Films showing during the Starz Denver Film Festival, Nov. 6-17
Gloria; The Animal Project; American Mustang; When I Walk; The Resurrection of a Bastard; Monkey King; The Marathon; Grigris; Gold Fever; Days and Nights; Black Cloud; Torn Cloth; Sarah Prefers to Run; By Force of Character; Eternal Amazon; Hannah Ranch; Borgman; The Kill Team; If You Build It; Bending Steel. For full listings go to denverfilm.org.
About Time
A father explains to his son that all men in the family can time-travel. So the son goes back in time to find a girlfriend, which turns out to be harder than he thought. Rated R. At Century.
All Is Lost
Deep into a solo voyage in the Indian Ocean, an unnamed man wakes to find his 39-foot yacht taking on water. Rated PG-13. At Century and Chez Artiste. — Landmark Theatres
Blood Brother
Blood Brother is the story of a group of children infected with HIV and Rocky Braat, a disenchanted young American that met them while drifting through India. They were left on the doorstep of a slum orphanage by their families; he had bounced between parents and jobs his whole life. He wanted to adopt them all, but in reality, he couldn’t cure even one of them. He had to stay. Today, he lives in a concrete hut a few hundred yards from the orphanage. Every day they teach him what some of us will never really learn: Love is the only thing that makes life worth living. At Boedecker. — Boedecker Theater
Blue Jasmine
After everything in her life falls to pieces, elegant New York socialite Jasmine moves into her sister Ginger’s modest apartment in San Francisco to try to pull herself back together again. Rated PG. At Esquire.
Capital
When the CEO of a French bank collapses on the golf course, Machiavellian young executive Marc Tourneuil (Gad Elmaleh) is crowned as his replacement. Tourneuil’s brutal ascent is jeopardized by a hostile takeover attempt from a large American hedge fund leader (Gabriel Byrne), erotic distractions from an international supermodel (Liya Kebede) and adversaries with an agenda for destruction. At Mayan. — Landmark Theatres
Captain Phillips
This film, starring Tom Hanks as Captain Phillips, is director Paul Greengrass’ interpretation of the real-life hijacking of the cargo ship Maersk Alabama in 2009 by Somali pirates. Rated PG-13. At Twin Peaks, Colony Square and Century.
Carrie
Another remake of the classic. A shy girl who gets treated like crap by her family and peers discovers she has super evil powers and decides to get even. Rated R. At Twin Peaks.
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2
If you and the kids liked the first version, then you’ll no doubt like the second. Rated PG. At Century, Colony Square and Twin Peaks.
The Counselor
Filmmaker Ridley Scott and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Cormac McCarthy team up with talented actors Michael Fassbender, Penélope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Javier Bardem and Brad Pitt in this story of an attorney’s old dirty business deal that comes back to haunt him. Rated R. At Twin Peaks, Colony Square and Century.
Cutie and the Boxer
Once a rising star in the ’70’s New York art scene, 80-year-old “boxing” painter Ushio Shinohara is prepping for his latest show, hoping to reinvigorate his career. His wife and de facto assistant, Noriko, seeks her own recognition through her “Cutie” illustrations, which depict their chaotic 40-year marriage. This film captures two lives united by a dedication to art-making for a touching meditation on the eternal themes of love and sacrifice. At Boedecker. — Boedecker Theater
Dallas Buyers Club
Matthew McConaughey stars in Dallas Buyers Club as real-life Texas cowboy Ron Woodroof, whose free-wheeling life was overturned in 1985 when he was diagnosed as HIV-positive and given 30 days to live. These were the early days of the AIDS epidemic, and the U.S. was divided over how to combat the virus. Ron, now shunned and ostracized by many of his old friends, and bereft of government-approved effective medicines, decided to take matters in his own hands, tracking down alternative treatments from all over the world by means both legal and illegal. Rated R. At Esquire. — Landmark Theatres
Direct from Broadway: Sondheim’s Putting It Together
This musical review celebrates award-winning composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim’s humor, poignancy and sophistication in material taken from a number of his original musicals, including A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Anyone Can Whistle, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Sunday In The Park With George, Assassins, the film Dick Tracy, and Do You Hear A Waltz? At Boedecker. — Boedecker Theater
Don Jon
Jon Martello is addicted to porn. Barbara Sugarman is addicted to romantic Hollywood movies. When the pair’s fantasy worlds collide, it gets interesting. Rated R. At Century.
Ender’s Game
When aliens attack Earth, International Fleet Commander Mazer Rackham (Ben Kingsley) and Col. Hyrum Graff (Harrison Ford) turn to a young boy, Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), to help them save the planet. Much action transpires. Rated PG-13. At Twin Peaks, Colony Square and Century.
Enough Said
Eva (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is a divorced, single parent masseuse who meets Albert (James Gandolfini), a nice guy in the same boat. Love and laughs follow. Rated PG-13. At Esquire, Colony Square and Century. — Landmark Theatres
Escape Plan
Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger team up to break out of an escape-proof prison. Rated PG-13. At Twin Peaks, Colony Square and Century.
The Exorcist
Classic fright film. When a 12-year-old girl is possessed by demons, a young priest takes it upon himself to selflessly save her at the behest of her famous movie-star mother. Rated R. At Esquire. — Landmark Theatres
Free Birds
So how do two “odd couple” turkeys overcome their many differences to get turkey off of the Thanksgiving menu forever? In this animated flick, time-travel is at least part of the equation. Rated PG. At Twin Peaks, Colony Square and Century.
