Arts
Tufts students take a walk in ‘The Imagined Forest’ at Symphony Hall
By Sam Stearns and Ellora Onion-De | December 5In Boston’s Symphony Hall, beyond the sprawl of hallways and swinging double doors, there lies a room — the Rabb Room — where conversations take place under the hum of quiet classical music. On Nov. 21, a group of Tufts students, led by their Music and Nature professor Jeremy Eichler, had ...
The spy thriller as a geopolitical lens
By Annika Pillai | December 5Though it may seem like mindless entertainment, spy fiction isn’t just about gadgets, secret codes or daring escapades. Rather, it’s a mirror for the world’s biggest fears. From 19th century diplomacy to today’s espionage, the genre has evolved alongside global conflicts, shifting power dynamics and the anxieties that shadow them. Every twist, betrayal and covert mission reveals something deeper — what societies dread, how they interpret danger and how they try to grasp control over the uncontrollable. In many ways, the evolution of the espionage thriller is a record of our collective fears written in ink and, now, on the big screen.
Sherlock Holmes wishes you a Merry Christmas
By Sophie Herron | December 3“Moriarty is dead, to begin with.” And after spending three years without his nemesis, master detective Sherlock Holmes is bored and depressed. No case in London tempts him, and he is estranged from his now-married friend Dr. John Watson, even refusing to come to his house for Christmas. Worse, he imagines that he sees Moriarty’s ghost around London. Gloomy, grouchy and very much not in the Christmas spirit, Holmes mopes alone on Christmas Eve — until a doctor asks him to investigate a mysterious death.
‘It Was Just an Accident,’ masterfully captures a generation’s boiling anger and mistrust
By Dariush Raissi | December 3To discuss director Jafar Panahi's newest film, “It Was Just an Accident,” it is important to understand its origins. The Iranian filmmaker is known for his unique style of portraying the lives of everyday Iranians through revealing their hopes and struggles to the audience. He is responsible for several renowned Iranian films, such as “Taxi,” “No Bears” and “3 Faces.” Beyond Iran, his movies have received international praise, winning the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, perhaps the most prestigious film award to date.
Ira Sachs discusses capturing a vanished culture in ‘Peter Hujar’s Day’
By Noah Goldstein | November 25In many ways, the artistic milieu that characterized 1970s New York is still being replicated today. Walk long enough around any neighborhood with hipsters, and you’re bound to find the likes of Patti Smith, Andy Warhol and Fran Leibowitz on a coffee shop table or bookstore display.
From stage to screen: The play, ‘Kim’s Convenience,’ that inspired the Netflix hit
By Fiona Hinrichsen | November 25For fans of the TV sitcom “Kim’s Convenience,” the play delivers a sense of deja vu — it’s laugh-out-loud funny, brimming with witty banter and sharp humor. This play, which inspired the Netflix series, premiered in 2011 at the Toronto Fringe Festival. Playwright Ins Choi drew from his own experiences growing up in an immigrant Korean family in Canada. Adam Blanshay Productions presents the Soulpepper Theatre Company production in association with American Conservatory Theater, which runs at The Calderwood Pavilion from Nov. 6 to this Sunday.
‘Hamnet’ breathes new life into Shakespeare
By Spring LaRose | November 24William Shakespeare is, arguably, the most influential writer in history, with lines that have been parroted both in and out of the context of his plays for centuries. “Hamnet” is a testament to the timeless power of Shakespeare — for the long-cliched words “To be, or not to be,” somehow feel as fresh onscreen in 2025 as they must have onstage at the start of the 17th century. “Hamnet” is the newest film from director Chloé Zhao, based on the novel of the same name by Maggie O’Farrell. It is a work of historical fiction about the life of Shakespeare, focusing on his wife and children rather than his work.
An everyday art tour: The art of keeping time
By Sophie Herron | November 24Clockmaking runs in the family of Richard Hills, an antique horologist and owner of Hills Antique Clocks in Holliston. Throughout high school and college, he worked in his brother’s repair shop in Wellesley and, after graduating, continued clockmaking on the side while working as a bioanalytical chemist.
Through the Looking Glass: What ‘The Wizard of Oz’ tells us about our current economic landscape
By Olivia Bye | November 21Last week, “Wicked: For Good,” the sequel to last year’s box-office-shattering film based on the hit Broadway musical, made its highly-anticipated premiere in theatres. The film was officially released in theaters in the United States on Friday. Once again, the wonderfully weird world of Oz has been brought to our cultural forefront, with the film already projected to earn a record $200 million its opening weekend.
Colleen Hoover’s ‘Regretting You’ delivers the drama, leaves the rest behind
By Annika Pillai | November 21Colleen Hoover’s stories aren’t designed for subtlety, and “Regretting You” is no exception. The film unfolds with the same relentless pace as her novels — emotions spelled out in painful detail and absurd twists that land before the audience can catch its breath. It’s the kind of story that pushes for immediate reaction, even if it comes at the cost of overall quality. On screen, however, that approach feels uneven. The movie is so busy moving from one moment to the next that it rarely gives its story or characters time to land.
