Due to some imprudent timing of caffeine and alcohol intake, I was drowsy when we arrived at Boettcher concert hall. As a result, the energetic program of 20th century big-hitters thrust me into a turbulent half-dream world that I won’t soon forget. Britten’s “Four Sea Interludes” from Peter Grimes began the spell with an hypnotic…

Steep would have been enough ski porn for awhile, but then I saw that Return to Schralptown was playing at New Belgium Brewery as a fundraiser for the excellent Colorado Avalanche Information Center. With beer. For donations. A cause too worthy to ignore. I enjoyed this movie more than Steep. The emphasis is less on…

A movie in the same vein as Amores Perros (also by director Alejandro González Iñárritu), several disparate characters with some common tie are followed. This time the settings spread across the globe instead of just Mexico City. Also like Amores Perros it’s very effective, but unrelentingly heavy. The title theme seems to apply at least…

We’re hanging out at the Bean Cycle with Kate and Mark when I notice this movie starts in ten minutes at The Lyric Cinema Cafe. We try not to make Kate run on her recently injured ankle. (Every time Mark says “slower”, we slow down for about 2 seconds – why is it so hard?)…

It must be really daunting to make a historical film featuring characters who are still alive, telling a story that is remembered so well. I found this really convincing, although I don’t remember the death of Princess Diana nearly as well Ann, or probably most people. The tension and dependencies between the British monarchy and…

I think City of God must have inspired this movie. There are no children in this film, and it takes place in a fictional near future, but the presentation of the effects of violence on the characters achieves a similar gut-wrenching realism. The future merging of the issues of immigration and terrorism is the real…

Another surprising performance from Adam Sandler in a character drama. In this one he plays a guy in denial after losing his family in the September 11 attacks. Don Cheadle is an old college roommate who discovers him and helps him come back to reality while coveting his apparent freedom. Many opportunities for clichés are…

I didn’t know what to expect from a movie directed by a Buddhist lama, and was surprised how entertaining this was. A modern story of a Tibetan enamored with visions of America while isolated in a tiny village parallels a monk’s mythic tale of a man seduced into isolation, where he encounters the dangers behind…

There are lots of movies about beautiful, damaged people trying to have relationships. It usually works. The beautiful people are fun to look at, and we can relate to the relationship troubles. This film plays the theme even more effectively by downplaying the beautifulness of the characters a bit, and putting them in a palpably…

The powerful symbol of the carnival freak is put to some new uses in an original novel. Instead of presenting the freaks as suffering from exploitation, they form a fairly shocking value system of their own that holds our surrounding cultural values in contempt. It’s completely believable, because the characters depend on their freakishness for…