Screen
Death or psychosis
You have to let go of the living,” says the funeral director played by Liam Neeson to Anna, the dead schoolteacher in the red slip, played by Christina Ricci, in the new thriller After.Life. He sounds like the stage manager in a particularly grim production of Our ...
Racing the clock
Yes, it’s beautiful out there. Probably the Boulder region’s best summer in recent memory: cool temperatures (until recently), lots of rain and no smoke...
Almost a film
The first thing to note about Sam Neave’s indie thinkflick on love, Almost in Love, is that it’s made in practically the opposite way as a Hollywood film...
Baldwin blues
“The story of the Negro in America is the story of America. It is not a pretty story.”
—James Baldwin
By the time James Baldwin...
‘Bright Star’ pretty, but lacking substance
Certain images in Jane Campion's Bright Star are beautiful, as opposed to merely attractive, and only a major talent could've produced them. My favorite is a sundrenched shot of Abbie Cornish's Fanny Brawne, her head and heart newly opened to the intoxication of love...
Reel to reel | Week of July 4, 2013
20 Feet From StardomIn his compelling new film, director Morgan Neville shines a spotlight on the untold true story of the backup singers behind some of the greatest musical legends of the 21st century. At Mayan...
The reality of experience
“Say it, no ideas but in things”
—William Carlos Williams, Paterson
As the legend goes, when poet William Carlos Williams sat down to pen what would...
The space between
Ad Astra, the latest from filmmaker par excellence James Gray, opens with a shot of the cosmos, vast and terrifying. As the camera pans...
I am (not) a number
Who is Number One?
So asks Number Six, the prisoner, played by actor and show co-creator, Patrick McGoohan. And so asked the hoards of TV...
Those wonderful people out there in the dark
Open Secret — a nearly forgotten and difficult-to-find B-programmer from 1948 — ought to be seen by everybody. In it, newlyweds John Ireland and...
Reel to reel | Week of April 19, 2012
8 1/2 A harried movie director retreats into his memories and fantasies. Fellini attached a note under the eyepiece during filming that said, “Remember, this is a comedy.” At Boedecker Theater. — Boedecker Theater 21 JUMP STREET Two young police officers and ex-...
