Read more from Jeff: Phoenix Film Festival | Art House Film Wire

Jeff’s enthusiasm for movies began during his childhood as a way to "escape" small-town life for a couple hours at a time. Although he does not live in a small town any longer, his love for movies has not wavered.  Jeff began writing film reviews in 2008 during his journalism school days and instantly became hooked with the work. He pens weekly reviews for the Phoenix Film Festival and Art House Film Wire, hosts monthly Phoenix Film Society screenings/Q&As and programs features for the Phoenix Film Festival and Peoria Film Fest.  When Jeff is not watching (and talking about) movies, he spends time at the gym/yoga studio and volunteers at a no-kill animal shelter. Some of his favorite movies are Pulp Fiction, City of God, Waking Ned Devine, and The Secret in Their Eyes. 

Read more from Hunter: Arizona's Family

A massive fan of movies since childhood, Hunter V Norris began writing online movie reviews at just 12 years old. Inspired by film critics like Roger Ebert, Richard Roeper, Leonard Maltin, Berge Garabedian, John Fallon, and more, Hunter gained a great appreciation for both the art of filmmaking and criticism. He graduated from Scottsdale Community College’s film school, where afterwards he was able to use the skills he acquired to become a video editor at Arizona’s Family news in Phoenix. Eventually, Hunter was able to turn his movie reviewing passion into an actual profession, writing reviews for the Arizona’s Family website. Hunter’s “holy trinity” of movies consist of The Graduate, John Carpenter’s Halloween, and Raiders of the Lost Ark. 

Read/Listen to more from Josh: The A.V. Club | ScreenCrush | Slashfilm | The Hollywood Reporter | Mousterpiece Cinema

Josh's work can be found on The A.V. Club, ScreenCrush, Slashfilm, Film School Rejects, and the Hollywood Reporter's Heat Vision blog. He's hosted the Mousterpiece Cinema podcast about the films of the Walt Disney Company since June of 2011. Josh has also written a book of criticism on Pixar, Yesterday is Forever: Nostalgia and Pixar Animation Studios, for The Critical Press.

Read more from Bill: The Arizona Republic | USA Today Network‍ ‍

Bill learned to read from his grandmother’s Addams Family collections. His plans to become a professional basketball player sadly stalled when he stopped getting any taller after seventh grade.

He’s been a cop reporter, a city and county government reporter, a features columnist, a sports columnist, TV critic, an editor and a writer covering pop culture. Now he’s a movie critic. He thinks The Simpsons is the greatest TV show ever, Holy War is his favorite Matthew Sweet song and the Washington Commanders are his favorite team in all of sports. According to him, Harry Dean Stanton is always great, licorice never is. He’s read Dracula more than once (“you are wise for one who has not yet lived a single lifetime”), and he might again. He was an English major in college and loved Faulkner and such, but his favorite book is Instant Replay by Jerry Kramer.

Read more from Shari: txtmovieclub.com

Shari became fascinated by films at the age of seven when she saw a movie being made in front of her house. As a teenager she immersed herself in the culture of film and became a cinephile, working in a video store. Since then, she has expanded into film criticism, writing for txtmovieclub.com. She has written, directed, and produced several short films and is currently working on projects with her production company, Good Stew Productions that she created with a few of her friends. Her favorite movies are The Big Chill and Lonely Boy, and she enjoys watching Woody Allen films above all others.

Read more from Dina: The Arizona Republic | USA Today Network

Dina Kaur’s love of pop culture started at seven when her grandfather gave her the Arts section of The Boston Globe to peruse.

Since then, she joined her elementary school newspaper—the Cunniff Kids News—and continued reporting throughout middle school, high school, and college.

Dina has worked for the Cape Cod Times, Patriot Ledger and now The Arizona Republic covering entertainment on a local and national scale. She has also had work published in USA Today.

She is an avid Letterboxd user, and enjoys binge-watching Sex and the City. Her favorite movie is Lady Bird, and her (current) book obsession is The Secret History by Donna Tartt.

Oh and her movie snacks of choice are buttery popcorn, Cookie Dough Bites and a Diet Coke.

