‘Black Peter’ and the Wayward Path to Manhood
“As a character study, Miloš Forman’s feature directorial debut presents a realistic vision of a boy’s attempt to come of age; a path full of setbacks without a tidy resolution.”
Formative: Korn ‘Untouchables’ (2002)
“Davis’ mandate has always been to offer solace for sad kids, but his lyrics reside more often in the inescapable experiences of pain, isolation and frustration than in the pursuit of recovery.”
Different Places: Jeffrey McHale’s ‘You Don’t Nomi’ Dances with the Legacy of ‘Showgirls’
“I was taken with You Don’t Nomi’s comfortable attitude toward the complexity and ambiguity of a text that can support and sustain such wildly opposite readings.”
Tracking Tania: The Dramatic Life of Patty Hearst
“In all her dramatic iterations, Patty Hearst stands for an American purity that was always illusory but remains hallowed, that successive generations have set out to wrest back from the forces of complication.”
Album Review: Fontaines D.C. ‘A Hero’s Death’
“‘A Hero’s Death’ is an articulate, energetic work, bristling with moody post-punk fury, and it signals an incremental consolidation and increased sophistication to the still-green quintet’s robust, fulsome sound.”
Review: Lynne Ramsay’s ‘Brigitte’
“‘Brigitte’ is a slight and sweet addition to Ramsay’s catalogue, and it gently leaves its impressions.”
Album Review: Taylor Swift ‘Folklore’
“In its unadorned beauty, immense empathy and self-awareness, ‘Folklore’ might be Swift’s best shot at immortality so far.”
Easy Riders, Paper Moons: The Trouble with Classifying Peter Bogdanovich
“If New Hollywood was an attempt to shape the future in novel ways, Bogdanovich was manifestly more interested in looking back, in reaction over revolution, in conforming his artistic impulses to an unambiguously Golden Age Hollywood influence.”
Review: Dave Franco’s ‘The Rental’
“The ideas present are intriguing, however The Rental’s ultimate staying power is questionable.”
Album Review: Courtney Marie Andrews ‘Old Flowers’
“If one person sees themselves in the anecdotes and idioms of ‘Old Flowers,’ then this is an undeniably worthwhile work. In its brightness and simplicity, though, this record’s reach is sure to be much wider than that.”