From the mid-1990s to somewhere around 2006, Hollywood bankrolled a number of romantic entertainments targeted to — though not made exclusively for — black audiences. Pictures like Love Jones, Brown Sugar, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, and Something New provided a showcase for actors of color, a refreshing change…
Richard Curtis has so much to tell us about life. Seize the day! Show people you love them before it’s too late! Don’t let the right one get away! His movies — those he writes, directs or both — are so packed with info-feeling that they become restless jumbles of…
There’s little to suggest the restaurant industry needs a champion, but director Joseph Levy took on that mantle anyway. His feature debut is the splendid and engrossing documentary Spinning Plates, a love letter to that singular intersection of artistic innovation, cultural legacy, community pride, and family-sustaining (or -straining) commerce known…
Barbara Carpenter and Janice McDonald. In the east gallery at Spark, Barbara Carpenter has assembled a large group of small photos hung in clusters, salon-style, for Walking Miss Daisy: Photographs by Barbara Carpenter. The Miss Daisy of the title is Carpenter’s dog, and all of the photos have been taken…
Michel Gondry likes video stores. He is, after all, the director of the ultimate VHS sonnet, Be Kind Rewind, in which Jack Black and Mos Def re-create classics like Ghostbusters from plastic bags and tinsel. (Sad about the death of Blockbuster? Give it a watch.) One night, Gondry was browsing…
Through the soaring windows of the Mandarin Oriental Miami, it’s hard not to notice the blue skies and matching azure water. Most people find Miami’s beachy, serene views relaxing. But for fans of The Hunger Games, the vacation vista could just as easily conjure images of blister-forming nerve gas, vicious…
Again this year, Starz 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, Withey touts Generation War…
George Hickenlooper, seen here with a certain President of the United States, died during the 2010 Starz Denver Film Festival — and now, the George Hickenlooper Honorary Award is one of the most prestigious prizes at the event. This year’s winner, cinematographer Kramer Morgenthau, will be feted at tonight’s 7…
When Matthew Boger and Tim Zaal met at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, it felt as if they had met before. They had: 25 years earlier on the streets of Hollywood, when Boger — who had been thrown out of his home for being gay — was nearly…
Again this year, Starz 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, Withey recommends Gene Kelly: The Legacy…
Tonight the Alamo Drafthouse will welcome Pam Grier back to the Littleton cinema space for a special appearance and showing of her 1974 classic, Foxy Brown. As both a featured guest in the theater’s “Tough Women” month of programming and part of its running “Color Commentary” series, Grier will be…
Again this year, Starz 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, Withey highlights The Kill Team…
Who is this man? No doubt his family, friends and loved ones will be able to identify him instantly. But the rest of us would probably be at a loss, despite the fact that he was among those who walked the red carpet Saturday outside the Ellie Caulkins Opera House…
Again this year, Starz 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, Withey highlights three films: Friday’s The Search for Emak Bakia, Saturday’s…
This year marks the 36th opening night for the Denver Film Festival, and like the previous 35, last night’s kickoff event took place against a backdrop of glitter, glamour and anticipation. And if director Jason Reitman’s Labor Day, which unspooled at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House before many of the…
Do you like movies? Of course you do. What geek doesn’t? The good news is that for the next ten days the Starz Denver Film Fest, one of Denver’s premiere cultural events, is going to be bringing a lot of movies to town for you to watch. The less good…
Again this year, Starz 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 shares his take on Resurrection of a Bastard…
Barbara Carpenter and Janice McDonald. In the east gallery at Spark, Barbara Carpenter has assembled a large group of small photos hung in clusters, salon-style, for Walking Miss Daisy: Photographs by Barbara Carpenter. The Miss Daisy of the title is Carpenter’s dog, and all of the photos have been taken…
The inability to have a child is often treated as a “white people problem,” the province of middle- and upper-class couples who end up resorting to expensive fertility treatments. But Andrew Dosunmu’s supple, observant drama Mother of George puts a different spin on this anguishing issue: What happens when a…
Among the Avengers, Thor should reign supreme. Sure, Captain America is the de facto leader, but even he — like the others — is just a jacked-up human. Thor is a god. Or if not quite a god, as he demurs, he’s the next best thing: a flying titan with…
Weight-loss and weight-gain performances are tricky things. Robert De Niro’s heavily mannered turn in Raging Bull just has to be great — he gained sixty pounds for it, didn’t he? For his role in The Machinist, Christian Bale dropped to a sub-skeletal 122 pounds — he looked like a walking,…
It was a sad day when television switched from analog to digital. People had to go out and buy antennas and converter boxes just to watch basic television that had been free forever. Those antennas were never quite reliable, though, and while cable was more consistent, it was also more…
