10 things to do for $10 this weekend, August 24-26, 2012

Down to your last $10? Rather than spend it on something boring like food or your electricity bill, do something fun with that Hamilton. September is just a week away, but there are still plenty of ways to get out and have some inexpensive summer fun. From a Fiesta Cookout…

Teamwork entwines five solo shows at Core New Art Space

The quintet of new exhibits now up at Core New Art Space veer a bit from the usual Core show construction: Four Core members, all friends and neighbors in the Fresh Art Studios located in the hallways behind the gallery, will share the main gallery that’s usually devoted to just…

Marjane Satrapi on culture, family and her new film

“I have always been against this idea of the ‘clash of cultures,'” Marjane Satrapi says. “It’s the biggest piece of bullshit I’ve ever heard.” That’s apparent from her films and graphic novels, which bridge worlds. Born in Iran, Satrapi emigrated to Europe with her family when she was a teenager…

Today’s action movies are on a whole different kick

Remember how action movies used to be? The good old-fashioned American (but often European-accented) ones from the ’80s and ’90s, the type paid tribute to (but not necessarily re-created) in the Expendables movies? No offense to your Iron Men and your Jason Bournes, but I miss movies like Die Hard,…

Continental Drift brings a sense of place to the MCA

After the word went out more than a year ago that MCA Denver and the Aspen Art Museum were planning a collaborative show highlighting Colorado artists, the response was astounding. More than 300 artists submitted their work for review by MCA curator Nora Burnett Abrams and AAM curator Jacob Proctor…

Now Showing

Clyfford Still. For the opening of the Clyfford Still Museum, director Dean Sobel has installed a career survey of the great artist that starts with the artist’s realist self-portrait and features his remarkable post-impressionist works from the 1920s. Next are Still’s works from the ’30s, with some odd takes on…

In Unforgivable, anti-romanticism is romantic

It might be true that we hurt the ones we love the most, but André Téchiné’s epic neo-family drama depicts offenses—attempted murder, mid-funeral beat downs, sex videos for Daddy—that no relation should have to countenance. Alain Resnais mainstay André Dussollier plays Francis, a best-selling mystery writer who travels to Venice…

The meta-text of Cosmopolis runs out of steam early

Boyishly lean, with a brooding angularity that suggests both high maintenance and nefarious vacancy, Robert Pattinson has managed to fill the role of a grade-A male sex symbol without ever evincing anything like carnal energy, and to top the Hollywood A-list as a representative of the undead. Pattinson’s casting in…

Mouths and motors both run in Hit & Run

Hit & Run, a new action comedy engineered by faintly Muppety co-director/writer/star Dax Shepard, is as much about running mouths as running motors, and injects estrogen into the few remaining enclaves of American testosterone, muscle cars and FM cock rock. Shepard plays Charlie Bronson, a 35-year old in Nowheresville whose…

The Book of Mormon really is that good

The Book of Mormon finally arrived in Denver, freighted with a massive weight of hype, slick marketing, praise and excitement for this musical created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, both Colorado natives. The show had sold out within hours last January, with friends posting photographs of themselves holding tickets…

David Koepp on New York City, George Romero and bad script notes

David Koepp writes, and now directs, superior B-movies. This is an admirable and tough-to-master skill given how few major movie studios are willing to take chances on films with lower budgets that don’t employ a found-footage gimmick or generally look like they were made on an aglet-less shoestring budget. So…

Art to Heart

At the heart of Project Angel Heart is the free meal-delivery service created more than twenty years ago as a way to serve homebound individuals with life-threatening illnesses. Throughout the year, the Denver-based organization hosts a number of food-oriented fund-raisers to support that effort. But tonight’s event is all about…

Have a Ball!

Denver kinksters have great balls, as they’ll prove to anyone who ventures into tonight’s Exile Fetish Ball. Festivities will include live music, dancing, DJs, visual artists, and fashion and style demonstrations, as well as a show put on by the ladies of Denver’s premier dungeon, Pavlovia. “We’ll be doing demonstrations…

Superheroes for Aurora

It’s no surprise that comics fans would band together in the wake of the Aurora shootings, considering that the movie premiere that night focused on Batman, one of the most enduring and beloved of all superheroes. And in true superhero style, a number of local groups, including the folks behind…

Beauty and the Blues

From tragedy comes triumph. The I Love U Guys Foundation was started as a way to honor the memory of Emily Keyes, killed at Platte Canyon High School in 2006, by restoring and projecting “the joy of youth through educational programs and positive actions.” And last year, the Conifer Blues…

In the Bag

The mission of Sleep Tight Colorado is simple: Meredith Gershberg raises funds to purchase sleeping bags for the homeless. She launched the organization in honor of an aunt who did similar work with friends in New York City. “But she never formed a formal non-profit, so I took it to…