Festival audiences are generally more generous than traditional theatrical crowds. It’s a double-edged sword. Some films that will never see the light of day, or the darkness of theatrical release, find audiences who are willing to set aside their critical opinions and just enjoy a film for mere competence of…
Earlier this week, we interviewed party promoter Charlie Morrison by phone while he was drying out in the forced confinement of Denver C.A.R.E.S. Charlie’s surely out by now, but we thought we’d pop in to his club night at Bender’s Tavern, Night of the Living Shred, to see if we…
Earlier this week, we talked about how Northern Exposure is airing on KBDI-Channel 12 Monday through Thursday nights at 7PM. But what’s the big deal? Why does this nearly twenty-year-old television series merit not one but two blogs? Ah, my friend, I’d give it ten, if I could. (One on…
Check out a slide show of Frock Out. For the past few months, twelve Denver fashion designers have been hard at work creating their own version of Project Runway, and now a piece by each of these talented tailors is on display at the Denver Public Library’s Central Branch for…
You’ve got nothing to do tonight, right? Skip another night of must-see TV and head over to the best Denver cultural event of the year, the Denver Film Festival. We’ve compiled some reviews and profiles of filmmakers and suggest, if you can, that you check out one of the following…
The Memory Thief Director: Gil Kofman It’s going to take a long time to digest this film. For me, the entire experience was thrown off by the woman in front of offering information on her colonoscopy to no one in particular. Shortly after that, Songbird, the short film from director…
Iron Ladies of Liberia Directors: Daniel Junge and Siatta Scott-Johnson When Denver-based documentary director Daniel Junge and producer Henry Ansbacher first contacted newly elected Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf (who, among other degrees, received a masters in economics from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1970), they were told their…
Hold still.” It’s what the hunters say to the hunted in the Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men. The first time we hear it, it’s the out-of-work Vietnam vet Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) whispering optimistically to the antelope he spies through his rifle sight while perched on the crest…
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead is less Sidney Lumet’s comeback than his resurrection. Three years after being presented a Lifetime Achievement Oscar, the 83-year-old director comes forth with a violent family melodrama that is his strongest movie in at least two decades. Robustly directed from Kelly Masterson’s bear-trap screenplay…
Midway through the amiable children’s movie Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, there comes a speech that I’ll wager writer-director Zach Helm has been saving for future use ever since he discovered the Bard. As pop philosophy goes, it’s bracing stuff: Paraphrasing King Lear, Mr. Magorium (Dustin Hoffman), a 243-year-old “toy impresario”…
Show of hands: Has anyone not heard of Guitar Hero at this point? You sir, in the back row clutching the Ratt cassette — you’re the only one? All right, pal, here’s your recap: Guitar Hero is the most popular music-based game ever made. It comes with a plastic guitar…
The Princess Bride: 20th Anniversary Edition(MGM)As far as anniversary-edition DVDs go, The Princess Bride is crushingly disappointing: no Rob Reiner commentary track, no outtakes, no making-of doc, no nothing, save for a lousy game and a few short interviews with Robin Wright Penn, Mandy Patinkin, Christopher Guest, and a few…
The Addams Family: The Complete Series (MGM) Amazing Grace (Fox) Annie Duke’s Texas Hold’em Supercourse (Big Vision) Berlin Alexanderplatz: The Criterion Collection (Criterion)Close Encounters of the Third Kind: 30th Anniversary Ultimate Edition (Sony) Gilmore Girls: The Complete Seventh Season (Warner Bros.) It’s a Wonderful Life: 2-Disc Collector’s Set (Paramount) Man…
After you’ve finished your dinner and listened to the usual pre-show stuff about sponsors and visiting groups, out of the corner of your eye you see an old man shlumping around the stage, checking furniture, fiddling with props. Minutes go by without much more happening, and the audience continues to…
By 8 p.m., the place is jammed. Some in the audience look as young as high-schoolers, while others seem to be college students; there are couples, gay and straight, and a scattering of older folk. People greet each other and make plans for post-theater drinks. But they quiet down once…
For Better. Karen has just become engaged to Max. She’s met him face-to-face only once, but they’ve conducted a three-month relationship via cell-phone conversations, texting and instant messaging. Everyone in Karen’s small circle —- sister Francine, brother-in-law Michael, old friend Stuart (who’s secretly in love with her) and Francine’s best…
Is it possible to create intelligent work with Bosco chocolate syrup? Obviously it is, since Vik Muniz has done it over and over again, in addition to other credibly contemporary creations using string, dirt, magazine ads, backhoes and skywriting airplanes. Muniz’s actual medium is photography, which he uses to record…
Even before he took over as the able director of the Sandy Carson Gallery (760 Santa Fe Drive, 303-573-8585, www.sandycarsongallery.com) a few years ago, William Biety had spent decades in the art world and had developed relationships with artists from around the country. That’s half of the backstory to Michael…
Artisans & Kings. For its first extravaganza of the season, the Denver Art Museum has unveiled a sprawling blockbuster in the Frederic C. Hamilton Building that focuses on the royal collections from the Louvre. You don’t have to know much about art to have heard of the Louvre, so Artisans…
Deserting his dreams, Daniel Gold packed up his family and left the Big Apple to forge ahead to a life of new frontiers in…Arvada, Colorado. What’s worse, he just turned 35. This is Suburban, a Mile High-produced feature-length film that follows Gold as he measures his merit and his manhood…
If your plans for tonight involve playing shuffleboard with Grandma and watching Uncle Ned’s nose hairs grow, then you clearly need a well-deserved break from the yearly family Thanksgiving hell. It’s time to give the good Lord thanks for turntables, for beats, for electronic music, for your own two dancing…
When Denver-based documentary director Daniel Junge and producer Henry Ansbacher first contacted newly elected Liberian president Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf (who earned a masters in economics from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1970, among other degrees), they were told their documentary crew could have two weeks of access. Two weeks…
