American Art Invitational. Art, like politics, can be divided into liberal and conservative camps, with contemporary art representing the left and traditional art the right. But unlike politics, where the baton can pass back and forth between the two opposites, the art world has been run decisively by the liberals…
The 1940’s Radio Christmas Carol. For a while, as radio manager Clifton Feddington pitches us questions, hustles his performers and generally works to keep things on track, you can’t help wondering just why you’re watching this show. Clearly, it’s supposed to be a slice of life, as awkward, desultory and…
Best Sleeper Hit: WordJong (Nintendo DS) — It may not sell like Mario, but this mishmash of Scrabble and mah-jongg hooks you like handheld crack. Already a word-of-mouth hit, despite being released only this month, WordJong is perfect for quiet afternoons, loud commutes, or romantic walks on the beach. Best…
Blade Runner: The Final Cut (Warner Bros.) — It’s the collector’s-set briefcase that seals the deal, a gunmetal-gray case that all but shouts “Completist dork!” Also: There’s damned near every single version imaginable, plus a making-of doc almost as essential as any iteration of the movie itself. Film school in…
It’s that time of year again. Our six critics (Scott Foundas, J. Hoberman, Nathan Lee, Jim Ridley, Ella Taylor and Robert Wilonsky) don’t always — or often — agree, but we’ve combined their top ten lists, allowing for ties, to pretend like they do! So without further ado, the ten…
How tough is it for a movie to find its audience, above the din of blockbuster marketing and beyond the clogged distribution pipeline? Tsai Ming-liang, the Taiwanese/Malaysian director regarded as one of the world’s greats, had two films in U.S. theaters this year, The Wayward Cloud and I Don’t Want…
It was only a couple of years ago that the horror genre seemed newly resurgent, like an undead killer digging himself out of the grave. “Fresh faced” directors like Eli Roth, Rob Zombie, Darren Lynn Bousman and James Wan — many of whom were dubbed “The Splat Pack” — seemed…
An acquaintance who fought in both Afghanistan and Iraq says he has no use for documentaries about George Bush’s bungling of the war on terror. He has not and will not see a single one of the movies made about the tragic consequences of the administration’s rush to drop bombs…
The year: 2505. Your viewing choices tonight: an oldie but a goodie — a picture called Ass, a feature-length screensaver of butt cheeks punctuated by the occasional fart — or the hit TV show Ow! My Balls, a connoisseur’s compendium of nut-sack whacks. Thanks to Mike Judge’s Idiocracy, we have…
Some years it can be hard to come up with enough stellar lead performances to make an awards minyan. But every year is a good year for supporting roles, and not just because the field has grown so wide since independent film became a force to be reckoned with. Many…
Absolutely, unequivocally, this has been the Year of the Apatow: Judd got Knocked Up to the tune of $150 million (at the box office alone); the super-okay Superbad, which Apatow produced, grossed another $120 million, “gross” being the operative word; and at year’s end, he walks hard to the finish…
The first thing you notice when you walk on to the set are the 300 extras in late-1920s period costume, seated at cafeteria tables in a holding area, gazing up at you in their wool suits (for the men) and cloche hats (for the women) as if all of this…
“You don’t meet the book when you meet the writer,” the novelist William Gibson has said. “You meet the place where it lives.” A relatively uncontroversial remark about the people who vent their imaginations on the page — no one should expect Philip Roth to sound exactly like Nathan Zuckerman…
Jimmy Carter was president before I was born. I’ve known him only as an elderly philanthropist — traveling the world with wife Rosalynn, building houses for Habitat for Humanity — and, more recently, as a man who caught a lot of heat over a controversial book about Palestine. That was…
Magic Cyclops concedes that the main thing that makes tonight’s free Championship Karaoke at the hi-dive (7 South Broadway) the “Holiday Special Edition” is the fact that it occurs during the holiday season — but he does promise the possibility of celebrity appearances. At the very least, the ol’ MC…
Take a trip to the dark side of the moon tonight with Wish We Were Floyd, a local Pink Floyd tribute act featuring members of Savage Henry and several other Denver bands. The show will cover a wide variety of Floyd material, from familiar favorites to obscure early material, focusing…
Denver’s already unique Kirkland Museum of Fine and Decorative Art, 1311 Pearl Street, took a step in an uncharted direction when its new temporary show, Driven to Abstraction: Colorado Art From 1880 to 2007, debuted earlier this month. Switching from his usual focus on modernistic art, curator Hugh Grant expanded…
It’s hard to believe that a mere fifty years ago, nine African-American high-school students had to be escorted by federal troops, past a menacing stand of Arkansas National Guardsmen, local police and white citizens, simply to exercise their dubious right to go inside Little Rock Central High and sit alongside…
For many people, the New Year is a time to make resolutions, think about the past and take stock of the future. For the Audubon Society of Greater Denver, it’s time to do the same for city-dwelling birds. More than 75 volunteer birdwatchers have signed up to (figuratively) beat the…
Fussy folks always say you should take it easy on the day after, when you wake up bleary-eyed with a hammering head: Eat toast, drink liquids — not the kind you indulged in last night — and sleep in. Pshaw. Or maybe you’re the sort who can’t even seem to…
“Bus trips beat the shit out of a bake sale,” says Dustin Huth, founder of the Basics Fund, a non-profit organization that raises funds to provide health insurance for artists — largely by hosting a mobile gala that will take you from Boulder to just about every jam show in…
Cafe Nuba, the eighteen-and-up open-mike amalgamation of spoken word, performance art, political prose, indie film and tight beats that occurs the last Friday of every month at the Roxy Theater, 2549 Welton Street, is always a crowd-pleaser. But tonight’s 8 p.m. showcase ups the festivity ante with Nuba’s eighth annual…
