Bad Teacher: All About Laughs and a Boob Job

Besides doing fun relationship stuff like arguing about how to discipline our dog, New Times blogger Tyler Hughes and his girlfriend, Jackie Cronin, go to the movies. Tyler: New tits. This whole movie is about Cameron Diaz’s character, Elizabeth Halsey, trying to make enough money to buy herself new tits…

Six Best Bums in Entertainment

In a world gone mad, one vagabond has the courage and the fortitude to stand up to the corrupt forces that tear all that is good asunder. This is the plot to Hobo With A Shotgun, and it is more than 80-minutes of hideously terrific cinema.The contest-winning Grindhouse trailer turned…

No Festival Required “2011 Selected Shorts” Screen this Sunday

No Festival Required, a local group dedicated to sharing independent cinema, is holding a screening of its 2011 Selected Shorts this Sunday at the Phoenix Art Museum. The screening will feature award-winning short films by Arizona moviemakers, including Tucson’s Yuri Makino, as well as international directors, such as Bartek Kulas…

Bad Teacher and the Downside of Equal Rights In Hollywood

From Tad Friend’s New Yorker profile of Anna Faris (which Jezebel.com reblogged under the headline “Hollywood Insiders Admit Hollywood Hates Women”) to the glass-ceiling-shattering pressure assigned to last month’s Bridesmaids (which has thus far outgrossed every previous Judd Apatow project since Knocked Up), a case could be made that 2011…

Beginners: Graphic Artist Mike Mills Starts Something New

Graphic artist Mike Mills starts something new with Beginners. Playing an emotionally asphyxiated illustrator whose cancer-stricken dad comes out of the closet at age 75, Ewan McGregor looks positively yummy in Beginners, a gay-is-okay dramedy from the distributor that brought us The Kids Are All Right. In fact, this semi-autobiographical…

Jackass Performer Ryan Dunn Dies in Car Accident

Sad news for fans of MTV stuntfest Jackass: Daredevil driver Ryan Dunn, one of the many thrillseeking stars of the hit cable show, died early this morning after a gruesome car accident in his home state of Pennsylvania. According to media reports, the 34-year-old was speeding home from a night out…

GREEN LANTERN: Van Wilder Goes Superhero

Besides doing fun relationship stuff like arguing about how to discipline their dog, New Times blogger Tyler Hughes and his girlfriend, Jackie Cronin, go to the movies. Tyler: With this recent influx of pretty decent superhero movies: THOR, Iron Man — even The Dark Knight — DC’s Green Lantern doesn’t…

The Scenesters at Filmbar

At first glance, Todd Berger’s The Scenesters is a murder mystery about dying hipsters, and a cat-and-mouse between filmmakers, detectives, and crime scene cleanup artists. There are hidden clues in the form of indie rock cds left at crime scenes, and a serial killer with a sense of humor. That’s…

Green Lantern Gives Us a Case of Superhero Fatigue

It’s 10 minutes before a human character appears on-screen in Green Lantern, a personality-free franchise-launcher that builds toward a quaint, if explosive, argument in favor of the nebulous quality of “humanity.” Via a heavily CGI’d prologue, we learn that The Universe is patrolled by a group of fearless, multi-species warriors…

The Art of Getting By Gives Adolescence a Bad Name

Gavin Wiesen’s first film, as passive and vanilla as its title, continues the numbing trendlet begun in 2008 with Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist: dramatizing the stupefying dullness of privileged white teenagers in New York City. Protagonist George (Freddie Highmore) is an 18-year-old Upper West Side Bartleby, preferring not to…

Five Summertime Fixes for Phoenix Movie Buffs

The movie theater is a great place to kill a few summer afternoon hours while catching up on some cinematic pop culture. But if you’re looking for a well-rounded experience to accompany your viewing, these five spots will have you fixed in no time. 1. The Dive-In: Swim up and…

SUPER 8: J.J. Abrams Takes it Old School

Besides doing fun relationship stuff like arguing about how to discipline their dog, New Times blogger Tyler Hughes and his girlfriend, Jackie Cronin, go to the movies. Jackie: I very rarely say this about movies but… I really, really liked Super 8. It was a throwback to all of those…

Super 8: J.J. Abrams Deploys Humor and Destruction In His Catastrophe Flick

A big-bang demolition derby, J.J. Abrams’ much-anticipated, greatly enjoyable Super 8 seems bound for box-office glory. Opening three weeks before July 4, this Steven Spielberg-produced, kid-centric 21st-century disaster flick could well hang in at theaters till the 10th anniversary of 9/11 — an event that haunts Abrams’ surefire blockbuster nearly…

Everything Must Go: Will Ferrell Sobers Up in Arcadia

When New Times blogger Michelle Martinez and her partner, musician E.J. Rodriguez, are not watching movies, they’re talking about them.They’ve even been known to stop a movie to discuss it. E.J.: For the longest time I thought of Will Ferrell as an overexposed actor who stretched his SNL skits out…

Movie Stars and Eggs in this Week’s Dinner and a Movie

Nothing goes better with a movie than dinner (and perhaps vise versa), which Chow Bella has all figured out. Dinner and a Movie pairs all sorts of films with themed recipes each week.Today features Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere starring Stephen Dorff, Elle Fanning, and Chris Pontius, who examine their own lives…

The Hangover Part II: The Wolfpack Wins in Bangkok

Besides doing fun relationship stuff like arguing about how to discipline their dog, New Times blogger Tyler Hughes and his girlfriend, Jackie Cronin, go to the movies. Tyler: The Wolfpack is back and this time they’re trading a weekend in Vegas for one night in Bangkok. I thought it was…