Guess who: A pale, thin, slightly sleazy, ostensibly British man dressed in a black blazer donning sunglasses with a cigarette in hand gallops around the streets of New York. Who else could it be other than The Dare?
The indie rock genre has split into a plethora of spheres. The introspective lyrics and driving rhythms are standard qualities of an indie album. In essence, it has become a more mainstream style — and seemingly broken away from its narrow identity during the 2000s. It’s been a transformative period for the indie scene with many fine takeaways, but what it desperately lacked was an album elevating and fusing the classic identities of the indie albums from previous decades.
I was recently informed by the streets that we have had a dearth of scathing reviews. Everyone, including myself, has been too positive in their critiques, and apparently, insults are what make the editing process entertaining. So here we go.
Moonbox Productions, one of the newest additions to the greater Boston theater scene, opened its first full season at Arrow Street Arts in Cambridge with a production of “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” on Sept. 27. Based on the 1988 film starring Steve Martin and Michael Caine as the titular con men, the musical version of the classic comedy made its Broadway debut in 2005. While Moonbox found three excellent actors to fill its leading roles, their production feels incomplete and leaves much to be desired.
On Oct. 11, 1975, almost exactly 49 years ago to this day, “ NBC’s Saturday Night” premiered. Half a century later, the live sketch comedy show still somehow graces our screens. And to celebrate such a long, perhaps overstayed, tenure on the network came “Saturday Night,” directed by Jason Reitman. The film follows the first cast of “Saturday Night Live” as they geared up to debut the not yet finished show — 90 minutes of anxiety-inducing scores, witty comebacks and sheer hope and passion holding it all together.
“O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” Everyone recognizes these iconic words from WilliamShakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” a classic of 9th-grade English.
Conan Gray performed a satisfying mix of songs that showcased both his emotional depth and his animated personality during the Found Heaven tour at MGM Music Hall at Fenway on Sept. 25.
Boston-based movement artist Miranda Lawson performed in the Jackson Dance Lab for Tufts Dance Program’s Dances at Noon series on Friday. The series is put on by the Tufts Dance Program, a part of the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies. In 2013, Senior Lecturer Daniel McCusker founded Dances at Noon as a way to connect the dance program to the larger Boston area dance scene.
Have you ever wondered what would happen if you tried to make a movie about everything? Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis” may have your answer. A sprawling exercise in maximalism, the film, despite its grand ambitions, ultimately captures very little.
“What if Jesus himself ate my f------ snatch?” This is just one of the many lines from punk rock act Mannequin Pussy’s most recent album “I Got Heaven” and is by no means alone in its raw vulgarity. This type of bold and unwavering confrontation is part of what defines Mannequin Pussy. Take the name, for starters. While the title of the band originated from an inside joke, it also accomplishes what lead singer Marice Dabice believes punk rock is meant to do: subvert and challenge the audience.
On Sept. 19, the New England Aquarium opened its doors to host a screening of two short films produced by the Hispanic Access Foundation, debuting “Beyond Borders: Tales of Monarcas, Rivers and Two Nations” and “El Canto Del Mar.” A four-person panel followed the screening.
The crowd was a bit raucous at this Saturday afternoon’s Concert for the City at Symphony Hall. The many cliches about the transformative power of art from those who introduced the acts and the interjections in the middle of songs veered towards being annoying. But let’s not dwell on these things. They are not particularly important. Much more important is that several hundred members of our city got to share in the experience of a truly lovely afternoon of music.
When the lights go up on Speakeasy Stage Company’s “Laughs in Spanish,” the story begins in medias res. Mari (Rebekah Rae Robles), the young Latina director of a Miami art gallery, has just discovered that her paintings have been stolen, just hours before the gallery is set to open for the prestigious Art Basel festival. In the chaos, Mari’s intern Caro (Luz Lopez) arrives with her boyfriend Juan (Daniel Rios, Jr.), a local police officer investigating the theft. However, the art heist quickly fades into the background as two more faces arrive at Mari’s gallery, transforming a comical opening scene into a big-hearted, telenovela-style story that explores the complexities of familial and romantic relationships.
Boston’s Paradise Rock Club hosted “trop-pop” band Summer Salt for their “Driving Back to Hawaii” tour on Sept. 20. Celebrating the 10-year anniversary of their debut EP “Driving to Hawaii” (2014), the band played the album in its entirety for the first time ever for a live audience.
When I first mentioned to my fellow film peers that I do not catch enough new releases because of the outrageous prices of movie tickets these days (not to mention the sheer number of movies that come out every week), they quickly bullied me into joining the AMC Stubs A-List.
When I walked into an empty theater to watch “Reagan” last weekend, my expectations were low for two reasons. First, I’d only learned of its existence the day before, and nobody I talked to seemed to have heard of it either. Second, I hate former President Ronald Reagan. Any director trying to make a film about him will need to take his very real and numerous shortcomings seriously. The film’s poster, one of the few pieces of promotional materials I had seen, depicted Reagan in a cowboy hat in front of the American flag. It did not inspire me with hope. I was ready to be angry.
It’s been nearly two years since my review of “Pearl” (2022) was published, in which I explored the intricacies of Ti West’s second installment of his horror trilogy. Two years later, I am once again drawn to the keyboard to discuss West’s third installment, “MaXXXine.”
Rarely does a band manage to write a collection of songs that cohesively exemplify the entire thesis of an album. Hoboken trio Yo La Tengo gracefully accomplished such a feat on a plethora of occasions. But the tangible gloom of the 2000 album “And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out”is perhaps the greatest display within the band’s catalog.
Professional artist and Tufts senior Makai Murray’s newest show, “Reflection Before Progression,” will open at the Hunter Gallery of St. George’s School in Middletown, R. I. on Sept. 28th from 6–10 p.m.
Since August, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts has been home to “Ulises: Assembly” — an exciting residency and exhibition that puts the spotlight on the often-overlooked labor of bookworkers. The Philadelphia-based Ulises collective, formed in 2016 by Nerissa Cooney, Lauren Downing, Kayla Romberger, Gee Wesley and Ricky Yanas, takes center stage at the Grossman & Anderson Galleries with its first institutional residency and solo exhibition. Running through Nov. 10, this exhibition is more than just a display of art — it’s an invitation for Tufts students and the Boston community to engage in an immersive exploration of art publishing and collective practice.
