To the Wonder, Terrence Malick’s second movie in two years, is ridiculous, pretentious as hell, and in places laugh-out-loud funny. “Newborn. I open my eyes. I melt. Into the eternal night…” With dialogue like that, in voiceover and in French, who needs satire? But for all the absurdity, there’s also…
A likable hagiography as nuanced as a plaque at the Baseball Hall of Fame, Brian Helgeland’s Jackie Robinson bio 42 finds a politic solution to the challenge Quentin Tarantino faced last year with Django Unchained: how to craft a crowd-pleasing multiplex period piece whose villain is, essentially, “all white people.”…
Here’s what the five interviewees in Rodney Ascher’s Room 237 have come up with about Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining: One believes that it’s an allegory about the genocide of Native Americans, another that it’s about the Holocaust. Yet another that it’s Kubrick’s coded confession to faking the moon landing. Ascher’s…
From the early scenes of Other Desert Cities, you’d think it was going to be one of those family dramas in which everyone sits around and talks about their problems and feelings — all of which are supposed to interest you. Then you start thinking that the play’s about politics…
Based on the seventeenth-century masterpiece Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes, Man of La Mancha was an award-gobbling sensation when it first appeared in 1965 — but after decades of professional and community productions, the musical has less impact. Still, the Arvada Center has mounted a big, sumptuous show, filled…
Poet Serena Chopra’s new book, This Human, delves into the human experience of being lonely — and its significance. “I was sort of exploring what loneliness is, and was at first sort of bummed out about loneliness,” says Chopra, currently the resident writer at RedLine. “I discovered that loneliness is…
If you’re in the audience for Gay Fantasia, you have two choices: experience it as a viewer or as part of the show. Either way, the original, interactive theater experience will take you through Harvey Milk’s last days and on through the start of the HIV/AIDS crisis. “It’s late-night theater,…
“The skate shop, for me as a kid, was always a place you go and check out the artwork on the bottoms of the boards,” says Rob McKendry of Park Hill Skates. “All of that stuff made the shop look like a gallery. That’s where I’m going with my shop.”…
With a career spanning five decades, Lily Tomlin has entertained generations of families through appearances on shows as diverse as Sesame Street, Laugh-In, Damages and, most recently, Malibu Country. But the Tony, Grammy, Emmy and Peabody award-winning actress, who got her start in standup, says that career didn’t come easily:…
Playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney is a miraculous and unlikely talent. He grew up in Miami housing projects, the son of a crack-addicted mother, found theater through a youth program, made his way to Yale Drama School and served as writer-in-residence for the Royal Shakespeare Company in London. He is currently…
If there’s a record you just have to have for your collection, no matter how obscure, you’ll probably find it at the Denver Record Collectors Spring Expo. Now in its twentieth year, the expo remains one of the very best places to find those long-lost gems. “We get people looking…
The ninth installment of Doors Open Denver is all about choosing your own adventure. The DOD guide to the inner workings of more than sixty of the city’s buildings and landmarks allows you to explore revamped structures like the McNichols building (this year’s headquarters), historic sites like the Washington Park…
Lucas Richards, Denver artist and creator of the Horndribbles line of plush stuffed animals, has enjoyed watching his brand grow since he started the project a decade ago with a few friends, a pile of felt and googly eyes and little more than a dream. Since then, Horndribbles have been…
As a hard-bodied, dedicated rock climber with a reputation for adventuring and writing about it, Steph Davis had no fear of high places. But after a breakup with her climber husband, she found herself left behind without a career, in the company of her dog, Fletch, searching for new meaning…
There is a story behind every piece in Paula Sussman’s A Neurotic Erotic Alphabet — a funny, quirky, off-the-wall story — and she’ll share many of them at tonight’s free artist talk about the photography exhibit. The triptych “Sexy Sadie and Simian Sam Are Switchable Sweethearts,” for example, features as…
Started in 1987 by a trio of friends, Blue Man Group has since grown into a big business of highly skilled, if blue, performers. Their engaging and family-friendly multimedia show is hard to categorize — and since the performers apparently don’t speak on or off stage, they can’t supply a…
The Broadway production of Jon Robin Baitz’s Other Desert Cities so wowed the crowds that it warranted a Best Play nomination at the 2012 Tony Awards, as well as a bid for the Pulitzer Prize. The story of a household that is rent by upheaval when a daughter comes home…
Herbert Siguenza has worked for 26 years with the theater group Culture Clash in Los Angeles — we saw the company’s rich and joyous piece about immigrants in American Night at the Denver Center a year ago. His years of experience and the passion he feels for his own work…
While the “clean comedy” label may turn some people off, it’s far and away the most popular form of standup, pioneered by comics like Ray Romano, Bill Cosby and Jerry Seinfeld. And now Comedy Works has rolled out a Clean Comedy Contest, with forty amateur stand-ups competing to represent Denver…
In what U.S. state is it illegal for a man to have sex with a fish? If you want to know the answer — and are looking for something both fun and educational to do Thursday night — Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains has you covered. It’s hosting a…
Smiley’s Laundromat has been hung out to dry, taking with it yet another (sketchy) Colfax institution. So what’s next for this spot? The building was purchased from Triton Properties by Slipstream Properties last year, and the owner is now giving the structure a floor-to-ceiling makeover and maintenance update. When it’s…
Until yesterday’s snowfall, women were beginning to show more skin on the streets, in honor of spring. On a recent sunny day, we spotted local trendsetter Domini Rivera, a Denver native and esthetician. Continue reading to find out which era inspires her look, her style mantra and which part of…
