Five to ten years ago, there seemed to always be some kind of over-the-top installation at Edge Gallery (3658 Navajo Street, 303-477-7173), but lately such displays have been few and far between. They do take a lot of effort, after all, and are completely un-sellable. Being outrageously ambitious and a…
Apparition. The brand-new Gallery Severn, which is owned by art collector and retired executive Andy Dodd, aims to be what he has called a “launch pad” for emerging artists. This specialty in fresh faces instantly makes the place interesting. Also interesting is Dodd’s decision to feature only one artist at…
I’ve been dancing around this conclusion, trying to find a way to put it more tactfully, but I can’t: Waitin¹ 2 End Hell is a nasty, misogynist play. You can dress it up all you want with theories about the problems of the black family and the unfair and emasculating…
Quartermaine¹s Terms simply refuses to come to life. In fact, from the current Germinal Stage production, I can’t quite figure out what the play’s supposed to be about. It seems like one of those gentle, wistful British comedies in which all the meaning lies beneath and around the actual lines,…
The Clean House. The first act of Sarah Ruhl’s The Clean House is close to a perfect piece of theater. On a stunningly evocative, elegantly gray-and-white set, Matilde cleans house for a pair of doctors — Lane and her surgeon husband, Charles. Matilde hates to clean. She wants to figure…
Americano (MTI) Before he is due to take a high-powered corporate job, college graduate Chris (Joshua Jackson) heads off with two friends (Timm Sharp and Ruthanna Hopper) to Europe, where they end up in Pamplona for the running of the bulls. There, he encounters one of those saucy Latinas (Blade…
A Bigger Splash (First Run) Breakfast on Pluto (Sony) Cross of Iron (Henstooth) Event Horizon: Collector’s Edition (Paramount) Games of Love and Chance (New Yorker) Herbie Hancock: Possibilities (Magnolia) Hostel (Sony) I Am Trying to Break Your Heart (Plexifilm) Kickboxer: Five-Disc Collector’s Set (Lions Gate) The Killing Time (Anchor Bay)…
Marlon Brando sleeps with the fishes. But before the legendary actor died, he worked one last job. Curiously, it was for a videogame. In The Godfather: The Game, Brando attempts to relive his Oscar-winning role as Don Vito Corleone. From the raspy voice to the drooping jowls, it’s Vito, all…
Aggressive panhandling is forbidden in Denver, but at The Mock Trial of Baby Doe Tabor, a Colorado History Group/Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame production, the cast will be begging shamelessly for laughs. Patty Limerick, Mary Mullarkey and Tom Noel will prosecute Colorado’s most notorious homewrecker on a variety of charges,…
Jake Adam York read at least 200 books of poetry last year. Of those, Catherine Wing’s slim debut volume, Enter Visible, was one of the most intriguing. “It was the funniest book I’ve read in a long time,” says York, a University of Colorado at Denver prof and poet. “It’s…
Many people don’t celebrate Easter in a “denominational” way, says filmmaker Thomas O’Connor. “We wanted to offer an opportunity for them to enjoy themselves and the arts.” Today’s Seeing Purple — A Celebration of Music, Film and Life, a Colorado Film Commission benefit sponsored by the Starz Denver Pan African…
Tonight’s Dash & Dine 5K is not to be confused with the “dine and dash,” a method of eating dinner for free if you can outrun restaurant security. For one thing, the Dash & Dine is not illegal; for another, it doesn’t involve racing on a full stomach, which is…
April 15 can be depressing. Even if tax day means getting a decent return, you still know that the government is spent a good portion of your money on programs you’d rather not support. Ah, but that’s democracy. Change your outlook by stopping at the Mercury Cafe tonight for the…
In Nicole Holofcener’s first feature, 1996’s Walking and Talking, the writer-director warmly portrayed an adult female friendship, nudging at emotional issues without resorting to shtick or melodrama. Five years later, Holofcener’s Lovely and Amazing attempted to do the same for a family of women, but with wildly different results: Virtually…
Countless are the creative souls who struggled with mental illness, as are the novels and films dedicated to them. Again and again, we’ve encountered artists both inspired and undermined by their madness, whose torment and tumult produce works of beauty and depth. So can a documentary about a singer-songwriter and…
Perhaps it’s just the inner drama geek talking, but there’s something extremely compelling about seeing hardened felons preparing to put on a classic play with the enthusiasm of giddy schoolgirls. Like many of us, these violent men undoubtedly considered Shakespeare highbrow and stuffy in the outside world, but in attempting…
Believe it or not, The Benchwarmers is so lame that it can’t even lay claim to being the best Adam Sandler-produced movie not screened for critics in 2006; that dubious honor would go to Grandma’s Boy, which was by no means good, but at least featured a kung-fu chimp and…
Tired of the same old multiplex? Last Friday, the Harkins Northfield 18 at Stapleton opened for business, offering Denver movie-goers the largest single screen in the state and a sound system that rivals the most muscled-up rock-concert venue. The centerpiece of the new eighteen-theater house is something called the Cine…
Though my workaday life is filled with the high-minded pursuit of looking at exhibitions, I do have more than a few guilty pleasures. I love Peeps, for example, those marshmallow chicks rolled in yellow sugar available this time of year. I also love muscle cars from the ’60s and ’70s…
Skyline Park, which runs along Arapahoe Street between 15th and 18th streets, was once a world-class example of modernist landscape design. It was created in 1970 by Lawrence Halprin and featured a multi-level topography created with cast-in-place concrete planters, berms and fountains. Now it’s a ho-hum kind of place, as…
Building Outside the Box. With the Denver Art Museum’s outlandish Hamilton Building by Daniel Libeskind taking shape at West 13th Avenue and Acoma Plaza, there’s a lot going on outside the place. Inside the gorgeous Gio Ponti tower, it’s a different story. Up until the opening of the Hamilton next…
The first act of Sarah Ruhl’s The Clean House is about as perfect a piece of theater as I can imagine. On a stunningly evocative, elegantly gray-and-white set, with cool, beautiful lines and an abstract but vaguely human-looking sculpture lurking in the background, Matilde cleans house for a pair of…
