The Great American Novel is a holy obsession – the Everest every writer dreams of summiting. For most, that dream begins and ends with William Faulkner, whose winding sentences and sunburned Southern landscapes birthed prose that seemed to breathe. His words marched; crookedly, yes, but always with purpose. Louis C.K., a would-be Faulkner disciple, trudges
I won’t attempt to explain Mitfordmania; we’d be here all night. Suffice it to say that fascination with the British sisters – Nancy, Pamela, Diana, Unity, Jessica and Deborah, born to the 2nd Baron Redesdale between 1904 and 1920 – shows no sign of waning. This year alone, the six have inspired Outrageous, a lavish
The film Ballad of a Small Player opens with a blast of classical music, a shot of the Macau skyline and Lord Doyle (Colin Farrell) waking up in a hotel suite littered with Champagne bottles, cigarette butts and designer loafers that are starting to show their wear. While he dresses and shaves, a voice-over informs
This World of Tomorrow is a waste of time travel
Remember him for his great works, not his horrific end
In the second act of Liberation the main cast quietly, and without fuss, starts to undress. By the time the lights go up, all six women are naked. In this masterful play by Bess Wohl, the moment does not feel shocking or gratuitous but somehow comforting. In 1970s Ohio, a group of women meet weekly
Many years ago, and well retired, I was working in my study at home when the phone rang and a voice said, “This is Tom Stoppard. David West put me onto you.” David was the professor of Latin at Newcastle University and it emerged that Tom used him when he had queries about Latin, but
A durable national identity cannot be asserted into being
Truth to tell, surrealism lent itself to individuals who were inherently off-the-beam
Creativity in proximity to genius without its obligations
Monet also captured another element of the open air: smog
Train Dreams, often hailed as a ‘miniature masterpiece,’ is not a story of defeat
His response had the rhetorical footprints of Stephen Miller
Anthology 4 makes the extraordinary band seem ordinary
The spy learned his final lesson in No Time to Die
Joachim Trier’s film shows us what compassion is
‘Please join me in welcoming a daughter of the Caribbean, a champion of the oppressed and a sister in Christ’
Sleuths rediscovered a stolen painting, galvanizing efforts to uncover even more
His new exhibition at the Guggenheim is a sour birthday party
The Met’s exhibition shows that the artist tried to destroy everything human about himself
Apple’s new paean to the man certainly suggests as much
Masquerade honors and innovates the legacy of Phantom of the Opera
YouTubeTV knows it remains in the driver’s seat
Death by Lighting is uproarious fun
The long-unfinished Smile reveals the musician’s talent and madness
The show feels like an undergraduate thesis
Spectrum of Desire is somewhere between blasphemous and libelous
Your eyes and your brain cells will hate you for watching this
The band’s new album, Everybody Scream, contains some of the best music released this year
