Ask a random person on the street if they can name a WWE Superstar, and their response would likely be a name like John Cena or…
Author: Brent Hankins
Brent Hankins
Brent Hankins has been blogging and writing film reviews online since 2011. He joined the Phoenix Film Critics Society in 2013, and was a founding member of the Phoenix Critics Circle the following year, where he currently serves as President. Brent also hosted the weekly Drinks and Discourse podcast for nearly 5 years, and is currently the editor-in-chief at The Lamplight Review. He resides in Tempe, AZ with his wife and son.
ANAHEIM — Couples who elected to spend Valentine’s Day at the Honda Center with Panic! at the Disco were treated to an extravagant, high-energy arena rock…
Many of us can recall someone older (and allegedly wiser) telling us that our teenage years would be the best of our lives, and that nothing…
The Nightingale, Jennifer Kent’s follow-up to her 2014 horror hit The Babadook, is far removed from the supernatural scares of her previous work. Yet this tale…
A rumination on the dangers of zealotry and blind devotion to faith, Them That Follow centers on Mara (Alice Englert), a young woman from the Appalachian…
Little Monsters opens with a series of arguments between Dave (Alexander England) and his longtime girlfriend, the last of which results in him moving in with…
Veteran documentarian Joe Berlinger — best known for the Paradise Lost trilogy, covering the arrest, incarceration and eventual release of the West Memphis Three — returns…
GLENDALE — After five decades of live performances, Elton John is hanging up his sequined jackets and oversized sunglasses, but not before making one final lap around the world.
Stieg Larsson may not quite be a household name, but anyone privileged enough to have read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo will certainly recognize the…
When the final moments of M. Night Shyamalan’s Split revealed that the events of the film took place in the same universe as the director’s 2000…
MESA — Every Time I Die rolled into Club Red for the latest stop on their “20 Years of Bullshit” tour, and the metal legends wasted no time whipping the crowd into a frenzy.
Far removed from the intimate and introspective dramatic efforts like Hunger and Shame that began his directorial career, or the Oscar-winning historical tale 12 Years a…
It’s a shame that David Fincher never had the opportunity to continue the story of Lisbeth Salander after his excellent remake of The Girl with The…
Told in “six acts and an epilogue set in divided Berlin” as a title card helpfully explains, Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria is less a remake of Italian…
Queen frontman Freddie Mercury is one of the most beloved and recognizable figures in rock history, known for his lavish costumes and flamboyant personality – both…
When we first meet 13-year-old Stevie (Sunny Suljic), he’s being hurled into a wall and pummeled mercilessly by his older brother Ian (Lucas Hedges). The next…
From the opening moments of First Man, it’s clear that director Damien Chazelle has set out to depict space travel in a way heretofore unseen on…
The Peoria Film Fest is excited to announce details of their festive opening night cocktail party followed by a screening of Bleecker Street’s “What They Had”.
The opening moments of Assassination Nation, director Sam Levinson’s no-holds-barred indictment of the toxicity that permeates so much of our modern culture, warns viewers precisely what they’re…
The Phoenix Film Foundation and Phoenix Film Festival are excited to announce the first round of films that will be playing at the Peoria Film Fest! A quick list of movies can be found below with…
The story of Lizzie Borden, the 32-year-old woman who allegedly butchered her family with an axe in the late 1800s, has been told countless times in…
Best known for female-driven, laugh-out-loud comedies like Bridesmaids and The Heat, director Paul Feig brings his signature brand of humor – albeit noticeably muted – to…
PHOENIX — Post-hardcore legends Glassjaw returned to the road this year, making a mid-summer stop at The Van Buren in support of Material Control, their first full-length release since 2002’s seminal Worship and Tribute.
If you scroll through Denzel Washington’s lengthy resume, one thing you won’t find is a sequel: the two-time Academy Award winner has never returned to the…
2015’s nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat thriller Sicario didn’t need a sequel. The story of a young FBI agent getting a firsthand look at the conflict between the US…
Peter Pan is one of Disney’s most beloved classics, and it arrives on Blu-ray this week as the seventh entry into the Walt Disney Signature Collection. Fans…
After helming the somber civil rights drama Selma and the harrowing prison documentary 13th, Ava DuVernay is shifting gears in a big way, making the leap to tentpole studio…
The first Marvel film headlined by a black superhero is a remarkably entertaining superhero origin story. The home video release looks and sounds superb, but the extras are a bit underwhelming.
Avengers: Infinity War is already burning up the box office, but before anyone – even the heroes themselves – had seen a completed version, the cast…
Sixteen years after the Vermont Highway Patrol first endeared themselves to comedy fans and stoners across the globe, the Super Troopers are finally returning to the…
To say that Rampage is based upon the 1980s arcade machine of the same name would be accurate – the film does feature enormous mutant creatures…
On its face, the premise of Blockers is troubling: upon discovering their teenage daughters have entered into a pact to lose their virginity on prom night,…
Before Ready Player One was first published in 2011, the film rights to Ernest Cline’s geek-themed fantasy epic had already been purchased by Warner Bros. -…
So far, the plot of Deadpool 2 has been kept mostly under wraps (unless you’re inclined to believe the absurd synopsis released by the studio), but…