Screen
Dull expectations
When an idiosyncratic talent seeks a wider audience for her work, there’s a danger in trading the offbeat for something more on-the-nose. This is what has happened in Friends With Kids, a smooth but frustrating third feature with an extremely good ensemble cast. In ...
What happens when a son sets out to profile his father?
The documentary film Old Man is as much a story of a troubled, perhaps marginally dysfunctional family as it is the story of a troubled record store — and, in many ways, a dysfunctional town. The portrait of Boulder is not graceful. It’s a critique of the town’s ...
The fascination of film
In a world where the Adam Sandler fiasco Jack and Jill makes $68 million at the box office, it’s easy to forget that movies are pretty much magic...
‘Spy Next Door’ is limp and lifeless
"Every day you get older," Butch Cassidy once griped to The Sundance Kid. "It's the law...
Company bust
A single spontaneous moment pops up in the otherwise obsessively well-ordered ensemble drama The Company Men, written and directed by ER and West Wing alum John Wells. It’s a quick shot in a hotel room tryst of Maria Bello bopping back into frame, unexpectedly, ...
‘Once,’ again
In the name of Parker Posey, Natalie Portman and all other patron saints of Manic Pixie Dream Girls (MPDG): Could you just... not, anymore?...
Boulder gets third arts cinema screen
There once was a time, in the not-so-distant past, when people would leave their homes, congregate in vast, darkened rooms, with faces familiar and...
How to live a good life
Ask Boulder filmmaker Pamela Tanner Boll when she got the idea for her latest documentary, A Small Good Thing, and she’ll go back a lot further than you might expect: “From as long as I can remember, even as a little girl, I was always asking people, ‘What is ...
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...
Nothing to be afraid of
When fantasy filmmaker Guillermo del Toro says he considers the 1973 made-for- TV movie Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark the scariest thing ever made for the medium, he’s not really talking about the teleplay itself...
A perfect gentleman
Fading Gigolo, which opened The Boulder International Film Festival in February and is now enjoying a theatrical run, begins in a truly unexpected fashion: a pimp and his hoe discussing business while packing up a used bookstore. The pimp, Murray (Woody Allen), ...
