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(04/26/24 4:01am)
The first two episodes of HBO’s “The Sympathizer” are enthralling — cinematic, bold espionage stories that illustrate the difficult questions of the Vietnam War and the fetishizing side of racism. While the show has not asserted itself as essential viewing quite yet, with the directorial and performance brilliance on display and the confidence to tackle such nuanced material without ever preaching at the audience, that breakthrough may be just on the horizon. And even if the show doesn’t realize all it can, it is already great, simultaneously pulsating and intellectually provocative.
(04/19/24 4:01am)
Rap's cold war has finally exploded. Under the siren synthesizer of Metro Boomin's beat on “Like That,” Kendrick Lamar delivered the shots heard ‘round the internet’ at fellow hip-hop titans Drake and J. Cole. There will be time later for J. Cole's response, which is the most defiant, controversial and important of the three rappers' entries into this conflict. First, let us look at Kendrick and Drake's offerings, as well as “beef” as a whole — a topic that far predates rap.
(02/12/24 5:17am)
“Mr. and Mrs. Smith” does not need its sharp and varied action and espionage to succeed. The action in the series can feel incidental beside the central romance; this is a love story about two people who happen to be spies. While its tonal experimentations may not always land for the audience, its confrontation between the cold, corporate and inhuman with its central love and warmth makes the show resonant and relatable through its impossible scenarios.
(07/25/23 9:45pm)
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(08/26/22 4:03am)
(09/05/22 5:49am)
This past summer, I embarked on the adventure of creating an album. While artistic work is typically idealized as the realization of an unadulterated vision, I found the creative process to be a balancing act between the impulses of the audience and the various inclinations within the artist. If art imitates life, then the creative process is a microcosm of the human balancing act of living — that endless quest for unachievable equilibrium.
(10/25/22 12:43pm)
You’ve probably already met Swedish pop provocateur Tove Lo (pronounced “too-veh loo”). Her artistic thesis statement, “Habits (Stay High),” is a classic for a generation, and she secured some other hits in the middle of the last decade, as both an artist with “Talking Body” and a songwriter, working on Ellie Goulding’s “Love Me Like You Do.” After this initial commercial success, however, she turned left off the road to pop superstardom, producing darker and more intimate explorations of substance abuse and relationships in her “Lady Wood” album series, which earned Lo this writer’s admiration, though, understandably, less Top 40 airtime. She followed these nocturnal odysseys with 2019’s “Sunshine Kitty,” an album that attempted to soften her narratives’ edges, thereby sacrificing their essential grit. She has since left her major recording label to release music independently, and fortunately, her newest work “Dirt Femme” demonstrates the frankness and songwriting mastery that makes her a unique talent. It also illustrates Lo as an evolving artist, whose increasing ambition doesn’t always bloom here.
(01/19/23 5:02am)
“Avatar: The Way of Water” has enough ambition to fill a cinematic universe, a masterpiece in computer-generated imagery that successfully whisks the audience away to the moon of Pandora and its picturesque oceans. But James Cameron’s newest film has another trait lacking in today’s typical blockbuster: sincerity. This is a movie that unashamedly aims to encourage everyday compassion through the example of blue aliens who ride dinosaurs. It isn’t shameful to be earnest and a little bit strange. But it is beautiful and impactful, and ultimately, a soaring success that hopefully can be a model for blockbusters to follow.
(01/26/23 5:01am)
Few franchises have a better pitch than “Pokémon”: tame and trained magical animals battle each other, save the world with a team of them and ultimately become “the very best, like no one ever was.”
(04/12/23 4:01am)
For most of my viewing of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” I was in awe at its very existence. I grew up playing almost exclusively Pokemon and Mario games, and even today the Mario series never ceases to delight me. To see the world that so captivated me as a child rendered with the level of care and detail in this movie was honestly exhilarating for me. And yes, though the movie has its faults, it is genuinely good.
(03/02/23 5:02am)
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(02/22/22 5:00am)