Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson makes a spellbinding directing debut with “Summer of Soul (… Or, When the Revolution Could Not be Televised),” a revelatory documentary that exhilarates and dismays in almost equal measure. In 1969, New York producer and impresario Tony Lawrence masterminded the Harlem Cultural Festival, a summer-long live music series that would be held […]
Review
Posted inArts & Entertainment, Review
Horror film ‘The Forever Purge’ mixes graphic violence with a touch of social criticism
“The Forever Purge” is bookended with scenes of families making their way across the U.S.-Mexico border. As it opens, Adela and her husband, Juan (Ana de la Reguera and Tenoch Huerta), are being escorted by a guide, known as a coyote, into Texas from Mexico, where they’re fleeing cartel violence by cover of night. By […]
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‘Zola,’ a movie based on a tweetstorm, is squirmy, sordid, stylized, sexy – and smart
In 2015, a 19-year-old Detroit dancer named A’Ziah Wells (now A’Ziah King) took to social media to process the trauma of a frightening trip she had recently taken to Florida. Her alternately horrifying and hilarious tweetstorm went viral, capturing the attention of such luminaries as Solange Knowles and Ava DuVernay. After Rolling Stone reported out […]
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‘Boss Baby’ sequel offers decent return on investment, with savvy casting and pointed social satire
For a family flick ostensibly in the business of cheap laughs, 2017’s “The Boss Baby” worked overtime to diversify its appeal. The hook – toss a superintelligent infant in a three-piece suit and give him Alec Baldwin’s raspy timbre – was ludicrous. The humor was hit-and-miss. And the world-building behind the movie’s infantile corporate culture […]
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Art review: ‘Acquired Symbols’ celebrates a teacher’s far-reaching effects
A colorful show at Maine Art Gallery in Wiscasset honors John Lorence through the work of his associates.
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Agnes Bushell’s latest novel blossoms into kaleidoscope
But “The Oracle Pool” is anything but a classic mystery. The plot is non-linear, the living and dead commingle, and the characters are seekers of every stripe.
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Theater review: Monmouth opens with musical exchange of letters in ‘Daddy Long Legs’
The two-hour show about an orphan and her benefactor makes for an entertaining start to the season, but goes on a bit long.
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Fifty Shades ends on an unexpected feminist note
With ‘Freed,’ James wraps things up. The writing is tediously mechanical, but the message is a surprise.
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In ‘Morningside Heights,’ a married couple copes with unexpected illness
As with his previous novels, Joshua Henkin pays compassionate attention to modern human predicaments.
Posted inArts & Entertainment, Books, Review
An uneasy century, outlined in poetry
In “The Century,” poet Éireann Lorsung uses unconventional language to try to describe the horrors of history.