“Beau Is Afraid,” a mommy-obsessed magnum opus from elevated-horror auteur Ari Aster (“Hereditary,” “Midsommar”), opens with a therapy session, conducted virtually in real time, in which the title character – played by a balding, bleary-eyed Joaquin Phoenix – shares his anxieties with a sympathetic clinician (Stephen McKinley Henderson). Beau is scheduled to leave the next […]

Does anyone remember Afghanistan? Guy Ritchie is here to remind you. It was only in August 2021 – less than two years ago – that the United States pulled its last troops from the country in which we had been fighting for two decades, but it seems like a lifetime ago. So much so that […]

For readers of a certain demographic – say, 46-year-old white women – there were three sacred texts of pre-adolescence. First were the “Babysitters Club” books, through which we came to envy girls with private phone lines and learn about diabetes. Second was the “Sweet Valley High” series, through which we came to envy the Wakefield […]

The musician played Merrill Auditorium in 1998.

Give yourself plenty of time to stroll ‘The Painted State’ at Greenhut and into the magical woods at Cove Street.

Largely erased from classical music history because he was biracial, the 18th-century French Caribbean violinist and composer Joseph Bologne wrote concertos, sonatas and symphonies. But “Chevalier,” a highly fictionalized account of Bologne’s life, understandably concentrates on his opera “Ernestine.” The movie itself has the virtues and vices of opera: It’s grand, sweeping and lavishly appointed, […]

In both good and bad ways, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is exactly what you’d expect. Resourceful plumbers Mario and Luigi look and – depending on whether you thought they’d have an Italian accent or a Brooklyn accent that occasionally slips into pretend Italian – sound just like you’d expect them to. Their adventures in […]