Wednesday, July 25, 2018
Andy Goldsworthy’s Rivers and Tides
This event spotlights the documentary about one artist’s integration of nature and human change. It chronicles the work of artist Andy Goldsworthy, who uses natural media, like ice and rock, to create works of art in nature. A panel discussion organized by the UA Water Resources Research Center and the Sky Island Alliance will follow the film. 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, July 31. Regular admission prices; general admission $9.75.
First Friday Shorts
Now’s your chance to show off your talents as a filmmaker. Each month, the Loft Cinema holds a short film contest, where any film under 15 minutes long has a shot at making it to the big screen. It’s up to the audience to decide which film wins the monthly grand prize of $200. Limit to show the first 15 films brought in each month. Films must be brought in prior to the start of the show. Some material may not be suitable for all audiences. For more complete rules and terms, visit the Loft's website. 9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 3. $5 for Loft Cinema members, $6 general admission.
Take a look
Avengers: Infinity War
If you missed out on this hero-packed adventure when it first came out or simply want to fill the void until the next Marvel movie release, head over to the UA Mall on the University of Arizona campus for an outdoor screening. The movie will be projected on the Loft’s inflatable Solar Cinema screen. Open to the general public. 9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 17. Free admission. UA Mall.
The Greatest Showman Sing-A-Long
Belt out your favorite hits from The Greatest Showman with this Sing-A-Long. The lyrics to songs such as “This is Me” and “The Other Side” will be onscreen and ready for the crowd to join in. Don your best circus-inspired outfit for a chance to win a prize. 2 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 18. $10 Loft members and children 12 and under, $12 general admission.
All events, except the Avengers
Tags: The Loft Cinema , movies , things to do , events , Avengers , The Greatest Showman , Rivers and Tides , First Friday Shorts , The Doctor from India , Image , Video
Monday, July 23, 2018
Gus Van Sant gets back into fine directing shape with Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot, his best effort in years. Joaquin Phoenix gets much of the credit; he’s terrific as real-life cartoonist John Callahan, an alcoholic who wound up in a wheelchair after a car accident with a new friend (Jack Black). Van Sant jumps around with his timeline, but the film is never confusing no matter where it goes. We see Callahan pre-accident, drinking tequila first thing in the morning. We also see him during one of the film’s framing devices, a convention where Callahan is sharing his story. Most effectively, we see him in group therapy sessions led by Donnie (Jonah Hill), a free spirited, generally kind man who, nevertheless, isn’t going to give you many breaks as your sponsor. Those sessions have a documentary-like feel, and Hill is especially good (and nearly unrecognizable) in them. Phoenix is having a great year (if you haven’t seen him in You Were Never Really Here, you must), and this might be his very best work yet. Rooney Mara, Carrie Brownstein and Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth show up in brief, yet effective roles. This is one of the summer’s better films.
Tags: Movie , summer , film , review , video , trailer , Image , Video
Thursday, July 19, 2018
Over the next week-and-a-half, The Loft Cinema is freeing you of your parental obligations (if only for an hour or two). What’s better than watching some of the best children’s movies on the big screen? The fact that they’re all free! The Loft Kids Fest kicks off on Friday, July 20, with a Himmel Park party at 6 p.m. that includes an 8 p.m. screening of Trolls. After that, the daily action moves to The Loft. Check out: Home (July 21); How to Train Your Dragon 2 (July 22); Walking with Dinosaurs (July 23); Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes (July 24); The Neverending Story (July 25); The Last Unicorn (July 26); Looney Tunes shorts (July 27); Spirited Away (July 28); and 2017’s Beauty and the Beast (July 29). Screenings start at 10 a.m. every morning, with a second 11 a.m. screening on weekends only. Loft Cinema, 3233 East Speedway Boulevard.
Tags: Movies , The Loft , Kids Fest , things to do , children , kids , family , fun , summer , activities , film , cinema , Image
Wednesday, July 11, 2018
One of my favorite movies as a kid was The Beatles' Yellow Submarine. (I'm not saying I really followed the plot when I kid, but man, did I hate those Blue Meanies.) For the film's 50th anniversary, it's undergone a frame-by-frame restoration and this weekend, it's opening at the Loft Cinema. Get your friends all aboard and join the battle for the future of Pepperland.
Tags: Beatles , things to do , Yellow Submarine , movie , The Loft , Cinema , Image , Video
Friday, June 29, 2018
You can catch an Arizona-filmed post-apocalyptic flick at downtown's Screening Room this Saturday, June 30.
Wastelander follows Rhyous, an ex-soldier who wanders the desert searching for his lost home and family.
The movie’s writer and director, Angelo Lopes, was living in Hawaii when he started working on the script, but he moved to Arizona in early 2012 to start filming. He came with some filmmaking experience and a career as a cameraman on local TV news.
