Jacob Acosta has lived in the desert for as long as he’s made music. He was born here, and he’s embraced it. The same goes for songwriting. After releasing over ten albums, Acosta is putting the finishing touches on his most ambitious project yet: Desert Sounds.
Leave it to a young, aspiring Chinese director to bring us one of the most compassionate rodeo circuit films in recent memory. Beijing native Chloe Zhao, a product of western film influences inside the communist country following the mid-1980s, wrote, produced and directed this cowboy story …
Parents escaping their offspring for a Date Night of dinner and a movie will find “Tully” a realistic portrayal of raising children in today’s frantic world. The film provides a gritty yet funny look at the miracle of birth and the challenges motherhood poses to the mother, and the child and…
There’s a scene in the Arizona Theatre Company’s production of The Diary of Anne Frank in which one of Anne’s housemates, Mr. Van Daan, asks her what a 13-year-old girl could have to write about all the time that could possibly be so important. Anne’s sister, Margot, usually the picture of n…
Any fears that the nineteenth film from the Marvel Cinematic Universe would be dull or anti-climactic have been thoroughly quelled by this epic superhero defense of Infinity stones. With an all-star Marvel Comics cast introduction absorbing most of the two hour and 30-minute feature, this ac…
Artifact Dance Project is known for live music at its contemporary dance concerts, played on violins, guitars and drums. This weekend, though, in New Moves, one dance will depend on the music made by the human body.
Once generalized for use only to assist the blind, dogs have emerged into therapy and rescue professionals. At the same time, canines have established a solid reputation in law enforcement as they’ve spread to almost every police department in the U.S., adding a powerful weapon to sniff out …
Like the potato of Northern Europe or the yam of Western Africa, the agave plant fits a crucial culinary and cultural niche in the Sonoran Desert. For centuries, locals have harvested the plant’s broad jutting leaves for food, art, tools and to black out on tequila. Now, Tucson is once again…
A number of the small galleries just north of downtown proper are exhibiting abstract works this spring, created by artists working in media from conventional paint to toilet paper to nylon stockings.
Moviegoers wanting to jump outside their comfort zone for a couple of hours will find the newly released thriller “A Quiet Place” a perfect choice. Nearly pulling off an astonishing upset of The Rock’s highly anticipated “Rampage” at the box office last weekend, “A Quiet Place” still stands …
At Live Theatre Workshop, there is not one bit of serious content as a competent cast romps through a silly story that evokes many a har-har-har.
Inundated with thousands of films released throughout the year, a critic must apply emergency room triage procedures to decide which movies get reviewed now—and which must wait for later in the year to be seen.
Who is that man with the swinging hips? He just blew into town, and no one knows a lick about him.
Hey, it’s not all about the big screen. While I may sometimes miss the novelty-sized tub of popcorn, there is something to be said for enjoying a flick in the comforts of your own home. Film enthusiasts looking for movies to watch from the couch or recliner will enjoy these proven rentals:
Tucson painter Charlotte Bender is off in an explosive new direction, fracturing landscapes and reconstructing them in exhilarating mixed-media paintings.
Approaching the halfway point into the newly released “Unsane,” my concerns over the film’s labored pace were instantly validated. Above the theater’s dull hush, a different noise emanated from the occupant located two leather loungers to my right in his D9 seat. Yes, while I was losing an u…
Every year as Easter approaches, religious films are released which attempt to challenge disbelievers while inspiring the Christian faithful. With greatly reduced production budgets and smaller theater distributions than most nationwide releases, these faith-based films rarely create a rippl…
If you’re a person who gets the blues, a person for whom the blues gets under your skin and into your bones and makes you start thinking about your feelings and feeling your thoughts, then you might agree with Dan Wheetman’s simple answer as to how the genre has impacted music today.
While last year’s event boasted around 400 patrons, 2018’s Taste of Oro Valley is anticipating upwards of 600 attendees. This is a continuation of the event’s growth, both in numbers and importance in the community. The annual Taste of Oro Valley event is a gathering of restaurants and enter…
Fans of emotionless, revengeful husband-father characters akin to Liam Neeson in his “Taken” films will find Bruce Willis’ performance in this year’s reboot of “Death Wish” very satisfying. In the sixth “Death Wish” installment and first feature film from the franchise since 1994, Willis tak…
Just two days into his new job as a Border Patrol agent, fresh out of the training academy, Francisco Cantú and other raw recruits out in the desert found a cache of backpacks stuffed with clothes and food.
Historically, between Oscar Night on Sunday and Memorial Day weekend in late May, the pickings to find top quality movie releases are slim. With “Black Panther” destined to continue its box office dominance for several more weeks, don’t except next year’s Academy Award-worthy projects to app…
Leaving behind their chain of 18 restaurants in Portland, Marc and Tracy Frankel came to Tucson for a semi-retirement. But after three decades of making pizza, Marc just couldn’t leave it alone. Sure, hiking and cycling were fun enough, but running a restaurant is in his blood.
Mussorgky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” is coming to Tucson with breathtaking visual companion piece.
