Coming Attractions
Our expert critics supply a guide to film, visual art, theater, author readings, television, and music. More offerings will be added as they come in.
Read the Latest
The Arts Fuse Currents
Music
Violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter’s latest Alpha recording pairs two late works by André Previn with Sebastian Currier’s witty, searching “Ringtone Variations.”
Visual Arts
We need to sustain where the Muses live — Somerville’s The Museum of Modern Renaissance.
Film
Martin Scorsese’s feverish New York classic remains a master class in urban atmosphere and subjective filmmaking—and a chilling study of how alienation curdles into violent fantasy.
Books
Wilbert L. Cooper examines the paradox of Black police officers seeking safety and status inside an institution shaped by racial violence.
Poetry at The Arts Fuse
This week’s poem: William Lessard’s “Father”
Dance
In her Boston solo premiere, “Rāgachitra,” the former Nrityagram artist draws on a lifetime in classical Indian dance to create searching, contemporary works shaped by memory, mythology, gender, and an inward turn.
Theater
Double Edge Theatre revives its 2015 roaming spectacle of ecological grief, political resistance, and communal art.
Television
HBO’s docuseries on the illegal reptile trade is less wild than its predecessors, but its sorrowful, criminal undertow makes it unsettling in a different way.
Podcasts
Guest host Jessica Khan talks to DJ and broadcaster Kwame Daniels about his immersive live musical performance, “North Star.”
Short Fuses
Spotlight
Few things more clearly attest to the endurance of the human spirit and the drive for creativity than the uninterrupted and unstoppable torrent of brilliant new jazz albums we’ve already seen this year.
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.
August Short Fuses — Materia Critica
Each month, our arts critics — music, book, theater, dance, television, film, and visual arts — fire off a few brief reviews.