Much of Wastelander was filmed at a one-acre property northwest of Phoenix, which the owners made available to Lopes’ team when they took an interest in the movie.
“We built a lot of our sets there,” he said. “They also had a barn, and we used the barn for a lot of the interiors.”
Because of the limited space for shooting interior scenes, filming took a long time. “We’d build a set. We’d shoot everything there. We’d tear down the set. We’d build another set,” Lopes said.
Outdoor scenes were filmed at various desert locations throughout Arizona, but Lopes made an effort to avoid showing saguaro cactus and other artifacts that might identify the post-apocalyptic set as the pre-apocalyptic Sonoran Desert.
While Wastelander certainly evokes Mad Max with its wasteland treks and bands of mercenaries, it was more directly inspired by the video game series “Castlevania.” Lopes was playing “Castlevania: Lords of Shadows” on his XBox when inspiration struck.
“This is about one guy that has got a mission, and he’s going from Point A to Point B, and it’s just what happens along the way,” he said. “I was like, ‘I need to make a movie like this.’”
Joe Rogan: Strange Times 2018 Tour. You may know him as an MMA guy, you may know him as the guy from Fear Factor, you may know him as the host of your favorite podcast or you may know him as the host of a podcast you’ve listened to a couple times when there are guests you’re interested in. But chances are, you probably know about Joe Rogan. It turns out, Joe Rogan knows about Tucson, too! He’s swinging by on his Strange Times comedy tour, because he’s also been a standup comic for more than two decades. 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 29. Tucson Convention Center, 260 S. Church Ave. $43 to $63. Details here.
Clueless. Ah, the wondrous high school comedies of days gone by. What’s better than the nostalgic feelings? The throwback soundtracks, especially when it’s full of grunge and golden-age hip hop. It’s kind of the Mean Girls of the ’90s, and what’s not to like about that? Head on over to The Fox Theatre and get your prep on. 7:30 p.m. Saturday, June 30. 17 W. Congress St. $7. Details here.
Tags: Weekend , events , things to do , movies , yoga , beer , summer , fun , family , friends , Tucson , Image
Thursday, June 21, 2018
Featured films include Public Broadcasting’s The Released, a 54-minute documentary following a paranoid schizophrenic living in a homeless shelter, and Arizona Public Media’s Not Broken, which follows a group of young locals with mental illness trying to avoid incarceration.
In between the films, attendees can grab a complimentary lunch and sit in on a panel discussion led by Safety and Justice Challenge Program Manager Terrence Cheung. The panel will feature Gisela Telis, co-director of Not Broken; Sgt. Jason Winsky of the Tucson Police Department’s Mental Health Support Team and NAMI Southern Arizona executive director Clarke Romans. The
Safety and Justice Challenge will also reveal an outreach program during the day’s events.
The free event runs 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday, June 21 at The Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway Blvd. RSVP for the event on Eventbrite. For more details, please visit The Loft's website.
Tags: The Loft Cinema , The Released , Not Broken , AZPM , Frontline , things to do , movies , Image , Video
Wednesday, June 20, 2018
See it at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 20 at The Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway Blvd. Admission is free. For more details, visit The Loft website.
Tags: The Loft Cinema , documentary , The House I Live in , war on drugs , free , movie , Image , Video
Tuesday, June 19, 2018
The Derek Jarman-directed film will play at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 19 at The Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway Blvd. Admission is free but there is a $5 suggested donation. For more details, please visit The Loft's website.
Tags: The Loft Cinema , Edward II , lgbt , film , movies , Video , Image
Monday, June 18, 2018
A family gets their proverbial ass viciously, horrifically kicked in Hereditary, writer-director Ari Aster’s more-than-impressive feature debut. This is a horror movie that will bruise your brain, make your blood run cold and stay in your system well after you’ve left the theater.
Toni Collette plays a woman dealing with the recent death of her mom, and that mom’s strange obsession with the supernatural. The sins of that mom eventually take their toll on her daughter and, consequently, her family.
The movie is a ghost story, a demon story and a witch story rolled into one, with elements of The Witch, Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist and, yes, The Sixth Sense (that vibe owes a lot to the presence of Collette). It’s also one of the more powerful depictions of a family falling apart in recent years, making it an excursion into horror with an extra layer of depth.
The creeping dread factor starts early in Hereditary and never lets up. Aster proves to be a master of atmospheric scares, relying less upon jolts and gore, and more upon lingering shots in dark corners where you can sort of make out a ghost staring at you. Everything works up to a frightening puzzler of a finale that might have you initially asking, “WTF?” but eventually thinking, “Oh … that’s some messed-up shit right there.”
Tags: Horror , Hereditary , movie , new , film , scary , Image
