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Spotlight

Dave Hickey writes about art, music and culture honestly and unpretentiously (FRAZER HARRISON/Getty Images).

My summer of Dave Hickey

Ali Vaughan
  •  
Feb. 13, 2019
Barry Jenkins' "If Beale Street Could Talk" features a surfeit of brilliant images (courtesy of Annapurna Pictures).

‘If Beale Street Could Talk’ brings Baldwin’s story to the screen

Amir Abou-Jaoude
  •  
Feb. 11, 2019
John Schlesinger, Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman filmed "Midnight Cowboy" on location in New York (courtesy of MGM and The Criterion Collection).

‘Midnight Cowboy’ critiques American mythology

Amir Abou-Jaoude
  •  
Feb. 8, 2019
Joyce Carol Oates is the author of "We Were the Mulvaneys" (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons).

Joyce Carol Oates chronicles the fall of an American family in ‘We Were the Mulvaneys’

Scott Stevens
  •  
Feb. 8, 2019
Arts & Life
Awkwafina stars in Lulu Wang's new film "The Farewell," which will be distributed by A24.

Sundance 2019, part 3: Best of the Fest

Olivia Popp
  •  
Feb. 7, 2019
Allison (Ally Sheedy) and Claire (Molly Ringwald) experience epiphanies in Saturday detention (courtesy of Universal Pictures and Getty Images).

‘The Breakfast Club’ is an antique analysis of adolescent anguish

Amir Abou-Jaoude
  •  
Feb. 5, 2019
Philip Glass' 1976 opera "Einstein on the Beach" features a nonsensical libretto by Christopher Knowles (courtesy of Flickr).

Philip Glass’ defamiliarizing lens

Adrian Liu
  •  
Feb. 5, 2019
n "Her Body and Other Parties," Carmen Maria Machado discusses the debilitating effects of trauma on the female psyche (courtesy of Graywolf Press).

‘Her Body and Other Parties’ gives shape to female stories

Shana E. Hadi
  •  
Feb. 4, 2019
In "Call Me By Your Name," director Luca Guadagnino uses visuals, not voiceovers, to convey the characters' complex emotions (courtesy of Mongrel Media and Sony Pictures Classics).

What movies can do that books cannot

Carly Taylor
  •  
Feb. 1, 2019
"Michael Richards: Winged" is on view at the Stanford Art Gallery through March 24 (HENRIK KAM/The Michael Richards Estate).

Curators Alex Fialho and Melissa Levin on rediscovering Michael Richards’ work

Amir Abou-Jaoude
  •  
Jan. 31, 2019
Arts & Life
Virginia Woolf's "Orlando" complicates genre conventions and conceptions of gender (courtesy of Flickr).

Reading for new beginnings

Arts & Life Reads beat writers, Katherine Silk, Scott Stevens, Carly Taylor, Mark York and Shana E. Hadi
  •  
Jan. 28, 2019
Courtesy of Matthew Murphy

Performed live, Tony Award-winning musical ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ is a complete artistic disappointment

Olivia Popp
  •  
Jan. 25, 2019
"Less" follows the misadventures of an aging writer (courtesy of Lee Boudreaux).

‘Less’-ons: An interview with Andrew Sean Greer, Part 2

Gracie Newman
  •  
Jan. 24, 2019
Andrew Sean Greer's book "Less" won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (courtesy of Flickr).

‘Less’-ons: An interview with Andrew Sean Greer, Part 1

Gracie Newman
  •  
Jan. 23, 2019
Gregory La Cava confronts the grim Great Depression in "My Man Godfrey" (courtesy of Universal Pictures and The Criterion Collection).

‘My Man Godfrey’ supplies sidesplitting comedy and social commentary

Amir Abou-Jaoude
  •  
Jan. 22, 2019
Mary Poppins (El Beh) and Bert (Wiley Naman Strasser) during a Jolly Holiday with other park strollers (Rudy Guerrero and Sophia LaPaglia). (Courtesy of Jessica Palopoli)

SF Playhouse’s ‘Mary Poppins’ is ‘practically perfect’

Olivia Popp
  •  
Jan. 22, 2019
'Some Like It Hot' focuses on an all-girl band--except two members aren't girls at all (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons).

In ‘Some Like It Hot,’ Billy Wilder explores the attributes of artifice

Amir Abou-Jaoude
  •  
Jan. 18, 2019
The Ambersons spend much of their time sequestered in their magnificent mansion (courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures and The Criterion Collection.)

Orson Welles documents a family’s dizzying decline in ‘The Magnificent Ambersons’

Amir Abou-Jaoude
  •  
Jan. 17, 2019
In "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," J.K. Rowling calls attention to her characters' personal problems and not her sweeping story (MARK YORK/The Stanford Daily).

Wizard puberty and other less important matters

Mark York
  •  
Jan. 16, 2019
Provost Persis Drell continues to play her cello in a chamber music group (courtesy of Persis Drell).

Faculty members and fervent musicians

Olivia Mitchel
  •  
Jan. 15, 2019
The Stanford Daily

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