“This one perfect moment.” “That soul-crushing mistress.” “Our forever night.” These and other understated definitions are obsessively applied to a certain dreaded/anticipated ritual throughout Prom, a timely pop product set in a suburban high school during the last weeks before summer break and destined for the immortality of Vitamin C’s…
Hiking a mountain trail might sound like a fun weekend activity, but when the trail’s longer than 800 miles and you have to worry about bringing hiking and camera gear, you might want to take a break from your day job. Aspiring filmmaker Trevor Arwood is on a mission to…
The opening scenes of I Saw the Devil, the latest drama/horror from Choi Min-sik (Oldboy) with director Jee-woon Kim (A Tale of Two Sisters), are enough to make you wince, gasp, and shrink in your seat. It’s no ordinary cop/bad guy film; a police detective (Byung-hun Lee) becomes borderline insane in…
A U.N. première! A Vanessa Redgrave cameo! Zionist hoodlums! Distributors the Weinstein Company and director Julian Schnabel overcome their well-documented aversion to media attention to address the Israel-Palestine question, pleading peace, compromise, and the creation of a self-governing Palestinian state. While Jewish advocacy groups swarm to Schnabel’s bait, it bears…
Anthropomorphizing its animal stars to a borderline-dubious degree, Disneynature’s nonfiction African Cats situates itself in Kenya’s Masai Mara National Reserve, where two four-legged mothers valiantly struggle to provide for and protect their young. On the northern side of the river that divides this gorgeous but pitiless land lives aging lioness…
Note: Since this post has been published, the Director of Communications at Bravo has denied that the show is coming to Arizona, as reported by the Republic. While Drybar may have been quick to hint of the cast members’ appearances at the DryBar opening and/or the show’s potential, we’re waiting…
In two days (on 4/20), Charles Band’s latest marijuana sci-fi movie, Evil Bong 3D: The Wrath of Bong, opens nationwide. The film is presented in 3D and “Smell-O-Vision,” which is basically a scratch and sniff card with eight different scents.We got a peek at The Wrath of Bong on Saturday…
Twenty top short films and videos from around the world will be up on the silver screen, and all you have to do to see them for free is bring something to sit on. This Saturday’s ASU Art Museum Short Film and Video Festival will showcase a batch of shorts…
ABC announced this morning that it will be canceling long-running series All My Children and One Life To Live (1968-2011). Condolences to all of the (living) AMC, OLTL, and other cheesy soap opera fans alike — you’ve officially been trumped by those damn young people who’d rather watch food television…
Set in the months after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, The Conspirator follows the consequences of the fatal shot at Ford’s Theater — specifically, the trial of Mary Surratt, Catholic, 42, and the owner of a Washington, D.C., boarding house who was presented before a military tribunal as the den mother…
Mortal Kombat is back in the film world and this time it’s coming out swinging. The murderously fun and violent fighting game is known better for its fatalities and worse for its movies, TV shows, and other manner of crappy self-promotion. Director Kevin Tancharoen (Fame) however, has attempted to shake…
An unlimited supply of LEGO blocks, loneliness, and the ability to have whatever you build become real in Daddy Warblocks, a story about one man’s attempt to literally build himself a new life. Written and directed by Arizona State University student Chris Nash, Daddy Warblocks is a short film that…
The Phoenix Film Festival wrapped up this week and we have the winners in each of the feature length categories.1. The Dan Harkins Breakthough Filmmaker Award: Travis Betz for The Dead Inside2. Best Ensemble and Best Screenwriting:…
In Black Death, a monk travels to a remote village with a band of murderous Christians during the bubonic plague to investigate rumors of a necromancer who protects the village from disease and brings the dead back to life.That’s a pretty cool plot, and there’s plenty for horror fans to…
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: Well, that was better than I expected. Jackie: Right? I thought this was going to be some sort of disconnected, story-less fun fest like Grown…
This year’s Phoenix Film Festival screened several feature length and short documentaries about pot smugglers, wild horses (and the crazy people that train them), the science of happiness, translating American television into Russian, and In-n-Out Burgers. But there were a few that truly stood apart. Here are our top pics from…
Howl, director Rob Epstein’s biopic about Allen Ginsberg and the obscenity trial surrounding his titular poem, starts with a statement that every word in the film was actually spoken by the people portrayed, but that it’s unlike a documentary in any other way.It was an an apt opener for this…
The era of the teenage action heroine is fully upon us. As pop-cultural correctives go, it’s a mixed blessing. In one corner, you’ve got the jailbait fantasies of Sucker Punch and Kick-Ass, which eagerly trade on notions of naughty girliness rather than transcend or interrogate them. In the other, you’ve…
The selection of short films made by local filmmakers in this year’s Arizona category at The Phoenix Film Festival represented a variety of genres and styles. There were action films, comedies, a musical, and a horror/suspense film. Here are a few of our favorites and the winner of this year’s…
One of the showcased feature films at this year’s Phoenix Film Festival puts ganja and a group of aging smugglers from Florida on the silver screen. In the 1970s, South Florida fishing boats were infamous for hauling in “square grouper,” and catching a square grouper meant catching a boatload of…
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 Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams. The film was inspired by the director’s memories and was one the last films…
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: Alright, what is up with all of the “dream within a dream” movies lately? I blame Christopher Nolan.Jackie: Yeah, it’s definitely his fault. But…
