Three things to do for free in Denver, August 18-21

Schools will soon be back in session — and it’s not to expand your own education. This week you can learn how to be at peace with yourself, impact the government or even create some art. There’s a lot more going on in town, too; see our full listing of…

Robin Williams Remembered in Three-Film Program at Alamo Drafthouse

Yesterday Robin Williams’s wife issued a statement acknowledging the outpouring of support for those who loved the late comedian. “Since his passing, all of us who loved Robin have found some solace in the tremendous outpouring of affection and admiration for him from the millions of people whose lives he…

Gallery Sketches: Three Shows for the Weekend of August 15-17

New exhibitions include an exploration of Chicano activism in art at the Center for Visual Art and a roomful of art, some of it created on site at Access Gallery, by a disabled artist with powerful messages (see below). The weekend will also see the introduction of a new lowbrow…

Score Big with From Deep, Brett Kashmere’s basketball documentary

Basketball is “the sport that best defines the 21st-century American experience,” argues Brett Kashmere, talking about the subject of his documentary From Deep, which will screen at the Sidewinder Tavern on Saturday, August 16. The cinematic essay explores basketball, hip-hop, and the way the progressive narrative of race relations in…

The Ten Best Resale, Vintage and Thrift Stores in Denver

There are plenty of thrift shops and resale boutiques in the Mile High City and sometimes it can be hard to navigate them all. From upscale consignment to vintage apparel and up-to-the-minute styles, there are boutiques and bargain storefronts crammed full of clothes. To help navigate our fashion-forward recycled clothing…

Podcast: How We Will Remember Robin Williams

Williams in Moscow on the HudsonOn this week’s Voice Film Club podcast, Alan Scherstuhl and Stephanie Zacharek of The Village Voice and Amy Nicholson of L.A. Weekly remember Robin Williams, who died on Monday. He was 63. They also recommend We Are Mari Pepa, a slight movie about growing up…

24 Hours of Twin Peaks at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema

Twenty-five years ago, the entire population of the United States was obsessing over a question posed by David Lynch and Mark Frost in their cult-classic television series Twin Peaks: “Who killed Laura Palmer?” The show’s pilot will play at the Alamo Drafthouse tonight, and from noon Saturday through noon Sunday,…

What If‘s Daniel Radcliffe Knows He Makes You Feel Old

Daniel Radcliffe’s first trip to Comic Con kicked off like the world’s cuddliest Nuremberg rally. This summer, just minutes after he walked into Hall H, the hangar-sized sardine can of 6,500 people sang “Happy Birthday” to him. It was an emotional moment for everyone. “The fact that I was turning…

Film Critics Need to Learn to Look — and Enjoy

Star presence, that distillation of charisma and sometimes glamour, lies at the heart of the movies’ appeal. The star presence James Harvey evokes so richly in his new book, Watching Them Be, is never simply about physical beauty. Harvey rightly points out that Ingrid Bergman’s fresh unaffectedness was distinctly unglamorous,…

Into the Storm Attempts to Find the Fun in Destroying American Towns

Incompatible fronts collide in director Steven Quale’s weather-horror patience-tester Into the Storm. The first is the summertime yen for righteous kablooey, the dumber the better, exemplified here by drunk galoots hauling ass into a twister on a four-wheeler ATV, tossing beer cans and whooping about getting a “million YouTube hits.”…

Now Showing

Angela Beloian and Roger Hubbard.For In Technicolor, her new exhibit at Walker Fine Art, Boulder artist Angela Beloian created a body of retro ’60s and ’70s paintings and screen prints based on “sketches” done using an iPhone. The works refer to minimalism, abstract surrealism and psychedelic art using just a…

Now Playing

The Odd Couple. There’s not a lot of nourishment in Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple, which has been around since the mid-1960s, but the central pairing of two very different men who find themselves sharing an apartment, and the humorous way their fights and misunderstandings mirror those of regular marriage…

What If…the Right People Met at the Wrong Time?

In the highly imperfect world of contemporary romantic comedies, What If is as close to perfect as anything we’ve got, not least for the way it captures the abject hopefulness of young people who’d like to be in love but don’t know how to go about it. Who does know…

The Dog Offers a Compelling Portrait of a Complex Personality

John Wojtowicz may be the perfect embodiment of Maslow’s ideal of self-actualization. The inspiration for Al Pacino’s character in Sidney Lumet’s Dog Day Afternoon and now subject of Allison Berg and Frank Keraudren’s fascinating documentary The Dog, Wojtowicz was many things: soldier, bank robber, libertine, and both “Goldwater Republican” and…