Screen
Ferrell-in-training
The alcoholic son of an alcoholic, sales manager Nick Porter was born in a Raymond Carver short story called “Why Don’t You Dance?” published in the 1981 Carver collection What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. The story, which takes place at a yard sale among...
Lower-case Spielberg
In general, I’m not a big fan of holding artists accountable to the standard set by their best work. Making something “good” after making something “great,” doesn’t mean that the good thing is any less objectively good or that the great thing is any more great. What ...
A tale of dirty, stinking apes
What if there was a research drug in the laboratory right now that had a good chance of curing Alzheimer’s but needed more testing on animals before it could be released for human trials? And what if that same drug made its research subjects smarter? That’s the ...
One for the fan boys
Primarily for dues-paying “X-Men” club members in good standing, rather than anyone wandering by a multiplex wondering if the prequel stands on its own, X-Men: First Class settles for moderately engrossing second-class mutant super-heroism. Plus it includes January...
‘The Princess and the Frog’ sticks to Disney template
As you might guess by the title, "The Princess and the...
Earth, wind and fire
Most movies, on some level, are about reconciling the space between parents and their children. It’s the theme that runs right through the heart...
Biff 2012 | Not your average stoner movie
Graduating college can be rough. Some find it hard to break into the real world and instead find themselves sleeping in their parent’s basement. Jeff, Who Lives at Home, showing at the Boulder International Film Festival this week, follows Jeff (Jason Segel) as he ...
The tin shine of BIFF
As the Boulder International Film Festival (BIFF) celebrates its 10th anniversary, founders Kathy and Robin Beeck have much to celebrate...
Black humorless
Low-brow. Just expect it from Gulliver’s Travels. When Gulliver ( Jack Black) first arrives at the kingdom of Lilliput and puts out a raging fire by dropping his shorts and urinating, I was astonished by the audience laughter. This is a film unabashedly aimed at teen...
Don’t pity the A-Team
Based on the 1980s TV series of the same name, The A-Team starts with the formation of the team by former Army Rangers. Eighty successful missions later, they’re tricked into recovering stolen U.S. Mint plates that threaten to enable terrorists destroy the nation’s...
Mean streets and dark nights
Film noir gained popularity in the early 1940s, just as America entered the war and the moviegoing public was looking for something darker to sink their teeth into. Lucky for them, Hollywood recently gained an influx of European émigrés fleeing the Nazi Party. They ...
