“Industrial-strength boredom” is a vicious term to unload on anybody — friend, foe or former actress. Considering the lingering discomfort the epithet inspires, you should be wary of its impact, even around a seemingly invulnerable producer returning to the screen to melt our hearts in yet another variation on the…
When the second annual Celebrate Colorado Artists Festival returns to the Denver Performing Arts Complex this weekend, expect a few new artists, a few improvements — and a lot more of the same. If the success of last year’s event, which drew about 45,000 people, is any indication, that means…
In 1991, author Jane Smiley presented A Thousand Acres, a modernization of King Lear that became a national bestseller and earned a Pulitzer Prize. Given the two-tiered success of this highbrow opus (nothing says “important” like Shakespeare), it would seem that Smiley’s natural inclination would have been to get even…
The show’s title implies that the art history we were taught in school — in which every stylistic phase appears in a neat chronological order — has fallen by the wayside. Now anything goes, as tight representational imagery is hung side by side with non-objective compositions, abstract sculptures are paired…
Potenza, Italy, is one of Denvers many sister cities around the world. But unlike some of the others, Potenza makes sense as a civic sibling, because a lot of Denvers nineteenth-century Italian immigrants came from there. In fact, the Potenza Lodge social club was founded here in 1899 and was…
lthough critics and audiences have been devout in their praise of upstart playwrights like Martin McDonagh, the recent Irish invasion of New York hasn’t left everyone breathless with excitement. In fact, more than a few theater practitioners claim that the sound of broguish prose is drowning out America’s distinct, native…
Michael Moore often worries about being seen–and worse, dismissed–as the plump, ball-cap-wearing windbag who barges into company headquarters, demands to see the chairman of the board, then gets kicked out or even arrested. He frets about being reduced to a stuntman of shtick, Captain Ambush, the guy called upon whenever…
Early on in Mission: Impossible 2 (or M:I-2, as the confident Paramount now calls it), hero Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) complains to his boss about his new assignment: “It’s going to be difficult. It’s not mission difficult, Mr. Hunt,” the boss icily replies, “It’s mission impossible. “Difficult’ should be a…
Brazilian moviemaker Bruno Barreto clearly has a taste for changing gears. In fact-based political thrillers like A Show of Force and Four Days in September, he casts himself as a second-string Costa-Gavras, rooting out state-sanctioned evil and the indiscretions of starry-eyed South American radicals. In his recent Hollywood period, Barreto…
Do not judge Shanghai Noon by its trailer, which serves as the very antithesis of advertising: It begs you to stay far away from any theater showing this film. Laden with dreary sight gags (a horse that stays by sitting…just like a dog) and woeful puns (“Your name is John…
Do you find yourself sitting around on Sunday nights (or any night, if you have cable) watching The X-Files and laughing at how many times Agent Scully screams for Mulder? You are not alone. The X-Files has grown from a quirky show centered around two FBI agents’ obsessions with UFOs…
Sam Arnold, proprietor of The Fort, is known for serving up historically accurate cuisine at his restaurant, a replica of the original Bent’s Fort. Committed to presenting “the food and drink of the Early West,” the kitchen specializes in such delicacies as bison tongue, marrow bones and rattlesnake cakes. But…
Denver’s Hue-Man Experience Bookstore doesn’t march; it meanders. And, as far as bookstores go, well, the whole place would fit comfortably into one little corner of the cavernous Tattered Cover. But Hue-Man’s sizable legacy — a long-lived commitment to bringing literacy to the African-American community — is its real strength:…
Some major changes are being wrought at the Denver Art Museum. No, I’m not referring to the new wing that’s set to go up sometime in the near future. Rather, I’m talking about the shifting staff in the Modern and Contemporary department. In this game of curatorial musical chairs, there’s…
Pirate is teeming with good shows right now, and the varied directions of the exhibiting artists are astounding. In the main space, co-op members Richard Colvin and Katherine Temple present collaborative installations in Re-Echo. In many of their pieces, the two artists play with the difference between reality and illusion…
A program note indicates that the Denver Center Theatre Company’s production of The Miser, which was written in 1668, is set in “a French Townhouse in the late 1830s.” The post-French Revolution setting would seem appropriate for Jean Baptiste Molière’s play, which explores the relationship between wealth and social position:…
Most families have a hard enough time taking care of their own problems, let alone those of distant, ailing relatives. But when a primary caregiver discovers that she has leukemia and can’t properly attend to her bedridden father and sick aunt, the proverbial ties that bind the characters in Marvins…
The following is a list of women who have been raped, mutilated, tortured, enslaved, crippled, or murdered–and quite often, all of the above. In some cases, these women have also suffered miscarriages, been rendered infertile, contracted horrific diseases, and gone insane. Some of them have even been killed twice, perhaps…
Dinosaurs used to be cool. In 1969, if you had asked me what was the best movie ever made, my answer would likely have been The Valley of Gwangi, in which a group of cowboys in the Mexican desert find a gully full of leftover dinosaurs animated by Ray Harryhausen…
Road Trip makes American Pie look like Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Fast Times like Animal House, and Animal House like Citizen Kane. It ranks (indeed, it is rank) among the most soul-deadening movies ever made; it has no pulse and seeks to steal yours with a cynical vengeance. Oh,…
Woody Allen is back on screen in Small Time Crooks, a bittersweet comedy that in many ways could have been lifted straight from the ’30s. For the most part, it’s Woody Allen Lite — but that’s not a bad thing. While you don’t want to penalize Allen for his serious…
When stars get popular enough (or win enough Oscars), they get to call their own shots. Thus we have The Big Kahuna, the debut release of Kevin Spacey’s production company. Kahuna also marks the film debut of stage director John Swanbeck and screenwriter Roger Rueff — and, boy, can you…
