Joel Edgerton’s directorial debut, The Gift, isn’t just a Yuppies In Peril movie.* Not precisely. It’s got a number of the genre hallmarks. Conspicuous consumerism. A seemingly happy couple with secrets. A ridiculously cute pet that has caught the eye of a lunatic. But The Gift is something special. Not only is it a tightly plotted and well directed film, but unlike many American films, it pulls no punches. It’s not afraid to get really, really dark. I’m talking Korean Revenge movie/Japanese Horror movie dark. Robyn (Rebecca Hall) and Simon (Jason Bateman) are... Read More

Well with Wednesday’s snow, Colorado sure is feeling the winter magic now. Around Boulder grocery clerks and friendly folks keep saying “stay warm.” Toes across the Front Range shiver in wool socks and boots. And leaves? They are pretty much all gone. But this all means that ski and snowboard season is upon us! Several resorts are already open and the others will be opening very soon. Here’s where you can check out the powder this weekend. Check out the links to the resorts’ websites for more information about specific lifts and runs. Open Now Arapahoe Basin–... Read More

There’s this theory I’ve had for a while now. I’ve shared it with friends, but now it’s time to share it with all of you. I believe that international superstar Tom Cruise is either a fiendishly clever performance artist, or a deeply depressed man. When he makes other films, he’s a talented and driven performer. But the Mission: Impossible movies are different. The entire point of the Mission: Impossible series is for Cruise to try to kill himself in the most wildly elaborate way possible. Consider this. When Cruise starred in the first Mission: Impossible in... Read More

He’s an old man-93 years old, to be precise. While a great deal of his life was spent amidst the bustle of London, that’s all behind him, like most things. He lives in a rambling old cottage near the sea in Sussex, and spends his days beekeeping. He is the World’s Greatest Detective, and he’s slowly losing his mind. Everybody knows Sherlock Holmes. The uncanny powers of deduction. The smartest guy in the room by a country mile. The character has been around since 1887, and has been portrayed 255 times on screen*. Even recently, we’ve seen snarkmeister extraordinaire Robert... Read More

Many people tend to be risk-averse when going to the movies. Sure, people say they want something new and daring, but when movies that are blazingly original, like Snowpiercer, or Memento, or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind are released, audiences tend to back away slowly, making the sign of the cross. I get it. Sometimes you want comfort food, cheeseburgers, mashed potatoes, that sort of thing.* But formula doesn’t have to be bad. The enjoyment to be had is in the journey, not the destination. That’s fine, but it doesn’t mean that the formula can’t be tweaked... Read More

  Let’s pretend, for a moment, that I have access to a time machine. My current self, ancient and decrepit, travels back to the Good Old Days when I was a youthful firebrand who prepared to bestride the world like a colossus. Upon meeting, Old Me says to Young Me, “Couple of things to tell you about the future. First, you’ll end up shaving your head to avoid looking like Larry from The Three Stooges.” Young Me is not impressed. “Ugh. So what else?” Old Me goes on. “There are no flying cars yet, and many people think Donald Trump is a viable candidate... Read More

Addiction is a bitch. There’s a number of reasons why, genetic, emotional, psychological, the list goes on. For me, one of the cruelest aspects of addiction is the removal of potential. When we’re born, we’re blank slates. The possibility exists that we can go anywhere, do anything. But some of us have a self-destructive streak, and over time, that potential is transformed into a fire. It exists only to consume, and whatever the addiction happens to be, all that matters is feeding the fire. Most of us know someone like that. Some of us are someone like that. Amy Winehouse was... Read More

There’s one thing they never tell you about becoming an adult. Making friends is hard. When you become a parent? Making friends is really hard. Here’s an example. I work from home, so it falls upon me to handle school pickup for my kid. I’m one of the lone fathers to collect my kid at the end of the day, and probably 85% of our school pickup is handled by mothers. While waiting for the school doors to fling open and unleash a horde of rampaging children, I’ll occasionally make small talk with other parents. In a few instances, these conversations have created a quasi-friendship,... Read More

Samuel L. Jackson is one of the greatest actors ever to appear in motion pictures. Everybody knows this, and odds are, if you have a favorite movie, he’s in it. He was the soulful hitman Jules in Pulp Fiction. The tough as nails Nick Fury in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The emerging supervillain Mr. Glass in Unbreakable. Mace Windu in the not very good Star Wars prequels. Go look at his IMDB page, and you’ll very quickly learn two things about him. 1) Jackson is an actor of astonishing talent who has worked in virtually every film genre. 2) He will appear in anything for money. For... Read More

My wife is a great deal smarter than I am. To anyone who knows me, that’s a statement as obvious as “water is wet” and “walls hurt when you run into them.” But a while back, she made a comment to me that children’s literature has a much higher quality bar than adult literature. Kids have a natural B.S. detector, and will usually reject something of low quality, while adults make hacks like Stephanie Meyer and Dan Brown rich.* We saw that last year, with the release of The Lego Movie, a “children’s movie” that’s easily in 2014’s... Read More