There’s still one kind of dread that today’s genre filmmakers can reliably stir up: that everything we’ve been watching on screen is going to be upended by some last-minute twist, that all the clues and portents we’ve puzzled over will be swept away in favor of some revelation so big…
The most radical thing about this eco-terrorism drama is its quiet patience and formal vigor. While most studio pictures slap together their images with all the care of a grocery-store deli clerk assembling the ham and carrots on a cheap-o party platter, Kelly Reichardt, the director of Night Moves, favors…
The more you think about it, the more you realize what a weak play The Graduate really is. Adapted for the stage by Terry Johnson from a 1960s novel by Charles Webb — which in turn became an iconic film starring Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft — it tells the…
Jeff Wenzel is one of Colorado’s great abstract artists, with a solid body of work done over the past few decades. Though his roots are in ceramics — he was a protégé of Peter Voulkos, whose abstract-expressionist approach to clay completely revolutionized that medium — Wenzel has only rarely exhibited…
Shrek: the Musical.T here are a lot of things to like about Shrek: The Musical at Boulder’s Dinner Theatre. They include the Dragon, created by Cory Gilstrap and manipulated by a handful of actors. Blessed with the rich, seductive voice of the inimitable Amanda Earls, she’s a riveting, literally huge…
If you ever have days when you prefer animals to human beings, How to Train Your Dragon 2 is your kind of movie. In some ways the second entry in this animated franchise is inferior to the first, released in 2010: The plot is needlessly busy, and much of the…
As any millennial will tell you, the digital world is now the real world, a place where, fingertips to keyboard, information readily becomes intellectually palpable in a matter of seconds. And the art world, where things are changing just as quickly, represents just one facet of how far technology has…
A giggle goddess to beleaguered moms everywhere, Shayna Ferm has watched her unique showcase, The Pump and Dump: A Parentally Incorrect Comedy Show and Night Out for Once get bigger and bigger with each successive outing. “We’ve been really lucky to have so many awesome and loyal Pump and Dump…
Half the fun of any convention is seeing all the cosplayers — the dedicated fans who spend countless hours and way too much money painstakingly re-creating the look of their favorite characters from film, TV, comics or video games. If you just can’t get enough cosplay goodness and are looking…
When FIBArk (short for “First in Boating on the Arkansas River”) held its first whitewater race in 1949, river running was barely in its infancy as a sport. On June 12, the 66th edition of the annual festival will return to Salida, where pro and amateur paddlers will compete in…
For its third year, Denver Comic Con is pulling out all the stops. The lineup of guests reads like a who’s-who of geek history, from Bruce Campbell to Adam West — not to mention two-thirds of the primary cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation (gathered for a panel hosted…
One thing is true for most dance groups, and that’s the ongoing force of change and transition, which seems to echo choreography itself in terms of real-life intensity. Patrick Mueller’s Control Group Productions has been dancing from foothold to foothold since its early days at the industrial Packing House venue…
The Huddle isn’t exactly new for Evan Weissman’s “civic health club,” Warm Cookies of the Revolution, but today marks the first time he’s paired soccer with political discussions at an event that’s heretofore been all about the American style of “football.” But the World Cup in Brazil preempts just about…
When world-renowned banjo player Béla Fleck was commissioned to write his first banjo concerto, he knew it would be a long, deep and challenging experience. The master musician decided to film the yearlong journey, and the result is Béla Fleck: How to Write a Banjo Concerto, a very personal look…
Too often, history is relegated to dusty stacks of books bloated with abstract ideas that make the past feel so distant, only a devoted few are inspired to approach it. But History Colorado’s Shawn Snow says that objects are a powerful way to connect with our stories, which is why…
Union Station may have recently revamped its image, but good eats have always been plentiful in LoDo. Now in its sixth year, LoDo Bites allows guests to visit 25 restaurants within the 25-block perimeter of Denver’s lower-downtown district. The culinary event was conceived by philanthropist Guenther Vogt and now serves…
Peggy Jo Tallas started donning faux facial hair and holding up banks in the ’90s in order to raise funds for her ailing mother. The FBI dubbed her “Cowboy Bob.” After serving a stint in prison, Tallas swore off crime. But at sixty, she couldn’t resist one last holdup, which…
Painters just got to paint in Andy Berg’s world, and that’s how the Golden-based artist humbly goes about the business of making art. Materials — tubes of pigment, empty canvases and panels, well-worn brushes and even cans of house paint — all represent pure opportunities for Berg to plumb and…
The story of Colfax is one of transportation evolution. First a trade route and then a trolley line, the avenue gained much of its current-day fame with the rise of automobiles in the 1940s and ’50s. Rolling Route 40: The Hubcap Art Show celebrates that history by using hubcaps as…
Stephen Batura is known for his large-scale canvases depicting mountain train wrecks and other moments snatched from history, which he normally shows at Robischon Gallery. But when Jill Hadley Hooper invited him for a solo at Ironton Gallery, he jumped at the chance to stretch his artistic horizons. The resulting…
It has been said that the only thing Colorado’s near-perfect landscape is missing is an ocean. O.penVAPE’s Ink Monstr Poolside Summer Series seeks to remedy that by transforming the Exdo Events Center into a sandy oasis complete with an above-ground pool, an adult-sized Slip ‘N Slide and, yes, more than…
The Fault in Our Stars made heaps of money at the box office, and film critics Alan Scherstuhl and Stephanie Zacharek wonder if a recent piece declaring that adults should feel ashamed to read young adult novels has any weight to it. They also talk about The Immigrant and film…