What ‘The Great Comet’ reveals about human connection
By Sarin Chaimattayompol | November 20To sit in the dark of Tufts’ Balch Arena Theater for 2 1/2 hours, watching a musical spun from Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace,” might sound like an exercise in masochism. Yet the experience turns out to be something far more delightful: a Russophilic, surprisingly tender and wonderfully inventive piece of theatrical adaptation.
Arundhati Roy speaks her words of wisdom
By Ishaan Rajiv Rajabali | November 20“Perhaps even more than a daughter mourning the passing of her mother, I mourn her as a writer who has just lost her most enthralling subject.” Arundhati Roy strikingly muses, cigarette in hand, on the cover of her latest memoir, “Mother Mary Comes to Me.” Her contemplative gaze masks emotional turmoil, audacious pluck and good ole’ mischief. Across 352 pages, she takes us through a life spent navigating uncharted waters with little trepidation. The unpredictable undercurrent of this stream is the eponymous character she describes as her “shelter and her storm:” Mary Roy.
How protein became commodified
By Annika Pillai | November 20Protein is everywhere now — or at least, the word is. When you walk into a grocery store, it almost feels like half the aisle is trying to convince you that you’re one scoop away from collapsing from malnutrition. There’s protein cereal, protein pasta, protein donuts, protein Pop-Tarts, protein chips, protein soda and even protein water, which sounds like a product that shouldn’t exist. The implication is constant: without added effort, you’re probably falling short. Yet many doctors and nutritionists say the average American already consumes more than enough protein. So why is it suddenly everywhere?
High Fidelity: Geese takes on Boston
By Kasra Salehi | November 20Something is happening here. The crowd knows it too. Many of them paid exorbitant ticket prices to be at the venue of just over 900 people, packed wall to wall. It seemed everyone felt as if they were early to the party for something special. Take the guy next to me, who turned to his friend and said “this must be what it was like to see the Pixies in the ’80s.”
The return of the girl-group
By Lea Epstein | November 19For the first time in nearly a decade, girl groups are returning to the Western mainstream with a velocity that feels long overdue. Watching FLO revive R&B’s legacy of stacked harmonies and technical vocal runs feels strangely comforting, almost like witnessing a tradition being carried forward rather than revived. Katseye’s rapid rise, along with two Grammy nominations, suggests that genuine pop excitement still exists outside the churn of algorithmic hype. From a distance, it looks like a Renaissance. Up close, it feels like something deeper — a cultural correction that many of us have been waiting for without realizing it.
Evanescence and the Beautiful Foolishness of Things: ‘The Great Wave’ beyond the print
By Bella Jin | November 18In the last column, we explored how Hokusai’s “The Great Wave” incorporated Western techniques and came to symbolize artistic exchange between East and West. In this article, we will examine how the print evolved into a global phenomenon, becoming the foremost cultural motif of Japan and East Asia.
Top recruiter: How the military uses entertainment as a recruiting tool
By Claire LeCates | November 17Many of those who settled into the red-cushioned seats at their go-to movie theaters in 2022, armed with buttered popcorn or slushies, would have been met with an ad for the U.S. Air Force between movie trailers for upcoming blockbusters. In came the droning of a fighter jet and a cinematic shot of it swooping around mountaintops and through arid plains spotted with cacti. The advertisement barely shows any faces under the helmets, possibly to encourage viewers to imagine themselves in the cockpit. The command to “aim high” lingers on the screen at the end of the ad, followed by the URL of the Air Force website.
Splitting up seasons is destroying television
By Lauren Arnold | November 14There have been many eras in the world of television. In the 2000s, weekly releases reigned supreme. On specific weeknights, shows would air their new episodes live. These weren’t just any shows; the most popular series often adhered to this schedule — think “Lost,” “The Big Bang Theory” and “Gilmore Girls.” Amid real-life pressures from school and work, these new episodes were a constant every week — something to look forward to.
In ‘George’s Yard Sale,’ Somerville becomes a portrait of change
By Noah Goldstein | November 13Sometime in the spring of 2025, Ray Feinleib found himself in a tough situation. Needing only one more course to complete a bachelor’s degree in film and media studies at Tufts in the twilight of his academic career, Feinleib had chosen to take “Advanced Documentary.” Yet, on the weekend before spring break, with the class’ final project’s due date set for the first week back, he found himself with nothing.
Indigo De Souza stands still in the noise
By Jake Ren | November 13Before singing her fifth song, “Be Like the Water,” given it was a week before Halloween, Indigo De Souza recounted a recent visit to a haunted house. She realized that the good thing about a haunted house is that you can always just close your eyes; the ghosts and demons aren’t allowed to touch you, and if you stand real still, you won’t touch them either. So, in the haunted house, she stood very still and closed her eyes. This song is about that, she said, slightly unsure about how much sense the story made.
