‘Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands’ Is a Spicy Brazilian Cinema Classic
Bruno Barreto’s romantic charmer Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands is rich with sensuous detail that fills every scene with dizzying amounts of culture, music, and atmosphere.
Imran Khan
‘Devil in a Blue Dress’ Is Among Neo-Noir’s Finest Films
Denzel Washington’s voiceover in neo-noir Devil in a Blue Dress is an equal mix of deadpan charm and wide-eyed innocence, which textures and nuances his performance.
Vanessa Daou’s Galactic Dance Gem, ‘Plutonium Glow’
The retro-electro feel of Vanessa Daou’s 1998 ‘Plutonium Glow’ is influenced by ‘90s rave culture, which pushes Daou’s usual bedroom listeners onto the dance floor.
When 1980s Music Drama ‘Times Square’ Tried to Capture NYC Punk
It was not without admirable aplomb that Times Square attempted to capture the punk movement in its zeitgeist the way Saturday Night Fever did with disco.
Glitch-Hop Pioneer Thavius Beck on the Beats and the Love That Inspired ‘LEO’
Glitch-hop pioneer Thavius Beck talks about Public Enemy, the Bomb Squad, and LEO, an album heavy with his baritone boom and pumping, catawampus beats.
Goya Dress’ Dramatic Music Evokes Vivid Classic Imagery
Three-piece UK band Goya Dress specialized in stylishly baroque Sturm und Drang rock; dizzying Märchens sated with the drama of a Francisco Goya painting.
‘Shaft’ Helped Create the Archetype Black Action Hero of the 1970s
Gordon Parks’ classic blaxploitation film Shaft presents Richard Roundtree as a swaggering, controversial action hero in gritty, early ’70s New York.
Big Dada Kane: An Interview with Poet-Rapper Malik Ameer Crumpler
Bestriding boundaries between hip-hop, poetry, and surrealism, poet-musician Malik Ameer Crumpler forges a strange and compelling work that is utterly and uniquely his own.
Love in a Void: Romance and Fear in the Songs of New Wave’s Romeo Void
San Francisco’s new wave band Romeo Void exists in a curious interstice between the social context of the early ‘80s while being wholly prescient of our era of #MeToo.
Criminal Subterfuge and Dark Desires in Chabrol’s Minimalist Murder-Mysteries
While murder and crime certainly run deep in Claude Chabrol’s world of subterfuge, the dark desires of human nature that provoke them run immeasurably deeper.
Theodore Witcher’s Paean to Hip-Hop ‘Love Jones’ Charms and Seduces
In 1997, you could call Love Jones a small, curious drama that won many critics over. Today, it stands as a cornerstone of Black narrative in cinema.
Astrid Williamson Moves Mountains and a Few Souls with ‘Into the Mountain’
Astrid Williamson’s songwriting prowess as both a classically trained artist and an alternative rock maven makes the earth tremble on Into the Mountain.