friday flicks Archives

https://www.phoenixmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/FridayFlicksUSE.jpg

The PHiXFriday Flicks February 7: “Birds of Prey,” “The Traitor” & “Gretel and Hansel”

M.V. MoorheadFebruary 2020

Opening this weekend: Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)—Armed with a broad Gotham accent, Margot Robbie is endearingly crazy-eyed, manic and girlishly bouncy as Harley Quinn, the Joker’s jilted, heartsick ex, in this newest DC free-for-all. When she’s not dodging old enemies who bear her any number of murderous grudges, she’s helping super-anti-heroine team Birds of Prey defend an adolescent (Ella Jay Basco) from a scuzzy, sadistic gangster whose alter...

CONTINUE READING
https://www.phoenixmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/FridayFlicksUSE.jpg

The PHiXFriday Flicks January 31: “Quezon’s Game”

M.V. MoorheadJanuary 2020

Opening this weekend at Harkins Metrocenter 12, AMC Westgate 20 and Cinemark Mesa 16: Quezon’s Game—Directed by veteran cinematographer Matthew Rosen, this historical epic from the Philippines is sort of Schindler’s List, Manila-style. It’s about the efforts, in the late ‘30s, by Filipino President Manuel Quezon to bring more than a thousand German Jews to his country — then still a U.S. commonwealth — to rescue them from the rising threat of the Nazis. According...

CONTINUE READING
https://www.phoenixmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/FridayFlicksUSE.jpg

The PHiXFriday Flicks January 24: “The Gentleman”

M.V. MoorheadJanuary 2020

Opening this weekend: The Gentleman—Matthew McConaughey plays Mickey Pearson, a wildly wealthy weed kingpin in the UK. By virtue of the fact, which Mickey himself points out, that his illicit product doesn’t kill people like heroin does, he’s the least despicable boss in this latest of writer-director Guy Ritchie’s gangster comedies. Mickey would like to divest himself of his massive subterranean pot empire and live the life of a gentleman, so he makes an offer...

CONTINUE READING
https://www.phoenixmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/FridayFlicksUSE.jpg

The PHiXFriday Flicks January 3: Top 10 Movies of 2019

M.V. MoorheadJanuary 2020

Time for the movie critic’s annual exercise in self-importance (as opposed to all those weekly exercises in self-importance): The Top Ten List. Here are the ten films from the past year that seem like the best to me, at least at the moment: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood—As with Inglourious Basterds, tolerance for Quentin Tarantino’s provocative do-over of 1969 in general and the Manson murders in particular will be a matter of personal taste; I...

CONTINUE READING
https://www.phoenixmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/FridayFlicksUSE.jpg

The PHiXFriday Flicks December 13: Holiday Movies

M.V. MoorheadDecember 2019

For Boomer-era people on, the annual watching of certain movies has become a traditional part of marking the holiday season. But this can be a chore. The equally essential TV specials, like Rudolph, The Grinch and A Charlie Brown Christmas, don’t require the same investment of time, during an already hectic season, as movies do. Yet when the holidays are over, you may feel a pang that you didn’t get to White Christmas or Scrooged...

CONTINUE READING
https://www.phoenixmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/FridayFlicksUSE.jpg

The PHiXFriday Flicks November 1: “Terminator: Dark Fate” & “Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound”

M.V. MoorheadNovember 2019

Opening wide this weekend: Terminator: Dark Fate—Another day, another killer robot from the future for Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) in this newest sequel to the sci-fi classic of 1984, directed by Tim Miller. This time the murderous cyborg has the handy multitasking ability of separating his handsome human form (Gabriel Luna) from his scary mechanical skeleton. He arrives in Mexico City to terminate Dani (the charming Natalia Reyes), a seemingly ordinary young factory worker. The...

CONTINUE READING
https://www.phoenixmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/FridayFlicksUSE.jpg

The PHiXFriday Flicks: “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein” & “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”

M.V. MoorheadOctober 2019

At Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Chandler: Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein cereal party—Out of the many Halloween-appropriate movie-going options available right now, from The Lighthouse to Zombieland Double Tap to The Addams Family, you might want to consider a fun old-school possibility, the 1948 favorite in which the comedy team mixes it up not only with the Frankenstein Monster (Glenn Strange) but with Count Dracula (Bela Lugosi), and the tortured Larry Talbot, aka the Wolf Man...

CONTINUE READING
https://www.phoenixmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/FridayFlicksUSE.jpg

The PHiXFriday Flicks October 18: “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil” & “Heading Home: The Tale of Team Israel”

M.V. MoorheadOctober 2019

In wide release: Maleficent: Mistress of Evil—Not really evil, exactly. In her live-action star vehicle from 2014, the horned sorceress from Sleeping Beauty, here played by Angelina Jolie, got both a backstory and a whitewash. She placed the curse of perpetual sleep on poor innocent Princess Aurora (Elle Fanning), sure, but she was driven to it when Aurora’s jerk father did her wrong, and she later repented her spite and became the girl’s doting godmother....

CONTINUE READING
https://www.phoenixmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/shaftposter.jpg

The PHiXFriday Flicks June 14: “The Dead Don’t Die,” “Shaft,” “The Spy Behind Home Plate” & “Echo in the Canyon”

M.V. MoorheadJune 2019

Opening wide:   The Dead Don’t Die “The greatest zombie cast ever disassembled!” That’s how this Jim Jarmusch horror comedy is being promoted, and it’s hard to argue with the hipster cred of the stars: Bill Murray, Adam Driver and Chloe Sevigny as the slow-to-action police force in a small town; Danny Glover, Steve Buscemi and Eszter Balint among the townies, Selena Gomez among some big-city kids passing through, Rose Perez as TV journalist “Posie...

CONTINUE READING

Older Posts

For more than 50 years, PHOENIX magazine's experienced writers, editors, and designers have captured all sides of the Valley with award-winning and insightful writing, and groundbreaking report and design. Our expository features, narratives, profiles, and investigative features keep our 385,000 readers in touch with the Valley's latest trends, events, personalities and places.

Navigation