VANTAGE POINT, by Sara Sligar Curses are serious business, especially if you’re unthinkably rich. Clara and Teddy Wieland, the scions of Sara Sligar’s novel “Vantage Point,” carry theirs nobly. Previous Wielands, though flush from the family’s steel fortune, have met creatively gruesome ends: trampled in a stampede, mauled mid-cigarette by a grizzly bear, compacted into … Read more
DARKMOTHERLAND, by Samrat Upadhyay In a 1986 essay the American Marxist critic Fredric Jameson argued that every “Third-World” text necessarily functions as a “national allegory” for the “embattled situation” of that particular country. The Nepalese American novelist Samrat Upadhyay’s disturbing and wildly inventive new epic, “Darkmotherland,” translates that idea for a new context in which … Read more
THE SINNERS ALL BOW: Two Authors, One Murder, and the Real Hester Prynne, by Kate Winkler Dawson Before there was “Fleabag,” the clergyman who most heated the public imagination was Arthur Dimmesdale of “The Scarlet Letter.” In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1850 novel, the Puritan minister’s smoldering eyes and self-scourging sermons electrify his female parishioners, including the … Read more
We’re conditioned to think of nature documentaries as educational — probably because we watch them in school — but I think they’re more properly understood as generators of awe. You can’t easily see a cheetah or an octopus or an eagle in the wild, at least not for very long, but in a good movie … Read more
“I’m very much a beginner,” the actress Britt Lower said. This was on a mid-December evening at a warehouse space in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. Dressed in a T-shirt and houndstooth-patterned leggings, Lower climbed a ladder to a narrow platform where an instructor clipped her into a safety harness. Seconds later, Lower was upside-down, … Read more
At a time when A.I.-generated anything sends many of us into a panic, this stop-motion tale from Aardman Animations (“Chicken Run,” “Shaun the Sheep Movie”) hits the spot. It’s been almost two decades since the zany inventor Wallace (voiced by Ben Whitehead) and his devoted dog, Gromit — from their creator, Nick Park — got … Read more
‘The Last Showgirl’ Pamela Anderson stars as Shelly, a Vegas showgirl facing her final curtain call. From our review: Directed by Gia Coppola (“Palo Alto”) from a script by Kate Gersten, “The Last Showgirl” tells a familiar story of bad luck and outwardly questionable choices with gentleness, a great deal of love for its characters … Read more
“Stars” developed something of an underground reputation in Syria, the filmmaker said, and could be found in pirated copies. A friend sent him an image of a poster for the movie hanging in a Damascus bar. “This generation, seeking art, theater, music — they know,” he said, adding, “the film where Assad was insulted and … Read more
In “Anatomy of a Scene,” we ask directors to reveal the secrets that go into making key scenes in their movies. See new episodes in the series on Fridays. You can also watch our collection of more than 150 videos on YouTube and subscribe to our YouTube channel. In “Babygirl,” Nicole Kidman plays Romy, a … Read more
Hi, everyone. My name is Halina Reijn and I am the writer-director of “Babygirl.” So the story of this movie is about a woman who seems to have it all: beautiful family, wonderful husband and an amazing job. She runs her own company in robotics. Yet she is attracted to her male intern, very forbidden … Read more