Now playing in-person and virtually, the 44th Denver Film Festival features 230-plus narratives and docs, features and shorts, series and music videos, many of them in the Centennial State. Among those featured in the Colorado Shorts program: Ghost Dogs, the latest from … Continue reading Joe Cappa on GHOST DOGS
There weren’t any crowds in Park City, Utah, and the big studios may have stayed away, but the 2021 Sundance Film Festival proved that headliners or no, in-person or virtual, the cinematic cream will always rise to the top. Chief … Continue reading All I Need to Get By: Dispatches from the 2021 Sundance Film Festival
Edee (Robin Wright) has no desire to live. She was once a wife and a mother, but a cruel twist of fate snatched both in one blow. So Edee packs up and leaves Chicago for a remote cabin located deep … Continue reading LAND
Of all the ideas to come out of Michael Lewis’ Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, the notion that the difference between a team making the playoffs—and a team not—coming down to the success or failure of a single … Continue reading TRY HARDER!
Throughout the summer of 1969, Harlem attracted thousands by assembling some of the best musical talents around for the Harlem Cultural Festival. B.B. King brought the blues, Mahalia Jackson brought the gospel, Jesse Jackson brought the church, and Sly and … Continue reading SUMMER OF SOUL (…OR, WHEN THE REVOLUTION COULD NOT BE TELEVISED)
In 1970, Björn Andrésen was just another skinny Swedish 15-year-old. In 1971, he was dubbed “the most beautiful boy in the world” by Italian director Luchino Visconti. Visconti had adapted Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice for the screen and cast Andrésen in … Continue reading THE MOST BEAUTIFUL BOY IN THE WORLD
As far as cinema is concerned, 2021 opened not with a bang but with cautious optimism. For starters, moviegoing has returned with AMC, Cinemark, and the Mayan Theatre in Denver leading the charge. So if you’re jonesing for that big-screen … Continue reading SUPERNOVA
It’s going to be shorter this year, but it’s also coming a lot closer to home: The 2021 Sundance Film Festival is going virtual. A bummer for those who like gathering in theaters to share cinematic discovery. But a boon … Continue reading NIGHT OF THE KINGS (LA NUIT DES ROIS)
Michael J. Cinema 