This year has been nothing less than insane. Every hour there seems to be new breaking news, another exposed politician and, of course, a new movie hitting AMC theaters. From good to bad, scary to heartbreaking and completely ridiculous to hilarious, 2024 was a packed year for movies. So, in no particular order, here are the top movies of 2024.
Some things should stay in 2017. “Between the Lines” is one of them. Student-run theater group Torn Ticket II performed this musical in Balch Arena Theater on Nov. 21, 22 and 23. Based on the 2012 novel of the same name, “Between the Lines” explores the life of 17-year-old Delilah McPhee, played by sophomore Zoe Browning. Her home life has fallen apart after her parents’ separation and she struggles socially at school. During moments when reality overwhelms her, she finds solace in books.
Note: Nate and Odessa have been writing theater reviews together for four semesters. This is their 16th co-written article. For the first time ever, their opinions on this production were so different that they decided to split this article up into two separate reviews. One of the final productions ...
Sammy Rae & The Friends just released their debut album, “Something For Everybody,” in September. But you wouldn’t know it from the band’s performance at the Roadrunner on Nov. 16, the second of two shows at the Boston venue and thefinal night of their first nationwide tour. From the moment frontwoman Samantha Bowers stepped onstage with the confidence of a veteran performer, the audience was electric, cheering and singing along with Bowers and her uber-talented bandmates.
The annual Tufts Ballroom Competition brought collegiate teams and amateur ballroom dancers to the Joyce Cummings Center for a full Saturday of dancing. The Tufts Ballroom Team, the competition host, sent several pairs to the finals. Competition Coordinator Alejandro Forero Rey and Junior Competition Coordinator Eli Newman organized the event.
In the roughly 150 years since the medium of the moving image was first put on screen, plenty of filmmakers have dealt with infamously difficult circumstances to execute their visions. Many of cinema’s most revered projects were, in fact, well-documented production disasters — consider the treacherous conditions of “Apocalypse Now” or the ballooning budget of “Jaws.” Still, you’d be hard-pressed to find a film created with more at stake for its cast and crew than Iranian director Mohamed Rasoulof’s newest work, “The Seed of the Sacred Fig.”
Ross Jamie Collins and Na’Zir McFadden spent 8 ½ weeks in the intensive 2024 Tanglewood Music Center fellowship for conducting this past summer. On Nov. 29, they will both make their Symphony Hall debuts conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
The Riff-Off returned for a sequel this past Friday as Tufts’ a cappella groups once again vied for the top spot at the musical competition.
Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for “Red One.”What do you get when you have an evil Christmas witch kidnap Santa Claus (nicknamed ‘Red One’) on Christmas Eve so that a Santa Claus Enforcement Logistics and Fortification operative and a hacker have to save Christmas? Movie magic.
For Andrea Arnold, breaking onto the international cinema scene as a director was not an entirely straightforward task. Before creating her debut short film “Milk” (1998), the Kent-born Englishwoman built her career writing, presenting and dancing on television. Now, multiple highly acclaimed features later, Arnold has fully emerged as a filmmaker with a clear vision and provocative style. In her last narrative feature, the visually-striking yet slightly underdeveloped “American Honey” (2016), Arnold shifted from her usual British settings to the American heartland, yet she retained her signature style of tightly-packed frames and rhythmic pacing to deliver another compellingsociopolitical commentary.
The current exhibit spotlighting Georgia O’Keeffe and Henry Moore at the Museum of Fine Arts is wonderful in many ways. Among other things, it offers a variety of works by these two artists; it displays models of the artists’ studios, which provide a window into their creative process, and it meditates in a particularly delightful way on how both artists use negative space.
Ten a capella groups. Only one victor. The Riff-Off brought all Tufts a capella groups under one roof at Cohen Auditorium in a competition sponsored by the Tufts University Social Collective. The Ladies of Essence defended last year’s win with another first-place finish on Friday night. The next-most votes went to the Jackson Jills while S-Factor landed in third place.
“Agatha All Along,” while far from perfect, marks a step in the right direction for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The stakes are high yet self-contained, which is refreshing compared to other MCU films and TV series that concern the state of the entire multiverse. The show also contains plenty of moments of humor, and it manages to maintain a spooky and intense vibe while not taking itself too seriously.
The Tufts Beelzebubs debuted their 33rd studio album release on Oct. 11. With a run time of 39 minutes and featuring 11 songs, “Delirium” is a project two years in the making. The Beelzebubs, also known as the Bubs, are a nationally acclaimed a cappella group founded in 1963. In addition to live performances on and off-campus, the Bubs produce an album roughly every two years.
Richy Mitch & The Coal Miners performed to a sold-out crowd at Boston’s Paradise Rock Club on Oct. 27 as part of their October Moon tour. RMCM and their opening band, Atta Boy, had the flannel-clad sea of rock hipsters in the palm of their hand.
When I walked into the theaters to watch “Anora,” I honestly had no clue what I was in for. I did not look at the plot, the themes or even the movie runtime. Instead, I went in with rave reviews from my harshest film friends, a bag of over-buttered popcorn and some old-fashioned faith. Two hours and 20 minutes later, I left the theater with a new front-runner for Best Picture at the Oscars.
Four Greek columns tower over the barren sand, imposing an ancient and unfamiliar world on the actors and audience below them. Balch Arena Theater has been transported from American modernity to Athenian antiquity. “The Furies” is a tragedy written by the Greek playwright Aeschylus as the third piece in his “Oresteia.” The “Oresteia” was first performed in Athens in the fifth century B.C.E. Despite the millennia that have passed, “The Furies” still stands as a stirring and culturally relevant drama.
Claire Cottrill, known by her stage name Clairo, performed three highly-anticipated shows at the Roadrunner in Boston to celebrate her third album, “Charm,” which was released in July. The tour kicked off with five nights in Los Angeles and then gigs in New York, Dallas, Houston, Portland and countless more.
On Nov. 6, the Huntington Theatre celebrated the opening night of “Sojourners,” written by Nigerian-American playwright Mfoniso Udofia. However, this was more than just the opening of a single show: In partnership with more than 30 theater companies, arts organizations, universities, and non-profits, the Huntington is staging nine of Udofia’s plays throughout Greater Boston over the next two years. Collectively, these nine plays make up the Ufot Family Cycle, an epic story that chronicles the life of one Nigerian immigrant family across three generations as they navigate their lives in America. “Sojourners,” which serves as the origin story of the cycle, is a remarkable tale of perseverance in the face of adversity.
Sammy Rae & The Friends are a genre-bending collective of musicians known for their electric live shows and empowering lyrics. Their creative process is intertwined with a sense of joy and belonging, and the band’s community-oriented fanbase is united by inclusive camaraderie and a dedication to expressive musicianship.
