Film
A Strange Hallucination Plagues Tilda Swinton in Memoria
The newest feature from Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul is a masterpiece of magical realism, and Hyperallergic’s #1 film of 2021.
Review
Art
Jennifer Coates Communes with the Gods of Nighttime Revelry
A thought experiment I sometimes engage in is to ask myself what kind of god would make the world that is being represented in the work I’m seeing.
Art
E. Jane Explores the Diva in Us All
With the altar and the flesh the artist and performer provides the space for viewers to revere our shared icons while making space for the superstars of the future.
Art
Lifelike Painted Statues Reanimate Museum Many Left for Dead
The objects and artists in Gilded Figures are so well chosen and so carefully interpreted that each section challenges divisions and rejects easy tropes.
Film
The Gleeful Blasphemy and Queer Nun Romance of Benedetta
Beneath the explicit sex and violence of the latest film from Dutch provocateur Paul Verhoeven are thoughtful challenges about gender roles and institutional religion.
Art
Rethinking Kandinsky
The problem with many of Kandinsky’s abstractions is that they don’t offer enough immediate visual information to “crack” his expressive code for color and form.
Books
Painter Edith Schloss Remembers a Life Lived in Art
Schloss’s The Loft Generation creates a mirror-memoir, as literary portraiture doubles as veiled self-portraiture.
Film
Bruno Dumont’s France Is a Cogent, if Convoluted, Critique of Celebrity Culture
This may not be a great film, but its narrative and tonal weaknesses throw into relief just how strong Léa Seydoux is as its thumping heart.
Art
Paintings Rather Than Pictures
This desire to go beyond the ordinary without forgetting its existence seems to be one motivation that Jane Freilicher and Thomas Nozkowski shared.
Film
Denzel Washington Stars in a New Black-and-White Macbeth
Working for the first time without his brother Ethan, Coen’s film adaptation, featuring Denzel Washington as Macbeth, embraces the text with unusual faithfulness.
Art
When an Artist’s Body Breaks Down, Human Relations Become Crucial
Michael Mandiberg’s Timeframe exhibition gives the viewer a window into a period of time when they had to deal with the breakdown of their own body.
Film
Exploring the Baffling Popularity of Kenny G
Penny Lane’s Listening to Kenny G finds fascinating layers to the cult of the smooth jazz icon.