American Sniper notwithstanding, the first fresh multiplex trend to emerge in 2015 is Old White Dudes Learning to Share Their World. First came Kevin Costner in the sour Black or White, playing a coot who discovers that black folks love their kids, too, even in South Los Angeles. Then, in…
Sport is a natural metaphor for war. Two sides in two colors face each other on a field, each with their pride and their physical safety at risk. Their leaders scheme plans of attack, drawing arrows toward the enemy’s flank. And backing the teams in the stands — or, more…
“You ready for another miserable video game?” I heard one critic crack to another as I settled in for Jupiter Ascending. “Maybe in March we’ll see this year’s first good movie,” his pal said back, as if Girlhood, Hard to Be a God, Amira & Sam, Timbuktu, Joy of Man’s…
(Heavy spoilers for the pilot; very light spoilers for episodes 2 and 3.) There’s more than one way to start a revolution. You can get high off your own sense of righteousness and authenticity, as celebrity chef and Fresh Off the Boat memoirist Eddie Huang recently did by calling one…
Those more devoted to the genre can debate whether Matthew Vaughn’s Kingsman: The Secret Service is the best comic-book movie of the last few years. What’s beyond argument, however, is that Vaughn has whipped up the most interesting one — and the only one to make ferocious, unsettling art out…
Even fans of Fifty Shades of Grey admit the book is a literary atrocity. Novelist E.L. James’s erotic reveries read like the rantings of a drunk yokel — less “His firm hands cupped my breasts” and more “Holy crap! He’s touching my boobs!” The story is simple: Twenty-one-year-old virgin Anastasia…
Fifty Shades of Grey is opening is nationwide, and in New York, Village Voice film editor Alan Scherstuhl connects via the magic of the Internet with LA Weekly film critic Amy Nicholson discuss the hotly anticipated movie starring Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson, adapted from the E. L. James novel…
There’s more than one way to start a revolution. You can get high off your own sense of righteousness and authenticity, as celebrity chef and Fresh Off the Boat memoirist Eddie Huang recently did by calling one of his Asian-American collaborators an “Uncle Chan” in the press. Or you can…
The Dardenne brothers, Luc and Jean-Pierre, are known to explore characters trapped by social and economic circumstance, challenging with curiosity and compassion the assumptions attached to the lives of less-fortunate others. With Two Days, One Night, the Dardennes turn their humanist lens onto someone in conflict with her own humanity:…
Those more devoted to the genre can debate whether Matthew Vaughn’s Kingsman: The Secret Service is the best comic-book movie of the last few years. What’s beyond argument, however, is that Vaughn has whipped up the most interesting one — and the only one to make ferocious, unsettling art out…
BERLIN — Riding in a cab from the Berlin-Tegel airport to my hotel on a crisp, sunny day last week, I passed the magnificent golden angel statue known as the Victory Column, a monument erected by the city in 1874 to commemorate assorted Prussian military victories of the day. But…
In 2004, I worked at a bar in Kansas City’s River Market district. One night, a woman handed me her credit card to pay her tab; I looked at it and said, “HAHA. Your name is Monica Ross!” She made a big, exasperated noise and dropped her forehead to the…
For the U.S., 1968 was a sociopolitical crossroads at which a war, political schisms, activism, youth culture, style, the arts and the widening gender gap all converged. The exhibit 1968: The Year That Rocked History, which officially opens to the public on Saturday, February 7, at the History Colorado Center…
Nicolas Cage is no mere actor — he is a transcendental film force. He’s fully capable of delivering a subtle, deep reading of a character, but he is at his best — at his most Cage — when he is truly cutting loose, chewing scenery and taking no prisoners. His…
For the U.S., 1968 was a sociopolitical crossroads at which a war, political schisms, activism, youth culture, style, the arts and the widening gender gap all converged in a fast moment of change. The exhibit 1968: The Year That Rocked History, which officially opens to the public on Saturday, February…
It’s been fifty years since Jean-Luc Godard said that all a film needs is a girl and a gun. Bet he wishes he could take that back. In the last half-century, there have been countless movies about babes and bullets. Some were great, many were awful, and the vast majority…
From Dave to The Dictator, politicians-replaced-by-doppelgängers has long been a favorite comedy device — yet never has it been employed for more torturous faux-funny business than in Roberto Andò’s Viva la Libertà. Squandering all the goodwill he engendered with 2013’s superb The Great Beauty, Toni Servillo stars as Enrico, a…
Brilliant. If you have any interest in modernism or fine craft — even if you aren’t particularly interested in jewelry — you’ll find something to marvel over at the Denver Art Museum’s winter blockbuster Brilliant: Cartier in the 20th Century. The show is a visual marathon, with so many things…
When programming a film festival that caters to a particular segment of the population — be it black, Asian, gay, Latino, Christian or Jewish — organizers endeavor to find films that speak from many different voices to tell the group’s collective story. But they also must be careful not to…
If you’re looking for the truth, Colorado’s a great place to be. Our state’s documentary directors have made movies that brought home Oscars, became Sundance selections and won prestigious festival awards, and movie programmers work tirelessly to bring the best of contemporary and historical nonfiction films to local audiences. Here…
Whether you’re planning to find warmth in February through God’s light, red-hot porn, global-warming anxiety or athletic burn, thaw out at one of the Denver area’s movie theaters. This month programmers will be reflecting on everything from Judaism to wolf extinction to ultra-endurance racing on local screens. So put on…
Melissa Benoist, Littleton native and Arapahoe High grad, is flying high after being cast as the lead in the new CBS Supergirl series from executive producer Greg Berlanti (CW’s Arrow, The Flash). Benoist was already on cloud nine, having spent two seasons on Fox’s hit Glee and landing a plum…
