Filmmaker Shukree Hassan Tilghman not only questions why we relegate Black History Month to the bleakest part of the winter, he maintains that black history is a part of American history that doesn’t need to be recognized by its own month. To promote his argument, Hassan set off across the…
AB EX. Several Denver art venues are presenting shows to salute the opening this past fall of the Clyfford Still Museum, with most featuring displays anchored by abstracts. A stunningly beautiful example of this is AB EX: Positions and Dispositions, at the capacious Robischon Gallery. The exhibit comprises five discrete…
There’s no one way to live our lives,” hopes the displaced, adrift couple at the center of Wanderlust. Shopping between the prefab identity options available to them — squeezed, stressed urban professionalism; suburban McMansion soul death; rural counterculture opting out — George and Linda (Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston) are…
Directed by Oren Moverman (The Messenger) from a script by Moverman and L.A. noir master James Ellroy, Rampart tracks the downward spiral of LAPD cop Dave Brown (Woody Harrelson). A Vietnam vet whose personal code allows for extreme bad behavior in the name of a hazily defined greater good, Brown…
The gorgeously scruffy Juliette (director/co-writer Valérie Donzelli) and Roméo (co-writer Jérémie Elkaïm) — yes, the improbability is noted — move from dive-bar love-at-first-sight to proud parents of a newborn boy in the first few minutes of Declaration of War. Then their eighteen-month-old son, Adam, is diagnosed with a brain tumor…
“Last year, five percent of movies were made by women,” says Karla Rodriguez of the Denver FilmCenter. Which is exactly why this second annual edition of Women + Film Voices is imperative — to shine a light on a corner of the film-making world that is often overlooked. The lineup…
Hollywood is coming to Colorado (again)! In the midst of a push by movie boosters to increase the state’s film incentives, an initiative born of the fact that filmmakers have largely abandoned the state for cheaper locales, word comes down that Disney will shoot part of a remake of The…
Last night’s challenge in Project Runway All Stars was for the designers to create a dress for one of the characters in the Broadway play Godspell. They were given a $200 budget and sent off to Mood to buy “rich-looking fabrics” for their character’s wardrobe — which was to consist…
Some filmmakers aren’t waiting for Colorado lawmakers to pass a movie incentive package, a proposal Melanie Asmar detailed in last week’s cover story, “The Reel West.” Local director Pete Schuermann plans to use crowd-funding to finish CREEP! , a movie within a documentary about the worst horror film ever. And…
The Boulder International Film Festival kicks off Thursday night with Darling Companion at the Boulder Theater, and continues through Sunday with fifty diverse films as well as celebrity appearances, workshops, and ways to get involved in social causes. Below, festival director Kathy Beeck shares her top five films for BIFF…
An important piece of Denver’s cultural foundation will be revealed tomorrow night when West Side Stories, a film documenting the city’s deep Jewish history, is shown at the Denver FilmCenter as part of the ongoing DocNight series. The hour-long documentary tells the story of the Eastern European transplants who settled…
Clyfford Still. For the opening of the Clyfford Still Museum, founding director Dean Sobel has installed a career survey of the great artist. Clyfford Still: Inaugural Exhibition 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…
Hit men have bills to pay, too, and sometimes a kid to feed and an anxious wife to placate, even as they worry that their reputation in the bad-guy underworld is slipping. In the suburbs of Sheffield, England, a former soldier named Jay (a superb Neil Maskell) is stressed to…
Hostilities in This Means War are declared as two workmates compete for the affection of the same woman. The contested objective is Lauren (Reese Witherspoon), a product tester who decides to apply comparative shopping techniques to dating. Her would-be beaus, FDR (Chris Pine) and Tuck (Tom Hardy), are best friends…
In Lynne Ramsay’s We Need to Talk About Kevin, Tilda Swinton lives out an urban bohemian’s worst nightmare. Forced to give up her independence (and downtown loft) when a reckless night with shlubby photographer flame Franklin (John C. Reilly) results in an accidental pregnancy, free-spirit travel writer Eva becomes an…
Colorado has starred in hundreds of movies — and more recently, watched as filmmakers pass up the Centennial State for cheaper locales, even if their films are set here. (Thanks for nothing, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.) But lawmakers and industry folks have a plan to change that, a plan that…
Colorado has a rich film history. Nearly 400 movies have been shot here in more than 100 years. But, as explained in this week’s cover story “The Reel West,” Colorado is experiencing a bit of a film drought lately, something that lawmakers and industry folks hope to reverse. Instead of…
This week’s episode of Project Runway All Stars was “fashionmania,” as Mondo Guerra, the Denver designer who won last week’s challenge, put it…
Once upon a time, lots of movies were filmed in Colorado. The first was an 1897 flick called Festival of Mountain and Plain. One of the last was a 2009 Eddie Murphy movie, Imagine That. In between, there were scores of hits and classics that showcased the state’s scenic beauty…
Clyfford Still. For the opening of the Clyfford Still Museum, founding director Dean Sobel has installed a career survey of the great artist. Clyfford Still: Inaugural Exhibition 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…
Loosies has a bevy of colorful character actors — from Michael Madsen and William Forsythe to Vincent Gallo and Joe Pantoliano — but little character. The story of a pickpocket named Bobby (Peter Facinelli, also credited with the ungainly script) whose criminal career is complicated by the reappearance of former…
This year’s Academy Award-nominated shorts offer a little something for every viewing temperament — though some categories require sitting through a lot of mediocre to get to the good. Of the five documentaries, Saving Face and God Is the Bigger Elvis were sadly not made available for critics, but the…
