While this isn’t one of Todd Solondz’s best movies, Wiener-Dog does have some moments that are among his best.

The movie follows the life of a wiener dog as it passes from owner to owner, resulting in four separate stories.

Story number one involves a child cancer survivor, Remi (Keaton Nigel Cooke) receiving the dog as a gift from his dad (Tracy Letts), much to the chagrin of his mom (Julie Delpy). The dog helps Remi to come out of his shell, but this is Solondz territory we are in, and things couldn’t possibly end happily for the family. An incident involving a granola bar lands the dachshund at the vet, and the dog is kidnapped, ironically enough, by Dawn Wiener (Greta Gerwig).

Fans of Solondz might remember Welcome to the Dollhouse, which featured a bullied teenager named Dawn Weiner played by Heather Matarazzo. Matarazzo turned down the opportunity to play the character again, so Gerwig stepped in. Shortly after adopting the dog, she meets Brandon, the bully from Dollhouse (this time played by Keiran Culkin). This portion of the film stands as a sequel to Dollhouse, and is one of the movie’s better stretches.

Danny DeVito then shows up as the next owner in the dog’s life. DeVito is decent as a disgruntled film professor looking to sell a screenplay.

Finally the dog winds up with Nana (Ellen Burstyn), who names the dog Cancer and endures a horrific visit from her granddaughter (Zosia Mamet). This segment of the movie features the film’s best moment, a vision of Nana’s where she visits with many versions of her young self. It’s wonderfully funny and nasty when young Nana introduces all the people she could’ve become had she done a few things differently. Solondz has a gift for mirth, and he achieves mirth bliss in this sequence.

Overall, the movie is a mixed bag, but Solondz fans will find plenty to like, including a fun intermission. Dog fans might get upset by a film that shows a dachshund stricken with diarrhea after a granola bar, and much lousier things later in the movie.

Gerwig is good as Dawn Wiener, although a return for Matarazzo would’ve been interesting. Fans of Dollhouse will remember that Wiener-Dog was the bully name bestowed upon her by Brandon all those years ago. The two have a much nicer time in this movie. A nicer time, but still weird and dark.

July 17th, 2016 from Zona Politics with Jim Nintzel on Vimeo.

On this week's episode of Zona Politics with Jim Nintzel: Victoria Steele and Matt Heinz, the two Democrats who are facing off in the August primary to determine who will face Republican Congresswoman Martha McSally in November, talk about why they should be the ones to advance. Then Republican Steve Christy, who is running for the retiring Ray Carroll's seat on the Pima County Board of Supervisors, stops by to talk about his campaign. 

You can catch the show at 8 a.m. Sunday on the CW Tucson, Channel 8 on Cox and Comcast and Channel 58 on DirecTV, Dish and broadcast. You can also listen to it at 5 p.m. Sunday on KXCI, 91.3 FM. Or watch online above.

Here's a rush transcript of the show:

(Nintzel) Hello, everyone. I'm Tucson Weekly's senior and we're here to talk Zona Politics. Today, we'll be talking with the Democrats who are fighting in the August primary for the chance to challenge Republican Congresswoman Martha McSally in the November general election We start with Victoria Steele. Ms. Steele is a former lawmaker and journalist who has also worked as a therapist and counselor. Victoria, welcome to Zona Politics.

(Steele) Thank you, Jim. My pleasure.

(Nintzel) So, what makes you the best candidate among the Democrats to take on Martha McSally?

(Steele) I think I’ve got more heart than anybody that's in this race. I have the experience of being an actual legislator. And I was in the legislature representing District 9 for the past three years, with the exception of this year, and I bring a broad range of experiences. I was a television news anchor and reporter for about 25 years. And I was also a master civil counselor. A mental health counselor. I specialized in domestic violence and substance abuse and relationships. So, once I was in the legislature, I was able to take those skills of being able to communicate well and to be able to build coalitions bring those together to get legislation passed. to get things done, to create good policy.

(Nintzel) And you have trailed your opponent, Matt Heinz, on the fundraising front. This week the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee designated Mr. Heinz as a candidate in an "emerging race" in the Red to Blue program that they have. Can you raise enough money to legitimately compete with Martha McSally, who is one of the top fundraisers in the country?

Experience romance and disillusion in the atmosphere of a 1920s dance by heading over to the Rogue Theatre, 300 E. University Blvd, to watch a live production of Tales of the Jazz Age this weekend.

Based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1922 short story, the show is a collaboration between the Rogue Theatre and Artificial Dance Project. 

