Please don’t get on a plane for Thanksgiving. Avoid Covid by eating your turkey dinner before your computer screen, and watching — all free! — these handpicked classic movie entertainments.
Review
Television Review: “Animaniacs” Reboot — Out of Step
The new Animaniacs provides no good reason for reviving Yakko, Wakko, and Dot in the 21st century.
Book Review: “Sittin’ In” — Remembrance of Jazz Clubs Past
Sittin’ in raises fascinating issues and its wealth of ephemera provides an amusing context in which to ponder deeper questions.
Classical CD Reviews: Delibes Ballet Suites, John Williams in Vienna, and John Harbison Concertos
Terrific performances, blazing with color, character, and wonderful technique from Neeme Järvi and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra; John Williams and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra offer considerable pleasure with some misteps; another triumphant release from Gil Rose and the BMOP.
Book Review: “Nobody Ever Asked Me About the Girls” — A Disappointing Look at Women, Music, and Fame
Journalist Lisa Robinson deconstructed the idea of the girl who could hang with the guys (and laugh off their casual misogyny) long before Gillian Flynn immortalized the Cool Girl in Gone Girl.
Theater Review: “The Tattooed Man Tells All” — Memories of a Survivor
Peter Wortsman has made a valuable contribution with this play; it is a rare theatrical account about how living through the Holocaust shaped survivors.
Classical CD Reviews: François-Xavier Roth and Schumann, Herbert Blomstedt and Brahms, and Daniel Barenboim and Elgar
Françoix-Xavier Roth delivers a must-have cycle of Robert Schumann’s symphonies; Herbert Blomstedt’s Brahms’s Symphony no. 1 is spacious, restrained, and – too often – dull; Daniel Barenboim’s latest Elgar installment features a regrettably unsung masterpiece.
Album Review: Clifton Hicks’ “Banjo Heritage” — If Trouble Don’t Kill Me, I’ll Live a Long Time
A master of America’s instrument with an abiding love for the people and their traditions – – despite everything. This is Clifton Hicks.
Theater Review: A Raucous Zoomified “Much Ado” — “Thou Art Muted, Don Pedro”
Hub Theatre’s virtual production of Much Ado About Nothing recognizes Zoom’s potential for farce and leans into it: this is a rollicking delight of a show that refuses to take itself seriously, to everyone’s benefit.
Film Review: “Sound of Metal” — A Test of Character
To Sound of Metal’s credit, the narrative remains open-ended, refusing to descend into a predictable “Hollywood” story of triumph over adversity.