There’s something admirably gutsy about an independent filmmaker choosing mother-son incest as the subject of his first film, and making it on a shoestring with a cast of unknowns. No matter how good a picture it may be, a topic this disturbing and depressing is not the sort of thing…
The hero of Red Rock West–played, excellently, by Nicolas Cage–is an out-of-work ex-Marine. In the first few scenes, we are shown what a decent, standup guy he is. He refuses a buddy’s offer of a loan. And although he’s penniless and stuck in the middle of nowhere, he resists the…
The Phantom of the Opera is not just a musical. It is an industry. Written by the richest man in the theatre, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and produced by the second-richest man in the theatre, Cameron Mackintosh, Phantom has been marketed to Phoenix as the biggest thing ever to hit the…
In his Confessions, St. Augustine admitted that his prayer for sexual purity had often taken the form Da mihi castitatum et continentiam, sed noli modo–“Give me chastity and continency, but not yet.” Augustine’s candor puts to shame that of William Boyd, author of the comic novel A Good Man in…
In an odd coincidence, two major films of the early ’70s are being rereleased this week, both in restored “director’s cuts.” Both are worth checking out, especially if you’ve never seen them on the big screen–and if you haven’t, it’s fair in both cases to say you haven’t seen them…
If you must hate someone, if you must point a finger of blame, if you must direct the seething waves of unspeakable anger that have been washing over you since hearing the news that the Rolling Stones have canceled their Phoenix dates, then the people of Oakland, California, should be…
The first few shots in Natural Born Killers are of creatures to which the title can be applied without moral judgment. A hawk glares at the desert; a rattlesnake gazes into the camera with a dull, ill face. Then the scene shifts to a roadside diner, where the central characters–Mickey…
John Candy, who died during the filming of Wagons East!, was a great movie comedian who never quite made a great movie comedy. Sadder, even, than the failure of the mostly feeble Wagons East! to break that streak is watching Candy’s weary, joyless performance. This may be his only film…
In the preface to a collection of his plays, author Christopher Durang fondly recalls the famous I Love Lucy episode in which Little Ricky is born. This show prompted Durang to pattern his first play, written in the second grade, after the story. Since this work isn’t publicly available, it’s…
A play about Antarctica seems like a good antidote for the summer heat in Phoenix. But Terra Nova, the story of the 1911 race for the South Pole, trades one hell for another. Playwright Ted Tally uses the death of one of Britain’s most cherished heroes, the explorer Robert Falcon…
Allison Anders’ first solo directing credit, Gas, Food, Lodging, about a single woman raising two daughters in a small Southwestern town, was overrated. It was pretty to look at, but dramatically thin and clich. Her new film, Mi Vida Loca, is even better to look at, and it has a…
Several people walked out of the Barcelona screening I attended. I could only assume they disliked the talkiness and slow pace of this mild comedy of manners, which recounts the romantic adventures of a couple of Americans living abroad in the early 80s. There’s a fine touch of irony to…
My Life’s in Turnaround, a low-budget movie by two slacker types about two slacker types trying to make a low-budget movie, is subtitled Based on a True Story. This same joke was the punch line of Mel Brooks’ most neglected film, Silent Movie. The hero (Brooks) is a director who…
Not having read the books, I can’t say if the film versions of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan novels have been faithful. Based on the content of the movies, I can see no evidence that unfaithfulness would constitute a crime against world literature. This was especially true of The Hunt for…
After seeing the latest version of Forbidden Broadway, I left Herberger Theater Center depressed. My reaction was like the one I had when a shock jock started telling jokes about the homeless. His routine was clever, all right, but wasn’t the subject too sad to be funny? Forbidden Broadway 1994,…
After a successful run last season at Theater Works’ small Glendale playhouse, Sweeney Todd, Stephen Sondheim’s story of the razor-wielding barber who cuts throats as his part in the meat-pie business, is now in Herberger Theater Center’s Center Stage. Director David Wo has brought some members of the original Glendale…
Out of every five people you meet, four feel that their mothers and/or fathers were wretched failures as parents. The sentiment can be kind of funny when you hear it from some stupid kid, but it isn’t funny at all when–as is often the case–it has dogged and haunted the…
After human beings, the cinema probably doesn’t have a greater visual subject, among living creatures, than the horse. I say this as no particular horse fancier in real life, but as an admirer of horses in movies, a medium far more suited to the beauties of the species than painting…
In 1992, the world celebrated–or at least acknowledged–the quincentennial of America’s discovery by Italian explorer Christopher Columbus. During that glorious year, open season was declared on good ol’ Chris and on those who followed in his wake. European conquerors were enthusiastically pressed into service for target practice by artists who…
Comedy director Andrew Bergman, who broke in working on scripts for Mel Brooks, is gifted but uneven. In 1990, he wrote and directed The Freshman, a piece of glittering nuttiness built around a beautiful, career-consummating performance by Marlon Brando. The film could only have been the work of an audacious…
After seeing Foreign Student, you may want to talk yourself into the idea that it’s a put-on of some sort. Intended as a weeper of the “Ah, my lost youth . . .” variety, it centers on Phillippe, a young Parisian guy who comes to a college in rural Virginia…
John Cale’s been a busy man the past 30 years. He’s performed marathon piano pieces with John Cage. He co-founded the Velvet Underground, one of the half-dozen most important acts in rock history. Cale’s served as mentor-producer to the likes of the Stooges, Patti Smith, and Squeeze, and his solo…