Performances run through Sunday, July 26. Catch a show Thursday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m. or on Sunday at 2 p.m.   

Tickets are $35 for all performances, with a $15 student rush option available 15 minutes before all performances. 

For more information or to buy tickets, head to www.roguetheatre.org.

In 2008 I supported Obama's primary bid, but I wrote at the time that Hillary Clinton's statement on education was more progressive and creative than Obama's. Unfortunately, as president, Obama has held true to his timid campaign statements on education and adopted a less-than-progressive educational agenda. With his appointment of Arnie Duncan as Secretary of Education and his embrace of the Democratic hedge funders and other members of the Billionaire Boys Club who created Democrats for Education Reform, he joined the Democratic wing of the "education reform"/privatization movement, even though Linda Darling-Hammond, his educational advisor during the 2008 campaign, was pulling him the other way. We ended up with an administration that continued George Bush's educational legacy by throwing its support behind high stakes testing and the expansion of charter schools.

If this year's Democratic education platform is any indication, the party may be moving in a more progressive educational direction. The tepid first draft of the education platform was revised due mainly to members of the Sanders delegation working together with some Clinton supporters. In an indication of how significant the changes are, DFER is furious.

If you want a detailed description of the changes, go to Valerie Strauss's post in her "Answer Sheet" column in the Washington Post. Here are some highlights.

While both drafts of the platform support "great neighborhood public schools and high-quality public charter schools" and "oppose for-profit charter schools focused on making a profit off of public resources," the revised draft says public schools and charters should be "democratically governed." That's a big difference when it comes to charters, since their boards are often made up of a tight group of supporters appointed by the school, and charters are notoriously opaque about their finances and operations. It also adds this.

"We believe that high quality public charter schools should provide options for parents, but should not replace or destabilize traditional public schools. Charter schools must reflect their communities, and thus must accept and retain proportionate numbers of students of color, students with disabilities and English Language Learners in relation to their neighborhood public schools."

This list is 90 percent made up of movies that have already been in the Casa Video Top 10 in recent weeks but, hey, maybe you missed the memo last time.

The 10 most popular movies at Casa Video last week were: 

1. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
   

Adriana Chairez and Margo Susco, two local business women, held a nine-hour rally to support law enforcement near downtown's Ronstadt Center on Wednesday, July 13.

Concerned with what they viewed as the general lack of support for police both at the national and local levels after the murder of five police officers in Dallas, the women were convinced that now is the time to show appreciation for the work that the police perform on behalf of their communities.

Susco said that though the local officials profess support for Tucson Police Department, the actions of those officials do not reflect that rhetoric. Both Susco and Chairez share the opinion that TPD police officers have been asked to do more and more, extending duties beyond those of  traditional law enforcement—providing water to homeless people, for example—without a concomitant increase in resources.

Some ongoing problems include police compensation and equipment.

A pattern has developed in which TPD officers are recruited, sent through the academy, then after a couple of years are "poached" by neighboring jurisdictions, which offer higher wages and benefits. Tucson makes the investment, neighboring jurisdictions reap the majority of the benefits. This would appear to cost the City of Tucson more than would a substantial increase in wages.

New TPD officers receive body armor (vests) upon completion of their academy training, but they degrade over time and need to be replaced after five years. TPD does not supply replacement the body armor. The officers must pay for them out of their $640 annual equipment allowance, which is used for the purchase of gear including vests, service weapons, restraints, etc. With quality armor often costing in excess of $1,000, officers are faced with yet more tough choices. The Tucson Police Foundation does help with replacing expired armor.

There was a brief counter to the women's message which consisted of a few young men chanting "Fuck the police!" from across the street, but after a little conversation and more than a little water provided by the women, the young men had a change of heart and abandoned their efforts. 

Jonathan Hoffman is the Weekly's resident libertarian columnist. 

Remember last year when Emma Stone was cast as a Hawaiian character and movie lovers everywhere had to come to terms with Hollywood's history of whitewashing?

Well, get ready for round two because the Ruderman Family Foundation just released a study, The Ruderman White Paper: Employment of Actors with Disabilities in Television, about the poor representation people with disabilities receive in American media.  

Despite the fact that nearly 20 percent of Americans live with disabilities, characters with disabilities are rarely included in popular television—and when they are included in the scripts, they're nearly always portrayed by actors without disabilities.

According to their data (which looked at the top 10 TV shows at the end of the 2015-2016 season and the top 21 shows that are original content on streaming platforms) currently only 5 percent of characters with disabilities are portrayed by actors with disabilities.  