Gravity
Sandra Bullock and George Clooney star in this visually stunning film that strands two astronauts in space when a routine spacewalk goes wrong. Also in 3-D. Rated PG-13. At Century, Twin Peaks and Colony Square.
Hitler’s G.I. Death Camp
When we think of GIs and the Holocaust, we typically envision soldiers liberating death camps. They don’t think of American GIs themselves being victims in the Nazis’ Final Solution. But in a place called Berga, American POWs became just that, working and dying as slave laborers in one of Hitler’s most secretive concentration camps. Created by Boulder’s Hoggard Films for National Geographic, this movie tells their story. After the screening, Norman Fellman, one of the GI veteran survivors featured in the film, will join via Internet and take questions from the audience, along with producer Daphna Rubin and director Steven Hoggard. At Boedecker — Boedecker Theater
In a World…
Carol strikes it big in the cutthroat world of movie-trailer voiceovers, only to find herself competing with her father. At Boedecker. — Boedecker Theater
Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa
Johnny Knoxville as 86-year-old Irving Zisman goes roadtripping with Billy, his 8-year-old grandson. Rated R. At Twin Peaks, Colony Square and Century.
Last Vegas
An aging group of friends heads to Vegas to throw a party for the last of their single crew. An all-star cast of aging Hollywood folk like Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman and Michael Douglas make for the laughs. Rated PG-13. At Twin Peaks, Colony Square and Century.
Let the Fire Burn
Director Jason Osder has crafted that rarest of cinematic objects: A found-footage film that unfurls with the tension of a great thriller. On May 13, 1985, a longtime feud between the city of Philadelphia and controversial Black Power group MOVE came to a deadly climax. By order of local authorities, police dropped military-grade explosives onto a MOVE-occupied rowhouse. TV cameras captured the conflagration that quickly escalated — and resulted in the tragic deaths of 11 people (including five children) and the destruction of 61 homes. It was only later discovered that authorities decided to “… let the fire burn.” At Esquire. — Landmark Theatres
Medora
Years ago, Medora, Ind., was a booming rural community with prosperous farms, an automotive parts factory, a brick plant and a thriving middle class. The factories have since closed, crippling Medora’s economy and its pride. The population has slowly dwindled to around 500 people. Drug use is common, the school faces consolidation, and as one resident put it, “This town’s on the ropes.” Medora follows the down-but-not-out Medora Hornets varsity basketball team over the course of the 2011 season, capturing the players’ stories both on and off the court. At Chez Artiste. — Landmark Theatres
Muscle Shoals
Located alongside the Tennessee River, Muscle Shoals, Ala., is the unlikely breeding ground for some of America’s most creative and defiant music. At its heart is Rick Hall, who founded FAME Studios. Overcoming crushing poverty and staggering tragedies, Hall brought black and white together in Alabama’s cauldron of racial hostility to create music for the generations. At Chez Artiste. — Landmark Theatres
My Neighbor Totoro (Tonari no Totoro)
One of the most endearing and internationally renowned films of all time, My Neighbor Totoro is a deceptively simple tale of two girls, Satsuki and Mei, who move with their father to a new house in the countryside. They soon discover that the surrounding forests are home to a family of Totoros, gentle but powerful creatures who live in a huge and ancient camphor tree and are seen only by children. Rated G. At Esquire. — Landmark Theatres
The Patience Stone
Somewhere, in Afghanistan or elsewhere, in a country torn apart by a war … A young woman in her 30s watches over her older husband in a decrepit room. He is reduced to the state of a vegetable because of a bullet in the neck. Not only is he abandoned by his companions of the Jihad, but also by his brothers. One day, the woman decides to tell him the truth about her feelings about their relationship. She says things she could never have said before, even though they have been married for the past 10 years. Therefore, this paralyzed man unconsciously becomes syngue sabour, a magic stone that, according to Persian mythology, when placed in front of a person, shields her from unhappiness, suffering, pains and miseries. At Boedecker. — Boedecker Theater
Rush
Academy Award-winning director Ron Howard creates a visual masterpiece that recreates the well-documented 1970s rivalry between race-car drivers James Hunt and Niki Lauda. Rated R. At Colony Square.
Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema, Collection Two
This is a niche film festival specializing in the integration of dance and cinema. It offers a rich program of short films from around the world. Meaning “without worry,” Sans Souci was conceived one fine spring day in 2003 when the founders sat on the porch of a 1967 Marlette Mobile home in the Sans Souci Trailer Park in Boulder, musing about the pleasures of viewing and creating dances for the screen. At Boedecker. — Boedecker Theater
Thor: The Dark World
Thor battles to save Earth from really bad evil things … again. It is a sequel after all. Rated PG-13. At Twin Peaks, Colony Square and Century.
Twelve Years a Slave
In the pre-Civil War United States, Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery. Facing cruelty (personified by a slave owner, portrayed by Michael Fassbender), as well as unexpected kindnesses, Solomon struggles not only to stay alive, but to retain his dignity. In the 12th year of his unforgettable odyssey, Solomon’s chance meeting with a Canadian abolitionist (Brad Pitt) will forever alter his life. Rated R. At Century and Mayan. — Landmark Theatres
Wadjda
Wadjda, a 10-year-old girl living in a suburb of Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, is fun-loving, entrepreneurial and always pushing the boundaries of what she can get away with. Rated PG. At Chez Artiste — Landmark Theatres
