Wish I Was Here, the movie that actor and second-time director Zach Braff partially funded with money raised through Kickstarter, isn’t nearly terrible enough to satisfy all the grumblers who are hoping to see it fail. When Braff couldn’t secure traditional financing for the film, he appealed to the fans…
In contemporary, genre-splashed Indiewood, the task is often simple but bedevilling: You have an HD camera and a modest house in the L.A. hills; now what do you do? Shane Carruth, among others, has proven that you don’t need much more — just add ideas. Call it Home-Based Sci-Fi; from…
Legend has it that after not cutting it as a probation officer, Shep Gordon dropped some acid and stumbled into Hollywood, whereupon Janis Joplin punched him in the face and Jimi Hendrix said to him, “Are you Jewish? You should be a manager,” and then Gordon showed them a drawer…
Jamie Wollrab works in Los Angeles as a director, actor and acting coach, but he grew up in Boulder and loves Colorado. “My family lives here,” he says, “and they don’t often get to see my work.” That’s why he and a couple of professional colleagues decided to bring Rajiv…
Rather than throw together a group show featuring work by artists whose work is unconnected, for its current exhibit, Articulated Perspectives, the William Havu Gallery focused on four artists who all do work that is based on representational imagery but also incorporates abstract sensibilities. The show begins with a monumental…
Chris Richter. Back in March, gallery director Bobbi Walker realized that her planned June slot had come apart and that she needed to come up with somebody fast. At the time, she was checking out the scene in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and came across the work of painter Chris…
I Hate Hamlet. I Hate Hamlet is a bit like the curate’s egg: hilariously funny in parts, and in others so idiotic that you’re embarrassed for the actors. Why is the radiant Jamie Ann Romero wasting her talents wafting about as Deirdre, a stagestruck 29-year-old virgin who’ll have sex with…
It turns out that the cars and planes of Cars and Planes can kiss. Deep into Planes: Fire & Rescue, a time-killing kid-flick whose title is an exact summary of its plot, the filmmakers introduce us to two creaky old Winnebagos, a husband and wife in their sunset years, revisiting…
If the Saw series taught us anything, it’s that every quasi-inventive genre movie is fated to become a yearly franchise with increasingly diminishing returns. The Purge practically cried out for this treatment from its premise alone: James DeMonaco’s film had a big idea — a near-future in which “any and…
A defiantly R-rated farce seemingly commissioned to plug the We’re the Millers-shaped hole in the summer lineup, Sex Tape is warmer and more amusing than its ads would lead one to believe. In fact, it’s almost good enough, leaning a little too hard on the innate likability of stars Cameron…
The old Temple Emanuel building at 24th and Curtis streets stood vacant for many years until new owners recently took a chance on it, with the idea of turning it into a beehive of artist studios and community projects. And one of the new tenants, Processus, is another work-in-progress: Conceived…
“Is it possible for a police officer to be a cop and a human being, or are all cops bastards?” asks playwright Benjamin Michael Turk of Insurgent Theater, who stars in the one-man interactive play Behind the Badge. “I play a cop who thinks of himself as a good person…
For more than twenty years, Ween made some of the most absurd, original and delightful music of all time. It may take years for the band’s influence to be integrated into the rock canon, but the long arm of Ween, which formed in Pennsylvania in 1984 has hit the fine-art…
Robert Rutherford loves Denver, and he’s heartbroken that life’s vagaries are now sending him off toward new beginnings in San Diego. But the co-host (with founder Andrew Orvedahl) of the monthly storytelling project and podcast The Narrators is looking at his move as an opportunity to expand the concept westward,…
“In roller derby, you always see women just starting out who come in all shy and tentative, and then within a couple of weeks, they’re out there totally rocking it,” says Meghan Dougherty, co-author of Dorothy’s Derby Chronicles, a new series of young-adult novels about a diverse group of teen…
New York-based filmmaker Bill Morrison made two short films using Bill Frisell’s pre-recorded music, but Morrison wanted to work with the well-known jazz guitarist on a longer project. That effort would become The Great Flood, a documentary they began collaborating on in 2011 and released in 2013. Using film footage…
Marc Maron’s tenuous tenure in show business has survived several media outlets and questionable eyewear choices. After years of toiling in semi-obscurity, known only to fans of liberal talk radio and comedy nerds, Maron, who appears in Denver for two nights this week, rejuvenated his career by starting the WTF…
One of the best things about the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival is how it changes every year, experimenting with new ways to keep the returning crowds happy. That doesn’t mean that many of its best features — from the focal point of the dragon-boat races themselves to the exemplary ethnic-food…
Ten years after Brandi Shigley put out her Shigley shingle in the Golden Triangle to forge Fashion Denver, the local entrepreneur, designer and purveyor of the Do What You Love, Love What You Do business philosophy, is still going strong, as are her seasonal fashion markets, which emphasize the work…
The Henry Awards, named for longtime and much-loved theater impresario Henry Lowenstein, are organized by the Colorado Theatre Guild and given annually for excellence in theater. Colorado’s version of the Tonys, the Henrys are presented at a gala that also serves as a fundraiser for the guild and is attended…
Game shows have been a crucial part of television programming since the big box first infiltrated living rooms many decades ago. But in 2014, talent-based tournaments like The Voice are more than just a game: This make-or-break challenge pits dozens of aspiring singers against each other to battle it out…
This year marks Batman’s 75th birthday, and the world’s greatest detective has gone through some changes in that time. Before he was the Dark Knight, before his multitude of animated series, even before the campy ’60s television show, his very first appearance outside of a comic book was back in…
