Arizona’s award-winning ‘Raising Buchanan’ arrives on streaming services, DVD and Blu-ray

“Raising Buchanan”, a wildly-conceived comedy about a woman who steals U.S. President James Buchanan’s remains to extract a big payday, is available to stream or purchase on May 5.  Entirely filmed in Arizona, writer/director Bruce Dellis’ movie debuted at the 2019 Phoenix Film Festival, and it won the Best Arizona Feature Award. Rene Auberjonois (“Benson” (1980 – 1986), “Deep Space Nine” (1993 – 1999)) stars as the aforementioned president in one of his very last film roles, and Dellis also includes veteran character actor M. Emmet Walsh (“The Jerk” (1979),…

‘Hot Summer Nights’ especially delivers but then overheats

“Hot Summer Nights” – Looking back at the 20th century, some years truly stand out, and 1929, 1945, 1963, 1976, and 1984 are some of the more notable ones. Well, outside of the Hubble Telescope launch, the end of the Gulf War, Super Bowl XXV between the Buffalo Bills and New York Giants, and “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”, 1991 was not particularly special.   For writer/director Elijah Bynum, he landed on this year in his new coming-of-age comedy/drama, “Hot Summer Nights”. Although his feature-film debut is packed with wonderful script-candy, odes…

The Phoenix Film Festival and Foundation reel off a new movie celebration, the Peoria Film Fest

The Phoenix Film Festival has been living large in the Valley of the Sun for 18 years, but Arizona’s top festival is branching out.  Branching out to the West Valley, actually. Peoria! The first Peoria Film Fest – sponsored by Phoenix Film Festival and Phoenix Film Foundation – will light up Harkins Arrowhead Fountains 18 Theatres on Oct. 19 to Oct. 21 and feature upcoming studio and independent movies. “We’ve been looking to host an event in the North Valley and Peoria made the most sense. The growth of the…