Screen
Savage beauty and the beasts
They should hand out oxygen tanks before each screening of Beasts of the Southern Wild because writer/director Benh Zeitlin’s debut feature film takes your breath in the very first scene and plays keep away with it for more than 90 minutes. When people kvetch about ...
Your lowness
What do you get when you combine an atrocious script with big-budget production and a bevy of top actors? Your Highness, one of the worst films I have had to sit through in a long time. To think that it featured Natalie Portman, James Franco and Zooey Deschanel ...
The M stands for middling
For the first time in over a decade, director M. Night Shyamalan has made a film that won’t end up on many “worst of the year” lists come late-December… but will probably be forgotten by early next week. The Visit is a horror film presented in the cheap, “found ...
Shimmer shimmer ya
The Bible describes angels as so mind-meltingly unfathomable to humans, the first thing they always say is “You gotta chill out, I’m cool. I...
Recognize this
I want to tell you a story about a story,” writer/director/performance artist Laurie Anderson tells the audience. She recounts the time she spent in the hospital as a child after breaking her back. Anderson tells it in a rather typical manner: accident, negative ...
Bad advice
Featuring an all-star cast of irreproachable actors ... and also Cameron Diaz, The Counselor had Ridley Scott at the helm and an original screenplay written by Cormac McCarthy. All the ingredients in this cinematic recipe are independently delicious; so why does the ...
The Starz Denver Film Festival presents high-brow cinema
November is already upon us, so it’s time to put away the Halloween gear, recover from the candy hangover, and get the popcorn ready. A local cinematic holiday is just around the corner, as this month marks the 32nd year of the Starz Denver Film Festival (SDFF), ...
Forgettable
If you’ve ever seen an online profile picture, chances are you’re familiar with the pursed-lips, craned-neck, supposedly slimming contortion known affectionately as “the duckface.” Total Recall is the sci-fi tale of a quasi-postapocalyptic duckface war between Kate ...
Movie Madness
It seems nerve-wracking. Showing more than 50 films over four days at numerous venues in one small city. Hosting world-class celebrities including Oliver Stone and James Franco. Organizing a mostly volunteer staff of almost 300 people. Seated on a couch in the ...
