The Boosting is Still Going Strong at Counter Arts

Why ‘The Seed of the Sacred Fig’ is the Film Iran Doesn’t Want You to Watch

How do you tell a story about a country clouded by secrecy and oppression? By zooming in on the lives of one family.

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Alan Laidlaw

Why ‘No Other Land’ Is the Most Important Film at the 2025 Oscars

The Palestinian-Israeli joint production about the illegal occupation of a small village in Palestine’s West Bank is…

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Akos Peterbencze

The ‘Bloodborne’-esque Milieu of ‘Nosferatu’ Beguiled Me

The beauty of shadows

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Paul Maglione

Six Underappreciated Songs of Hope For Humanity

Where the world is darkness, these are points of light

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That Time I Didn’t Meet Steven Spielberg

How a surreal 30-minute lunch with the legendary director brought me closer to my father

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The Best of British Cinema: ‘Benediction’ (2021)

Terence Davies’ final film is an intensely moving, poetic take on the life of war poet Siegfried Sassoon

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‘Ariadne’: A Brutal Examination of Monsters and Motherhood in Greek Mythology

“Spoilers” for a bunch of stories that are millennia old, I guess?

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Building a New Vatican for ‘Conclave’ (2024)

How production design heightens the drama in Edward Berger’s papal thriller

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Notes on Danez Smith’s ‘BLUFF’, A Scathing Indictment of Modern America

Smith’s newest collection of poems ranges wildly in topic, style and form but is unified by the poet’s righteous fury…

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‘No Other Land’ (2024)

The Land, the Law, and the Truth

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Eleni Stephanides

‘Back to the Future: The Musical’ — a Timeless Classic Adapted to the Stage

The stage adaptation takes you on a journey through time, choice, and consequence

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Review: ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It’ is a Powerful, Multi-Faceted Biopic

Tina Turner’s life story is told in a mature, thoughtful fashion by director Brian Gibson alongside stars Angela…

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Oliver Wilson Ottley III

The Heartbeat of Soul: To Angie Stone, With Love

A love letter to the woman that laid her voice across our scars.

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In the Writers’ Room Where It Happened: ‘Twin Peaks’

Harley Peyton, who wrote or co-wrote 13 of the original series’ 30 episodes, breaks down everything he learned from the…

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Review: ‘Terrifier 3’ — Damien Leone’s Disgusting, Distinctive Gorefest

Leone’s Art the Clown franchise reaches its zenith with its audacious, blood-thirsty third entry

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Alejandro Orradre

That Strange Film Called ‘65’

The Sony proposal, starring Adam Driver, focuses on a formula that is the opposite of what is currently being proposed…

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‘Straightening’ the Queer in ‘Bambi’ (1942)

Business interests which motivated Walt Disney’s masculinist project in this children’s classic.

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Kay Elúvian

When the Curtain Falls: Saying Goodbye to “Terra Ignota”

On rejection, resilience, Carlyle Foster, and the roles that change us.

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Vikram Venkat

All Time High

How ‘GoldenEye’ changed the course of the James Bond series

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Kristine Harper

Braiding Sweetgrass, Embracing Bewilderment

An exploration of education, empathy and kinship

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Review: ‘Toni’ – Jean Renoir’s Influential Tragedy

Considered by many to be the beginning of neorealist cinema, ‘Toni’ is required viewing

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How to Survive a Dictatorship

Based on a true story, ‘I’m Still Here’ isn’t just one of Brazil’s best ever films. It’s a cautionary tale for the…

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What Will Happen If James Gunn’s ‘Superman’ Bombs At the Box Office?

Is now really the best time for Warner Bros. to be betting big on superhero movies?

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‘Hamlet’ (1599/1601) And ‘Don Quixote’ (1605/1615)

Where existentialism and essence begin in western European literature?

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Ryan Frawley

MC Escher and the Hunt for the Infinite

None of us are better than the Work

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"Penguin" Pete Trbovich

The Stunning Hypocrisy of the Comics Code Authority

Art culture brooks around censorship like water around a pebble

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Storytelling in the Information Age

When fiction tells the truth in Rushdie’s ‘Haroun and the Sea of Stories’

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Ben Peasley

Review — ‘Intermezzo’: Age-Gap Romance Suffers Under the Weight of its Pathos

Rooney’s fourth novel is an insightful but strained, incessant exploration of millennial and gen Z relationships

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Q&A: ‘Station 19’ Showrunner Zoanne Clack on Her Journey from the ER to Hollywood

From real-life doctor to the writers’ room of ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ and its latest spin-off, the screenwriter found a unique…

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The Best of British Cinema: ‘Adolescence’ (2025)

Philip Barantini works his magic again in this gruelling, intense miniseries

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Owen Schaefer

Edvard Munch and the Portraits that Watched Over Him

The National Portrait Gallery shows us a more sociable Symbolist

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Manali Mitra

Kandinsky'ing My Soul with Colors, Chaos, and Magic

An enriching experience at the HAR’T Museum

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Scott Saffran

Flash Gordon Approaching

A forgotten masterpiece of comicbook adaptation

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Anne Kullaf

Once a Year, My Favorite Color is Pink

Cherry blossom season: the only time you’ll find pink on my palette

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Notes on Yukio Mishima’s ‘Star’, a Brutal, Grimy Look at Stardom and Celebrity

Mishima’s 1961 novella is bleak and confronting but written with a beautiful, poetic poise

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Does ‘Mickey 17’ Deserve to Be the First Box-Office Bomb of 2025?

