Monkey Town is the kind of event that keeps Denver interesting. On the surface, it is just dinner and a movie, but the setup makes it more promising than that.
The movie is “Sobremesa,” directed by filmmaker Montgomery Knott, who will host the screenings that run through Nov. 1. The food is a menu curated to pair with the locations and themes of the film. Itap kind of a Mexican, Guatemalan, Japanese, American mix.
Knott will do much of the cooking himself, which will be served to just 12 paying guests, seated at two tables of six at each screening. Like I said, not your usual night on the town.
Some Denverites may remember the Monkey Town concept. Knott, who is from Denver and now lives in Mexico City, first developed it in 2003 as a novel way of screening short, experimental films in a communal setting. Monkey Town was produced in New York for about a decade before going on tour. In 2014, it had a successful four-month run at EXDO Hall in Denver’s River North neighborhood.
This updated version has some changes and a different location: inside the newly opened FM Lounge, in the back of FM, the clothing boutique on South Broadway owned by Matthew Brown. He describes the lounge “as an intimate gathering place for music, art and creative programming” and notes that it is “outfitted with a custom hi-fi sound system.”
The programming is different, too. Knott has become something of an auteur over the last decade, and he is using Monkey Town as a platform to get eyes on his just-completed work. The film unfolds in four sections, with three intermissions when food is served. The evening lasts about three hours.
Knott characterizes his film as “hypnotic,” and that is exactly how I found it. It tells the story of Carlos Díaz, a Guatemalan man whose business was to sell handmade comic hero shoes to customers in the United States using the website eBay. Things did not go as planned.
The movie is based on a true story, but I’d call it true-ish, because Knott takes liberties in how he tells the tale, expanding the story to include a dozen characters in Díaz’s life. It unfolds in multiple short scenes across different locations in rapid succession. They feel like moments in a dream, connected and distinct at the same time. Sometimes the characters speak English, other times Spanish.
Knott connects his style of storytelling to directors like Paul Thomas Anderson, Todd Haynes, David Lynch and Park Chan-wook. Similar to those filmmakers, there are elements of mystery, drama, true crime and even some shades of non-violent horror. The colors are deeply saturated and the angles shift quickly.
The film is full of references — to everything from Guatemalan politics to Japanese food culture to e-commerce and, most significantly, to several classic pieces of art cinema from various countries. There is even a bit of footage lifted directly from director Luis Buñuel’s 1929 masterpiece “Un Chien Andalou.”
The film’s soundtrack includes original compositions from Mabe Fratti, the Guatemalan cellist and singer, known for her moody, looping sound. She is a critical darling in Latin America and beyond, and Knott says her contribution to the film is “like having Björk or Joni Mitchell compose your first soundtrack.”
As for the food, it is Mexican, sort of.
“Some of the best Mexican cuisine right now combines multiple cuisines, using Mexican ingredients with Asian influences, as well as European techniques,” Knott said.
That definition is wide enough to include cross-cultural dishes like Mexican kimchi miso soup and Momofuku pickles, made with habanero and fresh mint. “Someone described my menu as traditional dishes from a country that doesn’t exist,” Knott said.
The food lineup serves as a sort of map of his life.
“The Fennel Salad is a direct steal from a small, rustic Italian restaurant in the East Village, just four simple ingredients, no changes,” according to Knott. “The barbacoa is from a Chihuahua food truck in Arvada, and I’m serving it with my own spiced polenta — the Italian corn tortilla.”
Knott — who is also a musician and chef, in addition to making movies — experimented with the menu when he staged the updated edition of Monkey Town earlier this year in Mexico City. That ran for nine nights in a rehabbed 1905 mansion.
That setting was more traditional than the one happening in Denver, and a bit bigger. The Denver version, with such a small crowd assembled in front of a single screen showing “Sobremesa,” will be on the intimate side.
“Itap more like a home-cooked dinner party with many flavors and ingredients most gringos have never had,” said Knott.
Monkey Town runs Thursdays through Sundays at 7 p.m. at FM Lounge, 59 N. Broadway in Denver. Tickets cost $100 on Thursdays and $125 on other days. More info at
