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There are a few different ways to approach the first trailer for Doug Dearth’s Underdogs – there are certainly the obvious Friday Night Lights comparisons (while the film is set in Ohio, there is little doubt the game is just as important there as it is in Texas), there’s the true-life element, there’s Joe Namath just standing around like he’s not Joe Namath, there are even plenty of Cutting Edge flashbacks to remind viewers why they love D.B. Sweeney (if you need help coming back from sports hell, he’s still your dude), but the most striking bit is a buried one. That’s Natalie Imbruglia shaking her hair and her hand in the stands (presumably at Sweeney) for just a second, smack in the middle of the trailer. Yes, Natalie Imbruglia, Aussie pop star and purveyor of nineties earworm “Torn.” If she’s making a move to be the Connie Britton to Sweeney...

The beginning of April, for those in the Southwest, heralds an all-new Phoenix Film Festival. This year, the Phoenix Film Festival kicks off its 13th annual edition with impressive celebrity guests, independent feature premieres, seminars, workshops, parties, and more. The festival, which runs from April 4 to April 11, boasts some star-studded new films and other events as it holds court at the Harkins Scottsdale 101, well-known for its Cine Capri theater, the largest non-imax screen in all of Arizona. With films like The Spectacular Now, The East, The Way, Way Back, and The Kings of Summer among the spotlight presentations, this year’s Phoenix Film Festival may prove to be one of the hidden gems of the festival circuit.

The Phoenix Film Festival, which has been running every year since 2000, had quite the act to follow after last year’s festival. Festival president Chris Lamont said, “We broke attendance records, had more screening sell-outs than ever before,...