Arts Review
New York concerts examine “lost music” of twentieth century
By Fred Mazelis, January 7, 2009
Classical works by composers who died at the hands of the Nazis or who were forced into exile have been receiving increased attention. Conductor James Conlon has taken the lead in this project to resc...
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: Too little made of a life led in reverse
By Kevin Martinez, January 6, 2009
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button concerns itself with the fate of an individual who ages in reverse. Born a shriveled old man, Benjamin Button experiences the natural aging process backward.
Doubt: Nothing ‘beautiful’ about this ‘question’
By David Walsh, January 3, 2009
Doubt takes place in the Bronx, New York in 1964. A conflict emerges at a Catholic school between a relatively young and ‘progressive’ parish priest, Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman), and a b...
The decline of Austrian social democracy
Norbert Leser’s The Decline of the Eagle
By Markus Salzmann, January 3, 2009
Leser’s new book patently fails to examine why, under conditions of globalization, the social reformist program of the SPÖ has failed. Instead, he explains the decline of the party on the basis of ...
Jazz great Freddie Hubbard dies at 70
By John Andrews, January 3, 2009
Trumpeter Freddie Hubbard exploded onto the 1958 New York jazz scene at the age of 20. Over the next decade, he blew fiery “hard bop” with virtually all the greatest East Coast musicians and appea...
Bad Faith: Bill Maher’s Religulous
By Hiram Lee, January 2, 2009
Comedian Bill Maher and director Larry Charles take on religion in their new documentary. The results are less than enlightening.
David Walsh selects his favorite films of 2008
By David Walsh, December 31, 2008
2008 will be remembered as the year of a great economic crash and a turning point in modern history. It will not be recalled as a great year in filmmaking, despite a few bright spots.
La Fille Coupée En Deux, the new film from Claude Chabrol
By Hiram Lee, December 29, 2008
Veteran French New Wave director Claude Chabrol returns to the screen with an interesting but limited work inspired by the life of Evelyn Nesbit.
American painter Robert Rauschenberg 1925-2008: Avant-garde to Pop
By Lee Parsons, December 29, 2008
Noted American artist Robert Rauschenberg died May 12 this year of heart failure at his home in Captiva, Florida at the age of 82. The passing of this influential artist obliges us to consider his wor...
The Wrestler: Vigorous, but opaque
By Jordan Mattos, December 27, 2008
In Darren Aronofsky’s fourth feature film, The Wrestler, veteran actor Mickey Rourke plays Randy “The Ram” Robinson, a professional wrestler in his fifties who is coping with life as a prisoner ...
To the memory of Adrian Mitchell
By David Walsh, December 24, 2008
This is more of a personal response to the death of poet Adrian Mitchell December 20 than an informed, much less scholarly, commentary. My encounter with his works took place several decades ago.
Waltz With Bashir: “Memory takes us where we need to go”
By David Walsh, December 24, 2008
Israeli director Ari Folman’s Waltz With Bashir is one of the most extraordinary and haunting films of the year. Folman has made an animated film that ends with the tragic events at the Sabra and Sh...
