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Film Interview: Director Nancy Savoca on “Household Saints”

January 3, 2024
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In the spirit of revisiting this unsung indie classic, here’s an interview the critic did with director Nancy Savoca in 1993, when Household Saints was part of the Boston Film Festival.

The 18th Annual Francis Davis Jazz Poll: The State of Our Union Could Be Better

January 2, 2024
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Major record labels were once notorious for trying to entice jazz musicians into selling out; they now find it more expedient to ignore them, leaving them to sell themselves.

The 18th Annual Francis Davis Jazz Poll: Rare Birds

January 2, 2024
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The special categories tend to get overlooked, or sampled erratically, in the new releases lists, so Francis Davis thought a nudge might help.

January Short Fuses — Materia Critica

January 2, 2024
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Each month, our arts critics — music, book, theater, dance, television, film, and visual arts — fire off a few brief reviews.

Book Review: “Inside Knowledge” — Prison as Manufactories of Pain

January 2, 2024
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Prison doesn’t “fail” so much as it succeeds at missions nobody in authority wants to acknowledge: punishment, humiliation, and separation from the community beyond the walls

Film Review: “All of Us Strangers” — It’s a Lonely, Lonely, Lonely, Lonely World

January 1, 2024
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No spoilers here about what lies beneath the film’s dreamy layers of story, but some viewers will find the narrative pulling them helplessly forward, sucked into a maelstrom of pain and trauma and love and regret and memory.

Special Feature: Quotes for the New Year

January 1, 2024
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A few quotes for the New Year that will sting or sustain.

Theater Feature: Favorite Stage Productions of 2023

December 31, 2023
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Our theater critics salute the year’s outstanding productions.

Coming Attractions: December 31 through January 15 — What Will Light Your Fire

December 31, 2023
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Our expert critics supply a guide to film, dance, visual art, theater, author readings, and music. More offerings will be added as they come in.

Visual Art Commentary: Boston and Sargent, For Better, For Worse.

December 31, 2023
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Boston’s veneration of John Singer Sargent is awkwardly implicated in the city’s habit of denouncing modern art.

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