Film
The Mountain Revisits the Dark History of Lobotomies in 1950s America
The movie superficially depicts the normal world of '50s America but from a subtly disjointed point of view.
Review
Performance
When Artists Recreate Lost Children for Mourning Mothers
While entertaining at first, Reborning, which deals with the phenomenon of hyperrealistic "reborn dolls," progressively unveils what it means to be an artist in the 21st century.
Art
"Women's Work," Artfully Revisited and Redefined
The familiar expression "women's work" persists in our cultural lexicon, but five artists/activists present visions that reshape its definition in a massive and thoughtful exhibition.
Performance
Mining Robert Mapplethorpe’s Legacy, With Missteps
Though its music, and use of Mapplethorpe’s photographs and texts by Essex Hemphill and Patti Smith were impressive in their own rights, the performance Triptych (Eyes of One on Another) ultimately appeared cheap, forced, and self-congratulatory.
Film
The Crucial Role Music Once Played in Big Little Lies
In season two, the show all but abandoned one of its most effective cinematic tools: music.
Art
Suzanne Lacy's Powerful Legacy of Feminist Collaboration
What struck me most in moving through the arc of Lacy’s career is what varied and thoughtful work she’s produced decade after decade, no doubt the result of her preference for collaboration.
Art
Sondra Perry Offers Viewers a Drone Perspective
Surveilling the landscape of Cleveland, Sondra Perry’s latest exhibition A Terrible Thing fashions an institutional critique of MoCA Cleveland.
Art
The Long and Nomadic Life of a Mythmaking Artist
Joseph Elmer Yoakum recollects his adventurous life in signature curvilinear language.
Film
Queer Camp, Religious Kitsch, and Music in the American South
Two new documentaries, The Gospel of Eureka and Gay Chorus Deep South, explore Southern queerness and faith in drastically different ways.
Film
A Stylish Crime Drama's Moral Ambivalence
Neither a political thriller nor entirely a noir, Benjamin Naishtat's Rojo is an eerie film in which the stakes feel painfully high.
Art
Eating Flowers in Search of Mysticism and Meaning
In Karen Azoulay's mesmerizing video art, the artist and her collaborators don gem-encrusted masks and sample bits of nature.
Art
A Library of Photo Books Reveals the Texture of Location
Thinking of a Place fosters a feeling that we are seeing just a slice of what’s out there, potentially leaving us with a desire to experience the full picture of place.