Youth Without Youth
Youth Without Youth, Francis Ford Coppola’s self-financed return to the fray, is a curious project — well-crafted, personal and movie-movie old-fashioned even in its vanguard aspirations. Simply put, it’s a Faustian romance about the reversal of time and transmigration of souls that, shot mainly in Romania, adds a soupçon of…
Untraceable
Regarding the irrelevance of Untraceable: First of all, torture is so 2007, and just because this drab little thriller with a flashy love of pain imagines itself a “critique of violence” doesn’t make it any less superfluous. Second of all, untraceable? Ha! You wish. While it’s true that the villain…
There’s a point at which every fad overstays its welcome. Could it be that Guitar Hero is already just a sour note from being booed out of America’s living room? For evidence, look no further than the plethora of GH cash-in products hawked at this month’s Consumer Electronics Show in…
Confessions of a Superhero (Arts Alliance) As one of those quoted on the package (“A more beautiful documentary you’re unlikely to find”), I can only reiterate my earlier praise: Matt Ogens’ doc, about mortals dressed as superheroes trolling Hollywood Boulevard for tourists’ loose change, is stunning to look at —…
America! The Complete Series (RHI) Barney Miller: The Complete Second Season (Sony) Best Actress Collection (Fox) Best Picture Academy Award Winners Collection (Fox) Blonde Ambition (Sony) Butterfly Collectors (Koch Vision) The Catherine Cookson Anthology (Koch Vision) ER: The Complete Eighth Season (Warner Bros.) The Game Plan (Disney) Hawaii Five-O: The…
Theresa Rebeck’s black comedy Our House is smart and timely, and makes a serious point in a highly comic way. But much of the dialogue in the first half — little jabs about Prada, wine-tasting (“pear, some floral, maybe some crushed stone”) and the general idiocy of television news (“apple…
9 Parts of Desire. Heather Raffo is the daughter of an American woman and an Iraqi father, so she’s uniquely qualified to bring the two cultures face to face in this one-woman play about the lives of Iraqi women. She herself is represented by one character, an American who feels…
Before I recommend that you take the time and trouble to check out the impressive if misleadingly titled Impressionist and Modern Masters From the New Orleans Museum of Art at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, I want to say a word or two about Blake Milteer, a newish curator…
More than any other artist cooperative around town, Spark Gallery (900 Santa Fe Drive, 720-889-2200, www.sparkgallery.com) has a membership mostly comprising artists with long and established careers. And that’s how I’d describe both Judith Cohn and Sue Simon, who are starring in side-by-side solo shows there. Dust to Dust is…
Clyfford Still Unveiled. A master and pioneer of mid-twentieth-century abstract expressionism, painter Clyfford Still was something of an eccentric in the artist-as-egomaniac stripe. His antisocial behavior led to a situation where 94 percent of his artworks remained together after he died — a staggeringly complete chronicle of his oeuvre that…
Persepolis is a small landmark in feature animation. Not because of technical innovation—though it has a handcrafted charm forgotten in the era of CGI-‘toon juggernauts—but because it translates an introspective, true-to-life, “adult” comic story into moving pictures. With the aide of French comic-book artist Vincent Paronnaud, Marjane Satrapi has turned…
The second edition of the Theater Masters’ National MFA Playwright’s Festival, which begins tonight in Aspen, builds on the success of its predecessor. “Last year was the pilot program, and it worked really well,” says Pesha Rudnick, the fest’s lead director. “We pulled off some really provocative theater — and…
One of my favorite music-geek thought experiments has always been building fantasy supergroups. What would a David Bowie-fronted version of New Order sound like? How cool would it be if Neil Young joined Sonic Youth for a set or two? Tonight, fans of Denver’s killer music scene are going to…
Representatives of the 2008 Democratic National Convention are looking for a great piece of ass: a donkey that will serve as the August event’s symbol. So they turned to the folks at the National Western Stock Show, where the DNC Official Donkey Mascot Contest happens tonight. According to horse-show manager…
Jake Adam York is a poet and a lover of poetry. But he’s wise enough to realize that most people just aren’t comfortable with verse, perhaps because they don’t know how to make sense of it. “The things we fear about poetry are the things that are good about poetry,”…
“I’ll be seventy years old on May 24,” says Tommy Chong. “I can still get it up. That’s all I want you to know.” Thanks for sharing, Tommy. The soon-to-be septuagenarian — best known for his work with Cheech Marin in such comedy classics as Cheech & Chong and Up…
Few recreational activities are as polarizing as hunting: Either you’re the type of person who enjoys tracking and killing animals for sport, or you’re not. If you are the outdoors type, the 2008 Denver International Sportmen’s Exposition — concluding its weekend run today from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at…
It’s rare to see a film that so eloquently captures the worst and best of humanity, but War/Dance does it beautifully. Set in war-torn northern Uganda, the documentary follows the Patongo school, in the middle of a massive refugee camp, as its children prepare for a national music competition. We…
If you absolutely cannot stand burlesque beauties of both genders teasing and tantalizing you while you sip on a delicious, unique cocktail made with the freshest ingredients available, then here’s a piece of advice: Stay far, far away from the Pink Elephant Room at 1515 Madison Street. And absolutely do…
Two new shows opening today at CORE New Art Space couldn’t be more different: One artist’s works are small and full of all the space and mystery of Giorgio de Chirico’s metaphysical worlds; the other’s are large, funny and bluntly colorful mixtures of popular and found imagery. But they’re similar,…
With unhinged twanginess, unabashed spaciness and unapologetic snottiness, deadbubbles plays raunchy, raucous rock and roll that exists out of time. The Broomfield-based outfit’s psychedelic rhythm-and-blues-a-billy seethes, surges and snarls as it spans the rock decades, comprising the rhythmic romp of the Crickets, the sassy swagger of the Yardbirds and the…
Little known fact: The winter terrain around Leadville is a sled-head’s paradise, crisscrossed with snowmobile trails — both marked and unmarked — featuring picture-perfect scenery, plenty of pristine powder and a ton of family-friendly activities on and off the snow. Intrigued? Load up the kids and the Ski-Doo and get…