Read/Listen to more from Amanda: The Arizona Republic | Blindspotters Podcast

Amanda Luberto has been an avid consumer of pop culture for as long as she can remember. So much so that her first memory is of watching The X-Files, and her summer breaks were spent escaping the Arizona heat via air conditioned movie theaters. The best way to describe her personality is a mixture of her favorite directors: Wes Anderson and David Fincher. In addition to writing reviews for The Arizona Republic, she co-hosts a movie podcast about shamelessly removing movies out of your cinematic blindspot called "Blindspotters."

Read more from Joel: Gone with the Twins

Joel Massie is one-half of The Massie Twins, identical twin film critics who have been professionally reviewing movies full time for over 8 years, appearing on TV, radio, online, and in print. Their latest book “The Movies That Time Forgot” is available now at Barnes & Noble and  Amazon.com.

Read more from Mike: Gone with the Twins

Joel Massie is one-half of The Massie Twins, identical twin film critics who have been professionally reviewing movies full time for over 8 years, appearing on TV, radio, online, and in print. Their latest book “The Movies That Time Forgot” is available now at Barnes & Noble and  Amazon.com.

Read more from Matthew: Dark of the Matinee

Matthew Robinson is a local to the Phoenix area who has been creating and supporting film for several years. He formed the blog/website Dark of the Matinee in 2010 with the intention of writing about horror/sci-fi/genre films. Dark of the Matinee now covers most major studio theatrical releases, indie VOD/DVD releases, the latest cult Blu-ray releases and more. Matthew has also run the Arizona Filmmaker Showcase for over 3 years. The Showcase is a monthly forum held at FilmBar for local AZ filmmakers to bring their films to Phoenix audiences and support their efforts at no cost to the filmmaker. Matthew currently teaches in the Film and Media Studies program at ASU.

Read/Watch more from Braden: ScreamInn Media |
YouTube

Braden Timmons is an award-winning filmmaker and film critic. His love for film started after seeing Spider-Man in theaters in 2002. In 2018, he began discussing horror films on YouTube and working on film production. After beginning a YouTube channel, Braden recognized he wanted to develop his skills in film criticism, writing and directing. He is currently a horror film critic on YouTube, co-host for Fear Freaks Podcast and a writer for The Streamr Entertainment.

Read more from Barbara: Phoenix Film Festival

Barbara VanDenburgh is a longtime Phoenix journalist and arts writer, a former film critic for The Arizona Republic and Books Editor for USA TODAY. She is currently the Communications Manager for The Sidney Poitier New American Film School at ASU and host of the First Draft Book Club at Changing Hands Bookstore in Phoenix. 

Read more from Meredith: The Arizona Republic

Meredith G. White has her parents to thank for her love of film. Her mother instilled a love of the classics and fantasy while her father routinely took her and her siblings to rent movies with a "you can't rent the same one twice" rule. This allowed her to enjoy and appreciate a wide range of films that eventually led her to choose a minor in Film Studies in college. It's hard for her to say who she would be without the influence of film in her life and the immense joy and purpose it has brought her. Now she's the Entertainment Reporter for The Arizona Republic and is finally able to use her film minor for professional use instead of only an excuse to watch and talk about movies for college credit.

Read/Listen to more from Kyle: The Lamplight Review | Drinks and Discourse

A long time obsessive of all things pop-culture, especially film, Kyle Wilson acted and studied theater at Arizona State University. Now as a founding member of The Lamplight Review, he gets to write about the industry he loves on a daily basis and rant about it as co-host of the weekly podcast Drinks and Discourse.

Read more from Monte: Daily Dead | Coda Films | Phoenix Film Festival

Monte Yazzie is the film reviewer for the North Phoenix publication “The Foothills Focus” and Festival Manager for the International Horror and Sci-Fi Film Festival. He continues to write consistently for Daily Dead and their recently launched magazine “Deadly”, and is a regular contributor to the Phoenix Film Festival and IHSFF website. Monte launched the website Coda Films in 2011, and you can find all his film reviews and work as an independent filmmaker there.