Arts News

'Duck Soup': Take One Fiscal Crisis, Boil Merrily
Depression-era comedy sends the Marx Brothers skating through economic territory their namesake Karl would recognize — and it begins with talk of bailouts, tax breaks and other things that Bob Mondello says you'll find familiar, too.
Boston Orchestra Makes Typewriters Sing
The Boston Typewriter Orchestra is a small, Monty Python-esque group that mixes original "typewriter" music with swatches of surrealist comedy. Sometimes they play their typewriters so hard that they upset the audience.
'Lucky' Thing: Mike Leigh's Oddly Happy Heroine
A London schoolteacher (the bubbly Sally Hawkins) keeps her cool — and her smile — through a string of mishaps. But Mike Leigh's movie feels decent and affirmative, never cloying or melodramatic. (Recommended).
Saadiq Revisits R&B Past In 'The Way I See It'
Raphael Saadiq, the lead vocalist in the late-1980s R&B; band Tony! Toni! Tone!, has emerged as solo artist with his new album The Way I See It. Rock critic Ken Tucker has a review.
Silverman Shocks Her Way To A Third Season
Sarah Silverman's Comedy Central show — quirky, snarky, often wildly inappropriate — strikes some audiences as clueless and tasteless. To fans, including Fresh Air host Terry Gross, it's really funny satire.
Operatives And 'Lies' In Ridley Scott's New Thriller
David Edelstein reviews Body Of Lies, a new spy thriller directed by Ridley Scott and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe. Set in Iraq and Syria, the film charts a young CIA operative's growing disillusionment with his superiors in Washington.
Comedians Chews Up Midlife Foibles
Comic and actor Louis C.K. sends up middle-aged American life — including his own difficulties raising his four-year-old daughter — in the new Showtime special, Chewed Up. C.K. previously played a part-time auto mechanic struggling to be a family man in the HBO sitcom Lucky Louie.
Photographer Captures MLK's 'Most Daring Dream'
Photographer Robert Houston chronicled Martin Luther King's 1968 Poor People's Campaign. Now his images can be seen in the exhibit, "Most Daring Dream," at Morgan State University. For more, Farai Chideya talks with Aaron Bryant, curator of Houston's exhibition.
Queen Latifah Takes On Gay Rumors
Rapper/actress Queen Latifah says she doesn't care if people think she's gay. Plus, Russell Simmons tells us why so many people are plugged in to what celebrities say about voting. Newsweek national correspondent Allison Samuels explains.
'Reel Geezers' DVD Faves: Blood, Sweat And Tears
Two 80-something film critics, Marcia Nasatir and Lorenzo Semple, review movies on YouTube. They share some of their all-time favorite films.
Crowe, DiCaprio Clash In Tale of Spies And 'Lies'
Leonardo DiCaprio, as a CIA field agent, clashes with his spymaster, Russell Crowe, over methods and morals. Ridley Scott's direction is crisp, but this thriller is all surface, no intel.
'Ashes Of Time Redux': Sumptuous All Over Again
A leaner, more linear version of a 1994 drama from cult director Wong Kar-wai; entrancingly atmospheric, emotionally elusive and saturated with colors so vivid as to verge on the psychedelic. (Recommended).
'Breakfast' Order: Life Lessons, With A Side Of Nice
A sports-mad gay couple doesn't quite know how to cope with the flamboyant boy they end up foster-parenting. Laurie Lynd's cozy comedy aims to say a thing or two about tolerance — without forgetting the laughs.
French Novelist Awarded Nobel Literature Prize
French novelist Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio has been awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize for literature. Antoine Compagnon, a professor of French Literature at Columbia University, says there are two periods in Le Clezio's work: it was more experimental in the 1960s and '70s, and later it featured traveling and exoticism.
Manic Pixie Dream Girls: A Cinematic Scourge?
They're bright, they're perky — and they've got no inner life. In fact, they exist only to soothe the tortured souls of the male lead. A lighthearted look at MPDGs throughout movie history.