Here’s an update on Jessica Mitford’s still-relevant 1963 classic of muckraking, The American Way of Death, which shed all sorts of unwelcome light on this country’s funeral industry and its often horrific practices. While Mitford’s book had its (occasionally unintentional) hilarious moments, Lisa Takeuchi Cullen focuses on some of the bizarre modern rituals that have … Read more
When queried about the meaning of his generally surrealistic stories, Haruki Murakami replied, “I’m very realistic. But when I write, I write weird.” That’s true enough, as the writer’s rabid cult of fans could attest. His new collection of twenty-five stories features, among other things, a shrinking elephant, an identity-stealing puddle of quicksand, and a … Read more
Like his contemporaries Aharon Appelfeld and Amos Oz, Israeli novelist A.B. Yehoshua explores universal dilemmas that have been at the forefront of debate in his native country for decades. His often controversial views on Israeli identity and culpability have earned him fierce criticism at home and abroad, though he is widely regarded as one of … Read more
Offering an artistic take on the corporate practice of outsourcing, the collective of curators/artists behind this exhibition (including Douglas Padilla, Xavier Tavera, and Alexa Horochowski) commissioned help from south of the border in making the works on view. As part of Padilla’s installation on a faux business called “Ameri-Art Industries,” there’s a photographic “org-chart” made … Read more
Could the Rochester Art Center be aiming to become the Walker Art Center of southern Minnesota? This exhibition of eleven recent works by Manglano-Ovalle, many of them made in the last year, is certainly some kind of coup. The Madrid-born artist uses scientific data and cutting-edge technologies to create minimalist pieces that, conceptually, are quite … Read more
Herschel V. Jones, a newspaperman and museum trustee, wowed the art world in 1916 when he donated thousands of prints to the young Institute. This exhibition is curated to offer an overview of techniques and trends in a genre that, because of its affordability, has always cast an eye toward market concerns. Thus the popularity … Read more
“Where’s the rest of me?” cries the newly amputated Drake McHugh, which was easily Ronald Reagan’s finest performance (that is if you don’t count those sixteen years he spent as a figurehead for California and the U.S.). Based on a scandalous potboiler, Kings Row is the story of “the town they talk about in whispers.” … Read more
Faith in Woody Allen was restored for many with last winter’s steamy British thriller Match Point; now the director is reviving his comedic antics with a playful murder mystery. As Allen once again sets his story across the pond, Scarlett Johansson, his muse of the moment, plays an American journalism student in London who telepathically … Read more
The Quinceañera is the traditional Mexican celebration of a girl’s fifteenth birthday and subsequent graduation into womanhood, but one young lady has beaten the party to the punch. Magdalena gets kicked out of the house when her Catholic parents learn she is pregnant; forced to turn her attentions from party dresses and limousines, she finds … Read more
As we draw closer to the five-year mark, filmmakers have grown less shy about portraying the tragedy that, as many people say, felt like a big-budget, special-effects movie in the first place. With World Trade Center, Oliver Stone focuses on two Port Authority officers (played by Nicholas Cage and Michael Peña) who found themselves trapped … Read more