The Starz Denver Film Festival, Nov. 14-17
There are more than 75 different films with more than 100 different showtimes during the last four days of the festival. 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 and Colony Square.
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, Colony Square 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
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.
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.
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 and Century. — Landmark Theatres
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 Mayan, 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.
Five Dances
Collaborating with internationally renowned choreographer Jonah Bokaer, writer-director Alan Brown has taken five gifted New York dancers and fashioned a story about Chip (Ryan Steele in his first film role), an extraordinarily talented 18-year-old recently arrived from Kansas who joins a small downtown modern dance company. In his first weeks of rehearsal, Chip is initiated into the rites of passage of a New York dancer’s life, where discipline and endless hard work, camaraderie and competitiveness, the fear of not being good enough, and the joy of getting it just right inform every minute of every day. Shooting in and around a Soho dance studio, Brown and his longtime cinematographer Derek McKane capture the exhilaration and emotional turmoil of a small dance company and all of Chip’s poignant firsts — the forging of friendships, being chosen for the important solo, his first ever love affair — with the intimacy and immediacy of a documentary. The result, Five Dances, is Brown’s most dynamic film. At Boedecker. — Boedecker Theater
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.
Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa
Johnny Knoxville as 86-year-old Irving Zisman goes road-tripping 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.
LE CORSAIRE: The Bolshoi Ballet
With a dashing pirate, a kidnapped maiden and a dramatic shipwreck, Le Corsaire is a ballet that “bursts with dazzling ingredients” (The Washington Post). In this new staging from Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet, famed choreographers Alexei Ratmansky and Yuri Burlaka refresh Petipa’s original choreography, inspired by Lord Byron’s poem, to make this classic a must-see for every balletomane. The stunning production stars prima ballerina Svetlana Lunkina, Ruslan Skvortsov, Andrei Merkuriev and Nina Kaptsova, with Anastasia Stashkevitch and Vyacheslav Lopatin featured in the thrilling pas d’esclave. At Boedecker. — Boedecker Theater
Mother of George
Adenike (Danai Gurira, The Walking Dead) emigrates from Nigeria to Brooklyn to marry restaurateur Ayodele (Isaach De Bankolé, charismatic veteran of Claire Denis and Jim Jarmusch films). Following the joyous celebration of their wedding in a gorgeously colorful Yoruba ceremony and their tender wedding night, complications arise. Adenike’s demanding mother-in-law names their not-yet-conceived first son George and expects Adenike to do her duty to the family. Pressure mounts as months pass and the couple fails to conceive a child. The problem defies cultural expectations and devastates the family, leading Adenike to make a shocking decision that could either save or destroy her marriage. 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
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.
Science on Screen: Dog Psychology and Best in Show
The apparently eager subjects of our projections, dogs have been supposed to have everything from no feelings to the most noble of feelings. Lindsay Wood, director of animal training and behavior at the Boulder Valley Humane Society, will explore what we know and don’t know about dogs, followed by the quirky ensemble mockumentary Best in Show. 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.
The Trials of Muhammad Ali
This film covers Ali’s toughest bout: his battle to overturn a five-year prison sentence for refusing U.S. military service in Vietnam. Prior to becoming the most recognizable face on earth, Cassius Clay became Muhammad Ali and found himself in the crosshairs of conflicts concerning race, religion and wartime dissent. The film zeroes in on the most controversial years of Ali’s life, when an emerging sports superhero chooses faith and conscience over fame and fortune. At Boedecker. — Boedecker Theater
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, Colony Square 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
