Horror films from A to Z: part five

At The ABCs of Death, in its final night at the Sie FilmCenter, you’re going to get the equivalent of horror tapas — one short, punchy tale for each letter of the alphabet, each delivered by a current or rising star in the genre. It’s a tasty appetizer that can…

Sebastiaan Bremer’s work on display at Dikeou Collection Pop-Up tonight

Dutch photograph-collage artist Sebastiaan Bremer joins the citywide Month of Photography tonight when two of his works are displayed at the Dikeou Pop-Up Space. The public display of Bremer’s images — brought to Denver by the Dikeou Collection — adds an exciting element to the month-long celebration of both local…

Now Showing

Art of the State. This juried effort at the Arvada Center has been attracting crowds, to say the least. The two-person jury comprised Collin Parson, Arvada’s exhibition manager and curator, and Dean Sobel, who, as director of the Clyfford Still Museum, is an art-world celebrity. Because of the curators’ stature,…

In Upside Down, Kirsten Dunst is no average dream girl

It doesn’t matter how many droopy sweaters you put Kirsten Dunst in — and in Upside Down, she wears quite a few — she always looks luminous, as if she’s just slid down to Earth on a sunbeam. Actually, that’s an image writer-director Juan Solanas could have run with in…

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone has charm but no comedy magic

Steve Carell’s gift is for men who might drown in their own obliviousness. Like his Daily Show reporter, or The Office’s Michael Scott, his forty-year-old virgin lived in terror that someone might catch on to the fact that he knows nothing about subjects he purports to have mastered. When his…

Stoker‘s cracked love triangle soaks in sin and sadism

Puberty is sex and sex is murder in Stoker, a Hitchcockian stew of hothouse familial jealousy, sadism and psychosis all tied together by one teenage girl’s homicidal coming of age. Psychosexual imagery permeates every inch of renowned South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook’s stateside debut. A blood-tipped pencil or water dripping…

The Brothers Size finds meaning in dreams, words and movement

With the regional premiere of The Brothers Size, Curious Theatre has given Denverites their first chance to experience the work of Tarell Alvin McCraney, an African-American writer barely out of his twenties who’s been hailed on both sides of the Atlantic as an important new voice in theater. McCraney grew…

The campy Bat Boy has the insane logic of a tabloid serial

The story of Bat Boy originated in the now-defunct Weekly World News tabloid, which announced that a scientist had found a creature that was half boy, half bat in a West Virginia cave. Many adventures followed: Bat Boy was captured for science experiments and escaped, captured by the FBI and…

In Top of the Lake, Peggy Olson goes to hell

Elisabeth Moss’s face is far from the only reason to savor Top of the Lake, Jane Campion’s smart, bracing, hugely enjoyable mystery rural noir Top of the Lake, which premieres on the Sundance Channel on Monday, March 18. But that pale-to-radiant instrument of hers — a mouth that suggests her…

A bizarre episode of father-son bonding in the 21st century

Unlike many fledgling web series that use broad comedic strokes to up the laughs per second, faux-vlogging gem My Bastard Son combines the naturalistic acting of shows like The Office with absurd circumstances and very specific characters. The grainy, five-minute video shows James Urbaniak (American Splendor) trying to connect with…

All in a Day’s Work

Once upon a time in Chicago, Chris Buske attended a benefit that featured a caged artist creating a work in a single day. “At the end of the day, somebody bought the piece,” he recalls, and that’s what inspired Buske and the Denver Art Society to host Exposed: Observing Artists…

Authentic Fun

Fashion, art and fun will collide tonight when the Fake Fendi Social Bazaar takes over the Oriental Theater. This monthly dance party is all about breaking out of nightlife norms, with a marketplace — pop-up shops from design house UXU, pop artist Kasey Orr, accessory creators Broken Revolt and more…

Erin Go Braless

There is only one true Irish step-dancing burlesque performer in Denver: GiGi DeLovely, a bona fide Irish lass who can take her clothes off while demonstrating moves from Riverdance. And if you want to see her do her thing tonight, there’s only one place to be: Cora Vette’s St. Pastie’s…

Dahmer Drama

What would it be like to live next door to one of history’s most notorious serial killers? That’s just one of the questions answered in The Jeffrey Dahmer Files, a documentary that goes directly to sources with the most insight on the Milwaukee murderer. Testimonials from his next-door neighbor, the…

A Rare Pair

“I like the idea of branching out and pairing artists. I wanted to see what kind of conversation could be created,” says Ariella Ruth, events coordinator at Counterpath Press. And there should be plenty of conversation at Counterpath tonight, when local poet Eric Baus and international performance artist Rachelle Beaudoin…

True Gems

No matter how well-regarded a classic film, there are always modern film buffs who have never taken the time to watch it. The Vintage Theatre is looking to change that with its monthly Vintage Classic Movie series, during which it will screen acknowledged but sometimes unappreciated masterpieces. “I think one…

You’re Looking Green

Drink with friends, drink with strangers, or just drink with folks dressed in green at tonight’s official kickoff of the Green Kegs & Hammered St. Paddy’s Day Bar Crawl. Champion beer-tasters and marathon party-goers are invited to mark the start of the Irish holiday at Maloney’s Tavern, 1432 Market Street,…

Playwrights at Work

Boulder’s women-run LOCAL Theater Company focuses on the playwright experience by presenting plays to the public that are still in development and soliciting feedback. That will be especially important during the company’s LOCAL Lab 2013 New Play Festival, which starts its second run this evening at 7 p.m. with a…

East Meets West

The daughter of Chinese immigrants, fiction writer Gish Jen has mined the bi-cultural experience over the past several years — with solid results. From Mona in the Promised Land, a comic novel about a first-generation Chinese-American teen who decides to be Jewish, to World and Town, in which assimilated New…

Short Takes: Upside Down

It doesn’t matter how many droopy sweaters you put Kirsten Dunst in — and in Upside Down, she wears quite a few — she always looks luminous, as if she’s just slid down to Earth on a sunbeam. Actually, that’s an image writer-director Juan Solanas could have run with in…