“Suburban malaise,” they call it, and it’s the reason that Long Island dental hygienist Laura (Jenna Fischer) self-soothes with afternoon Budweisers, jealously stews over her disparaging, workaholic husband (Chris O’Donnell) and lets her twelve-year-old son (Daniel Yelsky) — a chubby ball of hormonal rage — walk all over her. An…
Created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby for Marvel Comics in 1941, Captain America was among the first American comic books intended as an explicit work of patriotic, political propaganda: The cover of the first edition, available months before Pearl Harbor, famously featured the titular costumed hero punching out Adolf…
It was after sitting through about 90 percent of the movie that I decided Sarah Palin’s The Undefeated was 49 percent PBS-style documentary on how great Alaska is, 50 percent “Palin pal posse” circle jerk, and 1 percent Ronald Reagan references. Or perhaps a more accurate summation of this one-hour,…
A scheduled Sarah Palin visit to Denver earlier this year was canceled after the organizer complained about “safety concerns.” But there are no such concerns surrounding the “documentary” about her life, The Undefeated — especially since its showing in only one theater in the Palin-friendly burb of Highlands Ranch. The…
Children of Men, Alfonso Cuaron’s gritty and excellent film about a future where everyone has become sterile, plays tonight at the Denver FilmCenter as part of their recent sci-fi series. The film is a story about finding hope in an era of hopelessness. But gray skies and bombings aside, we…
Film producer Chris Graves, who also runs Bardo Coffee House on South Broadway, first thought up the idea for his new Denver-based sitcom pilot, 13th and Pearl, fifteen years ago. “I used to hang out around 13th and Pearl back in the day, in the mid-90s, and I thought it…
When it comes time to get out the sticky icky, do a few rips and get all airee, there’s no better thing to do than plop down in front of the tube and let that shit rain all over your mind-grapes. Sometimes you get all giggly and you want to…
15 Colorado Artists. The Kirkland Museum is presenting a historical show that tracks the beginnings of post-war modernism in Denver using the artist group 15 Colorado Artists as an index. The story goes that the Denver Artists Guild was hostile to modernism at the time. This led to a split,…
A true-life outlaw tale as stirring as it is tragic, the story of the Earth Liberation Front offers a DeLillo-flavored draught of high-proof righteous excitement. You can hear the pitch for If a Tree Falls — young, fiery 21st-century hipsters living double lives, burning down corporate buildings to protest environmental…
After ten years, seven movies, six Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers, four directors, two dead parents, one grating house elf and incalculable amounts of CG wizardry, pubescent growing pains, budding romances and apocalyptic fire and brimstone, we’ve finally arrived: Bespectacled Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) squares off against amphibian-faced Lord…
15 Colorado Artists. The Kirkland Museum is presenting a historical show that tracks the beginnings of post-war modernism in Denver using the artist group 15 Colorado Artists as an index. The story goes that the Denver Artists Guild was hostile to modernism at the time. This led to a split,…
Tender irony and dark humor abound in The Human Resources Manager, Israeli director Eran Riklis’s latest account of bureaucracy colliding with burgeoning compassion. This followup to 2008’s Lemon Tree, based on the novel A Woman in Jerusalem, by A.B. Yehoshua, hits the road when the restless personnel director (Mark Ivanir)…
There’s a scene in Horrible Bosses in which Jennifer Aniston, playing a dentist who habitually sexually harasses her weakling male hygienist (Charlie Day), repeatedly says the word “pussy.” Her character is trying to intimidate his, while the filmmakers attempt to shock the audience with the spectacle of this lady rom-com…
Mo money mo problems, the Notorious B.I.G. posthumously noted back in the late ’90s — and for him, it was certainly true: By the time he said it, he was, after all, dead. Another way of putting that is that money can’t buy happiness — in fact, it probably does…
Earlier this year, we postulated that Michael Bay’s entire career has been about punishing the audience for their awful taste — namely, their taste for his work. He’s tried racism, homophobia, assaultive cinematography and editing techniques, objectifying every women in a 1,000 yard radius, graphic violence and complete incoherence. The…
Winona Ryder is so cool, Johnny Depp tattooed “Winona Forever” on his arm when they were engaged. Her first audition was a monologue from Franny & Zooey. Generation X has a crush on her. And we forgive her for the shoplifting. Actors do way worse things. Inspired by our Winona…
15 Colorado Artists. The Kirkland Museum is presenting a historical show that tracks the beginnings of post-war modernism in Denver using the artist group 15 Colorado Artists as an index. The story goes that the Denver Artists Guild was hostile to modernism at the time. This led to a split,…
Alleged to be compiled of found college-project footage from a group of missing students, Trollhunter begins as an investigative report by aspiring Norwegian Michael Moores, trailing RV-driving loner Hans (Otto Jespersen). Suspected of bear poaching, Hans is revealed instead to be the field agent in a government conspiracy to cover…
For a movie called Larry Crowne, it sure is tough to get a solid read on the character of Larry Crowne. Directed, co-written by and starring Tom Hanks in the title role, the film seems to want to be some kind of post-recessional pick-me-up, an “It Gets Better” video for…
Nobody cries, “Stop the presses!” in Andrew Rossi’s Page One: Inside the New York Times; no one would dare. There’s a palpable fear that it could actually happen. Rossi’s documentary, which might have been called “Inside Baseball: Inside the New York Times,” opens with a montage of the press in…
There’s no LeBron in the group, or Kobe, or Dwight Howard, or even a Kevin Durant. In the upcoming NBA draft, Ian Thomsen writes on SI.com, there’s no standout star, and there’s very little certainty about who will be chosen when. To clear up all the confusion, I’d like to…
As the world braces for the money-shot of Michael Bay’s third and most massive robo-jaculation since his last entry into the Transformers mega-conglomeration two years ago, it’s increasingly looking like franchise star Shia LaBoeuf might be, uh, pulling out, so to speak. That would be the second serious loss to…
