Use quotes to search for a phrase or name: "toy story", or "brooklyn bridge".

Article

5 Must-See Movies in Metro Phoenix This February

February already? Just as the awards season rush dies down from December and January, we hit what is widely considered to be a dead month for movie releases. There may be a few surprises (last year's Lego Movie turned out to be one of the biggest February hits of all...
Article

Bravura Anthology Wild Tales Lays Bare Everyone’s Awfulness

There are two kinds of humanist movie. One kind shows human beings struggling against the most unspeakable horrors, sorrows, or injustices and still, somehow, emerging with their essential goodness intact. The second, thornier type gives us people doing terrible things to one another — screaming, cheating, and generally making life...
Article

Christmas Turkey Trot

Chow Bella took a bite out of the holidays earlier this month with our annual "Eating Christmas" event at Crescent Ballroom. No worries if you missed it -- catch the essays here through the holiday season. The Kellers, like most people in Winifred, Kansas, in the 1940s, grew their own...
Article

A Most Violent Year Never Quite Summons Rough Old New York

The world needs fewer tasteful movies about distasteful things. It definitely doesn't need J.C. Chandor's A Most Violent Year, in which Oscar Isaac plays a nouveau-riche heating-oil baron in early-1980s New York, striving to maintain his principles amid industry corruption and generally scummy behavior. Isaac's Abel Morales skulks through most...
Article

Best Thing in Taken 3: The Way Liam Neeson Says “Bagels”

All you need to know about Taken 3 is that Liam Neeson survives an explosive car crash — twice. Director Olivier Megaton even rewinds the second blast to show us how his hero escaped. It still doesn't make sense. But who cares. The Taken franchise is rooted in implausibilities, specifically...
Article

Saul Williams Speaks About New Album and How to Remain Subversive

Socially-conscious hip-hop has been an important theme since the genre's infant years, but actor/poet/rapper Saul William's industrial slam poet's approach to social injustice has the ability to rise above mere proselytizing. His third full-length, 2007's The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust! (produced by NIN's Trent Reznor) was a messianic...
Article

Banks on It

In case you’ve been living under a rock (hey, we’ve been there), you’ll be delighted to learn that the musical film version of Mary Poppins was adapted as a Tony-winning stage musical 10 years ago. It features most of the catchy songs that imprinted on your childhood brain -- “A...
Article

Oscar de la Renta Dead at 82

Fashion designer Oscar de la Renta has died at 82. The Dominican-American designer was known for his evening wear, worn by First Ladies and leading ladies alike. He recently made headlines for designing Amal Clooney's wedding dress. De la Renta studied under Cristóbal Balenciaga and Antonio del Castillo. He started...
Article

Awards Season

While some people are starting to speculate about which hit will sweep the Golden Globes, how many Grammy nominations Taylor Swift will squeeze out of her latest album, or if Interstellar just clinched an Oscar win for Matthew McConaughey, Phoenicians have a different award ceremony on their minds: the third...
Article

Jennifer Aniston Makes an Awards Play, but Cake’s Script Lets Her Down

Each year, screenwriters kill off enough offscreen children to fill a Chuck E. Cheese's. A dead son or daughter gives a movie the illusion of depth plus an easy explanation for whatever the script ladles on the surviving parents. Binge-drinking? Nymphomania? Sudden bouts of breakdancing? Blame the wee coffin. In...
Article

Sundance: Meet Boyhood‘s Sad Sequel: Sam Klemke’s Time Machine

Richard Linklater ended his feel-good Best Picture contender on a high. His star, 18-year-old would-be artist Mason, graduated high school and was ready to conquer the world. But what if Linklater had kept filming? And what if Mason wasn't an actor, but a real teenage boy? Meet Samuel Klemke. He,...
Article

Birdman and Listen Up Philip Open Oscar Season (PODCAST)

It's awards season and the hyped movies are starting to land in theaters. On this week's Voice Film Club podcast, we talk about Alejandro González Iñárritu's Birdman, starring Michael Keaton, and Alex Ross Perry's Listen Up Philip, and carve out some time to recommend Nothing Bad Can Happen and Glen...
Article

5 Must-See Movies in Metro Phoenix in November

Happy November, movie lovers. It's going to be a busy month for you full of intense dramas, artsy thrillers, and riveting documentaries. Don't get overwhelmed, though. Despite the rapidly approaching Oscar season rush of films, we have five movies that you can't miss this month -- including one for the...