Now Showing: This Week’s Art Options

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 included…

Paddington Gives CGI Kid Movies a Good Name

Emerson argued that each flourish and tendril of a work of art has its exact corollary in the mind of the artist, that creative expression is always, in its way, a sort of autobiography: Want to know the person? Look at her works. But Ralph Waldo never lived to see…

EFPalooza Film Festival Returns to the Bug This Week

The Emerging Filmmakers Project got its start at dozen years ago at the Bug Theater, and was honored with one of the initial MasterMind Awards. One of the EFP’s winning events was the EFPalooza Film Festival,which returns to the Bug on Thursday after a several-year hiatus; more than forty local…

Ava DuVernay’s Selma Is Both Intimate and Grand in Scope

Describing Ava DuVernay’s quietly remarkable Selma to a friend, I caught myself referring to the civil-rights era as a historical event, a thing of the past, and then backtracked. The killing of Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Tamir Rice at the hands of police officers — not to mention the…

Inherent Vice Is an Open House for Misfits and Off-Kilter Savants

Paul Thomas Anderson was making serious movies long before he started making “serious” movies, ponderous works of certified art like There Will Be Blood and The Master. His earliest pictures, like Hard Eight and Boogie Nights, were wily, imperfect, vibrating with life. They were serious without advertising their sincerity, and…

The Touching Pelican Dreams Reveals a Dramatic Fight for Life

Brown pelicans are talented anglers, able to plunge into the sea from tremendous heights and snap up fish with such effortless precision that it’s no wonder fishermen have long tracked them to find schools of sardines. And they are far from domestic, born far from human civilization and driven by…

Now Showing: The Week’s Art Options

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…

In Taken 3, Liam Neeson Is in Top Fighting Form

All you need to know about Taken 3 is that Liam Neeson survives an explosive car crash — twice. Director Olivier Megaton even rewinds the second blast to show us how his hero escaped. It still doesn’t make sense. But who cares. The Taken franchise is rooted in implausibilities, specifically…

Stanley Hotel Hosting a Spooky Hedge Maze Contest Inspired by The Shining

For decades, fans of Stephen King’s The Shining have made a pilgrimage to Estes Park to visit the Stanley Hotel, the famous inspiration for the Overlook Hotel in King’s horror novel, and though the Stanley embraces its pop-culture connection and is overflowing with spooky hauntings and creepiness, one physical manifestation…

Ten Movies to Watch For in 2015

As the year in movie-going draws to a close — and as critics busy themselves drawing up lists and handing out awards — it seems time at last to look ahead. Here are the ten films to get excited about in the year to come. 1. Jauja (directed by Lisandro…

The Long-Awaited Interview Makes an Appearance

Editor’s note: After canceling the nationwide release of The Interview, due to threats by hackers angry at the movie’s sentiment toward North Korea, Sony Pictures Entertainment — perhaps after being scolded by President Obama — decided to screen the film on a limited basis. In Denver, it has been shown…

Art Options for the Week of January 1

Ann Hamilton and Jae Ko et al. For Ann Hamilton: Selected Works, the initial enfilade of spaces at Robischon Gallery is taken over by works on paper by this noted conceptualist. The first group is from her “visite” series, the name of which is taken from the term “carte de…

The Ten Best Television Shows of 2014

TV continued to unmoor from its origins and transform into something else this year. No longer tethered to a specific appliance, a particular kind of storytelling, or even commercial concerns, “television” now feels like an increasingly obsolete word. But that’s a discussion for another time, for we’ve come to celebrate…

The Ten Best Movie Events in January in Denver

As they bring in the new year, Denver theaters will spend much of January highlighting masterpieces and cult classics alike. Some of these films critique the movie industry while others are only worth watching because of how delightfully terrible they are. Several documentaries will ignite discussions about the function of…

Podcast: The Hobbit Project Hits Its Spectacular End

Photo by Mark PokornyTalk some sense into ’em, Bilbo.Village Voice film editor Alan Scherstuhl and LA Weekly film critic Amy Nicholson discuss the third-and-final Hobbit movie: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, in this special bonus episode of the Voice Film Club podcast. As always, send barbs, jabs,…