The 10 Sundance Movies to Watch for in 2016

The biggest story at this year’s Sundance Film Festival was the record-breaking bidding war for The Birth of a Nation, a prestige biopic about rebellious slave Nat Turner. When Fox Searchlight snatched it for $17.5 million — $5 million more than any other flick in the festival’s history — their…

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Only Fitfully Comes to Life

You’re probably right if you think you might get a couple laughs out of a movie titled Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. You’re also right if you’ve guessed that this gung-ho but cruddy-looking mashup fails from A to Z: It’s neither good Austen nor good zombie flick. But in those…

The Coens’ Hollywood Farce, Hail, Caesar!, Flames Out

A kick for those who’ve distractedly thumbed through Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon, Joel and Ethan Coen’s bustling comedy Hail, Caesar! looks back to the waning days of moviedom’s golden age: specifically, to 1951, when big-studio fixers were still tidying up the messes left by the talent (scrubbing now done by…

Ten Best Film Events In Denver In February

February is our month for love in all of its syrupy forms — and our list of cinematic valentines is packed tighter than a chocolate box. Though lacking in stories actually about love, each one of these movies is perfect for a date or a solo outing that might lead…

Ten Can’t-Miss Movies at CU International Film Series This Season

You will never really get movies unless you do them the old-fashioned way: No matter how pervasive digital media becomes, movies thrive in the dark, up on the big screen, in front of engaged viewers. CU-Boulder’s International Film Series knows this, and is celebrating its 75th year of operation with…

Ten Best Geek Events in Denver in February

February is here, which means a societally obligated focus on all things love for the next two weeks! Don’t worry, though — apart from a couple of carefully curated selections, this month’s list of geek events will barely register the existence of Valentine’s Day. Instead, our focus — as always…

Photos: Die-Hard Fans and the Enigma Welcome Back The X-Files

Mulder and Scully are back, at least for the length of a mini-series, and legions of costumed X-Files fans re-emerged from the shadows to cheer on their long-lost heroes at a big-screen premiere party at the Oriental Theater. The Enigma was there, too — tattoos, horns and all — just to…

In 45 Years, Rampling and Courtenay Lead Us in Looking Back

“Every film is a documentary of its actors,” Jean-Luc Godard once said. Starring Tom Courtenay and Charlotte Rampling, Andrew Haigh’s shattering marital drama 45 Years expands that maxim: As we gaze at and listen to these performers, whose characters reflect on nearly a half-century together — almost as long as…

Incisive and Funny, The Lady in the Van Doesn’t Stink at All

The movie they’re selling isn’t the movie this is. Sony Pictures Classics is peddling Nicholas Hytner’s film of Alan Bennett’s play and memoir The Lady in the Van like it’s the usual twinkly Best Exotic time-with-our-elders holiday entertainment. There’s Maggie Smith, dressed up as what my grandmother used to call…

Popcorn Serves Up Salty, Buttery Frights Tonight

Popcorn is a truly rare gem in a vast, picked-over field of rocks: a fun, smart slasher film that was released during a time when we all thought we’d never scream at a slasher again. Well, break out the earplugs: Popcorn is showing Wednesday, January 27, at the Alamo Drafthouse. For…

Kung-Fu Panda 3 Insists That Wars Do Make One Great

There’s essentially one joke in the Kung-Fu Panda movies. A ridiculous, adorable creature executes some extravagant action-flick flourish — vaulting over roofs, dropping a bad guy, striking a poster-perfect superhero pose. Then the battle music fades and that adorable creature breaks badass character to remind us it’s totally relatable, even…