Review

Film Review: “Let Them All Talk” — Angst of Many Flavors

December 30, 2020
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The film feels amateurish in the most complimentary Stendhalien sense: created in a spirit of play, rather than a sweaty effort to advance a studio agenda.

Country Music CD Review: “We Shall All Be Reunited: The Bristol Sessions, 1927 & 1928” — Revising Musical History

December 30, 2020
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Producer Ted Olson is on a mission in We Shall Be Reunited to do justice to the past; he imagines a beautiful alternative to the current ballyhooed origin story of country music.

Film Review: “Promising Young Woman” — Surprisingly Restrained

December 29, 2020
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In its efforts to subvert well-known tropes, and reclaim the subgenre’s feminist cultural potency, Promising Young Woman undercuts its own transgressive potential by doing away with what makes rape-revenge films compelling.

Film/Music Review: The Best Music Documentaries of 2020 — With Some Disppointments

December 29, 2020
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Some of the best music documentaries of 2020 – and some disappointments

Film Review: The Best Horror of 2020

December 28, 2020
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It was the most terrifying of times, it was the most horrifying of times.

Opera CD Review: William Alwyn’s Powerful Take on Strindberg’s “Miss Julie” — A Neglected Masterpiece

December 25, 2020
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The second recording of William Alwyn’s searing opera confirms the work’s vitality and importance. It is one of the best and most accessible operas to have been written in the past few decades.

Arts Feature: The Best Underrated TV Shows to Keep You Sane During Lockdown #2

December 24, 2020
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The current lockdown gives me an opportunity to recognize TV shows whose brilliance has been overlooked.

Book Review: “This Isn’t Happening: Radiohead’s “Kid A”” — An Enduring Soundtrack for our Malaise

December 24, 2020
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Steven Hyden’s ,/em>This Isn’t Happening, a book-length appreciation of Radiohead and Kid A is one of the best books I read all year.

Theater Review: The Christmas Revels 2020 — A Delightfully Virtual Revelation

December 23, 2020
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A 50th anniversary is a wonderful milestone, and I congratulate the Revels for looking back and huzzahing the occasion as they have.

Jazz Album Reviews: Ellis Marsalis and Monty Alexander — Lovers of Vinyl Rejoice

December 23, 2020
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This set proves Monty Alexander a more varied pianist than one might have thought. The Ellis Marsalis album is a final gift from one of America’s treasures.

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