Virtual reality becomes a dangerous thing in director, co-writer and star Benjamin Dickinson’s craftily shot and cleverly scripted latest.

Dickinson plays David, an advertising executive with a beautiful yoga instructor girlfriend named Juliette (Nora Zehetner) and a tendency to get a little too wrapped up in his work. His latest client, a virtual reality company named Augmenta, wants him to come up with a campaign for their new virtual reality glasses. David becomes a little bored and frayed at the ends when it comes to his job and his girl, so he finds himself playing around with those glasses. He eventually comes up with a way to virtually recreate Sophie (Alexia Rasmussen), his best friend’s girlfriend. He starts a virtual affair with virtual Sophie, and the lines of reality begin to blur. Shot in black and white with brief flourishes of color, the film feels a little too real for comfort in that the devices being used in the movie seem to be just around the corner.

Society has already been gulped up by their smart phones and video games, so Dickinson’s film is simply representing the next step in the dehumanization of relationships. Creative Control is often funny, sometimes scary and always an interesting look at what happens when virtual reality represents too much relief from real life pressures. It’s an impressive effort from Dickinson, all the more impressive in that the film’s budget is listed at a cool one million dollars. 

Obviously, this is a literary weekend in Tucson—but balance is good, and there's nothing wrong with wrapping up a day of author talks, poetry and book shopping with a night of visual storytelling.  

Here's your weekly Casa Video Top 10—Look, so many Oscar winners!

1. Creed

Pregnancy and babies bring about thoughts of growing families, tiny socks, first steps—and safe deliveries. Sometimes, that's just not how birth happens. 

This Thursday, March 10 at 5:30 p.m., the Loft Cinema (3233 E. Speedway Blvd.) presents Birth Happens: An International Look at Birth, an event that looks at birth on a global level. 

Tickets are $12 for general admission, $10 for Loft members. 

The Loft's description of the event: 

Every day, 364,501 children are born worldwide. That is 5 children per second and 300 per minute. All children are born with their own life story, their own family, their own environment, their own culture, and their own place in the world with their own future.

“The way in which a child comes into the world is a mirror of its society and the place where our cradle is determines our future.” – Birth Day filmmaker Lieve Blanquaert

Birth Happens is a one-time only event that brings together three films, which gives a glimpse into births around the world and what women are facing giving birth in various countries. “No Woman, No Cry” a film by Christy Turlington Burns, “Birth Day” a film by Lieve Blanquaert and “Giving Birth in America- New York” a film by Every Woman Counts showcase the challenges, complexities and conditions that women and families cope with when having a baby.

An informed discussion will take place after the films with international and public health experts to learn about their experiences and what is happening locally. Come join us and be a part of the discussion. Raffle and ManDonna, a black and white photo exhibit of dads and babies also presented this evening.

The event is presented by the Friends of  Midwifery and Sponsored by El Rio Community Health Services-Women's Services. 

Tina Fey makes a seamless transition to more dramatic fare with Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, the story of a female journalist dropped into the middle of the war in Afghanistan.

Based on the book The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Kim Barker, the film has a MASH vibe to it when it’s at its best. Fey gets plenty of chances to be funny, but this is her meatiest role yet, allowing her to show off a more serious—and promising—side as an actress. When her life in New York gets too humdrum, Kim (Fey) winds up in Afghanistan with no major field reporting experience, dodging RPGs and filing stories nobody cares about. She has standard long distance relationship problems on top of that, along with an on site romance with a freelance photographer (Martin Freeman).

Directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (Crazy, Stupid, Love and Focus) the film pops on occasion, but spends a little too much time in dusty apartments rather than out in the field.

Margot Robbie is great, if a little underused, as another field reporter while the likes of Billy Bob Thornton and Alfred Molina perform admirably in supporting roles.

The film doesn’t always click, but it remains watchable thanks to Fey and, to a lessor extent, Robbie. It stands as an interesting turning point in Fey’s career. 

Disney delivers another winner with Zootopia, a cute, uplifting story with a surprising dark side.

It’s the sort of movie that’ll have kids asking their parents a few questions about some tough topics, while also being a movie that should entertain just about anyone who sits their butt in a theater seat to watch it.

Judy (Ginnifer Goodwin entering the Voice Acting Hall of Fame) is a little bunny determined to be the first bunny cop on the force in Zootopia, a metropolis populated by animals. On the road to joining the force, she faces a lot of opposition for being both a bunny and a girl. Judy beats insurmountable odds, and winds up on the force, much to the chagrin Chief Bogo (Idris Elba). She soon finds herself on a missing mammals case and enlists the help of a sly fox (Jason Bateman) for investigative work.

The film is co-directed by three guys: Byron Howard (Tangled), Rich Moore (Wreck-It Ralph) and Jared Bush (His feature debut!). Directing by committee certainly works in this case, as the film has a nice unified feel while sustaining a surprising depth for an animated movie. The animation is top notch and inventive, with cute little touches throughout.

Judy’s hometown is farmland distinguished by an Easter pastels palette. When a cop chase winds up in a rodent community, it becomes a funny Godzilla riff. There are little, witty touches throughout, and the movie is just another animation home run for the Disney catalogue. 

