Now Showing: October Art Options

Far North & Outer Space. Far North & Outer Space, now at Goodwin Fine Art, features new work by Beau Carey and Lanny DeVuono, both of whom create contemporary paintings based obliquely on views of the landscape. Many of the Careys are snow scenes and were inspired by a National…

Now Playing

A Steady Rain. A Steady Raintells the striking story of a rogue cop. Denny is not above petty infractions; he has his scams; he’s on the take from prostitutes. Yet in his own sick way, he’s committed to logic and the motto to “protect and serve.” At the play’s beginning,…

Gone Girl Is as Well-Planned as the Perfect Murder

Everything about Gone Girl, David Fincher’s adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s enormously popular 2012 thriller about a deteriorating marriage and a wife gone missing, is precise and thoughtful; it’s as well planned as the perfect murder, with its share of vicious, shivery delights. But at the end of the perfect murder,…

Nick Cave Tells His Own Story in 20,000 Days on Earth

Should we trust artists to tell the story of artists? On the plus side, who understands them better? If there’s a secret language of imagination and creativity, then the members of this sprawling tribe must be the ones who speak it best. On the other hand, could there be anything…

Reckoning With the Last Days in Vietnam

Vital, illuminating, and terrifying, Rory Kennedy’s Last Days in Vietnam probes with clarity and thoroughness one moment of recent American history that has too long gone unreckoned with. Here, in then-contemporary news footage and startlingly frank latter-day interviews, is the wrenching story of how it came to be that in…

Left Behind is Sinfully Boring

Every child who’s thrown a tantrum, packed a bag and plotted to run away has shivered with the same vengeful thought: I wish I could see how sad they’ll be when I’m gone. The Left Behind franchise implies that evangelicals haven’t grown up. This new film version, the latest in…

Demonic Doll Movie Annabelle Is Surprisingly Unnerving

Annabelle, an effective prequel to horror pastiche The Conjuring, surpasses its predecessor simply by virtue of occasionally being scary. Both films are over­reliant on deafening sound effects and side­eye glimpses of underwhelming ghosts. But Annabelle’s scare scenes are better paced and more thoughtfully lensed. Its hokey, funhouse­worthy spooks ­­ a…

Dress to Impress

Expanding on its ongoing photographic exhibition, Fashion/Culture, the Colorado Photographic Arts Center is hosting a Gala Fashion Show tonight at the McNichols Building. The gala is based on the same inspiration as its photo exhibit — to raise awareness of CPAC and its many offerings — and will also highlight…

Killing ‘Em Dead

Chuck Roy’s Spaghetti Western Comedy Show returns to Jake’s Food and Spirits this month with a fittingly spooky theme for the season, a new monthly guest star, and a generous servings of giggles and meatballs. The unique brainchild of Denver comic Chuck Roy, the show combines a spaghetti dinner with…

Home on the Range

Cosplay goes country at FarmFest, the Urban Farm at Stapleton’s fifth annual benefit, featuring an historical reenactment about the mounted soldiers of the 10th Cavalry Drill Team. At FarmFest, you’ll get more than a mere slice of country life. In no particular order, there will be hayrides, pony rides, a…

Adventure Time

The Adventure Film Festival marks its tenth anniversary this weekend at the Boulder Theater, and its fifth year without founder Johnny Copp, who died in a 2009 climbing accident. “We were digging through our archives because of the anniversary and found Johnny’s original vision for the festival that he scratched…

Scream Machine

The scariest time of the year is here, and what better way to celebrate than by giving your loved ones the gift of terror? Denver’s premier haunted houses are making that easy to do with Family Night at The Asylum and The 13th Floor. For one night, you can treat…

The Second Half

When Martin Moran’s The Tricky Part, an Obie-winning, autobiographical one-man show about his brush with sexual abuse as a boy, played at Curious Theatre ten years ago, it left Westword theater critic Juliet Wittman feeling uncomfortable — not because of the subject matter, but because there was no subterfuge or…

Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy

In Colorado Springs artist Matt Barton’s world, a place where foxes talk and treehouses sprout up indoors, viewers are asked to suspend their disbelief — even if just for a moment, says MCA Denver’s Adam Lerner. He knows that’s difficult in a modern society too often driven by cynicism and…

Sweet Endings

The Hot Chocolate 15/5K Series, dubbed “America’s sweetest race,” kicks off in Denver today before continuing to fourteen other cities. While the race offers runners the opportunity to raise money for Ronald McDonald Charities and goodie bags complete with fleece-lined zip hoodies, Hot Chocolate Series organizers are most excited about…

Well-Sculpted

Arvada Center art curator Collin Parson is pumped, and here’s why: Unbound: Sculpture in the Field, a show one might say he’s been training for all his life, debuts tonight in the center’s south field, featuring an installation of 27 works by Colorado sculptors. A sculptor himself, Parson, who grew…

Moving Pictures

With a background in painting, Karen Yasinsky wanted to make movies without crews. So she set up an animation stand at her Baltimore studio and started shooting short films with puppets and archival materials. “It made sense to make my own actors,” she says. Her solitary process spawned an anti-narrative…

By the Letter

The David B. Smith Gallery will be loaded with talent tonight as it unveils Joel Swanson’s XYZ, which explores the artist’s continuing fascination with the art and symbolism of text. Swanson’s obsessive drawings of endless ampersands — similar to the entire wall of 25,000 of them that he drew in…

Totally Modern

Colorado isn’t always recognized for its design and architecture, but the Month of Modern is working intently on changing that attitude. Beginning today and running through October 30, Modern in Denver magazine, HMH Architecture + Interiors and Annabel Media have come together to celebrate all things modern, from architecture to…

Realer Than Real

While the Denver Art Museum is taking a break from the blockbuster treadmill this summer, it’s not going to sleep. Rather, the season will be taken up by several weighty smaller exhibits, including Daniel Sprick’s Fictions: Recent Works, a tribute to a Colorado-based repre-sentational favorite, whose crystal-clear, super-realistic paintings have…