Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart, which premiered in 1985, is a sad, angry play that vividly evokes the atmosphere of those early AIDS years, when headlines spoke of a strange new cancer affecting gay men and the cause and progression of the illness were unknown. All that was known was…
Popcorn is a truly rare gem in a vast, picked-over field of rocks: a fun, smart slasher film that was released during a time when we all thought we’d never scream at a slasher again. Well, break out the earplugs: Popcorn is showing Wednesday, January 27, at the Alamo Drafthouse. For…
Here’s an odd thing to say of a lavishly expensive 3D IMAX maritime disaster flick that hits theaters just a month after the last one: They don’t make them like this anymore. There’s a reason for that, of course — the parents and grandparents who like ’em stolid and corny…
After ticking off seven things that ruffle the super-preened feathers of some Stapleton residents, we decided to take on another one of Denver’s vaunted neighborhoods: Highland. I lived in Highland (aka “the Highlands”) for about a decade, from the late ’90s through 2008, and in that time it changed a lot. Lower…
But what about the meaninglessness of everything? William Monahan’s Mojave is one of those ’90s-style chatty-killer movies, mixed with one of those ’90s-style guns-in-the-desert existential cheapies, the kind of picture where good-looking dudes shooting each other is passed off as elemental and beautiful rather than just what it actually is…
After local makers showed off their wares, tasty treats and exploding ice cream, the members of DeVotchKa took the stage at the Denver Art Museum to make Art of the Maker, a CultureHaus benefit, a night to remember. Photographer Ken Hamblin III captured all the arty fun on January 23…
Edge Theater Company took a big risk in mounting Euripides’s Medea as the first show in what it’s calling “the year of the woman.” After all, how many Denverites want to spend an evening pondering a straight-up Greek tragedy? But utilizing the clear, literate, modern-without-being-obtrusive translation of poet Alistair Elliot,…
Scrolling through Facebook a few weeks ago, I happened upon a post that got me excited, a listing on Craigslist for a gutted mobile boutique in a 1997 Ford e350 bus. Clicking through the pictures of the well-cared-for bus, with a hardwood floor and integrated lights, I found a familiar…
There’s essentially one joke in the Kung-Fu Panda movies. A ridiculous, adorable creature executes some extravagant action-flick flourish — vaulting over roofs, dropping a bad guy, striking a poster-perfect superhero pose. Then the battle music fades and that adorable creature breaks badass character to remind us it’s totally relatable, even…
There are worse ways for a television star to transition into film than a horror movie. There are also better movies to do it in than The Boy. Still, Lauren Cohan of The Walking Dead shines bright in William Brent Bell’s dim genre exercise, a vital presence opposite a lifeless…
The Broncos weren’t the only hometown heroes to hit it big this weekend: Comic/event entrepreneur Andy Juett also scored. The Sexpot Comedy mainstay and High Plains Comedy Festival co-founder is featured in the first installment of the Pepsi Halftime Show-Show anchored by Rob Huebel and Paul Scheer. Juett’s episode aired…
It’s a great week for book lovers in Denver. The American Booksellers Association is hosting its winter institute here, and while you’ll have to hurry to hear Governor John Hickenlooper address the group and honor Tattered Cover owner Joyce Meskis, there are many other literary events to enjoy. You can…
You can find art all over town — not just on gallery walls. In this series, we’ll be looking at some of the local artists who serve up their work in coffeehouses and other non-gallery businesses around town. Jonathan McAfee went from being “a relatively big fish in a small…
Four weeks into 2016, the year’s free entertainment options are only getting better. This week you can learn how to be a hardcore resident, grab some laughs or catch a sugar buzz on the cheap. Drop us a comment if you know of any bargains we missed for this list,…
Denver is a hot market these days, and nothing gets this city’s residents hotter than talk about recent transplants versus natives — and everything in between (which comprises most of the people in Denver). Artist Lauri Lynnxe Murphy has been painting quite a picture of the changes in this town…
In the first of a new neighborhood series, Teague Bohlen recently served up “Seven Things That Make Stapleton Really, Really Mad.” Well, you can now add his piece itself to the list, making it eight. Nick’s response was one of the most moderate on the Westword Facebook page: We are not Stapleton…
On January 21, Denver Style Magazine celebrated its one-year anniversary at the Nativ Hotel in LoDo. Amidst all the stylish and chic people in attendance, a woman with a striking silhouette and blue hat caught our attention — and camera lens. Womenswear designer Allison Ruchaber owns her own Denver-based apparel…
Call it a dissenting opinion if you must, but Dirty Grandpa has sporadic moments of hilarity: the spontaneous “USA! USA!” chant that erupts after an out-of-his-mind Zac Efron announces to spring breakers that he’s just unknowingly smoked crack, or Aubrey Plaza commanding as foreplay that Robert De Niro, as the…
“Who can give me the derivative of X?” a high-school teacher asks early in the YA-apocalypse mashup The 5th Wave. As soon as she asks that, the lights blink off, everybody’s cellphones die and jets tumble from the sky. We never hear a student respond, but here’s my Official Fan…
Shred Alert! Ruby Hill Rail Yard, the country’s first free urban terrain park, kicked off its tenth season this month. Every day through February, kids from all over Denver will gather at the park in the southwestern part of the city to show off their moves. Ken Hamblin was on the…
Calling all of you who drunkenly agreed to getting inked right before closing time at a tattoo parlor, adorned your chest with the name of someone who did not turn out to be the love of your life, or trusted a new tattoo artist with the delicate task of replicating…
In 1961, Dwight Eisenhower famously left the White House with a warning to the American public about the rise of the military-industrial complex. When Barack Obama exits the Oval Office next year, he wouldn’t be remiss in cautioning the nation about the conspiracy-industrial complex, which has dug its tentacles into…