That's right, Potter fans! Your wish has been granted. We American muggles are finally getting some answers.

In anticipation of the new film trilogy from the wizarding world, author J.K. Rowling will be releasing four new stories about the history of magic in the new world. The series, called Magic in North America, will be released in installments starting tomorrow March 8 at 7 a.m. Tucson time and continuing every day until Friday, March 11, according to the announcement on Pottermore.com.

The first of the films, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, will be released Nov. 18.

"Magic in North America will bring to light the history of this previously unexplored corner of the wizarding world in the run up to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. And you’ll want to get up to speed before the film comes around in November."

Check the interactive Harry Potter site, Pottermore, tomorrow for the first story.

The Women's Studies Advisory Council will screen six films about, for and by women, at the Loft Cinema (3233 E. Speedway Blvd.) in their 15th annual LUNAFEST tour on Tuesday, March 8. 

The festival aims to illuminate women's issues, nationally unite women and highlight female filmmakers through a variety of film mediums ranging from animated shorts to fictional dramas. Topics explored include motherhood, body image, cultural diversity and breaking gender barriers. 

Created and funded by LUNA (yes, LUNA as in the nutrition bar), LUNAFEST benefits Tucson's Breast Cancer Fund and the UA's Women's Studies Advisory Council. The event will also collect money and non-perishable food or feminine hygiene products for the Adult and Youth Programs of the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation as part of the YWCA Southern Arizona. Donors will get one voucher for buy-one-get-one free raffle tickets. 

Featured LUNAFEST films include the following: 

• Balsa Wood by Dominique Lecchi
  
• Beach Flags by Sarah Saidan
  
• Boxeadora by Meg Smaker
  
• Finding June by Anna Schumacher
  
• First World Problems by Hanna Maylett
  
• Raising Ryland by Sarah Feeley
  

Screenings start at 7 p.m. and run until 9:30. Get tickets for $10 at the door or call 621-5656 to buy them in advance. Check out LUNAFEST's website for more information. 

Few artists in any medium can claim to have completely altered the trajectory of art. With music, we like to generously lob this distinction at way too many people; saying they changed the game or were responsible for X-amount of impostors. Outside of Bob Dylan or James Brown or fucking Bach, it's really not true: music is a cultural dialog that's on a path and, regardless of who does it, the developments are gonna get made.

Yeah, Sun Ra was 'out' before anyone even knew the Earth was round, and jazz players were getting more and more tired with the circle-jerk of chords in the wake of bop. By the end of the '50s everyone was ready to move on and, for sure, Coltrane and Davis existed amongst an insanely talented peer-group of other iconoclasts, all throwing their weight against the walls. But no one absolutely blew the shit wide open, showed that even when you thought you were thinking outside the rules you were still inside the box, like Ornette Coleman.

Abandoning chords and chordal instruments altogether, he emerged with a fully-formed and legitimately controversial sound: others started fights and ended friendships over whether his playing was even "valid." He blew out of tune, in the cracks, fluidly touching whatever scale he wanted, literally freeing his instrument and his band from the rigid structures of jazz at the time.

You know what's fun? Eating popcorn. 

Here is your Casa Video Top 10 for the week:

1. Black Mass

Goddammit, when is somebody going to ban gum chewing in movies? I’m a card carrying, unabashed Keanu Reeves fan, but he started the whole “Gum Chewing Action Star” thing with Speed, and it’s become such a visually distracting, cheap acting trick.

Knock it off, Hollywood actors! You will never surpass the gum-chewing prowess immortalized by Reeves in Speed. He is, always has been, and shall remain the gum-chewing-action-guy king!

The culprit this time out is Casey Affleck in Triple 9, the latest from super reliable director John Hillcoat. Affleck plays Chris, a new cop in a fleet of bad cops who distinguishes himself by, you guessed it, chewing gum a lot.

He doesn’t just chew that shit, either. Oh no. He cracks it, he pops it, he moves it all over his mouth and lets the white wad stick out of the corners, and he makes sure it gets in the way of his near every line delivery and near every shot he occupies in the movie.

If I should ever get to helm an action cop movie, what with my budding film career and all, I’m going for the gum chewing title. I will make sure to have my action cop guy constantly unwrapping pieces of gum and shoving them into his pie hole. I won’t stop at Wrigley’s either. Nope, I’ll get some Big Red in there, adding to the color palette. We’ll get some Bubble Yum and Bazooka for bigger, longer lasting bubbles. It’s going to make my action star so freaking tough looking.

Okay, so the actual movie is pretty good. Like the usual Hillcoat movies (The Road, The Proposition, Lawless) it’s a dark film with a bleak outlook on humanity. Nobody is happy in this flick, and they are going to let you know that for sure. Only this time, there’s a whole lot of gum chewing and some fast moving, impressive action scenes to go with all of the brooding.

Anthony Mackie, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Aaron Paul, Woody Harrelson and, yes, Affleck make this dirty cop thriller a worthwhile viewing. Hillcoat proves he knows his way around an action flick, and while this particular one is thin on plot, it’s strong with atmosphere and performances. And, yes, it has a lot of gum.