3 things to do for free in Denver this week, January 20-23

Cyndi Lauper was totally right: Money does change everything. But it wouldn’t change how much fun you can have in Denver this week, because there are several worthy events that are absolutely free. You can play bingo, watch Big Trouble in Little China, or attend a panel discussion on women…

Howie Movshovitz unreels Film 102 tonight

In the dark about the history of movies? Get a clue from critic Howie Movshovitz, who’ll be teaching Film 102, a four-class series that starts tonight at the Sie FilmCenter. Film 102 will look at the four major elements of cinema: color, genre, sound and melodrama. The first session, on…

Hitch a free ride on American Mustang this weekend!

American Mustang, which had its local premiere in November at the Denver International Film Festival, is galloping back into town for an extended run that starts today and continues through January 24 at UA Denver West Village Stadium 12, 14225 West Colfax Avenue in Lakewood, just in time for the…

100 Colorado Creatives: Daniel and Maruca Salazar

#20: Daniel and Maruca Salazar Daniel and Maruca Salazar are one of the local Latino arts community’s reigning power couples; while Daniel grew up here, Maruca emigrated to Denver from her native Veracruz, Mexico, more than thirty years ago. And they’ve grown right along with that community over the years…

Meet Stephanie Ohnmacht, a Denver designer Under the Gunn

Denver fashion is now back in the national spotlight thanks to Tim Gunn’s new reality show, Under the Gunn. Mondo Guerra, winner of the 2012 Project Runway All Stars, is a mentor on the show, which debuted last night on Lifetime, and local designer Stephanie Ohnmacht is one of fifteen…

The anachronistic anarchy of Archer, television’s best comedy

If you aren’t watching Archer, you are missing out on television’s best comedy. The animated spy spoof — think Austin Powers, minus that franchise’s fundamental stupidity and tendency to recycle its best jokes until they are painfully unfunny — brings a lot to the table. The cast is excellent, with…

The Westword 2014 Show and Tell Bucket List: #5-1

Since the start of the new year, we’ve been filling our four blogs — Show and Tell, Backbeat, Cafe Society and the Latest Word — with a Colorado bucket list of the 100 things to do before you kick it. We’ve already shared Show and Tell Bucket List picks 25-16…

Pablo Francisco on legal weed, Dog the Bounty Hunter and Shotgun Willie’s

Pablo Francisco is a comedian who has performed all over the world and appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Mad TV. Reknown for his spot-on impressions and high-energy performances, Rodriguez is in town for a weekend of shows that kick off at 7:30pm tonight at the Denver Improv Westword caught up with Francisco to discuss his Dog the Bounty Hunter, performing comedy overseas, and Shotgun WIllies in a phone chat peppered with digressions and spot-on vocal impressions that print can’t really capture.

Kenneth Branagh directs Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit with aplomb

Russians still make the best movie villains. Since 9/11, Hollywood has been queasy about giving us fictional baddies from Arab countries — the line between cheap stereotypes and real-life religious extremism is too blurry, too delicate. South American drug lords have had their day, and Albanians in bad sweaters just…

The Invisible Woman is attuned to its characters’ sorrow

A tale of love complicated — if not thwarted — by prior responsibilities, intractable barriers and the rigid high-society norms that frustrate its Victorian characters’ attempts to live as they so desperately want, The Invisible Woman finds Ralph Fiennes proving as adept behind the camera as he is in front…

God Loves Uganda exposes a dangerous mission

Can it be true that the apple-cheeked Midwestern evangelicals who send their money, their teenagers and their last-century sexual mores to Uganda genuinely see no link between their fervently anti-gay, anti-condom preaching and that country’s movement to make homosexuality not just illegal, but punishable by death? The toothsome young Pentecostals…

The Whipping Man looks into the conflicted soul of reconciliation

There are many narratives that celebrate the coming together of once intractable enemies — Arab and Israeli, peasant and landowner, torturer and tortured — with scenes showing growing comprehension, forgiveness, even respect and affection. But in 1865, immediately following the defeat of Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Appomattox,…

Frederic Hamilton’s generous gift to the DAM

Wealthy oilman Frederic C. Hamilton — named this year’s Citizen of the West by the National Western Stock Show — has had a long relationship with the Denver Art Museum and currently holds the title of chairman emeritus of the DAM’s board of trustees. It was Hamilton who spearheaded the…