Let us applaud, on principle, Anthony Minghella’s return to small-scale storytelling. Breaking and Entering marks his first original screenplay since the oddball romantic comedy Truly, Madly, Deeply (1991), and a retreat from the jumbo-sized period pieces of his Miramax-to-the-max phase. Overrated as they are, The English Patient, The Talented Mr…
I’ve been worrying about Frankie and Johnny all day, trying to figure out whether or not they’ll stay together. Which is odd, because they’re a fictitious couple dreamed up by playwright Terrence McNally in his Frankie and Johnny at the Clair de Lune and brought to life by Emily Paton…
I know that August Wilson is a great playwright in the same way I know that Notre Dame is a majestic cathedral, but whenever I re-encounter his work, I find myself trying to figure out exactly why it’s so great. In past reviews, I’ve used words like “rich” and “multi-layered”…
Clue: the Musical. The pleasure of this Country Dinner Playhouse production of Clue: the Musical is that it boasts a truly outstanding cast. Which is good, since the music is serviceable rather than clever or melodious, and this is less a show than a big, cheerful game. Cutouts of the…
Just last year, Japanese-American artist Yoshitomo Saito moved to Colorado, and he’s already the subject of a major solo: 108 Blue Cranes, at Rule Gallery, one of Denver’s top venues. I don’t need to tell you that this is no mean feat. Born in Tokyo in 1958, Saito attended Jiyugakuen…
Michael Chavez has been the curator at Foothills Art Center (809 15th Street, Golden, 303-279-3922) for a little over a year, but the current exhibit, REALationships: Works of Surreal Inspiration is the first show he’s had the opportunity to put together. The idea for the show is twofold, with Chavez…
Breaking the Mold. In 2003, Connecticut collector Virginia Vogel Mattern donated some 300 pieces of contemporary American Indian art to the Denver Art Museum. For one of the special shows inaugurating the new Frederic C. Hamilton Building, Native Arts curator Nancy Blomberg has selected over a hundred works for the…
Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny (New Line) You probably already know where you stand on Tenacious D, the pudgy hard-rock comedy duo that made Jack Black famous. And if you haven’t heard of them, this isn’t the place to start: Their DVD of short films and music videos…
For the aging video-gamer, nothing’s as sorely missed as the corner arcade. Unlike the family-friendly Dance Dance Revolution discos you see today, classic arcades were seedy little dives tucked into strip malls — dark caves thick with the musty bouquet of cheap carpet and adolescent stench. They were also thick…
Bratz: Fashion Pixiez (Lions Gate) Conversations With God (Fox) Cool It Carol (Image) Deep Red (Blue Underground) Dreamland (Image) Filmation’s Ghostbusters (Brentwood) George Carlin: Life Is Worth Losing (MPI) Journey to the End of the Night (First Look) Little Einsteins: The Legend of the Golden Pyramid (Disney) Hawaii, Oslo (Film…
If you missed Lynne Bruning’s fashion show at Artopia, fear not. We have video! Yes, video shot by Vija Rogozina and featuring the extravaganza of black light, pasties, hot pants and fur coats. Meow!…
Deb Henriksen at Equillibrium just pinged and said that there are photos of the Artopia fashion show over here. It’s a great collection of behind the scenes stuff and actual runway images for both Fabric Lab and Equillibrium. More to come later. Getting ready at Vain for the Equillibrium fashion…
This the top Cat paired with Calvin Klein jeans and cowboy boots for her Artopia outfit. If you missed Artopia this year, you missed one hell of a party. At least up on the roof. Except for presenting our annual MasterMind Awards — $4,000 checks to five of the city’s…
Sure, the taming of the West was filled with bloody shootouts, senseless massacres and tragic mass exoduses. But as illustrated in Western Style: A Convergence of Cultures, an exhibit at the Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave, 987½ Lookout Mountain Road in Golden, it also entailed a fascinating intermingling of Indian,…
Leslie, aka Pussie S’More, refuses to divulge too much about the Funky Pink Snowflake Ball. “We don’t want to send out too much information, because we like to keep it somewhat underground,” the Pink Pussie wrote in a reply to a recent e-mail inquiring what FunkMasters, an inflatable pink cat…
Colorado Pregnancy and Newborn Loss Services provides assistance in dealing with feelings that often languish behind closed doors, in the private worlds of women who’ve miscarried or lost a child at, or soon after, birth. So Colorado writer and genealogy buff Robert L. Root — whose book, Recovering Ruth: A…
I only got to attend one prom in high school, and it was lame. My date was drunk at 3 p.m. when I picked him up, and he brought a flask of whiskey for himself and his friends (I declined). I was terrified the entire night that he was going…
Via e-mail, redoubtable anti-critic Joe Bob Briggs, who’s hosting today’s Oscar Bash, describes this year’s Best Picture nominees as “the most bizarre collection of losers since The English Patient.” Granted, he sorta liked The Departed — but his thumb is down for Babel (“the movie that asks the question, ‘How…
“Where do you want to go?” “I don’t know. Where do you want to go?” “I don’t know.” Stop that immediately. This is not a week for indecision. No hesitation. No wishy-washy bullshit. Denver Restaurant Week starts today and runs through March 2, and you’d better get your ass in…
Westword’s eleventh annual Artopia party promises to be one wild ride this year. It’s bigger, better and, well, badder than ever before. There are now four fashion shows instead of one, featuring the confections of Betsey Johnson, the Fabric Lab, Equillibrium and Lynne Bruning; next up is art by the…
In terms of jazz in the Five Points neighborhood these days, James VanBuren “is…well, he just is.” That’s according to Denise Sealover of Hope Communities, a Five Points-based nonprofit that is hosting its Harlem of the West fundraiser tonight. VanBuren and the Group, his backup quintet, have been a staple…
As the Denver Art Museum’s founding curator for modern and contemporary art, Dianne Perry Vanderlip built a world-class collection. The non-profit PlatteForum gives underserved youth the opportunity to learn from renowned artists. And for thirty years, Fiesta Colorado has preserved Spanish and Mexican cultural traditions through dance. “It’s a validation…
