Critics At Large

Magistrati show, 2016, Herringer Kiss Gallery, Calgary, Alberta. All the photographs in this piece are courtesy of Michael Davidson.   ...

Frances McDormand in Nomadland (2020). Fern (played by Frances McDormand ), the protagonist of Nomadland , loses her job and her home in a ...

Eric Stoltz and Penelope Ann Miller in Gregory Mosher's production of Our Town , 1989. I’ve been living with Our Town for more than ha...

Frank Zappa. (Photo: Roelof Kiers/Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures) I have been listening to a lot of Frank Zappa's music of late, everyth...

Simon Baron-Cohen, author of The Pattern Seekers . "Philosophers have long posited self-knowledge as a foundational necessity for a mor...

Emily Skinner and Solea Pfeiffer performing "Losing My Mind" and "Not a Day Goes By" in Simply Sondheim . Stephen Sondh...

Leslie Odom Jr.as Sam Cooke in One Night in Miami (2020). Kemp Powers adapted the screenplay of One Night in Miami from his stage play, an...

Paul Celan (1920-1970). “I can swim like everyone else, only I have a better memory than them. I have not forgotten my former inability to s...

Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis in Friends with Benefits (2011). (Photo: David Giesbrecht) The title is a cliché, and there are half a do...

Fred Ward, Dennis Quaid, Scott Paulin, Ed Harris, Charles Frank, Scott Glenn and Lance Henriksen in The Right Stuff (1983). In The Right S...

Faraway places with strange sounding names  Far away over the sea Those faraway places . . . are calling, calling to me. They call me a drea...

Pierfrancesco Favino in The Traitor (Il traditore ) , directed by Marco Bellocchio. (Photo: Laura Siervi/Sony Pictures Classics) The Traito...

Meryl Streep and James Corden in The Prom , now streaming on Netflix. Early on in The Prom , director Ryan Murphy ’s new Netflix movie musi...

Olivia Colman and Anthony Hopkins in The Father . Florian Zeller ’s play The Father , about an aging man sinking into dementia, opened in ...

“There are quantities of human beings, but there are even more faces, for each person has several.” – Rainer Maria Rilke Everybody has one –...

Jefferson Mays in A Christmas Carol , available for streaming until January 3. (Photo: Chris Whitaker) There have been dozens and dozens of...

Gary Oldman as Herman Mankiewicz in Mank . The film is now streaming on Netflix. This review contains spoilers. Pauline Kael ’s essay “Rai...

Erik Larson's The Splendid and the Vile was published by Crown Publishers in February. (Photo: Nina Subin) Pandemic or not, culture co...

Invocation Democracy , a virtual exhibition Curated by Monet Clark for Pro Arts Commons in Oakland California. October 30, 2020 - January 20...

Haley Bennett, Gabriel Basso and Amy Adams in Hillbilly Elegy . (Photo: Lacey Terrell/Netflix) It’s hard to believe that Ron Howard, the ski...