Rental House, by Weike Wang (Riverhead). Filled with both the comedy and the bitterness of miscommunication, this pointed, deadpan novel examines an intercultural couple’s marriage. Keru is a first-generation Chinese American; Nate is the product of working-class Appalachia....
Music critics—myself included—have spent much of the past several years bemoaning the decline of capital-“E” Events in music: no new superstars to crown, no more tentpole albums to unify us, no more hits that can hold our attention...
Taken together, three recent films provoke a profound questioning of how and why we guard the border walls separating documentaries from dramatic features. These movies sabotage genre purity; the modes which are supposed to stay apart—as a matter...
Richard BrodyStaff writerThe Criterion Channel, the foremost moveable source for art-house and repertory cinema, thrillingly expands its offerings each month, and has vigorously embraced a wide range of movies, spotlighting rare independent films and movies from around the...
In 2010, a private-equity firm called Cerberus Capital Management, which is named for the three-headed dog that is said to guard the underworld, bought six Catholic hospitals in Massachusetts and christened the chain Steward Health Care. The state’s...
So—a few weeks ago, I saw Kenneth Branagh in “King Lear” at the Shed. Maybe you did, too? It’s been a while, but I’ve been hesitating to write: I’m still processing. Branagh is certainly meant to be the...
For the past two decades or so, cinema’s loss has been television’s gain. As the mid-budget movie, once the natural home of grown-up fare, collapsed, prestige programming ballooned on the small screen. You probably know what happened next:...
One way of being a modernist writer is to pay attention to the most saliently modern objects and experiences. So it is that Proust recounts the arresting novelty of a telephone call or an airplane sighting. For T. S....
If you’re in the bar, or in the main dining room just beyond it, you might miss the kitchen’s wood-burning oven. It’s used to cook, among other things, the “focaccia Borgo,” which is not the lofty, bubbly slab...
Like many Internet users, I love nothing more than animal content. In the decade or so since I’ve joined Instagram, I’ve probably spent dozens of hours liking and commenting on posts documenting the trials and triumphs of, let’s...