With a renewed determination to focus on all things not related to filmmaking (i.e., President Donald Trump, the National Rifle Association, and the #MeToo sexual assault awareness), look for this year’s television viewership of the Academy Awards show on ABC be the lowest ever.
In one hand, you have campy jokes and wholesome humor. In the other, a western music concert—not exactly a regular combination for an entertaining night.
While Marvel’s “Black Panther” easily cruises to the highest February box office opening ever and, perhaps, the largest grossing super-hero movie of all-time, another worthy film is receiving loud cheers as its post-movie credits run.
An oversized room with painted cinderblock walls, low ceilings and light-stained wood paneling greets you when you step into the recording space at Baby Gas Mask Records.
Few directors can match Clint Eastwood’s penchant for taking terrifying, split-second events and expanding them into full-length feature films. No Eastwood movie summation is better or more fascinating than last year’s dramatic depiction of the true-life 2009 emergency landing in the Hudson …
In the early ’90s, in the Irish village of Ardrahan, 16 miles from bustling Galway city, David and Martin Howley were put to bed each night with a mix tape of music.
A cornucopia of dance styles is on the menu at opposite ends of the UA campus next week.
Sporting a sensational moustache akin to Hollywood veteran Sam Elliott, Christian Bale teams up with 2014’s “Gone Girl” Rosamund Pike in the best western film since “3:10 to Yuma” (which also starred Bale in 2007). “Hostiles” recreates the terror and tension found back in the Wild West days …
In the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania, the American people anxiously awaited for our nation’s powerful response to the sick perpetrators and their leader (Osama bin Laden). But who and how would the U.S. resolve to br…
This latest film by writer/director brothers Ian and Eshom Nelms is quite the journey through a frantic murder investigation by an alcoholic ex-cop trying to prove that he can still make a difference. Stellar acting throughout the cast delivers a solid script in this high-stakes crime drama.
The Gaslight Theatre has taken a trip to the bygone days of cowboys, Indians, saloons, no-good villains and masked heroes in the return of “The Lone Stranger.”
The cephalopod class may be more than 300 species strong, but they all have one thing in common: A propensity for their texture to be reduced to rubber.
A giant pile of crinkled paper spheres rises up to the rafters in the Tohono Chul gallery.
Longtime fans of Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Meryl Streep will find their latest political collaboration a misleading yawner. The Academy Award-winning trio attempt to bring suspense to the true-life discovery of the classified-marked Pentagon Papers, dating back 50 years to the Vietnam …
It’s been almost exactly 39 years since jazz great Charles Mingus left this plane of existence, but there are numerous groups of musicians, not to mentions fans, who continue to ensure that his work, his legacy, remains alive and well. Founded by Mingus’ widow, Susan, in 1979, The Mingus Dyn…
The lineup for this year’s Tucson Jazz Festival, as has become the norm, is blessed with a fine balance of well-known names and some that are waiting to be discovered. Some traditional jazz bands, and some that offer a twist on the much-loved genre.
Making his directorial filmmaking debut, Academy Award-winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin deals moviegoers in on the true-life exploits of poker game hostess Molly Bloom. Portraying Bloom, the Olympic-class skier turned moderator of high-stakes underground gambling, is the always reliable and…
By now, most everyone is aware of the multiple sexual assault allegations leveled at Netflix’s “House of Cards” star Kevin Spacey. While many tabloid headlines covered the television series’ formal break-up with the actor in November, fewer Hollywood watchers may have noticed the rapid-react…
As a Tucson food fanatic, I tend to wander towards eateries in dive bars or ramshackle carts parked in a dusty plot off the highway. These are the places that get me going and excited about discovering new flavors, finding traditional fare done correct and meeting the hard-working people beh…
With the end of the year nearly upon us, I thought now would be as good a time as ever to take a look back the most impressive films to grace the big screen this year. Here are 2017’s best films in terms of storytelling and performances:
When Marlowe Katowney was 35 years old, his grandmother gave him an order.
In a historic masterpiece, “Darkest Hour” presents us with a battle-weary England on the verge of collapse at the evil hands of Adolf Hitler in World War II. Covering a politically troublesome and potentially devastating four-week period for Great Britain and her King, this stunningly shot f…
A trifecta of superb acting performances will surely earn “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” a well-deserved spot on nearly everyone’s shortlist for Best Picture in 2017.
Queen, Michael Jackson, Jimi Hendrix: What if I said you could see all these artists, live and in Tucson this month? You’d probably say, “Well, that’s impossible,” and you’d be correct. But what if I said you could see some of your favorite local bands covering great musicians like these and…
Christmas is a little more than two weeks away, but there’s still plenty of time to see “The Nutcracker,” the 19th-century Russian ballet about the little girl, her magical Nutcracker doll and her journey into the Land of Sweets.
Cartoonist and comedy impresario David Fitzsimmons reprises his Arroyo Café Holiday Radio Show at the Rialto Theatre at 1 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 16. Tickets are $15 via rialtotheatre.com, in advance or at the door.
