49 Reasons Why 2016 Wasn't as Bad as You Think
I adored Patty Dann’s “The Butterfly Hours: Transforming Memories into Memoir.” It’s a memoir that is poignant, wry and modestly profound all at once. Add to that fascinating glimpses into the lives that the author’s students wrote about in the class she’s been teaching for 20-plus years at the West Side YMCA. I vowed upon…
In 1983, Philip Glass completed his “Portrait Trilogy” (“Einstein on the Beach,” “Satyagraha”) with “Akhnaten,” a lyrical opera about the progenitor of one of the world’s oldest monotheistic systems of beliefs, Atenism. The U.S. premiere was sleekly minimal and decidedly arty. Three decades on, Glass sits atop the small pantheon of contemporary composers who enjoy…
Imagine walking into a beautiful Fifth Avenue mansion then being transported along with 43 other guests to wintry Dublin in 1904 — to drink sherry and Irish whiskey with a handful of James Joyce’s characters. This was my time travel experience at New York’s American Irish Historical Society where the Irish Repertory Theatre staged an…
The book that haunted me most this year, Michel Houellebecq’s “Submission,” didn’t disturb me because of its premise — the election of France’s first Muslim president. What got under my skin was how quickly and subtly change swamps the detached, aimless protagonist, and how viciously the novel points out the smugness and solipsism of the…
Why do I love “Stranger Things?” I was the same age in 1983 as the main characters, and the show contains a slew of 80’s cultural references aimed directly at my sentimental sweet spot. And then there’s Eleven — not since 12-year-old Natalie Portman made her big screen debut in “Léon: The Professional” has there…
Ang Lee might have gotten the most press this year for his 3-D technical achievements in the otherwise forgettable film “The Long Halftime Walk of Billy Lynn.” But the most amazing cinematic achievement I saw this year was Sebastian Schipper’s Berlin-based thriller “Victoria,” which unspools an entire two-hour heist drama in a single take. Alfred…
It wasn’t just that Chef Yael Peet’s lovingly rendered Japanese food at Karasu felt so personal, or that Peet managed to bring a fresh point of view to a cuisine that’s so often rendered as cliché. It’s also that every dish brought a surprise, whether it was lotus in Peet’s hijiki salad, mentaiko cod roe…
Coastal elites, we have been told recently, need to pay more attention to rural, white America. Fine, let them watch Moby Longinotto’s documentary, “The Joneses,” set in the trailer parks and small-town churches of very red, working-poor Mississippi and focusing on a transgender grandmother. Jehri Jones, 73 and divorced, shepherds her hard-luck family (two of…
As a well-known spokesperson for medium purism, I must say I hate collage. But in my role as professional political operative I have to admit I enjoy a good juxtaposition. One of my favorite phenomena is the disconnect between whatever art I’m personally consuming and the general narrative of a political campaign. To wit: In…
My go-to streaming pleasure all year has been “Republic of Doyle” on Netflix. The series features a father and son private eye team in picturesque St. John’s, Newfoundland. The focus is cocky, impulsive Jake Doyle, played by show creator Allan Hawco. Jake takes more punches than he gives, though the violence and humor owe more…
‘Divines,” by French-Moroccan director Houda Benyamina, is set in the suburbs of Paris. The teenage Dounia and Maimouna know the limits of what the world will offer them and still dare to want more. A story of friendship told with the gravity of a love story, a hymn to hope and to hopelessness, the film…
100% of profits support our journalism
