Arts Fuse critics select the best in film, dance, visual art, theater, music, and author events for the coming weeks.
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Latest in Visual Arts
Visual Arts Review: Jack Shainman Gallery: The School — “Basquiat x Warhol”
Perhaps this review is an autopsy for which I offer an apology.
Latest in Music
Classical Music Review: At BEMF, Benjamin Bagby and Sequentia Seduce with Charms and Riddles
Thanks to BEMF for once again presenting Benjamin Bagby, who seems incapable of serving up anything but a wonderfully memorable experience.
Latest in Dance
Dance Review: “Significant Others: Dances for Family, Friends and Lovers” — Through the Lens of History
In this piece, Peter DiMuro asks a vital question: how has history informed the ways we look at queerness today?
Latest in Television
WATCH CLOSELY: Black Mirror S5: Now More Digital Than Ever!
All three episodes have intriguing storylines, with plenty of human pathos and drama: but I admit to finding the first and third episodes a bit too digitally-focused for my taste.
Latest in Books
Book Review: The Critic as Wildean Artist — Peter Schjeldahl’s Elements of Surprise
Peter Schjeldahl debunks (and praises) works of art, while also acknowledging the strategic importance of beauty.
Latest in Theater
Theater Review: “Pacific Overtures” — A Civilization on the Brink of Change
Pacific Overtures offers a history lesson — but it is an entertaining, moving, thought-provoking, and timely one.
Latest in Film
Film Review: “The Fall of the American Empire” — Corporate Cant versus Socialist Kant
For all its bite, Fall is oddly endearing, too, leavening its harsh portrait of money-madness with aw-shucks moments of solidarity and kindness.
Latest in Food
Book Feature: Joan Nathan — Sitting at “King Solomon’s Table”
There are 170 recipes in King Solomon’s Table . Joan Nathan, a sort of culinary archeologist, tracks down the details of their origins to Biblical times.
Read the Latest
Jazz CD Review: Yoko Miwa Trio’s “Keep Talkin’ ” — Keep Listenin’
Keep Talkin’ further solidifies Yoko Miwa’s place on the list of pianists who can lift evolved spirits without resorting to stridency.
Music Preview: Cellist Helen Gillet — Blending Chaos and Creativity
Helen Gillet’s music welcomes loops of all sorts and plays with the happy accidents that create new melodies and rhythms that reach beyond borders.
Video Game Review: “Rage 2” — Time to Rage on
This wide-angle richness — a world filled with things to do, myriad side-distractions — is the mark of exceptional game design.
Film Review: “The Complete Howard Hawks” — Making American Mythology
Director Howard Hawks’ signature statement was the depiction of the American (or mostly American) male group with a task to accomplish.
Concert Review: Perry Farrell at City Winery — Letting It Fly, For Better and Worse
The guy who once seemed dangerous and mysterious as frontman for Jane’s Addiction proved earnestly accessible to fans.