Frightfully Askew
What asymmetry in art can tell us about the way we view sickness and health, life and death
By Lincoln Perry Thursday, May 5, 2022
Sex and Secrets
Rare is the Hitchcock film that celebrates desire without disaster
By Lisa Zeidner Saturday, December 4, 2021
If You Can’t See the Stage, Turn to the Page
With theaters shut during the pandemic, reading plays has shed surprising light on works both familiar and strange
By Wendy Smith Thursday, December 2, 2021
The Inheritance of Nations
To what extent does a work of art belong to the people of the world?
By Hannah Barbosa Cesnik Monday, June 14, 2021
Raising Mank
The Academy Award–winning film about the making of Citizen Kane is really a window into the tumultuous, brutal side of Hollywood’s golden age
By Jerome Charyn Saturday, June 5, 2021
Obscura No More
How photography rose from the margins of the art world to occupy its vital center
By Andy Grundberg Thursday, April 29, 2021
The Baddest Man in Town
On the trail of a historical figure immortalized in African-American folklore
By Eric McHenry Saturday, March 13, 2021
The Annotated “Stacka Lee”
Comments on the famous murder ballad’s oldest known lyrics
By Eric McHenry Saturday, March 13, 2021
Swinging Into the Future 
Kansas City of the 1930s witnessed a style of American music inspired by the wonders of the industrial age
By Joel Dinerstein Monday, December 7, 2020
Long-Distance Punishment
Could a landmark work of conceptual art be an emblem for the Covid era?
By Sierra Bellows Thursday, December 3, 2020
Beethoven Visits Cleveland
In 1958, the Colossus speaks to an 11-year-old boy
By Harvey Sachs Monday, March 1, 2010
Auteurs Gone Wild
Why the director’s cut often turns into an ax murder
By Alex Rose Monday, March 1, 2010
Offbeat at the Apollo
Elvis Costello’s cable TV show, Spectacle, ranges across musical genres and centuries
By Wendy Smith Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Facing the Music
What 1930s pop culture can teach us about our own hard times
By Morris Dickstein Tuesday, September 1, 2009
The Meaning Behind the Lines
How Ibsen’s toughness and Chekhov’s tenderness transformed American playwriting and acting
By Wendy Smith Friday, June 5, 2009
The Potency of Breathless
At 50, Godard’s film still asks how something this bad can be so good
By Paula Marantz Cohen Sunday, March 1, 2009
Vibrato Wars
Elgar, served neat and unshaken, stirs up the Brits
By Sudip Bose Sunday, March 1, 2009
Cauldron Bubble
Macbeth minus its supernatural elements could not have mattered so much to Lincoln and Dr. Johnson—and should not matter to us
By Edwin M. Yoder Jr. Monday, December 1, 2008
From Oppressed to Oppressors
The Battle of Algiers took a pitiless look at the war for Algerian independence, but the filmmakers could not foresee the failures that would result
By Wendy Smith Monday, September 1, 2008
Grand Horse Opera
The best Westerns celebrate our history and criticize the ugly stereotypes of the genre
By Richard Locke Sunday, June 1, 2008
