Of Loss and Lavender, by Sinan Antoon, translated from the Arabic by the author (Other Press). The central characters of this contemplative novel are two Iraqi men—unknown to each other—who both immigrate to the U.S. in the wake of the Gulf War, and proceed down different paths. Sami, a retired doctor, moves to Brooklyn to…
Broadway Even amid Broadway’s queer renaissance, Richard O’Brien’s “The Rocky Horror Show” stands out as a transgressive blast. Luke Evans is a gloriously seductive Frank-N-Furter; Josh Rivera an adorable Rocky; Amber Gray a sharp Riff-Raff; Michaela Jaé Rodriguez a sweet Columbia; and Stephanie Hsu a spicy standout as Janet, wriggling with horndog virtuosity through “Touch-a,…
It’s rare that history offers up a simple diagnosis of cultural decline, but we happen to know the exact moment when all of European art headed for ruin. According to the critic John Ruskin, the disaster was called Raphael. The Renaissance master, whose name is only ever sighed in the same breath as Leonardo and…
John Davidson’s story has been told in several TV documentaries over the past few decades, starting with a 1988 episode of the BBC series “Q.E.D.,” titled “John’s Not Mad,” which has been credited with doing much to educate the British public about Tourette’s. (Oliver Sacks, one of the episode’s prominent voices, offers a precise, sympathetic…
Still, what distinguishes Gionfriddo is not her ear for cruelty but her ability to see beyond it, and to shift the prism of audience sympathy, in tiny increments. This tension is intensified by Trip Cullman’s precise staging, which is smartly paced, down to the indie-sleaze anthems, such as “Zero,” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, that…
Witchcraft was traditionally a form of occult knowledge: esoteric, hidden, available only to initiates. Now, though, with the widespread circulation of magic manuals, grimoires, and related compendia—with the recording, on paper, of words, spells, histories, stories—witchcraft has taken an irreversible step into the exoteric realm. The chain through which it once passed, from trusted person…
Twenty years ago, Hatmaker was much like Waters: a young pastor’s wife raising three little kids while writing her first books on Biblical wisdom for Christian women. She practiced the same schedule sorcery as Waters, writing from 8:15 A.M. to 12:15 P.M., three days a week, plus occasionally during nap time. In “Make Over,” from…
Once Lori enters Julian’s home, the film springs to life. So does Soderbergh’s camera, which begins sniffing and roving about the space like a dog unleashed. Our curiosity is awakened by the meticulous clutter of Antonia Lowe’s production design—walls covered with framed portraits and newspapers, shelves of knickknacks, spatters of paint everywhere—and, most of all, by…
Guthrie had agreed to do the interview as a desperate final appeal. Someone, she kept saying to Kotb—someone must know something. She’s right. You can’t just make a person disappear. Another camera, an eye tuned to the subtle strangeness of an otherwise ordinary day—someone or something, somewhere, must have caught a glimmer of the truth….
The New Museum knows that most viewers will be of two minds about “New Humans: Memories of the Future,” a blockbuster exhibition meant to crown the museum’s reopening after a sixty-thousand-square-foot expansion. With more than seven hundred objects, spread across three floors, the show is designed to both stimulate and fatigue you. The official remit…
