James Franco

Five amazing, ridiculous soap opera plots

Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers is a trip!

See also: 18 Spring Break Movies to Watch If You're Not Going on Spring Break

Here's what we're all listening to right now. What's rocking your world this week?

As people who think about, talk about, write about, listen to and make music, it's not surprising that the most common (and favorite) topic of conversation among us is the same: "What are you listening to right now?" Stick a quarter in us, and, boy, wouldn't you know it, off we go, on and on about t ... More >>

Girls Gone Godard

Oz the Great and Powerful tilts toward the mawkish

See also: Other Ozzes great and (mostly) terrible

What you need to know from Sundance 2013

Bold, impassioned, ecstatically beautiful, Shane Carruth's Upstream Color -- a lyric reverie on loss, love, and various invasions of the body -- was in a class by itself at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. Well, let's say it was a class shared by a more conventional but no less heady consideration o ... More >>

Sundance 2013: America's black indie film renaissance

You could hear a pin drop during the first Sundance screening of writer-director Ryan Coogler's Fruitvale, an enormously powerful and moving debut feature based on the shooting death of 22-year-old Oscar Grant by Oakland transit police in the early hours of New Year's Day, 2009. Coogler opens the fi ... More >>

Stacie Passon's superb Concussion is why we have a Sundance in the first place

Sometimes, one film in a festival lineup can help to reveal another in sharper relief. To wit, one of the loveliest entries in Sundance 2013's U.S. Dramatic Competition, James Ponsoldt's deeply felt coming-of-age drama The Spectacular Now, looked even better after the premiere of The Way Way Back, a ... More >>

Sundance 2013: Sex with James Franco, sultry Scarlett Johansson and more

By Scott Foundas In his brief remarks before the first public screening of the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, Robert Redford praised the Sundance Institute's ongoing filmmaker development labs as "our core," noting that the festival itself was conceived "to create an audience for the filmmakers in ou ... More >>

Threesomes at the Toronto Film Festival: Critic Karina Longworth weighs in

Editor's note: Village Voice media film critic Karina Longworth is currently at the Toronto Film Festival, from where she'll be writing regular blog posts. This is her first in the series. This is a blog post about two movies that were screened for the press within the first 24 hours of the Toronto ... More >>

The twenty best bicycle scenes in cinema, ever

With rare exceptions for the Smart Car, the tandem bike and whatever those contraptions are in the Dr. Seuss books, the human evolutionary process basically stopped when mankind progressed from two legs to two wheels. If you need proof of the superiority of the cycle, look no further than film, wher ... More >>

Starz Denver Film Festival: Artistic director Brit Withey previews opening night's Like Crazy

Trailer below.​Again this year, Starz Denver Film Festival artistic director Brit Withey is offering his must-see picks for each day of the fest -- including many flicks that movie lovers might otherwise miss amid the flood of silver-screen goodies. Today, he shares his take on the fest's ope ... More >>

Starz Denver Film Festival 2011: Five red carpet events, Big Night screening of The Descendants

"The Descendants."​Next Monday, October 17, the Starz Denver Film Festival's website will go live with the entire 2011 lineup, and it's a hefty one: a whopping 260 flicks will unspool November 2-13. But today, fest executive director Tom Botelho offers us a preview of the highest profile movi ... More >>

One Day doesn't offer much in the way of guilty pleasures

Tonight: Jerry Aronson appears with an Allen Ginsberg double feature

​When director Jerry Aronson screened his documentary The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg for Ginsberg himself before the film's release in 1994, the iconic poet is said to have nodded his head and reflectively quipped, "So that's Allen Ginsberg." With good reason: Even all these years later, ... More >>

The Ginsberg Beat

Your Highness is a dirty-joke blooper reel set in EverQuest land

More Best Of: Top five Colorado film festivals

​In years past, putting together a Best of Denver issue was like Sophie's Choice: In order to choose the favorite baby, all the rest of the babies had to die and then Meryl Streep killed herself. Now we have the vast internets and enough space to choose whatever we desire -- in your face, Nazi ... More >>

Dolphin Punching, Moonwalking and Comics this week on our new release picks, March 1

​If you're one of those weirdoes that do your taxes straight away at the end of January, then chances are you've got a big old government check burning a whole in your pocket right now. Thankfully, we've got plenty of stuff for you to spend your money on. If you've got a bad memory, if you're ... More >>

Ten people who should host the 2012 Oscars

At least they make decent movies.​Is it time to already begin thinking about next year's Academy Awards show? Well, if you're like most Americans -- and critics, the venerable Roger Ebert among them -- who watched last night's show, then the answer is "yes." The hipster hosts, 28-year-old An ... More >>

Oscars 2011: Live-blogging the self-congratulatory golden phallus ceremonies

They've been doing this for EIGHTY-THREE years?!?​ There are a lot of things more important than watching and liveblogging the 2011 Academy Awards - but none of them are things we have to do today. Look for our recap after the show!

