Saoirse Ronan makes a grand case for herself as the millennial generation’s finest leading lady in Brooklyn, an immaculately crafted, immensely moving character study about a 1950s immigrant struggling to find her place in the world. With an open, innocent countenance equally capable of registering tremulous separation anxiety, exhilarating joy,…
Bryan Cranston parades through Trumbo, a wiki-pageant of shorthand history, like a costumed kid playing actor Bryan Cranston at a Disney park. As blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, a man given to mannered diction, Cranston layers movieland falseness over the scraped-raw heart of his Breaking Bad triumph. Remember how you could…
With the spectacular The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2, the best in the series, Jennifer Lawrence closes out the franchise that made her the biggest star of her generation. Since the Hunger Games movies started, in 2012, she’s starred in four of them and only six of everything else…
Paris. Beirut. Kenya. Iraq. Syria. It’s hard to think about the tiny house and my life when the world is in chaos and so many are mourning losses. It’s hard to contemplate the future when the present is so urgent, so disrupted. The Mayday Experiment feels worlds apart from these…
Peter Shaffer’s Equus was written in 1973, when many cultural assumptions were being upended and some influential thinkers questioned the most basic premises of psychiatry. Their essential point — and I may be oversimplifying — was that the culture was insane, and to remain sane in an insane world is…
#3: Alexis Cooley When Alexis Cooley isn’t working as the executive producer and director of the Boulder International Fringe Festival (which some think might be never), she’s a one-women production company, keeping busy as “an artist, a performer, a director, a creator, a producer, a traveler, an adventurer, an entrepreneur,…
MCA Denver just announced its “I’m an Artist” program, which will offer free museum memberships to Denver’s creative community. According to museum director and curator Adam Lerner, securing funding to underwrite a thousand artist memberships for the next three years represents just the beginning of big plans the museum has…
On Sunday, the 38th Denver Film Festival came to a close, after screening over 250 films from 39 countries (17 from Colorado alone) for over 55,000 filmgoers. And every film in the festival was eligible for the prestigious Starz People’s Choice Award, with a select few han ded additional awards…
The artist community of the River North Art District celebrated a ten-year anniversary – and a bright new future – over the weekend at Tracks, with live art and cool spins, a costume party and an aerial-dance performance. Photographer Aaron Thackeray brought back these images ofall the fun. Now see…
The terror attacks in Paris cast a shadow over the final days of the Denver Film Festival. At screening after screening throughout the fest’s final weekend, speakers referenced the horrific crimes and encouraged attendees to send positive thoughts to victims and survivors in the City of Light. But the shows…
You can find art all over town — not just on gallery walls. In this series, we take a look at some of the local artists who serve up their work in coffeehouses and other non-gallery businesses around town. Farhad VakiliTabar was born in Iran and moved to Houston when…
A pot cookbook, a treatise on changing Cuba and a local Sherlockian expert are all in the spotlight this week at Denver bookstores. Here’s where to pick your poison: Robyn Griggs Lawrence and Povy Kendal Atchison The Cannabis Kitchen Cookbook: Feel-Good Food for Home Cooks Tattered Cover Book Store 7…
Pursuing a career in standup comedy is a lonesome journey through the gloom of uncertainty, with nothing but self-doubt as your constant companion. Competition is fierce and benchmarks of progress are few and far between. For a comedian fumbling through this desert of opportunity, a home club is both a…
It’s time to start saving money for those Black Friday deals — but you can still enjoy yourself this week at a variety of free events around town. Check the Westword calendar for more activities, and let us know of any more freebies in the comments section. Open Mic Magic…
It’s no secret that some of the best ideas and inventions are cooked up right in sunny Colorado. In this series, we’ll be exploring the latest products coming from the state’s makers, builders and innovators. Two years ago the folks at Boulder-based Sidfactor – a product-design and strategy firm specializing…
For the second installment of Warm Cookies of the Revolution’s Stompin’ Ground Games, the organization dedicated to civic health will celebrate the neighborhoods of southeast Denver — Virginia Village, Washington-Virginia Vale, Cook Park, Hilltop and other nooks and crannies — with a participatory program of urban storytelling and oral history…
Actress Illeana Douglas isn’t really a household name — and that’s too bad. The great character actress has been in dozens of films since the late ‘80s, and even if her name is unfamiliar, once you see the wide-eyed actress, she’s instantly recognizable…and unforgettable. This Saturday she’s returning to the…
Breckenridge, which just got a nice snow dump this week, will open for its 53rd season today at 8 a.m. — a day that the resort compares to Christmas. DJ DC will kick things off with music and announcements, followed by free cinnamon buns at the Peak 8 base area from…
Again this year, Denver Film Festival artistic director Brit Withey is offering his must-see picks for each day of the fest — including many flicks that movie lovers might otherwise miss amid the flood of silver-screen goodies. Today he spotlights selections for November 13 (Lamb), November 22 (Mustang) and November 23…
From the dungeon out into the light: We spotted some authentic S&M fashion when we ran into a dominatrix outside the Mayan Theatre. Broadway. “I came to Denver to check out the fetish following and the marijuana scene as well,” says New York-based Mistress Adrienne, a friend of local band…
We’ve gotten used to the idea that the highest-quality, most innovative television lives on premium cable channels like HBO and Showtime. But two of the most delightful and inventive series to premiere in the past year have come from an unexpected place: the CW. Jane the Virgin and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend…
Denver Broncos cornerback Aqib Talib proved how salty we Coloradans can get when our weekends don’t go right. But there’s no need to stick your finger in someone’s eye this weekend because there’s too much fun to be had coloring books, looking at art and celebrating Denver pride. Drop us a…
