John Wesley Hall believes justice is a myth taught in classrooms, a fable found in law books, as imaginary as the unicorn and the mermaid. The Arkansas attorney mentions case after case in which he represented an innocent who wound up imprisoned or, worse, executed; in the course of a…
Meet the Parents has just enough class to make for Prestige Pop: Robert De Niro as star, Randy Newman as composer, Blythe Danner as wallpaper, Ben Stiller as schmuck. It has just enough “comedy” to qualify as crowd-pleaser: sight gags (Stiller chasing a cat across a roof before setting fire…
Every now and then, a movie comes along that makes you feel as though you’ve fallen face-first into a stale cat box filled with grouchy baby asps. Come to think of it, this seems to happen, oh, one to three times a week, especially when the movie is about “real…
With global overpopulation neatly intertwining with the advent of the home-video camera, we have been afforded several near-miracles. For instance, when supersonic jets explode, or when mobs impolitely loot and riot in urban centers, the common consumer can now document the event and sell it to the networks for our…
There are those who bemoan Colorado’s landlocked condition and regard the Rockies as some kind of consolation prize for our lack of a Hamptons or a Jersey shore. But there are also those much more enlightened folks who realize that east of Denver, the high plains roll out with endless…
Art’s truest underground — skateboard art — is part of a thriving industry that nobody’s ever heard of. But now it’s the subject of an exhibition illuminating a genre that rarely even sees the light of day, let alone a mass following. Or so it would seem. The result of…
Jerry Kunkel’s name is well known in these parts: He’s been on the art faculty at the University of Colorado at Boulder for more than thirty years, and for a while in the 1970s, he fronted the punk band Joey Vane and the Scissors. But though many people have heard…
Emerging artist Colin Livingston has put together a moving show made up of paintings and mixed-media pieces that depict his mother. Mom, currently at the Apart Modern Gallery, takes up a difficult topic, however: Livingston’s mother committed suicide when he was in the fifth grade. The artist addresses this deeply…
Cracking wise about this or that presidential candidate doesn’t seem so insulting in a country united in the belief that all politicians are laughingstocks. Unkind remarks about an artist of the moment, however, can have dire consequences in a society divided over aesthetic matters. Serge, Marc and Yvan have what…
Based on the true story of how a football team brought together the segregated town of Alexandria, Virginia, in the early 1970s, Remember the Titans is the first film from producer Jerry Bruckheimer’s Technical Black production company, which is meant to offer more contemplative and slower-paced films than his hollow,…
In The Opportunists, the debut feature by writer/director Myles Connell, the stakes are low, the relationships are subtle, and Christopher Walken hardly raises his voice, barking only a single syllable in a fleeting moment of anguish. Of course, one of the many pleasures of Walken is watching him lose his…
Much has changed for urban gays in the two decades since William Friedkin’s Cruising. That controversial serial-killer thriller — set in the leather bars and after-hours sex clubs of New York’s West Village — was derided by gay-rights activists as a piece of cheapjack sensationalism leading only to trouble, seemingly…
Aimée & Jaguar tells the true story of a love affair between two women: one a Jew passing as a Gentile while working for the underground, the other a German housewife honored by the Third Reich as an “exemplar of Nazi motherhood.” Felice Schragenheim was a German Jew who, unlike…
Pagans just want to be understood. So Pagan Pride Day is no joke to them; rather, it’s an opportunity not only to support one another, but also to share the wealth. And if it seems weird for Colorado’s event, which occurs in conjunction with the international version, to take place…
Success is a burden for Kinky Friedman. Initially famous for leading the Texas Jewboys, an irreverent combo remembered for knocking country music on its rear with such memorable tunes as They Ain’t Making Jews Like Jesus Anymore and Put Our Biscuits in the Oven and Your Buns in the Bed,…
Master printer Bud Shark has been making prints in and around Boulder for a long time since he first established his fine-art press, Shark’s Inc., in the 1970s. Bill Havu, director of his namesake William Havu Gallery, has been around for a long time as well, selling fine prints in…
Four provocative shows now occupy the discrete spaces at Pirate. In the main gallery is an installation by Kathy Hutton titled White Towers. Based on a pictured farm structure, parts of this ambitious piece, which includes nine metal and paper towers, are quite nice. For instance, theres the vaguely seasonal…
What role does the artist play in a world that equates fame with ability? Are creative types required to defer to the paying public’s likes and dislikes? Or are they duty-bound to subvert and question convention, no matter what the cost? Despite some rough going early on, those questions ultimately…
When David Loper has trouble retrieving a crucial computer file for a valued client, he does what any office drone would — he decides to pull a hard copy of the file from the company’s central file room and fax it off as soon as possible. Shortly after he learns…
At first, you don’t want to admit it, because it seems somehow wrong–just too easy. After all, the woman on the other end of the phone line is not that woman seen every Sunday night on HBO, lamenting the sad, sorry state of her love affairs. She’s not an actress…
Some may find reason to embrace the romantic comedy Woman on Top as the nonsensical, sweet-tempered fantasy of two South American filmmakers who don’t understand life in this country very well but grasp all the magical powers of Brazil. After all, Brazil ranks second only to fashionable Tibet on every…
This song explains why I’m leaving home and becoming a stewardess,” says Anita Miller (Zooey Deschanel) to her well-meaning, overbearing mother as the soundtrack begins to swell with the low hums of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. Just a few seconds earlier, Elaine Miller (Frances McDormand) had insisted she wouldn’t…
