Review

Film Review: “Melania” — An Aggressively Dull Travesty

February 2, 2026
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As a dick-waving demonstration of fascist corporate and political power, “Melania” would make a great double bill with Pasolini’s “Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom.”

Classical Album Review: Calidore Quartet’s “American Tapestry”

February 2, 2026
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If there’s anything the U.S. needs in 2026, it’s a recovery of Lincolnesque values—resolve, common sense, understanding, and charity. If such a renewal can get some impetus and sense of direction from a new recording, so much the better.

Film Festival Reviews: Persian Gulf

January 31, 2026
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In secret and in exile, the power of cinema prevails at the Boston Festival of Films from Iran.

Classical Music Album Review: Duo FAE’s “Dissidents of the Gilded Age”

January 31, 2026
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It’s hard to argue that the decision to forge careers as composer-pianists in the teeth of fin de siècle misogyny and rock-set views of musical gender roles wasn’t an act of defiance.

Theater Review: “Noli Timere” — A Fearless Weaving of Light and Motion

January 31, 2026
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If there is power in being invited, for the space of 80 minutes, to suspend our fear of where things are going, this show is a place where we can feel safe to do just that.

Book Review: Tracing the Mind’s Decline — George Scialabba’s “The Sealed Envelope” and the Follies of Conservatism

January 29, 2026
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Some might complain that the essays have not aged well since they deal with thinkers who are no longer fashionable or who wrote at a time very different from our own. But it’s the contrast between their time and ours that makes them interesting as well as problematic.

Film Review: “Send Help” — A Grotesque Satire of Corporate Survival

January 29, 2026
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The sitcom tropes encourage director Sam Raimi to unleash his utterly demented black humor sensibilities.

Book Review: Moments of Cinematic Illumination in Akira Kurosawa’s Uneven “Long Take”

January 29, 2026
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“Long Take” is a somewhat dry read; there are some great passages, but too many rambling, unfocused sections for it to be a satisfactory sequel to the Japanese director’s 1983 memoir.

Book Review: Olga Tokarczuk’s “House of Day, House of Night” — A Demanding But Rewarding Reverie

January 27, 2026
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House of Day, House of Night “is not an easy read, but for those with the stamina, it is a rewarding one, inviting us to savor its reclusive, succulent insides.”

Film Review: “H is for Hawk” — Stumbling and Soaring

January 27, 2026
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Despite an occasional narrative misstep, “H is for Hawk” soars with enormous power and beauty when it revels in the mysterious, graceful ways of nature.

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