Now Showing

Clyfford Still. For the opening of the Clyfford Still Museum, founding director Dean Sobel has installed a career survey of the great artist. Clyfford Still: Inaugural Exhibition starts with the artist’s realist self-portrait and features his remarkable post-impressionist works from the 1920s. Next are Still’s works from the ’30s, with…

The vivid Snow White and the Huntsman is also needlessly complex

If ever there were a perfect example of pure, fresh, classical simplicity unnecessarily trodden under with complications, it’s Snow White and the Huntsman. Had it trusted the native charm of its cast and the sensory seduction of its often-astonishing images to humbly, naively retell its story, this Snow White might…

Beyond the Black Rainbow presents a seamless synthesis of influences

Achieving something far weirder and more resonant than the genre pastiche it initially seems to reach for, Beyond the Black Rainbow satisfies on practically every level — provided you allow its narcotic pace, lysergic visuals and throbbing soundtrack to tickle your cortex into a contained frenzy instead of lulling you…

Germinal’s production of The Misanthrope is no throwback

The last time I saw Molière’s The Misanthrope, it was gorgeously staged at the Denver Center, with an elegant set adorned with flying cupids; a huge, round, rose-trimmed bed that dominated the stage through the entire second act; and costumes that entirely expressed their wearers’ over-the-top personalities, so that the…

The Humor Code, Untitled edition: Pete McGraw and Joel Warner explain funny

Scientists have long understood that farts are hilarious. What’s less understood, however, is why. In all seriousness, though, actual scientists have been trying to theoretically understand humor since the time of Aristotle without much success — until University of Colorado Boulder professor Pete McGraw came around with a pretty good…

Colorado filmmakers to watch for at Mountainfilm in Telluride this weekend

Mountainfilm in Telluride is celebrating its 34th anniversary this weekend, through May 28, and we’re duly impressed by the the list of Colorado-based filmmakers in the mix. Here’s a preview: Telluride-based filmmaker Beth Gage is the current Board President of Mountainfilm in Telluride and is bringing her second documentary, Bidder…

Residue Denver: Artists act out at Edge Gallery

We’re used to gallery shows that look pretty much the same when they end as when they began. But Residue Denver, opening tonight at Edge Gallery, isn’t designed to remain static. Though the juried group show will begin with a variety of sculptural objects scattered around the space, five or…

Five things to do for $5 this Memorial Day

Memorial Day is about honoring fallen soldiers, but it’s also about enjoying good company, getting out of work, and firing up the grill. If you don’t have a backyard to go to this year, we’ve got five events this Monday that won’t cost you more than a five-spot, from a…

Vibrators: A pop-culture history of this buzzed-about device

Like gay marriage, marijuana use and tattoos, public perception of female sex toys is not what it used to be. While male sex toys still weigh heavy on the shame scale, a female pleasure device is mostly seen as a cute novelty. Encountering one while snooping is comparable to finding…

Five hidden Denver art galleries to visit this weekend

While most art galleries in town do all they can to promote themselves, some of them provide back room spaces, which are not advertised as often and usually feature the work of up-and-coming or associate-member work. This weekend is closing weekend for many shows, as galleries gear up for next…

Vibrators play a starring role in Sarah Ruhl’s In the Next Room

Sarah Ruhl’s In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play) is about orgasms — but it’s neither titillating nor smutty. Ruhl has been called one of our most brilliantly imaginative playwrights, and locals have seen her luminous work before at the Denver Center, Curious Theatre Company and the Boulder Ensemble…

Home, Sweet Tree House

At some point in all lives, we’ve all wanted to live in a tree house, but perhaps no one more so than tree house expert Pete Nelson, who will kick off this year’s Bonfils-Stanton lecture series at the Denver Botanic Gardens. “He’s extremely passionate about building tree houses,” says DBG…

Join the Pack

Burro racing may sound like a silly sport, but its devotees are serious about it, and the one-hour documentary Haulin’ Ass explores that competitive drive by following three racers through the 2009 competitive season. “This is a little attempt at finding the true West and the lifestyles of the not…

A Funny Thing Happened

It wasn’t long after former Westword staffer Joel Warner wrote about “Humor Professor” Peter McGraw (“The Nutty Professor,” August 26, 2010) that Warner went out for a pack of cigarettes and never came back. Since then, he and McGraw have been traveling the world, trying to crack what they call…