Surreal French filmmaker Leos Carax is not a household name — but his last film, Holy Motors, was an accidental accessible art-house hit in 2013. Well, as accessible as a film with a scene featuring Eva Mendes being ogled by an underground troll sporting a real erection onscreen can be…
Weird Al became a pop-culture icon thanks to his musical parodies. His career spans more than three decades, meaning he’s outlasted the careers of almost everyone he’s parodied. His riffs on pop music aren’t always brilliant, but even at their worst, they’re always worth a smirk. And at their best,…
When Ice Cube Gallery’s Icebreaker show opens today, you’ll be seeing only the tip of an iceberg of entries that arrived for the juried national showcase that’s now in its sixth year. It took an exceptionally able eye to whittle more than 1,000 entries down to 60 works by 43…
One of the blessings of a career in standup is being a part of the small but fiercely loyal community of fellow comics sharing the same journey. When one of our own is down, the shock reverberates through the scene. Comedians, who generally lack essential skills and a sense of meaning in their lives, scramble to help out. Nearly every time, shepherding them through the efforts is Terri Barton Gregg, who organizes countless benefit shows and fundraisers through her company, Hold Please Productions. When Comedy Works’ New Talent coordinator and de facto mentor to Denver’s fledgling standups was diagnosed with cancer, comics and fans alike were eager to give anything back to the man who inspires us to try harder. Westword spoke with Gregg to discuss Deacon’s treatment, the benefit show lineup, and to define several Yiddish words.
Describing Ava DuVernay’s quietly remarkable Selma to a friend, I caught myself referring to the civil-rights era as a historical event, a thing of the past, and then backtracked. The killing of Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Tamir Rice at the hands of police officers — not to mention the…
Paul Thomas Anderson was making serious movies long before he started making “serious” movies, ponderous works of certified art like There Will Be Blood and The Master. His earliest pictures, like Hard Eight and Boogie Nights, were wily, imperfect, vibrating with life. They were serious without advertising their sincerity, and…
Brown pelicans are talented anglers, able to plunge into the sea from tremendous heights and snap up fish with such effortless precision that it’s no wonder fishermen have long tracked them to find schools of sardines. And they are far from domestic, born far from human civilization and driven by…
Brilliant. If you have any interest in modernism or fine craft — even if you aren’t particularly interested in jewelry — you’ll find something to marvel over at the Denver Art Museum’s winter blockbuster Brilliant: Cartier in the 20th Century. The show is a visual marathon, with so many things…
Fiddler on the Roof. This production of Fiddler on the Roofdoes full justice to Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick’s brilliant songs, tells the evocative story with clarity and feeling, and also — uniquely — sounds the musical’s deeper, darker chords. The action is set in a rural Russian Jewish community…
All you need to know about Taken 3 is that Liam Neeson survives an explosive car crash — twice. Director Olivier Megaton even rewinds the second blast to show us how his hero escaped. It still doesn’t make sense. But who cares. The Taken franchise is rooted in implausibilities, specifically…
“Someone once told me that God gives you an imagination and creativity, and that’s his gift to you. What you do with it is your gift to him.” That’s how artist Angel Espino, the creative mind behind Espino Arte, describes his work and his new show, Art for Water, which…
Going strong in cities across the country since 1998, the United Nations Association Traveling Film Festival makes its debut in Denver today. The festival highlights documentaries tackling topics like human rights, the environment, homelessness and racism, then offers a post-screening space for conversation and engagement with directors, activists and more…
Melanie Crowder was inspired to turn her research about women’s suffrage into a historical young-adult novel when she learned about Clara Lemlich, who’s best known for standing up at a mass factory workers’ meeting in New York in 1909 and motioning to strike: Lemlich was a labor activist before she…
The Denver standup community has been turning toward new models of improv and sketch comedy in recent months, with ongoing events like the Buddy, Buddy sketch show at Syntax Physic Opera gaining a toehold in the scene. Now, California transplant Zeke Herrera, who was drawn to the strong camaraderie he…
“People often say to me, ‘You love film so much and take it so seriously — how can you love musicals?’” says William Morris, curator of this month’s The Reclamation of the Musical or How to Stop Worrying and Love the Dance film series. Morris believes you can do both…
“Ullr Fest celebrates everything snow,” notes festival spokeswoman Rachel Zerowin, “and fat bikes have been seen in Breckenridge and all over the state this winter.” Fat bikes are the ones with enormous tires that you can ride in the snow, and this year, Ullr Fest planners added a Fat Bike…
You can teach an old dogie new tricks: The 109th annual National Western Stock Show kicks off today with its first-ever barbecue competition, the National Western BBQ Throwdown. It’s a Kansas City Barbeque Society-sanctioned event at which forty teams comprising the world’s elite barbecue contestants — the majority of them…
No one will complain tonight when Buntport Theater brings back one of its greatest hits — 2012’s clever Tommy Lee Jones Goes to Opera Alone, in which four actors animate an intricate life-sized Tommy Lee Jones puppet that they built and brought to life with help from woodworker Kagen Schaefer…
Now in its sixth year, Ice Cube Gallery’s annual Icebreaker show has become a tradition, albeit a functional one: Not only is the national juried exhibition an important fundraiser for the co-op, but it also affords gallery members a good look at potential additions to their ranks. “We try to…
Laura Norman is an actors’ actor who’s been on the theater scene for years, but hasn’t made much of a public splash. In his recent True West Awards, arts journalist John Moore called her “the best local actor you hardly ever get to see.” Perhaps that’s because she’s quietly self-effacing…
We all understand the idea of 3D: When you wear funny glasses, it looks like something is jumping off the screen at you. But the Downtown Aquarium is taking the concept one step beyond, with its new 4D theater. Along with the 3D glasses, movie-goers are treated to smells, splashes…
The Denver Broncos spent $30 million last spring to sign defensive end DeMarcus Ware, one of the best defensive players in the NFL, as a way to send a message to the rest of the league and to help the team get back to the Super Bowl in 2015. Denver…
