jeanne-dielman-1975-001-delphine-seyrig-cooking-mince-00m-q25-1

Book Review: “Hard to Watch” — How to Love Demanding Films

Coming Attractions

Coming Attractions: October 13 through 28 — What Will Light Your Fire

Our expert critics supply a guide to film, visual art, theater, author readings, and music. More offerings will be added as they come in.

Read More

The Arts Fuse Currents

Music

Jazz Album Review: Andrew Hill’s “A Beautiful Day, Revisited” — Well Worth the Return Trip

By Michael Ullman | October 15, 2024

The recording proves to be both an excellent example of Andrew Hill’s unusual creative methods, particularly the wonderful results he managed to get with ensembles.

Visual Arts

Design Review: “Polinature” — A Plug-in Vertical Garden That Fights Climate Change

By Mark Favermann | October 2, 2024

Projects like “Polinature” overcome reams of bureaucracy, reinforced by government inertia, in order to improve our environment in admirably cost effective and efficient ways.

Film

Film Review: “The Apprentice” — Marinating in Malignance

By Michael Marano | October 11, 2024

It’s Jeremy Strong’s portrayal of Roy Cohn that hangs in this not-very-good movie like a Rembrandt on the cracked plaster of a La Quinta suite by the airport.

Books

Book Review: “Hard to Watch” — How to Love Demanding Films

By Steve Erickson | October 15, 2024

“Hard to Watch” lays out a pragmatic path — directions for how to preserve your time and attention —  that will help just about anybody engage with any kind of art thoughtfully and purposefully.

Poetry at The Arts Fuse

Weekly Feature: Poetry at The Arts Fuse

October 9, 2024

The week’s poem: Ben Berners-Lee’s “Early Harvest”

Dance

Dance Review: Dianne McIntyre’s “In the Same Tongue” — The Dance and the Music Are One

By Jessica Lockhart | October 7, 2024

It was a mind-blowing experience. Countless times in dance performances a choreographer strives to make movements on stage mimic music. But Dianne McIntyre was dramatizing a much deeper, more organic connection.

Theater

Theater Review: “Nassim” — Word Play

By Robert Israel | October 11, 2024

The script is an experiment, a (sometimes) witty lecture on language. But it doesn’t work dramatically.

Television

Television Review: “Witches: Truth Behind the Trials” — Just the Facts

By Sarah Osman | October 13, 2024

There are valuable lessons here, but I are afraid that this docuseries will be overlooked among all the more enticing, and sensationalized, witchy watchings. 

Podcasts

Short Fuse Podcast #69: Talking About “The Museum of Other People”

By Elizabeth Howard | September 10, 2024

Short Fuse host Elizabeth Howard talks to Adam Kuper about his book “The Museum of Other People: From Colonial Acquisitions to Cosmopolitan Exhibitions”.

Short Fuses

October Short Fuses — Materia Critica

By Arts Fuse Editor | October 3, 2024

Each month, our arts critics — music, book, theater, dance, television, film, and visual arts — fire off a few brief reviews.

Food

Film Review: “Flux Gourmet” — Food, Glorious Food

By Peg Aloi | August 23, 2022

Flux Gourmet occasionally reminded me of the films of Peter Greenaway, who often juxtaposed the grotesque or disturbing with the beautiful and ethereal.

About the Arts Fuse

The Arts Fuse was established in June, 2007 as a curated, independent online arts magazine dedicated to publishing in-depth criticism, along with high quality previews, interviews, and commentaries. The publication's over 70 freelance critics (many of them with decades of experience) cover dance, film, food, literature, music, television, theater, video games, and visual arts. Support arts coverage that believes that culture matters.