The sweet-tempered half-wit Tom Hanks portrays in Forrest Gump has dozens of antecedents in literature and films, so it’s a little tough to keep him in focus. For a start, imagine the eternal optimist Candide combined with Dostoevsky’s Prince Myshkin and Dustin Hoffman’s savant from Rain Man. Add a dash…
Wednesday July 6 Belew horizon: Who knew? Adrian Belew may have gotten his start playing covers at the Holiday Inn, but nothing in the transcendent career that followed would indicate it. This thinking guitarist’s guitarist has been Lieutenant Punk to Frank Zappa and the pop foil of Robert Fripp in…
The Fourth has come and gone, but the spirit of independence is amply demonstrated in three sparkling new art exhibitions by and about women. At Edge Gallery, solo shows by artists Cara Jaye and Gail Wagner each explore the idea of “a woman’s place” with revolutionary zest. Across town, photographer…
The lighthearted feminist musical review A…My Name Is Still Alice, a collection of songs and sketches now in its regional premiere at the Theatre on Broadway, is more about playful self-mockery than genuine social issues. It may not be a comic wonderland–there are some scratchy performances among the six-woman ensemble…
The Shadow is a shadow of the Thirties radio fantasy that inspired it, but not for the usual reasons. As early TV shows demonstrated, you can impose visual images on radio melodrama and get away with it. Especially when most of the original audience will never see the thing. What…
In its vain and glamorous heyday, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studiously avoided sending “messages” to the 90 million Americans who went to the movies each week. Instead, the biggest and richest of the Hollywood studios produced sophisticated escapism, polished to a gleam by the slickest directors and craftspeople and inhabited, as the company…
Wednesday June 29 Piano lessons: Practice makes perfect–directors often hone their filmmaking chops on short subjects before working their way up to full-length features as stunning as the Jane Campion flick The Piano or as quirky as Orlando, Sally Potter’s Virginia Woolf adaptation. You can check out shorts by both…
Wednesday June 22 Siren songs: Guitarist Ottmar Liebert knows what the view looks like from the top of the new-age charts. His music–shooting off from a passionate home base of flamenco toward unknown worlds that encompass jazz and other global sounds–defines the genre. And Liebert’s unmistakable instrumental prowess helps carry…
The old maxim that a picture is worth a thousand words takes on new significance when art incorporates text. The use of letters, words and meaningful phrases as visual elements in artwork is a fairly recent invention–the two media still are perceived by many as essential opposites. If not for…
Something’s happenin’ here, and what it is ain’t exactly clear. But it’s exciting, funny and bugged-out. The Home Medical Shopping Network, an hour-long performance theater piece now playing at The Bug, takes on the business of medicine and the inanity of cable TV (and the culture that has produced them…
It’s great fun to see famous Broadway and Hollywood actors on a Denver stage–it seems to bring out the “golly gee” in all of us. Wendy Wasserstein’s slick, sophisticated and tepid comedy The Sisters Rosensweig, passing through Denver via the Auditorium Theatre’s “renovated” stage, boasts a fine professional cast–all established…
Now that Westerns are back, you can get a fresh, vivid look at the Wyatt Earp/Doc Holliday legend by renting Tombstone at the video store. Released in theaters six months ago, George P. Cosmatos’s swift, concise hayburner features the able Kurt Russell as vengeful lawman Earp and edgy Val Kilmer…
Nobody handed Jack Nicholson anything. He earned his place early on as one of Hollywood’s big dogs, and twenty-five years later, he’s not afraid to bare his fangs. For instance: A lesser force might not have gone anywhere near Wolf, recalling those campy werewolf flicks in which tormented Henry Hull…
Wednesday June 15 To be or not to be: Can you decide to not be gay? The question is turned over completely in One Nation Under God, this week’s installment of the PBS documentary series Point of View. Combining a look at activities within Exodus International, an organization touting “homosexual…
Although there are several Denver galleries that specialize in African-American art, oftentimes the work displayed is as safe and stereotypical as that of the most conservative Cherry Creek showroom. Few opportunities exist in the area for African-American artists on the cutting edge, those who don’t conform to the demands of…
On the surface Nunsense II: The Second Coming may sound irreverent, anti-Catholic and irreligious. But like its predecessor Nunsense, it’s none of those things. The jokes are funniest to those most familiar with Catholicism–one former Catholic schoolboy informed me that the Latin motto on the floor of Mount Saint Helen’s…
Natalie Belcon is beautiful, funny and equipped with a luscious, rich voice. You can hear a long way down into the sound she makes, and in Robert Garner Center Attractions’ The World Goes ‘Round, she makes the world go around all by herself–almost. Belcon’s not really all by herself–there are…
You’ll find plenty of bombs on every summer’s movie schedule. But this year Hollywood is setting them off on purpose. A little later in the silly season, terrorist Tommy Lee Jones will torment Boston cop Jeff Bridges with his penchant for explosives in Blown Away. For now we must content…
Clearly Krzysztof Kieslowski has plenty to say. Maybe he’s even got the faintest touch of serial killer in him. In any case, the extraordinary Polish director now makes his movies in bunches. The Decalogue was a relatively obscure series of ten films exploring each of the Commandments, and his “Three…
Wednesday June 8 Sweet home Chicago: Lady dicks don’t get any tougher than Windy City gumshoe V.I. Warshawski, who solves crimes while dealing with midlife crises. She’s the fictional creation of enormously popular author Sara Paretsky, who will autograph Tunnel Vision, the newest Warshawski mystery, from noon to 1 p.m…
Like a finely crafted poem, installation art must carefully balance its elements. In order to successfully fill an entire room (or at least a large space) with a single, multifaceted artwork, every object and idea within that space must contribute to the overall strength–and meaning–of the piece. Too many artists…
Who is the real monster in the gothic tale of Dr. Frankenstein and his handmade man–the poor innocent creature born against his will at the hands of the scientist, or the scientist himself? Mary Shelley’s original story made it clear that those who presume to tinker with nature (or tread…