Aron Ralston earns $125K on Minute to Win It after boost from James Franco (VIDEO)

Aron Ralston.​Yesterday, we previewed Colorado-based 127 Hours subject Aron Ralston's appearance on Minute to Win It last night -- and win it he did. During a program featuring an encouraging video from James Franco, who portrays Ralston in the movie, he aced a game called "Broomski Ball," ear ... More >>

Aron Ralston on Minute to Win It tonight: 127 hours plus 15 more minutes of fame (VIDEOS)

Aron Ralston.​Suck it, Andy Warhol. Colorado's own Aron Ralston, who amputated his own arm in 2003 following a bizarre climbing accident, has already gone well beyond your universal fifteen-minutes-of-fame prediction, and the clock's still running. He's the subject of the Academy Award-nominat ... More >>

Festival Director Kathy Beeck's top picks for the Boulder International Film Fest

The BIFF will leave you feeling quite vigorous indeed!​For film buffs looking for something a little fresher than the traditional Oscar fare dominating film talk this season, the Boulder International Film Festival offers a meticulously curated batch of movies Colorado audiences have likely ne ... More >>

Madison McKinley: The Bachelor's vampire girl becomes a blood donation dominatrix

Madison McKinley.​Last week, we introduced you to Vail's Madison McKinley, aka The Bachelor's vampire girl -- so dubbed because of the fangs she had implanted after joining an NYC vamp club. Part of last night's episode involved a public service announcement for the American Red Cross encourag ... More >>

True Grit: If only the new one had been filmed in Colorado, like the John Wayne version

​For the second year in a row, a movie with Colorado ties is getting Oscar buzz. In 2010, it was Precious, which was co-produced by Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness of Denver. This time around, it's 127 Hours, which stars James Franco as Aron Ralston, the Colorado climber who cut off his ... More >>

James Franco could host the Oscars with one arm -- and so could Boulder's Aron Ralston

James Franco.​It was just a few short weeks ago that Boulder's Aron Ralston introduced 127 Hours -- the story of his self-amputation -- for the Big Night showcase of the Starz Denver Film Festival. And while James Franco's performance as Ralston caused one man to pass out, the rest of the crow ... More >>

This Weekend In Stoke: Top five ways to celebrate being alive, November 12-14

Liam Doran/Breckenridge Ski ResortNow we're talkin'​1. Opening weekend at Breck. More than six inches of fresh pow for opening day today and 17" so far this week mean you could be skiing or snowboarding on some serious snow right now. Get to it. There are also freshies to be had this weekend a ... More >>

127 Hours fainting attack: Man passes out during Starz Denver Film Festival

​Reports have been coming in from all over the country of people passing out or suffering panic attacks during the infamous arm-amputation scene in the new Danny Boyle and James Franco vehicle 127 Hours, a film based on the true travails of local boy Aron Ralston. Now there's a new incident to ... More >>

Starz Denver Film Festival: James Franco, Aron Ralston make 127 Hours go by just like that

Aron Ralston.​Director Danny Boyle's films are becoming a staple of the Starz Denver Film Festival's Big Night showcase. In 2008, Slumdog Millionaire joyously filled this festival slot, anticipating its march to a Best Picture Oscar. And on Friday, Boyle's latest, 127 Hours, was introduced by ... More >>

127 Hours will earn James Franco movie-star status

James Franco nails Ginsberg in Howl

The Best Mind of His Generation

James Franco portrays Allen Ginsberg and Aron Ralston, giving him some Colorado cred

​Next month, actor James Franco stars in Danny Boyle's 127 Hours, a movie that chronicles the grim hours Aron Ralston spent pinned beneath a rock, an experience that provoked the Colorado climber to use one of his arms to cut off the other. But first you can catch Franco in another movie that ... More >>

Penny Chenery, of Secretariat fame, latest from Boulder to get the Hollywood biopic treatment

Penny Chenery.​Last month, we shared the trailer for 127 Hours, the James Franco flick about Boulderite Aron Ralston's loss of limb. But Ralston's not the only Boulder resident to go Hollywood. Penny Chenery's the main human character in Secretariat, about the Triple Crown winning horse she ow ... More >>

Aron Ralston meets James Franco: 127 Hours trailer skips the surgery

Aron Ralston.​The first trailer for 127 Hours, director Danny Boyle's much-anticipated movie about amped-up Colorado climber Aron Ralston, is now making the rounds of websites and moviehouses. It's sure to whet appetites for the flick, teasing audiences with impending disaster while keeping t ... More >>

Date Night

Like Conan's Tonight, 10 TV shows that got screwed

Word of an Arrested movie can't quell our depression.​Television, as Conan O'Brien will tell you, is a fickle business. They build you up, they use you up, they toss you aside. And sometimes the powers that be don't even wait to use you up -- they just decide that you're done, for reasons tha ... More >>

Funny Person: The Top Ten Judd Apatow Productions

​ Judd Apatow's third film as director, Funny People, opens today to lukewarm reviews (including the one you'll find in Westword, by LA Weekly's kick-ass film reviewer Scott Foundas). Like seemingly every other man my age, I'm a fan of Apatow's; the deft combination of dick jokes, self-loathi ... More >>

Denver Blogs: When did the Broncos' running game die, and why didn't we notice?

Courtesy of Flickr.Five years ago you could have stuck Woody Paige in the backfield and banked on five yards a carry. Now, not so much. We take daily cruises through the Colorogoshere, with stops at islands of coherence and insight. Suggest other stops here. What happened to the Broncos running ga ... More >>

Rogen and Franco, on the run and madly in love in Pineapple Express

Summer Movie Preview

The season of big budget bangs uses its brain.

Flight of Fancy

This glossy combat epic offers a sanitized version of World War I.

Rocky Waters

Annapolis salutes all the classic boxing cliches.

Romeo in the Rough

Tristan & Isolde's clumsy romance may have you craving Shakespeare.

Unknown Soldiers

The Great Raid's compelling story never comes to life.

Run, Do Not Crawl

Spider-Man swings in this touching, thrilling, superior sequel.

Bobby Love

De Niro -- no surprise -- is the reason to like City by the Sea.

Dream Weaver

Spider-Man slings pop mythology for the masses.

Whatever...

The teen movie genre finally implodes with Whatever It Takes.