While the study itself says it's unrealistic to expect every character to be portrayed by an actor that share their background, we can do better than we're doing right now:

We believe that it is absolutely unacceptable to have 95% of characters with disabilities played by actors without disabilities. It is a matter of social justice to have a large segment of our population authentically represented in the mass entertainment that is television and scripted, dramatized stories. It is necessary to create an environment where actors with disabilities have access to play characters with disabilities. It is also necessary to reduce stigma surrounding “invisible” disabilities such as addiction and mental illness. Only by having actors who are open about those disabilities will we slowly create a society that doesn’t shun or shame a vast segment of its population. We have to tell stories about people with a variety of disabilities and we have to be fair in representing them accurately. Only then will we have more realistic stories that reflect our society.

We will not choose a number and say that this is how many characters with disabilities need to be played by actors with disabilities. But we are saying that it’s about time we start ensuring that it’s more than 5%.

Pokémon Go has exploded since its release last week, bringing millions to the streets to catch 'em all. 
The game has become the top grossing app in the app store and caused some adventures: A few trainers have been mugged, one found a dead body and other gamers just can't believe how much they're exercising. 

On the UA campus many students (dare I say hundreds?) can be found roaming the mall and University Boulevard, staring into their phones and searching for Pokémon. The app, which layers gameplay onto the physical world, has become a cultural phenomenon.

That's all fine and good, but there are a few places everyone should agree to put away their Pokéballs—for instance, every memorial in existence. 

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has asked visitors to stop catching Pokémon on their premises, out of respect for the memorial. 

“Playing the game is not appropriate in the museum, which is a memorial to the victims of Nazism,” Andrew Hollinger, the museum’s communications director, told the Washington Post. “We are trying to find out if we can get the museum excluded from the game.” While the game has inadvertently caused many people to exercise as they hunt for eevee, pidgey and rattata, the game has also caused many people to forget their surroundings. 

Similar reports have come from the 9/11 Memorial and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.

To all the trainers out there: The search for Pikachu may be important, but don't let it cause you to forget about the rest of the world.

In fact, take some time to explore the parts of Tucson you're following Pokémon to without your phone in hand.

While most of the community still lay in their beds resting in preparation for Independence Day, 65-year-old David Knowlton was taking his usual morning walk around the neighborhood. Knowlton had moved to Oro Valley almost two years ago to escape the New Hampshire cold and find a climate more suited to his battle with multiple sclerosis.

While his Fourth of July began like so many other days, Knowlton would soon end up at Banner-University Medical Center. At approximately 6:15 a.m., Knowlton was struck by a passing vehicle, which then fled the scene, while walking along the 9300 block of North Calle El Milagro.

“A lot of MS patients tend to lose their ability to walk,” said Kayla Jacks, Kowlton’s daughter. “My father was extremely gracious that he was able to walk and that was always a positive note for him—which makes it that much harder for me to accept what has happened. If it was not daily, it was almost seven days a week that he would go on a morning five-mile walk and that was all to help his MS in the best way that he could—to stay strong and to exercise.”

The Oro Valley Police Department launched an investigation into the hit-and-run based on a description of the 2010 Nissan Cube that was seen leaving the scene. Later that day, police arrested the car’s registered owner, John J. Pedicone, 37, on charges of failing to stop at an accident involving serious physical injury or death and aggravated assault, causing serious physical injury, according to reports.

After arriving at Banner, Knowlton was immediately admitted into a seven-hour surgery. According to Jacks, who has made a GoFundMe page to help fund her father’s expensive recovery, Knowlton’s injuries were quite extensive, including multiple, severe injuries to his spine.

Lest we forget.

When Doug Ducey was pushing Prop 123, he promised that it was only a "first step" toward improving Arizona education, leaving the impression that more money would be forthcoming after it passed. His actions, however—cutting the state education budget while giving tax cuts to his rich friends who invested in his campaign—made it abundantly clear, he never had any intention of spending more on education than he absolutely had to.

Once Prop 123 passed, Ducey was asked, if it was just a first step, what comes next? His answer:

“We’re going to take the rest of the day off,” he said. “We’re going to celebrate a little bit.”

That day has stretched into 55 days without a public statement about the promised next step. I've seen nothing in the news. I've received three AzAWESOME (why arizona rocks.) emails from Ducey's communications team, along with an AZ Briefing Room and a Week In Review email. Only two of them mention education briefly, and they say nothing about any plans regarding K-12 education.

The eight week silence is deafening.