Screen
‘Glee’ clubbed
At the point where the fist pump from The Breakfast Club becomes a plot point, shortly after a near-mute Asian girl who ate her own twin in the womb makes snow angels in another girl’s vomit, Pitch Perfect moves from “potential cult classic” to “recommended for any ...
Continuing excellence
It’s that time of year again. The roads are packed, the lines at the sandwich shops quadruple, electrical outlets at Starbucks become a scarce commodity and Boulder is flooded with 30,000 hungry young minds ready to change the world. School is back in session, and so...
Neeson vs. wolf
The title 8 Million Ways to Die was already taken, so The Grey had to settle for The Grey, named for the plus-size wolves waging war on the desperate human survivors of an Alaskan wilderness plane crash. Tough situation. Frostbite. Wolf bite. Drowning. Falling from ...
When the system wins
It doesn’t take long for Alex Cox, University of Colorado Boulder assistant professor and director of such cult classics as Repo Man, Sid & Nancy, Walker and The Highway Patrolman (which screens at the International Film Series on Wednesday, Oct. 5), to show his ...
Mental illness explored
Something really bad is coming, an impending apocalypse, and only Curtis (Michael Shannon) can see it. His mom was institutionalized with paranoid schizophrenia when he was 10, however, so are his dreams prophetic or is he starting to lose it? This is the plot of ...
Swimming in the Laika
From Ray Harryhausen’s Medusa to Henry Selick’s Jack Skellington, stopmotion animation is just frickin’ cool, yo. Maybe it’s the meticulous nature of the art form, with each tiny gesture by a character necessitating dozens of miniscule movements and hours of work ...
Home is wherever I’m with you
I’ve just always been fascinated by what happens when you take a doodle and breathe life into it,” animation director Tim Johnson says, describing his career and passion. Ever since the birth of the flickering image, writers, directors, animators and viewers have ...
Camp Crystal Fake-Out
What’s funny is that writer Joss Whedon and writer/director Drew Goddard are going to get praised for how original The Cabin in the Woods is...
A surreal take on a classic
Tolstoy’s classic novel of love and infidelity, Anna Karenina has been brought to stage and screen many times, often with mediocre results due to its complexity. Pay attention: It’s mid-1800s Russia, and Anna (Keira Knightley) is married to Karenin (Jude Law), a dull...
