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Best Of

Best Film Festival

Phoenix Film FestivalForget the Oscars and Sundance. What local filmmakers and cinephiles really get excited about is the annual Phoenix Film Festival. Bringing in nationally known titles, directors, and heartthrobs — er, talent — is obviously cool and exciting, but it’s the spotlight this festival shines on the Valley’s own talent that makes us swoon. Plus, PFF […]
Best Of

Best Jazz Radio Show

Classic Jazz with Blaise Lantana on KJZZ 91.5 FMTune into Phoenix’s NPR affiliate on weekday nights and you’ll get a treat: jazz music for hours and hours, a blend of classics from Count Basie, Oscar Peterson, and J.J. Johnson to modern talents like Nicholas Payton and Bruce Dudley. The playlist from 8 to 10 p.m. is curated by Blaise Lantana, KJZZ’s music director. […]
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You Can’t Miss These 10 Standout Toronto Festival Films

Summer officially starts to end with the dawn of film festival season, when we critics pack our suitcases and trek to the Toronto International Film Festival to see what great, smart, small movies are going to make a run at the art house, or even the Oscars. The 10 best...
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Relax. The Force Awakens Is the Third Good Star Wars Movie

George Lucas is the L. Ron Hubbard of Hollywood. Both men were sci-fi dreamers turned mega-millionaires who spun their pulp adventures into a religion. Tap the power within yourself, they urged. The faithful forked over their dollars. Then both Lucas and Hubbard mucked up their simple premise with add-ons like...
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The 33‘s True Story Works Best When It’s Underground

How do you dramatize the unthinkable? On August 5, 2010, 33 Chilean miners were trapped when the 100-year-old gold and copper mine in which they were working collapsed around them. For weeks, no one knew if they were alive or dead. But 69 days later, after a team of international...
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Arizona DPS to Discuss Another Possible I-10 Shooting Incident This Afternoon

The Arizona Department of Public Safety and Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office will hold a joint press conference Sunday afternoon to discuss another incident possibly related to string of shootings along the Interstate 10 highway that’s terrorized Phoenix motorists for the last two weeks. This latest incident happened late Saturday night,...
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Why I’m Still Watching The Muppets

The Muppets doesn't work, exactly, but I'm still watching. As a relative outsider to the 60-year Muppets franchise, I've long suspected that early imprinting is the key to loving Jim Henson's gaudy, unblinking rags. I've never felt a particular need to watch pieces of felt tell Borscht Belt–style jokes, and...
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Trumbo Honors a Blacklisted Screenwriter With Drama He Would Have Cut

Bryan Cranston parades through Trumbo, a wiki-pageant of shorthand history, like he's a costumed kid playing Actor Bryan Cranston at a Disney park. As blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, a man given to mannered diction, Cranston layers movieland falseness over the scraped-raw heart of his Breaking Bad triumph. Remember how you...
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Why Alternative Theater Is Flourishing in Metro Phoenix

In the first scene of this three-act play — call it Who’s Afraid of Alternative Theater? or maybe Revenge of Master Ronald and the Boys — we find thespian game-changer Ron May standing in the dusty courtyard of a big, shiny, downtown playhouse. Circled by a small group of well-wishers, he is smoking...
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All Angelina Jolie Pitt’s By the Sea Offers Is Location

It's clear why Angelina Jolie Pitt became a star. She was a sexpot with talent, and, just as crucially, her feline beauty was a sexpot breed we'd never seen. Past glamazons like Marilyn Monroe, Ava Gardner, and Jayne Mansfield trailed a whiff of insecurity. We could sense that they were...
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$50,000 Reward Offered for Tip that Solves the I-10 Shooting Spree

Fifteen days into an investigation of a shooting spree on Phoenix highways, the Arizona Department of Public Safety announced Monday afternoon that it's increasing the reward for information or tips that lead to the arrest of the person or people targeting vehicles. The reward, previously $20,000, is now $50,000, and...
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Three Teens Arrested in “Copycat” Incidents to I-10 Shootings

Three 18-year-olds were arrested Saturday night for using wrist rocket slingshots loaded with granite rocks to target a total of six pedestrians and seven vehicles in the Mesa and Queen Creek area. The damage, which occurred between 3 and 7 p.m., was initially investigated for any possible connection to the...
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Jeff Daniels Plays Himself In a Good Mood While Performing Music

Actor Jeff Daniels is omnipresent right now, appearing in the sci-fi blockbuster The Martian as well as the biopic Steve Jobs. Dumb and Dumber To lingers in some second-run movie houses. When not fielding calls from his agent or conducting interviews about said films, Daniels can be found on stage...
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10 Best Radio Stations in Phoenix in 2015

Last month New Times celebrated the city with our 37th annual Best of Phoenix edition. Here are our top picks for best radio stations in Metro Phoenix. Best Local Music Showcase on the Radio  KJZZ's Tiny Desert Concert Though KWSS' The Morning Infidelity remains Valley radio's most consistent supporter of...
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Richard Gere Goes Homeless — and Dares You to Watch

The good news about the Richard Gere drama about the bad news of New York's enduring homeless crisis? Time Out of Mind, written and directed by Oren Moverman, is stubbornly, respectfully unflashy, Manhattan neorealism steeped more in reportage than in the clichés of prestige films. A prideful man slow to...
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For Bossa Nova King Sergio Mendes, Life Is About Magical Encounters

Over the past century, no one musical style has entranced multiple cultures of fans quite like bossa nova. Influenced by the swing of American jazz and saunter of Brazilian Samba, the music has entranced fans worldwide with its seductive syncopation. And since the ground-swell of bossa nova began to take...