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.
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The Arts Fuse Currents
Music
In advance of a rare Fall River appearance, Matthew Stubbs and Cody Nilsen discuss recording with the harmonica master, choosing blues deep cuts, and building a set unlike either artist’s usual show.
Visual Arts
The Cape Ann Museum’s revelatory exhibition shows how Milton Avery, Adolph Gottlieb, and Mark Rothko turned the Gloucester shore into a language of abstraction.
Film
Zach Cregger’s comedic instincts have overtaken his skill as a horror director. Resident Evil is more like a gory stoner comedy than an all-gas-no-brakes horror ride.
Books
In “The Hard Path to Unity,” former congressman Barney Frank offers a sharp account of Trump-era politics and liberal disarray—but his call for patience with progressive “dissidents” invites serious resistance.
Poetry at The Arts Fuse
This week’s poem: Chuck Stebelton’s “A Peony For Liu Yuxi”
Dance
Animated calligraphy, dancers in half-shadow, and two industrial robots create an eerie, elegant theater of marks, motions, and metallic afterimages at Jacob’s Pillow.
Theater
James Ijames’s funny, moving family fable receives an engaging New England premiere, but its comforts also raise questions about what local theater should risk in a moment of public crisis.
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
Each month, our arts critics — music, book, theater, dance, television, film, and visual arts — fire off a few brief reviews.
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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.
Arts Commentary: Trump’s War on the Kennedy Center Is a War on Culture Itself
His threatened destruction of the nation’s living memorial to John F. Kennedy exposes not merely an assault on a building, but the petty authoritarianism, civic vandalism, and cultural contempt driving his presidency.