There’s no questioning the budget, the pedigree or the stars for Warner Bros. latest… but audiences aren’t coming…

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Pallabi Dey Purkayastha

Behind The Towering Walls of Bollywood

Everything I learned and saw as an entertainment reporter and film critic of 10 years

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Some Thoughts on the North Macedonia Fire from a Former Venue Security Manager

Unfortunately this is not the first time this has happened. Hopefully it can be stopped from happening again.

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Review: ‘Cuckoo’ — A Tiresome Horror Mystery Devoid of Originality

Tilman Singer’s second feature is a massive slog despite its genre-blending efforts

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Girish Menon

From Walkmans to Live Stages

A life of concerts, cameras, and music

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Anne Kullaf

Sometimes You Just Feel Like Coloring

How colored pencils bring out the inner child in us

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Amanda Melheim

‘The Patchwork Girl of Oz’ Taught Me Justice

L. Frank Baum’s thoughtful parables formed my sense of right and wrong

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Q&A: Producers Erica Lee and Blye Pagon Faust on Surviving Hollywood in the 21st Century

What happens when the producer behind the John Wick universe and the Best Picture Oscar winner for ‘Spotlight’ meet for…

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Review: Todd Field’s ‘In The Bedroom’ Perfectly Captures Grief

The 2001 drama is powerful, stylish and very well told

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Janet Stilson

Strange New World: The Sci-Fi Mystery Thriller ‘Paradise’

The birth of a new theme in post-COVID television

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Jess the Avocado

Sexuality Is…Complicated

But it doesn’t have to be

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Is ‘Death of a Salesman’ by Arthur Miller a Great Tragedy?

‘Oedipus Rex’, ‘King Lear’, and ‘Death of a Salesman’: lies, myths and Aristotelian inversions

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‘Our Wives Under The Sea’ Plumbs the Depths of a Haunted Marriage

Love, death, and bad neighbors in Julia Armfield’s profoundly upsetting undersea gothic romance

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Jess the Avocado

Heretics & The Monopoly of Belief

Who decides what is true? And do you dare to challenge it?

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Nick Iakovidis

Bellerophon; the Original Knight on a White Horse

How a 3000 year-old Mycenean Hero inspired an “old-time-classic” trope

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Eric Winick

Politics, But Make It Pop

Can entertainment meet the current moment?

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Nature’s Green, and So Is the Wicked Witch

Taming the wild in John M. Chu’s ‘Wicked’ (2024)

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Anne Kullaf

When Little Bits of Color Conspire to Form an Image

My journey into the magic realm of impressionistic painting

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Terry Barr

Cindy Lee’s Diamond Jubilee

Timeless music in the nick of time

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Girish Menon

Camels, Tents, and Cold Nights Made for a Thrilling Thar Desert Adventure

Finding humor in disaster while camping in the dunes

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Gaza and Guernica: Art and Atrocity

The Success and Failure of ‘Guernica’ (1937) by Pablo Picasso

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Andrew Jazprose Hill

In ‘Othello’ Jake Gyllenhaal Goes After Denzel Washington Like Project 2025 on DEI

There couldn’t be a more relevant time to bring Shakespeare’s play about racism, jealousy, and revenge to Broadway.

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Elan Kesilman-Davin, Ph.D.

Review: ‘Kneecap’ — A Brilliant, Rebellious Rap Biopic

The defiant debut features of Rich Peppiatt kicks with flagrant energy

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The Banality of Education

How Arendt’s warning on bureaucratic evil explains inequality in America’s schools

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Owen Schaefer

Aurorae Offers Flashes of Brilliance in New Media Art

This group show by CaptiArtX at the new art’otel Hoxton is flawed but still fascinating

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Flow Shatters the Disney-Pixar Fantasy — Here’s Why

Made in Latvia on free software, ‘Flow’ has zero Hollywood voices or Happy Meal toys. That didn’t stop it winning an…

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Scott Saffran

Rules of the Ring

How professional wrestling works

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Songs to Live By: ‘Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)’ by Marvin Gaye

Every month, I explore a different song about our struggle to lead good and meaningful lives in a confusing…

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The Best of British Cinema: ‘Carla’s Song’ (1996)

Ken Loach’s drama about the Nicaraguan Revolution is a reminder of the stark realities, and aftermaths, of war

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Jason Craige Harris

The Way Forward is Through

Dynamics and mechanics of effective teams

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