The Sea Inside, the new right-to-die drama from Spanish director Alejandro Amenábar (The Others), is a flawed film worth seeing. Based on Letters From Hell, a book by quadriplegic Ramón Sampedro about his 30-year quest to kill himself, the movie favors the emotional over the legal, foregrounding Sampedro's relationships with...
2/17-2/20 If you think all black movies have to include the words "phat," "dope" or "fly" in the dialogue, prepare to be schooled at the Arizona Black Film Showcase, which runs from Thursday, February 17, through Sunday, February 20, at South Mountain Community College, 7050 South 24th Street. "This event...
Clint Eastwood began digging into the third act of his career -- the one that reveals the mature, deep-thinking artist . . . with a little jazz piano on the side -- a dozen years ago, with the discomfiting anti-Western Unforgiven. Since then, he's hardly come up for air or...
The early reviews for Beyond the Sea, the Bobby Darin biopic on which Kevin Spacey did everything save for feeding the crew and sweeping the set, have been so hateful that a latecomer to the bashing bash is tempted to head straight for the spiked eggnog and let the man...
To understand this most tumultuous year in film, over which loomed the ghost of a blessed messiah and the shadow of an accursed pariah, turn your eyes from the movie screen and look to the bookshelf. There you will find a copy of Peter Biskind's Down and Dirty Pictures, which...
The parade of real-life figures strolling into the googolplex has been endless this year: Look, there's Jamie Foxx as musical Mount Rushmore Ray Charles, Johnny Depp as Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie, Kevin Spacey as forgotten teeny-popper Bobby Darin, Liam Neeson as sexologist Alfred Kinsey, Kevin Kline as standards composer...
The Czech drama Zelary brings to mind Bertolt Brecht's pointed observation that "war is like love; it always finds a way." In this instance, war creates the atmosphere in which an unlikely love flourishes, then overwhelms that love. Only a fool would try to improve on Brecht, but after absorbing...
Mike Nichols' new film Closer is a boiling pot of lust, mistrust and double-dealing that might well be taken for outright soap opera -- or, in quite a few places, soft-core porn -- were it not for the sophisticated gleam of its well-heeled London desperadoes and the vicious dazzle of...
Shark Tale is an animated film, though after you see it you might wonder whether the term is intended as oxymoronic. Put simply, it has no life in it at all. Not even the kids roped into an afternoon preview screening seemed terribly interested. Perhaps they've grown tired of computer-made...
Fri 11/5 Hodgie Jo is a dancin' machine. He experimented with every style of dance from jazz to break-dancing before going on to choreograph events like the Super Bowl and Special Olympics. Now, Jo brings his artistic vision to the Imation Dance Company, as choreographer for World Beat, the troupe's...
10/29-10/30 Though the mainstream media long ago ceded their role as the voice of the people, it was still jarring to see the lengths to which they embraced the role of administration cheerleader in both the run-up to the Iraq war and the march on Baghdad. Most cynical of all...
College buds. Talented actors. Bright futures headed in the same direction, surely. Before long, Quincy Bernstine and Jennifer Morris might be referred to as "Quennifer," provided their roles in the off-Broadway hit Matt and Ben, which comes to the Scottsdale Center for the Arts on Wednesday, October 6, serves as...
Essayist. Playwright. Radio personality. Librettist. Actor. Novelist. Now, with Bright Young Things, the inimitable British wit Stephen Fry debuts as feature screenwriter and director. Best known here in the colonies either as Jeeves (opposite Hugh Laurie) in Jeeves and Wooster, or as Peter in Peter's Friends, or possibly as Oscar...
Great Arizona Puppet TheaterLooking for some political party favors? Get your hands on the “Axis of Evil II” finger puppet set, packing tiny versions of Bush, Ashcroft, Cheney and Rumsfeld. The first “Axis of Evil” set — more global, just as terrifying — partners Dubya with Saddam, Kim Jong-il and Khamenei. Shopping for kids? More inspiring (and less […]
Great Arizona Puppet TheaterLooking for some political party favors? Get your hands on the “Axis of Evil II” finger puppet set, packing tiny versions of Bush, Ashcroft, Cheney and Rumsfeld. The first “Axis of Evil” set — more global, just as terrifying — partners Dubya with Saddam, Kim Jong-il and Khamenei. Shopping for kids? More inspiring (and less […]
Rosie McCaffrey's Irish PubNot only is Rosie McCaffrey’s the coolest Irish pub in P-town, it makes a smashing plate of Harp-battered Gadus morhua and thick frittered sticks of pommes de terre. Confused? Well, let us get down off our high horse for a moment to let you know that this august establishment crafts the best fish and chips […]
Rosie McCaffrey's Irish PubNot only is Rosie McCaffrey’s the coolest Irish pub in P-town, it makes a smashing plate of Harp-battered Gadus morhua and thick frittered sticks of pommes de terre. Confused? Well, let us get down off our high horse for a moment to let you know that this august establishment crafts the best fish and chips […]
There is a phrase bandied about that other film industry -- "gay for pay" -- that means exactly what it says. The queer thing is, this switch-hitting work ethic obviously applies to the "straight" industry as well, since actors not infrequently launch their careers, or rev 'em up, by playing...
"No foolin', he got Jay-Z?" Jarrett Maupin II is hollering into his cell phone, pacing the hallway of the downtown office suite where the St. Mary's senior spends most of his time after school. "Lord have mercy! That Rev is something else!" It's the day before Maupin's big trip to...
Rick Schroder's character takes a hell of a pounding in his new movie. In his role as the film's writer, director and producer, Schroder had to roll with the punches as well. Black Cloud started to form four years ago when Schroder -- the kid from Silver Spoons, and now...
Life Goes On Editor's note: More than 1,500 letters and phone calls came in on New Times' recent article about Preserve A Life Inc. ("Forever Yours," Esteban Sauer, October 28). First Bush wins the election, now this!: I just finished reading "Forever Yours," and I can only imagine the mountain...
