Three Things to Do for Free in Denver, December 22-25

It’s Christmas week, which means you’ll want to be showing friends and family just how cool — and cheap — this city can be. Over the next few days, you can hear some stories, sing a song you might not remember or even get a jump on resolutions by doing…

Film Podcast: Annie, Mr. Turner, Big Eyes and So Much More

We begin this week’s Voice Film Club podcast with a strange story about Giles Corey, who famously said, “More weight!” as stones were laid upon him during his witch trial. The end of the year is sort of like that for film critics, who are pressed upon with all the…

Marion Cotillard Wins — Twice — in Our 2014 Film Critics’ Poll

What kind of circle is time again? A year after blowing the doors off our annual critics’ poll, golden boy Matthew McConaughey won just a single vote for his turn in the loudest movie of the year, Christopher Nolan’s tears-in-space effort Interstellar, which has tied with the unprescient Transcendence as…

Five Best Ways to Make Your Yuletide Gay

In the 1944 musical Meet Me In St. Louis, Judy Garland (of course) introduced the world to the song “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” which features this line: “Make the yuletide gay.” This could have been a watershed moment in homosexual pop culture, inspiring millions of people to turn…

The Colbert Report‘s Greatness Arrived With Its Very First Episode

The funniest and most incisive show on television is ending this week — so let’s look back at how it began. On October 17, 2005, a power-suited Stephen Colbert furrowed his eyebrows and showed off highlights of his new set. Red letters above him shouted, “The Colbert Report.” The title…

Ten Best Commercial Signs on East Colfax

To know the story of Colfax is to truly understand the personality of the Denver metro area. The gravel-and-tar artery that once ushered visitors in from the open road now hosts a variety of people and cultures along America’s longest main street. Westword is taking a look at Route 40’s…

The Twisted Holiday Tradition of Black Christmas

Have you ever received an obscene phone call? Deep breathing, moans or lewd suggestions intruding on your otherwise unremarkable day? I have, and it is fucking creepy, even for a guy. My obscene caller was a woman, and she propositioned me for some pretty weird shit, in graphic detail. Despite…

Josh Blue on Dave Chapelle, Speaking Wolof and 108 Stitches

Josh Blue is truly a singular talent with an undeniable facility for hilarious riffs that seem casually tossed off. He has an uncanny ability to be instantly likable from the moment he grabs the mic, even as he doesn’t shy away from challenging suspects. Blue has been a pillar of the Denver comedy scene for several years now, but he first broke out nationally when he won NBC’s Last Comic Standing in 2006. Throughout his illustrious career, Blue has found triumph mining his cerebral palsy diagnosis for comedic gold. A man of multitudes, Blue is also a skilled athlete who played on the U.S. Paralympic Soccer team.
Blue is closing out a pretty stellar 2014 at the home club where he developed his skills. Aside regularly performing in state and across the world, he also appeared in a prominent role in the baseball comedy 108 Stitches.

Video Games Come to the Big Screen at Sie This Saturday

No matter how big the TV your Xbox is plugged into, it can’t compete with the grandeur of a full-sized movie theater. But from noon to 6 p.m. this Saturday, Denver gamers will have the chance to play their favorite titles on Sie FilmCenter’s larger-than-life screen at the Colorado Video…

Bringing Down the Wrong Empire

Sony assumed that North Korea would hate the movie. The question was: What would it do? Pyongyang had just tested its atom bomb and threatened “preemptive nuclear attack.” And the Supreme Leader with his finger on the trigger was barely over thirty, with less than two years of experience. But…

The Babadook: Filmmaker Jennifer Kent Knows Her Horror

If we’re honest, most of us who relish a good horror film don’t actually hope to feel something like horror. Instead, the appeal is that of shock and surprise, all candied up, the crowd-pleasing bits staged with the kind of extended setup/payoff patience that the makers of comedies have long…

Ethics and Economics Clash in The Overnighters

Quick: Name the most expensive housing market in America. If you said New York, Los Angeles or San Francisco, you couldn’t be farther from the truth — literally. Each is more than 1,500 miles away from Williston, North Dakota. In four years, the population has doubled as newcomers gold-rush to…

Art Options for the Week of December 18

Ann Hamilton and Jae Ko et al. For Ann Hamilton: Selected Works, the initial enfilade of spaces at Robischon Gallery is taken over by works on paper by this noted conceptualist. The first group is from her “visite” series, the name of which is taken from the term “carte de…

Theater Options for the Week of December 18

Anything Goes. Anything Goes premiered in 1934, after a hasty rewrite: The original plot concerned a shipwreck, and shortly before the scheduled opening night, a fire broke out on a cruise liner and 137 passengers were killed. By then the writing team, which included P. G. Wodehouse, had moved on,…