Howie Movshovitz
Film CriticHowie Movshovitz came to Colorado in 1966 as a VISTA Volunteer and never wanted to leave. After three years in VISTA, he went to graduate school at CU-Boulder and got a PhD in English, focusing on the literature of the Middle Ages.
In the middle of that process, though (and he still loves that literature) he got sidetracked into movies, made three shorts, started writing film criticism and wound up teaching film at the University of Colorado-Denver. He continues to teach in UCD’s College of Arts & Media.
He has been reviewing films on public radio since 1976 (first review: Robert Altman’s Buffalo Bill and the Indians). Along the way he spent nine years as the film critic of The Denver Post, and has been contributing features on film subjects to NPR since 1987.
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It’s one of the great film festivals, and unlike most has never taken the celebrity path that turns many festivals into big publicity bashes.
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Christopher Nolan’s heavily publicized film of Homer’s The Odyssey is now showing in theaters. It’s important to see past all the hoopla because what’s actually there is a good film that doesn’t need the interference of publicity. -
The new animated movie Jinsei is the first feature by Japanese filmmaker Ryuya Suzuki, who taught himself to do animation so he could occupy his time after he lost his restaurant job during the pandemic. He raised the money to make the movie through crowdsourcing. While Suzuki may be new to this game, he’s made an astonishing picture. -
The recent movie Wuthering Heights is based upon the famous 1847 novel by Emily Bronte. But while this film is an attempt to reinterpret, not just reproduce, the original story, it only works some of the time. -
The new film about an aging painter and his greedy children is Soderbergh’s 55th work as a director, and looks like the work of an experienced, savvy filmmaker. -
One of the greatest documentary filmmakers of the past 60 years, Frederick Wiseman, died in mid-February. He leaves behind a legacy of films remarkable for their insight, for their unusual subjects – and for their length. -
A look at a unique documentary that's now on Netflix. KUNC's film critic argues it deserved more attention during its theatrical release last year. -
The first movie of Frankenstein was made in 1910, and the tale of a mad scientist trying to create a living being on his own simply won’t go away. Now it’s been filmed by Guillermo del Toro, who was raised on American horror films of the 1930s. -
A Simple Soldier, Underland and Seeds are standouts at this year's edition of the festival. -
Kiss of the Spider Woman has appeared as a novel, a film and a musical. This latest film version also preserves the heart of the story, which is the human struggle for freedom.
