Arts & Culture

The 40th annual Denver Film Festival’s kick-off last night, November 1, at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House was a decidedly low-key affair, especially in comparison to the 2016 launch, when future Oscar winner Emma Stone strolled the red carpet prior to a preview of the left-field blockbuster musical La La Land. But while star power was decidedly absent, the evening scored anyhow thanks largely to viewers’ discovery of Lady Bird, an opening-night selection that offered the sort of pleasant surprise the DFF shoots for every time the theater lights go down.

“The Party is a dark comedy with a great cast,” says Denver Film Festival artistic director Brit Withey. “Kristin Scott Thomas, Patricia Clarkson, Cillian Murphy. “But it’s also a small film — and by that, I mean it all takes place in this one little town home, almost entirely in the living room. There’s a bit in the kitchen and in the back yard, but it’s very spare location-wise.”

Too Funny to Fail: The Life & Death of the Dana Carvey Show streams on Hulu Toward the end of the excellent new documentary, Too Funny to Fail: The Life & Death of the Dana Carvey Show, Dana Carvey describes the final installment of a bit that ran throughout his…

It’s not enough that the sitting president will hate Rob Reiner’s LBJ, but that’s not nothing, either. Here’s a portrait of a resolutely unlovable vulgarian who, due to a cruel accident of history, ascends to the Oval Office. But it’s the distinctions that will sting: In the opening moments, a…

It’s November! Which means that we’ve almost survived this year and I think that calls for a little celebration. How should we celebrate? Probably with lots of liquor. It’s been a tough one, but also TV! Nov. 2: Young Sheldon, CBS And on the seventh day, God planted the idea…

Again this year, Denver Film Festival artistic director Brit Withey is offering his must-see picks for each day of the fest — including many flicks that movie lovers might otherwise miss amid the flood of silver-screen goodies. Today he spotlights the offering for opening night, November 1 — Lady Bird — and previews the festival’s 40th edition as a whole.

For all his reputation as a capital-A Auteur, Todd Haynes has always demonstrated impressive stylistic versatility. The Sirkian pastiche of Far from Heaven is a far cry from the lo-fi expressionism of Poison, and the music video wonderland of Velvet Goldmine has relatively little in common with the fractured minimalism…

Like most of the better Marvel efforts, Thor: Ragnarok feels like the work of a unique sensibility instead of a huddle of brand managers. While the studio’s films demonstrated plenty of comic flair right from the start of its shared-universe experiment, with 2008’s Iron Man, recent efforts have veered too…

This piece has spoilers for the first six episodes of the second season of Stranger Things. Look, I like the show, but the title is a lie. Seemingly inspired by that one line from Hamlet that I kept hearing in presentations the time I reported on a UFO convention, the…