 30 cars in Melbourne, Australia, twenty years…
The gun is a coward’s weapon, always has been, always will be. Likening it to the sword is like equating rape to romance. However, for reasons that can only be attributed to collective insanity, Hollywood absolutely loves to romanticize the gun, serving as an adjunct advertising agency for the firearms…
Here on Earth, the new teen romance, should do wonders for the reputation of veteran director Arthur Hiller. Not that Hiller had anything to do with the film, mind you — which wouldn’t do wonders for his rep. No, Hiller is the man who, back in 1970, directed the inexplicably…
Loose brick and rubble lie scattered in the vacant lot next to the Modified gallery space on East Roosevelt Street near downtown Phoenix. The remains from a recent demolition create a fitting sidelight for the theme of the gallery’s current show, one installation in the Valleywide “Sites Around the City:…
Having twice reviewed Parallel Lives: The Kathy and Mo Show in the past half-dozen years, I’m looking for a new angle. The folks at Actors Theatre of Phoenix, which last week opened its third production of this popular show, are quick to arrange a lunch meeting with its stars, former…
The film is called Erin Brockovich, but it might as well be titled Julia Roberts. Never before in the actress’s erratic career has a film been so custom-made for her; it’s as though a screenwriter has been replaced by a seamstress who knows Roberts’ every curve. No matter that she…
It’s okay. You can say it. Just five little words. Don’t be shy. “I … am … a … wrestling fan.” You certainly wouldn’t be alone if you said it. Recent surveys show that as many as one in four Americans watch professional wrestling, and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF)…
What if fate has something horrific in store for you, and you can’t escape it? It’s an idea that’s been around for a long time, from Greek myths like Oedipus, to the New Testament, to EC Comics and The Twilight Zone. Cinematically, we tend to prefer the idea that destiny…
“Let’s sell some tickets!” It’s with this enthusiastic cry that comedian and actor Jay Mohr begins, by phone from L.A., an interview. He’s referring to his upcoming weekend of standup at the Tempe Improv. With the subject’s motives firmly established, the interviewer asks Mohr how life is after Action, this…
It’s not her role in the children’s movie Paulie, in which she appeared with actor/comic Jay Mohr (see feature left), that is being used to showcase one of the truly great actresses of American film, Gena Rowlands, Monday night at Scottsdale Center for the Arts. Rather, it’s her acclaimed turn…
“Any time you introduce a large body of water into an art museum, it’s a little hair-raising,” Heather Lineberry, senior curator at ASU Art Museum, confides with a nervous laugh. Lineberry is making uneasy reference to an expansive, 19-by-22-foot reflecting pool brimming with several inches of water, which was recently…
The creationists are going to have a field day with this one. Oh, it’s not as though it’s possible to spoil the plot for you: The trailers for Mission to Mars reveal everything but the end credits. It would be almost impossible to set foot into the theater without knowing…
Three decades after Rosemary’s Baby, two decades after The Tenant, and after a series of five non-horror films, Roman Polanski returns to the supernatural thriller with The Ninth Gate. What could be more promising? Regardless of what one thinks about Polanski’s personal life or legal status, the man is clearly…
